Aral Levitt, the designer behind Bahia Tiki and Zen sent me a very nice note and a review folder earlier this month. I was already familiar with the brand - I visited the sim briefly some time ago with a friend...and I have no idea why I did not mark it for blogging! Shame on me! I'm so glad Aral reached out to me -- Bahia is a great place to explore (even if you're not shopping!) and I had a great time checking it out. Aral does have a Balloon Tour set up to take you around to view all of her prefabs -- I didn't take advantage of that since I had to break my visit into several quick visits, but I encourage you to do it if you have the time!
Speaking of prefabs, that's what Bahia does best! When you arrive at the landing spot, you'll find yourself in a tiki hut filled with pictures of all the houses to see and TP links to each, as well as TP links to furniture, pools, etc. Considering that Bahia covers 3 sims, Aral has made it really easy to get around, which I appreciate! You can TP to a specific house from the landing point...and then there's a TP at each house to get you back to the main shop location . Easy! The three themes you'll find at Bahia are Tiki, Pirate, and Asian. I'm going to start with my favorite Asian houses. First, the Fujisawa House that Aral sent for review!
The texturing on everything at Bahia is amazing! The Fujisawa House is gorgeous...and makes me want to redo Elle's Tropical Paradise into Elle's Zen Retreat! It's a nice medium size house, and the zen courtyard is a great detail. Inside is a nice simple L-shaped first floor and a small bedroom upstairs, with a balcony off the bedroom. The details on the windows are perfect -- and all the window blinds have 3 positions: closed, open, and in-between.
I love the mini-zen garden inside -- the shoji doors all slide open and closed, and that's an excellent texture on them. This is really just overall a gorgeous house. Well done!
When I visited Bahia, the Macao House really caught my eye, too. Another wonderfully textured asian house, a little smaller than Fujisawa, and really a perfect size in my opinion. Again, great shoji textures, and all the blinds open, close, and go in-between. Aral has Macao displayed as furnished -- and all the furniture is also available! You can buy the furniture pack just as it's displayed in the house - the furniture pack is $L1250 and the house is $L1650 - very reasonable for such great quality, and really great if you're one who wants easy decorating! Grab the house and the furniture pack, and bam! you're done!.
Moving on to the Tiki theme, I totally fell for the Antigua Tiki Hut. More awesome textures, great details like the little pool and the side canopy, and again, a full furniture pack to make decorating easy! Tiki gets done a lot in SL -- I think Aral does a great job of keeping it fresh and original.
Antigua Tiki Hut $L2200 Furniture Pack $L2600
Tiki Surf Shack - this is just adorable! Again, of course, great texturing and details - and really just precious all around! Ideal for any tropical-themed shopping area...and really, just fun no matter where you put it!
Tiki Surf Shack $L1450 Furniture pack $L950
As mentioned, Bahia is a great place to explore whether you're shopping or not - and be sure you really really explore. There are a lot of great things to be found - Aral has very nice accessories (including gorgeous wicker baskets in lots of shapes and sizes!) and very nice furniture. You'll also find lots of different kits: Pirate Town Mall, Pirate Town Landscape, Japanese Garden, Zen Landscape, Tiki Temple Ruins...just to name a few! To close out, just a few more pics of cool things I like!
You can never have too many candles. Never. I really like how Aral has them displayed, too. :) Very organic! Below the candles is the Tiki Shower on the left, and the Zen DJ Booth on the right. I just love unexpected little goodies like these!!
Ok -- you know what's next -- you have to get over to Bahia and see for yourself! What I've shown you is a teeny tiny fraction of what's available -- remember, three sims' worth of goodness awaits you!