Well, you know you have made it in life when you can holiday in Bali, simply soaking up the serenity on offer at an absolute beachfront villa like Melissa. With the beautiful Indian Ocean lapping at the end of the garden, this magnificent-looking villa is opulent yet also soft, simple and unpretentious in a way you would never think possible for a million-dollar-plus property.

Located on a quiet (as in people – the surf is loud) stretch of beach, eight kilometres from Seminyak, Villa Melissa is one of an enclave of five individual villas with a contemporary take on some of the grand properties built in Bali around 15 years ago. This wonderfully-designed destination villa uses predominantly natural materials – from stone to teakwood to alang alang grass roofing, pretty much all sourced right here in Indonesia – to emit a wealth of textures and interactions; both physical and cultural.

If you were to take a knife and make a longitudinal dissection of Villa Melissa you would have two perfect halves, and nowhere is this more marked than by the small 30cm-wide water channel that courses through the villa like an artery. It starts from a fountain at the entranceway, runs the length of a long, narrow, colonnaded and thatched walkway, enters the living room - where it moves under glass, before cascading down the front steps into the first of two swimming pools that lie perpendicular to each other across the front lawn. The pools,lined in green Javanese stone, overflow one into the other before stretching out towards the horizon.

This five-bedroomed villa is designed for groups and families, and with the other four Pantai Lima villas so close by (offering a total of 26 bedrooms if all are booked together) – plus the impressive range of common facilities including a tennis court and seminar room – the enclave would work particularly well as an executive retreat or for weddings. There is both a menu and grocery system (provisions, at cost, on guest account) and a five-star French chef on site who will transform the most basic of ingredients into something magical. All the staff are trained to the highest standards, and through the clever use of shift work they are on call 24 hours a day. An added bonus is the inclusion of a car and driver for up to ten hours daily: Bali is yours to discover and enjoy.

• Tumble Dryer
• DVD Library
• Ceiling Fans
• Fax
• Gym (shared)
• Hairdryers
• High Chairs
• Hotplates
• IDD
• Internet (WiFi)
• iPod
• iPod Dock/Speakers
• Iron/Board
• Equipped Kitchen
• Laundry Service (In-house)
• Book Selection
• BBQ
• Bed Linen
• Board Games/Toys
• Car
• CD Library
• Air-con
• Baby Cot
• Coffee Machine
• Computer
• Main Dining (16 persons)
• Massage Beds
• Food Menu
• Microwave
• Oven/Hotplates
• Swimming Pool Toys
• CD Player/Stereo System
• Swimming Pool (Private)
• Tennis Court (shared)
• Home Theatre System
• Toiletries
• Towels
• TV (Satellite/Cable)
• Washing Machine
• Wine Fridge
• Wine List
• Security
• Service Staff
• Shopper
• Masseuse/Spa Therapist
• Driver (10 hours)
• Chef/Cook (All meals)
• Babysitter
• Housekeeping (Full time)
• Manager

Period	Net Rates
from 15 April 2012 to 14 June 2012	$ 1559.25
from 15 June 2012 to 14 July 2012	$ 2194.5
from 15 July 2012 to 15 August 2012	$ 2887.5
from 16 August 2012 to 15 September 2012	$ 2194.5
from 16 September 2012 to 14 December 2012	$ 1559.25
from 15 December 2012 to 15 January 2013	$ 2887.5

Unless you build sideways the odds of having a sea view from every bedroom are pretty slim, so at Villa Melissa, with its long sweeping colonnaded approach, three out of five ain’t bad. Facing each other, halfway along this covered walkway are two of the five bedrooms, one twin and one double, each opening onto semi-private gardens. The walkway then spills into the main pavilion which houses the living room, dining room and downstairs master bedroom, complete with queen bed. Meanwhile, twin stairways centred around steel columns with twisting spokes to support the banisters, lead up to a mezzanine and two ocean-facing bedrooms also with queen beds. All bedrooms are equipped with 37-inchTV/DVD players with surround-sound. All have dressing areas, balconies or terraces, and gorgeous ensuite bathrooms, fitted with twin washbasins, walk-in rain showers and bathtubs. The pièce de resistance is the master bathroom, where a sunken bathtub appears to float upon a watergarden under a grass roof.

The semi-open-air living room is characterised by a timber floor and soft lighting, and features two sitting areas furnished with sofas, chairs and coffee tables. There is also a projector here enabling guests to watch TV and movies on a big screen. The dining room is positioned to one side and offers the choice of semi-alfresco or air-conditioned dining for 16. A horseshoe-shaped service bar links the dining room to a professional stainless steel kitchen, which is generally the domain of the chef but guests are very welcome to cook here if they wish. Upstairs the timber-floored mezzanine under a soaring roof presents an atmospheric chill-out spot with fabulous views.

The front of the villa showcases four massive wooden columns with long retractable screens to provide shade inside the house. Here, the roar of the surf comes to the fore with a sea breeze to match. The garden is dominated by two swimming pools positioned perpendicular to one another and bordered by a stone deck. The lawn then rolls down to the beach with a massage pavilion on one side and a dining pavilion on the other, complete with a table for eight and an ocean view to die for.

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