The Slow hotel - Bali, Indonesia

Located in the laid-back village of Canggu, just north of Bali’s heaving Seminyak strip, The Slow is proof that there are still genuine surprises to be found in the island’s humming hotel scene.

The project of fashion designer George Gorrow, the property – initially intended to be his personal home – is now a 12-suite bolthole that is something of a cross between a brutalist manse and tropical tree house. Bali-based architecture firm GFAB used local materials including stone, timber and bricks dried on site, to create the capacious suites with slatted-wood walls that channel in the breeze.

Inside though, is Gorrow’s vision, from his art collection that grace the walls to the gallery and the store stocked with his new menswear line. Even the soundtrack – adjustable via in-room dials – has been curated by friends at Los Angeles-based Reverberation Radio.

And while the neighbourhood’s rich food offerings are just steps from the hotel, chef Shannon Moran’s health-focused menu with dishes such as miso broth served with seaweed, barley, mushrooms, tofu and spring onions or the chia bowl with cashew nuts, coconut, tamarillos and strawberries, is reason enough to stay put in the westward-facing roof garden at sunset.