Spa on the Rocks, Ayana Resort
INDONESIA
When it comes to sheer rugged romance, the pair of treatment villas that belong to the cliffside spa at Bali’s Ayana Resort have few equals. They are perched on jagged rocks bound by ferocious ocean tides. Having a pummeling (or a pampering) in body-beautiful Bali is a given. But a massage in a tranquil beachfront sala is one thing. It’s quite another to get to your appointment by navigating the zigzagging bridge that connects the Ayana Resort to these villas nestled at the foot of a 35-m rock face.

Ayana’s enterprising owner, Indonesian businessman Rudy Suliawan, was strolling along the resort’s 1.3 km coastline when he noticed a group of boulders and thought that his guests should like nothing more than a massage amid the waves that crash so thunderously upon this stretch of shore. This was no casual undertaking: construction of the bridge and two thatched-roof cottages took six months because work had to be scheduled around swell and tidal conditions. But it was worth it.

The trick is to start your 21⁄2-hour treatment at 4 p.m. so you’re ready to step into your postmassage bath at sunset. The tub—but of course—is filled with the petals of 500 roses. You can also request strawberries and champagne as extras, but then there is nothing so intoxicating as the deafening roar of the ocean at twilight. From $558 per person for twin use.