Luxury travel on a ‘phinisi’ boat in Indonesia for Times Luxx

Image Credit: The Prana by Atzaro

All copy is reproduced here as it was supplied by Oliver Bennett to the client or publication.

If you should find yourself in a lemongrass-infused stupor on a massage table, with the gentle bing-bong of gamelan music in the background as you sail on a glittering sea, you are probably on the Prana by Atzaro. Possibly the most desirable new charter vessel at sea, this is a phinisi: a traditional Indonesian design with two masts, seven sails and a high prow. And at 55m in length, it is the biggest phinisi to hit the briny, with nine suites for 18 guests.

I join the phinisi at the port of Labuan Bajo, after a flight to Bali, a twin-prop hop to Flores (four islands east), a short taxi ride and a RIB journey. Clambering aboard the Prana from the RIB, with a watermelon mocktail pressed into my hand, I am invited to take my shoes off as I step on to the ironwood deck.

Prana by Atzaro is easy on the eye. With a teak super-structure, it has rough-cut lychee wood deck tables and white linen sails. “It was important to let traditional phinisi design dictate the look,” says Philip Gonda, the co-founder and co-owner (with Victor Guasch) of the Atzaro Hotel Group. “So it had to be natural materials from Indonesia.”

Continued/

---