I’m so excited to share this one! Dave and I got married in August and went on the most epic honeymoon to Singapore and Bali. We flew into Singapore and stayed there two nights before hopping over to Bali. I traveled to Southeast Asia for my 25th birthday and fell in love. I had read about Bali and seen things online that made it seem so exotic so I always had it as a honeymoon destination in the back of my mind. I reached out to a few travel agents when we started to plan, but ultimately decided to plan the trip myself. Travel is kinda my thing and I research trips just for fun, so I felt like I would be able to do just as well (or better) for cheaper. I primarily used TripAdvisor, Pinterest, Hotels.com and travel groups on Facebook to plan our trip. We like a mix of relaxation and adventure and wanted to see as much as possible, so broke the trip into three nights at three different locations, and one last night somewhere closer to the airport. If we had all the time in the world I would have done four nights at each, at least in Uluwatu, but alas vacation days are not endless!
Uluwatu
Uluwatu is in the southern part of the island. There are a lot of cliffs, and the beaches here have rougher waves, making it a surfing destination. Most of the resorts are on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We stayed at the Alila Villas Uluwatu and could not have loved it more. It was definitely the highest priced of all the hotels we stayed at, but for a five star luxury hotel, it was reasonable and worth every penny. The hotel is beautiful, service was outstanding, amenities top notch and food was amazing. Our villa had it’s own private pool, indoor and outdoor showers and a soaking tub. Breakfast was included and served as small plates so you could order as many different things as you wanted. There were three restaurants at the hotel, a more traditional Indonesian, a more international and a fancy chef’s table. We ate at the Indonesian restaurant once and the international one twice. There was also a bar overlooking the ocean and you could order food and drinks by the pool.
We spent a lot of time by the pool looking out at the ocean. We took a yoga class offered by the resort one morning. We also went out exploring one day. I found a private driver from a Facebook travel group. Drivers are crazy cheap in Bali, like $60 for a full 12 hour day. We went to Nyang Nyang Beach, Uluwatu Temple and then got lunch at Single Fin and watched the surfers.
Ubud
Our next stop was to the jungle, in Ubud. We used the same private driver to get from Uluwatu to Ubud, about a two hour drive. On the way we stopped at the Tirta Empul Water Temple and Tegalalang Rice Terraces. We stayed at the Kayon Jungle Resort Hotel, which was a little outside of town overlooking a valley with rice terraces. We had a private bungalow with its own pool and amazing view looking over the rice terraces.
The hotel offered a free shuttle, so one day we went into town and went to the Monkey Forest and Ubud Art Market. We ate at Cafe Wayon, which was great authentic Indonesian food, and Caramel Ubud for a sweet treat. We had planned another adventure day to go to some waterfalls and see Mount Batur, but ended up wanting to chill at the hotel so cancelled it in favor of a couples spa treatment. In hindsight, I would have added the visit to Ubud town onto our travel day and then still gone to see the waterfalls and everything.
Gili Gede
After Ubud, we headed to a small little island, Gili Gede. Bali is known for the “gilis” (islands), which are actually part of Lombok, another Indonesian island. The gilis people usually visit are the big three: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. I read a lot about the Gilis and everyone said you should visit them, but also that in recent years they had become a lot more touristy. I wanted a more secluded island experience, so I’m so glad I stumbled across Gili Gede when searching on Hotels.com. It’s a tiny island with two total hotels, although the other one was just a hostel. We stayed at The Kokomo Resort. It’s a small hotel made up of private villas. We had our own pool and an outdoor shower. I will say at our other hotels the private pools were a little chilly, but we actually spent a lot of time in our pool at the Kokomo! The hotel was covered with the most beautiful flowers everywhere you looked. Dave said he felt like Frank Sinatra on his own private island.
We rented a private fast boat for a day of snorkeling. We had a local driver who took us to a couple different snorkeling spots, a small little island for lunch, and to another tiny little deserted island to explore. We were out for at seven or eight hours and it cost under $100. Otherwise we chilled by our pool and got another massage. Like everything else in Bali, massages are relatively so cheap so hard to turn down 😉 The hotel also set us up a private dinner on the dock one night. To get to and from Gili Gede we used Gili Getaway, a fast boat service owned by the Kokomo. They picked us up in a private car and took us to the port. The boat was not fancy by any means, but nice enough. We rode inside on the way there, but decided to ride up top for “better views” on our way back. I’ll say it was an experience… we both got soaked and definitely was a little bumpy, ha! If you get seasick, I would highly recommend Dramamine.
Seminyak
We needed to get back on land the night before our flight home and wanted to be close to the airport, so stayed in Seminyak, which is more of a “touristy” area with a lot of resorts and shopping. I looked at staying in Canguu too, but we ended up choosing Seminyak based on hotels available. We stayed at the W, which is one of my favorite fancy hotel chains. It’s hip and always smartly designed. They had several cool bars and a really nice pool overlooking the ocean. We went to dinner at Seasalt, which was amazing seafood and actually a part of the Alila hotel in Seminyak, and got drinks at Potato Head Beach Club. We spent our last day by the pool, got another massage, and grabbed dinner at Ling Ling’s, a cool Asian fusion restaurant, before heading to the airport. We took a Grab to the airport, which is the Asian version of Uber. They’re not available all over Bali, but worth downloading to have in case.
Ugh, recapping this is making me miss our trip so much! Feel free to leave any questions below if you’re planning a trip to Bali. I have a google map saved with all the places I researched above and beyond what’s listed here, and would be happy to share that with you! Dave and I talked about going back for our ten year anniversary, or at least staying at an Alila hotel. We’re actually in the process of planning our next trip, which is to Japan in June! Let me know if you’ve ever been in the comments below.
Biscuits & blessings,
Leels
