Tim’s Take: Alex describes wellness as whatever leaves you feeling better, even an hour spent watching the ocean, and that’s the same question behind every hotel I score: did you leave feeling better than when you arrived? The Trigona honey is the detail I’d build a trip around, because it started with a security guard’s love for his bees and a spoon. After 15 years and 112 countries, the hotels I remember are the ones that teach me where I am. That’s why The Sira belongs in this series.
Today, there are beautiful hotels all over the world, with incredible design and locations. What I felt was missing was something truly relevant to the place.
At The Sira, everything is connected to Lombok: the people, traditions, products, and passions. Many of our experiences have come from my own interactions with the local community and from understanding how people live and what they care about.
I wanted to create something that could not simply be copied and placed somewhere else. When a guest leaves The Sira, I want them to feel that they experienced Lombok, not simply stayed in a beautiful hotel in Lombok.
The Trigona honey experience is a good example of our efforts. In Lombok, there are Trigona bees which are stingless and produce honey. We have hives at the hotel, and guests can open them and take the honey directly with a spoon. One of our security guards is passionate about these tiny, stingless bees, and through him we started working with them.
The flavor changes depending on the flowers the bees feed on. Sometimes it is tamarind, sometimes yogurt, sometimes coconut.
For some people, it was difficult to understand why something so simple should be part of a luxury experience. But for me, that is exactly what makes it interesting. It comes from someone here, from something he loves, and we found a way to share that with our guests.
In my life, wellness is much broader than a massage or a treatment. It is about feeling good, and that means something different to everyone.
It can be disconnecting from your phone, spending time in nature, having time with your family, enjoying a really good meal, sleeping well, or simply having nothing you need to do for a few hours.
I don’t believe wellness should be a formula or something that is labelled as wellness simply because it is fashionable. It has to feel genuine.
If sitting quietly watching the ocean makes you feel better than having a treatment, then that can be wellness too.
Everything about The Sira needs to represent where we are. We are in Lombok, we are in Indonesia, and that should come through in the architecture, food, and experiences.
Our Indonesian restaurant, for example, is very much about going back to the roots. We asked our chefs, “What do you remember your mother or grandmother cooking when you came home from school?” Those memories became part of the menu.
The same applies to the spa. In our Scent Lab & Bar, guests can create their own oils and rituals rather than simply receive a treatment.
Even our welcome amenity tells a story, with edible chocolate pearls made from local ingredients, served with coconut sap and presented with the coconut flower. Every detail should give you a sense of where you are.
From the moment a guest arrives, we want them to disconnect from where they have just come from and become part of the experience.
The location, the views, the nature, the sounds, the people, and the food all start working together. Our role is to understand the guest, anticipate their needs, and build a genuine connection.
The feedback I love hearing most is when a guest has been with us for a few days and says, “Alex, I feel at home.”
That is exactly what we are trying to create: a place where people feel understood, where experiences become personal, and where they discover something they could only experience at The Sira.
Alex Gares, General Manager of The Sira, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Lombok on Lombok’s north coast, brings his love for Lombok and its sea to the heart of the property. An avid diver, snorkeler, and fisherman, he established The Sira’s partnership with the Nipah Beach Turtle Conservation Center in December 2025 after meeting local conservationists, saving 881 turtles in less than 12 months – projected to be over 1000 by the end of October.
