Is this the best little day spa in Bali?

When I asked an AI how many day spas there are in Bali, the best it could tell me was that there were “thousands”. Wow. Thanks for the insight. How did we ever get by without this technology? But I digress. This isn’t a story about AI. It’s a story about an industry in Bali that has long been a novelty and attraction for holidaymakers, and which has grown and evolved exponentially since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The speed of people building gyms, fitness studios, paddle clubs and sports recovery centres in Bali is on par with LA, and day spas are a part of that,” says Balinese woman Golda Pradeksa, owner of Luminee, a small new day spa in Canggu, the tourism epicentre of Bali.

“If you go to Maja down the road, it belongs to this Aussie couple, famous influencers, they’ve combined a boutique hotel, fitness studio and day spa. They’re incredibly successful.” The kind of massages being offered in Bali has changed, too. “Going back a few years, spas were just about relaxing, and in Kuta and Sanur, the old tourist town in Bali, they’re still about that,” Golda explains. “But here in Canggu, there’s been a complete shift towards healing. Maja does body sculpting massages on your stomach and legs. Other places do Pilates massages that lengthen your muscles, or sports massages by physiotherapists.” With so much competition from cashed-up foreign investors, Golda had to find the right niche. “We have three signature massages here, and they’re all based on healing,” she says.

“A jet lag massage for people recovering from long flights. A hangover massage where we focus on pressure points that can reduce headaches. It’s very popular because there’s so much nightlife in Canggu. After New Year’s Eve, we did a lot of them because people were doing crazy stuff.

“The third and probably most popular now is our fatigue massage that has a bit of everything, pressure points and assisted Thai stretches that open up your joints and promote blood flow.” I tried the 90-minute fatigue massage, which cost $35. It was light years ahead of any massage I had had before, including those offered at many of the luxury hotels I have reviewed in Bali.

It was a journey of bodily sensations that left me incredibly refreshed and ready to take on the world — after, perhaps, an afternoon nap. It lived up to and beat the recommendation I received from a friend who comes here all the time. But with all this competition, can Golda earn enough to cover the sky-high rents in Canggu? “When we opened last October, it was very quiet and I had a lot of anxiety over that,” she says. “But then I started working with influencers, running clubs, gyms and girls’ groups on Facebook. Word of mouth got about how good our massages are . . . and we tripled our sales. “I have to compete with all these Australian business owners but I have no problem with that.

“I can put myself on the same level as them. I’ve also studied the market and I’ve done my research.

“I worked in fashion for years and I competed with people from overseas there and kicked ass. Bring it on” I say. Let’s compete. I know my spa in one of the best in Bali.”

fact file

Luminee is at Jalan Subak Canggu No.6, Canggu.

It is open from 11am-9pm.

Book at fresha.com/a/luminee-spa-bali-jalan-subak-canggu-6-f98c2313