Bali for 7 days

bingham67

bingham67

bingham67

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Looking at fitting in a trip to Bali I know 7 days is not going to be enough but I also need to fit a return to Vietnam so a quick stop all I can do.

Need some recommendations on what to do and see and even accomodation would be good I want to head to Ubud and check out the monkey forest which looks great.
 
Monkey Forest is good for an hour tops, Ubud is a lovely area, nice and chilled but it's a 2/3 night stay at the absolute most.

Best thing I did when I went to Indonesia was get the hell out of Bali and onto Komodo National Park for a week, it's a world apart from Bali. Upon returning to Bali I actually was counting the days down until I returned to the UK after Komodo. Didn't help I stayed in Sanur, however if I had to choose again, i'd be having a few weeks in Vietnam over Bali.
 
SixTwoSix said:
Monkey Forest is good for an hour tops, Ubud is a lovely area, nice and chilled but it's a 2/3 night stay at the absolute most.

Best thing I did when I went to Indonesia was get the hell out of Bali and onto Komodo National Park for a week, it's a world apart from Bali. Upon returning to Bali I actually was counting the days down until I returned to the UK after Komodo. Didn't help I stayed in Sanur, however if I had to choose again, i'd be having a few weeks in Vietnam over Bali.
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The Komodo national park was stunning. Did you do any diving while you were there? It's the best I've ever done in terms of wildlife and coral. Snorkelling with manta rays was a particular highlight! The slight issue is how difficult it is to get to. Travelling there and back would knock quite a bit of time off the already short stay.

We stayed in Seminyak and Ubud when we went to Bali itself. Ubud was fine, but I found it far too full of tourists to appreciate the chilled out vibe that it's meant to have. Amazing scenery and food though. We stayed in the hanging gardens hotel which was out of this world. Could only justify the expense as it was our honeymoon. Seminyak is decent and close enough to Kuta if you want to do some partying. We stayed in a small villa complex about 15 minute walk from the beach but they also had a shuttle bus available. This was a much cheaper way to stay in really good accommodation.

Vietnam is definitely on my list to go to!
 
Ubud is great, nice and chill. Monkey forest is ok but they will steal everything you have on you if you're not careful. Definitely do Komodo if you can manage it. Don't go to Sanur - full of old white tourists.

I also got a speedboat over to Nusa Lembongan and spent a couple of nights in a lovely little spot on the beach. Stunning little place.

Vietnam is my fave place i've travelled though. Had 3 weeks there and i wanted double that. Really is an amazing place.
 
Did 10 days in Bali 18 months ago, I'd been in Indonesia with my wife visiting her family for 2 weeks before that in the back of beyond in Sumatra.

We hired a private villa with our own pool and for the first 2-3 days just relaxed without having to deal with all her family issues hit the beach lay by the pool etc.

Then we hired a car and driver from the villa, was really cheap like $20 a day and each day went on the tourist tour.

While i quite liked just driving around place to place there is a number of things i would single out,
Monkey forest is pretty cool we spent an hour or 2 there. good photos of the wife being jumped on by monkeys, they are cute as hell.
Tanah Lot, temple by the sea, try and get there for sun set it is amazing.
Kintamani, Drive up the volcano and visit the rice terraces on the way.
Turtle Island, boat out the the turtle sanctuary and good place to get a photo with a tucan stood on your head. though im not 100% on the aminals well being here.
Dinner on a boat.

Did loads of other temples and stuff but they are the stand out ones.

Where and how to book? cant really say, marry an Indonesian and get 100% local rates, it worked for me. She did all the talking i just handed over the cash.

We stayed in Seminyak, not as quiet and old person as Sanur and not as full of ****ed Australians as Kuta.

Dont know if you have a lady with you but if you do a strange thing to note is they don't like them visiting the temples if... how do i put this.... the reds are playing at home.
I didn't understand this was why my wife wouldn't get out and about for the first 3 days.
 
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tom_nieto said:
The Komodo national park was stunning. Did you do any diving while you were there? It's the best I've ever done in terms of wildlife and coral. Snorkelling with manta rays was a particular highlight! The slight issue is how difficult it is to get to. Travelling there and back would knock quite a bit of time off the already short stay.
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Sadly not qualified and didn't have the money to do it out there. I've snorkelled in Fiji a few times and that's the benchmark for me, the Yasawa island chain is stunning. Komodo is the closest i've come to it, actually to be honest, it's as good.

I was swimming with sea snakes, turtles, reef sharks, rays and much more just off the coast of the resort we stayed at in Komodo.

I've swum with Manta's In Fiji before and with Whale Sharks in Mexico, those were real bucket list moments.
 
Great information guys I have done Vietnam to death in the last year with only a most recent visit a few months ago where I travelled all over Vietnam for 23 days.

My girlfriend is Vietnamese so I will be stopping back in Vietnam for a short time but I fancy somewhere different in Asia I really like the look of the hanging gardens but a lot of money I would probably do one night at best.

How was the transport from Denpasar airport I see Uber is available how did you travel around once in Ubud and Seminyak get taxi or hire mopeds?
 
bingham67 said:
How was the transport from Denpasar airport I see Uber is available how did you travel around once in Ubud and Seminyak get taxi or hire mopeds?
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Ubud isn't that big, easy enough to walk around. You can get taxis, either booked or flag them down.

I would not for a second go on a moped, been a lot of places in SEA and this had the worst driving and lack of care towards motorcyclists/moped users.
 
DO NOT GET ON A MOPED! unless you want to spend your time either in hospital or dealing with Indo police. its just not worth it.
Even my indo wife wont go near them.

My villa picked us up from the airport. As said walk round Ubud, taxis if you want but make sure its the legit ones, (its bluebird in Jakarta but I cant remember in bali).
Sounds obvious but avoid the police, corruption is a problem (not as bad in Bali as other areas though) if you go have dealings with them smile and pay what they want, its normally 100,000 rupia which is about a fiver. If you have a driver they will deal with them for you. we got road blocked going up kintamani and the driver paid it all and if I don't understand some Bahasa Indonesian I wouldn't have even known he was getting "taxed".

Have a great time, I miss being in Asia so much I want to get back out there as soon as possible.
 
Beware of drinks served to you - try stick to beer if you can, or watch the bartender serve you in front of you. A friend of mine's still suffering from WTFever he's been spiked with.
Don't eat the street food satay - it's likely dog meat.
Stay away from Bali during Aussie Schoolies season - think Brits in Magaluf
Mopeds equal death.

Don;t let the above put you off, it's a stunning place. Lots have been covered above - so on top of that I'd recommend;
Have Banana pancakes
Go to Uluwatu and temple
Mushrooms
 
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