Courtesy of Nihiwatu
Nihi Sumba Island (formerly known as Nihiwatu) was voted the best hotel in the world by Travel + Leisure for the second year in a row.
The luxury island resort in Indonesia even beat the Brando, Obama’s recent vacation spot.
Nihi was created by Chris Burch, best known for founding or cofounding several internationally known retail brands — C. Wonder and Tory Burch — and investing in several others.
Burch, together with hotelier James McBride, bought a beach hostel on the Indonesian island of Sumba in 2012. The duo spent $ 30 million renovating the hostel, then reopened it as a five-star resort in 2015.
In an interview with Business Jet Traveler in 2015, Burch said, “I bought it for my children and as a piece of something that I hope we can preserve and give back to the community. When you’re in a place where the palette is so beautiful, you can do things that you can’t do in other places: build a spa under a waterfall, go to places where no others have been, have a butler in every room.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Burch splits his time between Miami, the Hamptons, and his resort in Indonesia. Nihi has 27 private villas, including Raja Mendaka, Burch’s private home. That particular section has a main house and four additional villas, each with its own private plunge pool.
Nihi is on the west coast of Sumba, a remote Indonesian island.
Courtesy of Nihiwatu
The name means “mortar stone,” and the beach was originally named after a rock formation on the tide.
Courtesy of Nihiwatu
In 2012, Chris Burch and hotelier friend James McBride bought what was then a beach hostel owned by a couple from New Jersey.
Matthew Eisman / Stringer
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