Purist Beach: The Island the World Hasn't Found Yet

The team at The Giri Destinations already knew the Nusa Islands well. Nusa Penida, with its dramatic cliffs and manta ray dive sites, draws day-trippers by the boatload; Nusa Lembongan has its surf breaks, beach clubs and villas. But Nusa Ceningan, the smallest of the three at barely three square kilometres, was still itself. No tour buses. No beach club sound systems. Its economy still ran on seaweed farming and fishing.

Walking the island's paths, the team found the cliff. Standing on it, looking south across the Indian Ocean with Bali's volcanic outline on the horizon, they understood immediately. This was not a view that needed improving. It needed a house.

The brief was a private villa: three bedrooms, all en suite, all facing the water. A living space that opened completely to the outside. A kitchen and a team. A pool that seemed to disappear into the ocean. Terraces at different levels, and below the cliff, a private beach reached by a staircase cut into the rock.

The challenge was logistical rather than architectural. Nusa Ceningan has no roads wide enough for construction vehicles. Everything, timber, stone, furniture, fixtures, arrived by boat and was carried the rest of the way by hand and by scooter.

Four hundred and fifty square metres on a cliff above the Indian Ocean. Three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and view. An open-plan living room and kitchen at the heart of the house. Wide wooden terraces at multiple levels, and an infinity pool set right at the cliff edge.

A private beach is reached by the stone staircase: white sand, no other footprints. A separate cottage for the caretaker has its own terrace and entrance, keeping the main house entirely for its guests.

When The Giri Destinations took over Purist Beach, the renovation followed the same discipline applied to every property in the group: The Giri Residence and Es Vedra Bay Villas in Ibiza, The Purist Villas in Ubud, Ryad Dyor in Marrakech. Outdoor furniture chosen for salt air. Bed linen chosen for weight and feel. A kitchen equipped for people who actually cook, not just reheat.

Thick towels. An outdoor rainwater shower open to the cliff and the sky. Nothing dramatic, everything considered.

Isolation is the product. The impossibility of being disturbed by anything except sea and wind changes how a stay feels almost immediately.

For families, it means three en-suite bedrooms and a shared living space that actually gets used together. For couples, quiet is built into the geography rather than promised on a website. For groups of friends, it means a house entirely to themselves, with no one else's schedule to work around.

The island is still itself. Seaweed farmers still work the shallows. The Yellow Bridge still sways underfoot. The Blue Lagoon still turns an improbable turquoise every morning.

This will not last indefinitely. Islands like this don't stay secret forever.

Purist Beach. Nusa Ceningan, Indonesia. Three bedrooms. Up to eight guests. The most confidential address in The Giri Destinations portfolio, and perhaps in Indonesia.