You’re dreaming at…

THE SANUBARI

Indonesia - Islands

A wild-luxe outpost where jungle meets saltwind, wild horses move like spirits, and survival feels sacred again

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WILDLY PLACED: Carved into the coastline of West Sumba - 2.5km of untamed beach hemmed by grassland, jungle, and sacred silence.

EDITORIAL VIBE: Desert mystic meets rugged anthropologist.

CORE PILLARS: Regenerative living, Sumbanese cultural honouring, sacred simplicity.

MUSE MOOD: She rides bareback at golden hour, bathes in a freshwater spring with salt still in her hair, and sketches artefacts by firelight.

BEST TIME TO GO: May – September (for horse festivals, dry winds, and unfiltered light).

THE LOOK: Thatched warrior huts, sun-washed ikat, volcanic stone basins, carved ancestral totems.

WHO’S IT FOR: Modern nomads, barefoot anthropologists, desert seers, wild-hearted creatives.

INDULGENCE SPECTRUM: From USD$330 per night including full-board feasts, ancestral stories, and endless sky.

Some stays are shaped by design. The Sanubari is carved from myth.

Set across 100 hectares of elemental Sumbanese earth, this off-grid hideaway could’ve been drawn from the field journals of an early explorer - if that explorer travelled with raw curiosity, slept under stars, and spoke in salt-laced metaphors. It’s a place where your boots get dirty, your spirit gets quiet, and your sense of self is stripped back to the essentials.

Here, time is marked by hoofbeats and tides, not watches. The ocean rolls in like a messenger. The land crackles with stories. And the air? It’s thick with ritual, with a hush that feels older than language.

Mornings begin with gallops along the surf line, hooves churning sand like thunder, breath clouding in the crisp dawn. Midday finds you harvesting cassava with elders, hand-spinning dyed fibres under the palm fronds, or walking goat paths to fossil beds few travellers ever find.

There’s no phone signal - but there is signal in the rustle of reeds, the movement of clouds, the knowing look exchanged between horse and rider.

Afternoons drift into golden haze - bare feet crunching gravel paths, slow ink sketches beneath frangipani trees, conversations shared over herbal infusions with no names. Dusk means fire. Stories. Stillness. The smell of woodsmoke. A carved cup of palm arak passed from hand to hand, grounding you to the lineage of this land.

This is not a place you holiday. This is a place you excavate. Slowly. Reverently. Like the ruin of a more honest time - one you somehow remember, even if you’ve never lived it before.

SANUBARI’S BEATING HEART

The Sanubari does not interrupt the land - it knits itself into it. Traditional Sumbanese architecture meets low-impact materials. Staff are kin, not contractors. Ritual is not for show - it’s stitched into every meal, ride, and resting place.

The SLOJOURN spark

FIRST. The Horse Rituals - At sunrise, follow the Pasola riders through sea-mist and chant as they honour their steeds with oil, blood-orange hibiscus, and ancestral songs.

SECOND. Living Galleries - Expect more than just décor: each suite holds relics, weavings, and offerings. Nothing is curated for aesthetic - everything means something.

THIRD. Earth School - Learn fire-by-friction, forage wild ginger, or grind native stone into earth paint. Lessons led by the land, not textbooks.

Where you dwell

LOVED UP COUPLES or LONE RANGERS
Beachfront Studio pool villa

Every suite feels like a desert shrine. Timber bones, woven ceilings, and cool stone underfoot. Walls breathe. Lamps flicker. And when the wind hits right, it sings through the bamboo rafters like a lullaby. Indoor-outdoor showers look toward the horizon; some rooms smell of old teak, salt, and turmeric.

This is not polished luxury. It’s refined wilderness.

DON’T SLEEP ON THESE ROOMS (BUT DO SLEEP IN THEM)

GROUPS OF FRIENDS
Beachfront Two bedroom pool villa

LA FAMILIA
Beachfront One bedroom pool villa

The art of living

Here, the rhythm is ancient. You wake with light, you eat with earth, you move with wind.

Baths are river-fed. Oils are hand-pressed. The spa uses roots, not branding. Breakfast might come wrapped in banana leaf, or caught by hand. Your ‘wellness routine’ is dictated by the sun, your sleep by the moon.

Everything here is a ritual. Nothing is rushed.

The forever lens

WATER: Drawn from mountain springs, filtered by stone, offered with intention. Every drop is gravity-fed and blessed with silence - no pumps, no pressure, just a quiet stream of life flowing from hill to hearth.
WASTE: Compost toilets, reused greywater, no trace left. Waste is separated, earth-composted, or cycled through banana trees and bamboo roots. Even ash from the firepit has a second life here.
ARCHITECTURE: Locally built, cyclonic-proof, and soul-aligned. Walls breathe. Thatched roofs whisper. Every structure is hand-built with ancestral techniques and materials gathered within walking distance.
ENERGY: Solar by day, fire by night - off-grid and on-frequency. The hum of tech is replaced by crackling logs and candlelight shadows. Batteries charge by sun and rest by starlight.

The together lens

Staff are more than team - they are tradition keepers, oral historians, and spirit-guides of the land. Many are descendants of the very ancestors whose stories are etched into the rock walls and spirit poles that dot the landscape. Their role isn’t just to serve - it’s to pass on.
Sanubari works in direct co-op with nearby villages, not just employing but empowering through meaningful exchange. Profits go toward reforestation of native trees, revival of nearly-lost Sumbanese weaving techniques, and education programmes taught under open sky. Youth are trained in horsemanship, herbal medicine, carpentry, and storytelling - not just as job skills, but as cultural lifelines.
You don’t check in - you join a circle. You become part of a larger conversation, where the land is the elder, and the people are both students and stewards.

The take it with you

- Island-pressed coconut oil infused with ylang-ylang.
- Artisan woven mats by local women’s collectives.
- Custom jewellery made from fallen coral and shells.
- A handwritten Fijian blessing from your Bure Mama.

WE SLOJOURNED HERE

“It felt like stepping into a forgotten civilisation that remembered you first. We didn’t just visit - we rediscovered our wild.”

The ways you can move

SLOJOURN is a members-only platform for the new vanguard of conscious travellers. That’s you.

In that vein, we support a multitude of ways to book your travel.

Book directly with SLOJOURN’S travel team (we just don’t book flights, friend).
Book via our preferred travel partners that we can connect you with.
Use this as your guide and DIY your way through the world (love that for you, just take note of the destinations that prohibit this such as Bhutan, Socotra… etc.)