Bali

[FettleOfKish]

Anyone around with experience of Bali? DH and I are planning a trip and we'd like to split it between Ubud and the coast but are struggling with where to stay on the coast.

We're not 'lie on the beach' types really so cliff-top or small beach would be fine. The more picturesque the better

We're not looking to party at all, so have already largely ruled out Seminak, Legian, Kuta.

Ideally we'll find somewhere relaxed and fairly quiet but still with a choice of places to stay (we're not looking for bargain basement but not Fairmont/Raffles either) and ideally a few places to eat in the area.

Any ideas wise MNetters?

What about Sanur? We did three Bali trips last year, one was a month where DS was working remotely so we just stayed in Seminyak (where we have spent most of our time over the years) as we needed a villa with good wifi where he could set up his workstation. Other trips we varied between Ubud, Sanur, Seminyak and Candi Dasa. We loved Candi Dasa (check out Candi beach resort) as we were right on the beach and could swim in the ocean but there wasn’t a lot happening and it was more of a treat for a few nights rather than somewhere we would stay a long time. Lovina is popular at the moment but I haven’t been there,

We have two month long trips booked this year and we have decided we will base ourselves in Sanur rather than just spending a few nights there. It used to be nicknamed “snore” as people viewed it as boring, but lots of frequent visitors now choose it over other places. There are lots of new restaurants (Seminyak has always been the foodie destination but apparently new places in Sanur are getting great reviews), bars with good live music rather than the full on party places you get on the West coast, and a path that runs around 5km from South to North along the beach - you can hire bikes and e-bikes to get around. There is a real mixture of top end resorts right on the beach, cheaper hotels and villas/home stays. Maison Aurelie is a lovely French style boutique hotel with nice rooms and very reasonable prices. Ferries go from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida which are both great for snorkelling/diving. Further North you can get the ferry to the Gilli islands.

if you want the spectacular cliff views then you need to head to Uluwatu. We have never stayed there but our DD has. It is stunning but mainly very expensive top end resorts and beautiful people heading for the beach clubs.

Bali is amazing. The people are so beautiful, it really is a special place. It gets bad press though, mainly because of Kuta. I live in Sydney and can pretty much tell on the plane who is heading to Kuta and who is not 😁 Tourism hasn’t yet returned to pre-COVID levels but it is getting there. People are very happy to see the tourists back though and will make you very welcome, they really struggled during COVID. Have fun.

DH, not DS, doh!

Thank you for such a full response!

In the meantime we've booked an oceanfront place in Uluwatu, but it's on a cancellable rate so we have time to change our minds. It's expensive in terms of other places I looked at in Bali but compared to similar quality in Europe an absolute bargain at about £200GBP per night. It's a special trip so that's do-able.

I will look at Sanur, as it hadn't been on my radar at all.

Thanks so much for your views on Bali as a whole, really interesting! I've had a few friends shudder at the thought of it as their perception isn't great (without having been) but one of them adores Thailand, somewhere that I wouldn't have as my first pick because of my (likely unfair and unbalanced) perception of Bangkok and British backpackers Different strokes for different folks!

Oberoi Lombok? We stayed there for the relaxing bit and then did Ubud.

We stayed in Sanur in 1996. I'm glad to hear that it hasn't been spoiled. Kuta is Bali's equivalent of Magaluf and gets a lot of Australian stag parties.

We hired a taxi for a day to explore and it was a great way to get around (we didn't want to drive and the driver was very informative).

I was surprised at how much ribbon development there was along the roads though.

I was just about to say sanur. We went there on honeymoon and combined it with ubud.

We stayed in a Hyatt something I think. Nice resort. Lovely little place to eat just down the beach.

What about one of the smaller islands off Bali? We did a similar trip and split it between Ubud and Nusa Lembongan. Lembongan was stunningly beautiful and whilst there wasn't LOADS to do it was stunningly beautiful, and we spent most of the time just wandering and enjoying the surroundings and there was nice places to eat. There is also loads of diving and other watersports type things going on - we did snorkelling and a lovely guided kayak through the mangroves.

I looked briefly at the Gili islands, but because of where we are we have to fly domestically to London before we even start our journey so we're 6 flights already for a 2 week trip, adding boats into the mix seemed like unnecessary other thing to worry about. Plus it would be nice to see more of Bali than just one place, and perhaps we can save Lombok and the surrounding islands for another trip in the future

We stayed at the Segara Village Hotel

It wasn't posh, but it was very traditional and had loads of character. Everywhere was very clean as well.

We would often come across little offerings of flowers and rice in palm leaves to the gods (Canang Sari) on the pathways, and this added to the feeling of tradition and that we were in the real Bali rather than an anonymous tourist destination somewhere hot.

The beach is next to a lagoon so it is very safe for swimming. We took a glass bottomed boat trip to the other side of the reeef and I tried parasailing, which was truy amazing. There was no high rise development when we were there, but I have no idea if that is still the case.