Mingle with the elephants
from your massage table.
Photo: Elephant Safari Park Lodge

Every May, Condé Nast Traveler releases its Hot List, a collection of the best new hotels, spas, restaurants, and nightspots. Check the Daily Traveler every day for a new post from this year's list.

On an island brimming with five-star spas, try something completely different in Ubud--namely, one with 27 roaming elephants. The small granite-and-glass facility sits on the grounds of Aussie expat Nigel Mason's Elephant Safari Park Lodge, a 25-room Ubud property inside a Sumatran pachyderm sanctuary. With picture windows framing the herd's lush "living quarters," two modern suites are set up with treatment tables, massaging armchairs, showers, and soaking tubs. The full menu ranges from waxing and mani-pedis to aromatic Yon-Ka Paris facials ($58) and Balinese massages ($30). The Wild Yam Skin Nourishing Signature Ritual ($60) incorporates skin-firming local wild yam (as well as lemongrass, ginger, cinnamon, and mint) into a two-and-a-half-hour super-softening massage, scrub, body mask, and hot-bath medley (massages, $30).

Tel: 62-361-977884

Further reading:
* Elephant Safari Park Lodge
* Hot List 2008
* The Bali Guide
* Hot List on the DT