Three generations, one villa, nobody cooked

The plan

Three generations of Hartonos flew in from Jakarta for the June school holidays, Opa and Oma, two sets of parents, and two grandchildren under six. The brief: one roof, not four hotel rooms across three floors. Sarah and Alit set up the whole villa, all four suites, the chef’s kitchen, and the 16-metre pool exclusively theirs from $545 a night. Opa and Oma claimed the Padi Suite for the bathtub and the rice-field view; the grandchildren took the Taman Room with its beds converted to twins. Chef Wayan was booked for a Balinese feast and a BBQ night, and a babysitter at $6 an hour covered the evenings.

The stay

Chef Wayan shopped Pasar Canggu each morning and cooked his mother’s recipes, Oma inspected the kitchen on night one and approved. The Balinese feast ran long in the best way, and the BBQ night ended with wood-fired pizza for the grandchildren. While the babysitter handled bath time and bedtime, six adults finished dinner hot for the first time in years. On day three, Gede loaded everyone into the air-conditioned 7-seater for Tanah Lot, thirty minutes away, and walked the family through temple etiquette before anyone stepped out of the van. The rest of the time, nobody could be persuaded to leave the pool.

The verdict

Four nights, eight people, two chef dinners and every evening babysat came to $2,680 all-in, tax, service, housekeeping and Wi-Fi included, with the 50% deposit paid by bank transfer and the balance settled on arrival. The verdict around the table: the first family holiday where nobody cooked, nobody drove and nobody argued about restaurants. They have already asked Sarah about the same week next June, deliberately ahead of July and August, when rates rise 20% and a three-night minimum applies. If your family maths looks similar, the whole villa sleeps ten.