Bali ?

[juice]

Its our 10th Wedding Anniversary next year. We're definitely going to Hong Kong to see my wife's sister and family who live there but I was thinking that Bali isn't that far away by plane and wondered if anyone has been there before ?

I see there are Private Villas for rent that come with all the trimmings (cook/spa services etc) - would this be a better option than a hotel ?

[Bill]

Be careful of where you go, it's the equivalent of the Costas for Australia. Great if you want to chase some loose Oz skirt though

[sday12]

If you stay away from Kuta you will miss the Aussies

We went to amankila for our honeymoon, amazing.

http://www.amanresorts.com/amankila/home.aspx

[juice]

Wow - Amankila looks *Amazing* Cheers !

[skilly1]

Just come back from 2.5 weeks there.

The best villa we stayed in was:

http://www.seiryuvillas.com/en/ which was in Seminyak, (the trendy area). Private pool, massive rooms - 2 plasma's ! with kitchen. Good breakfast served in the dinning room, all done by a side door so you never see the staff ! We paid around £120 per night.

Ubud is near the centre of Bali, more relaxed, quite arty. We did a cycling tour (3hrs) - all downhill, which was fantastic - highly recommended. G/F is not a keen cyclist and she loved it. Stayed just outside Ubud as I could not find decent accommodation in the centre. G/S favorite place as it was more 'cultural' !

In Kuta we stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for 2 nights for a bit of fun. To my surprise I really enjoyed it, fantastic bar with live music every night and a great pool which has real sand in some parts (not sure how they keep it separate but they do). Around £100 per night.

Also stayed at the O-CE-N Outrigger near Kuta. http://www.outrigger.com/hotels-resorts/indonesia/...
Cheaper hotel - around £60 per night, but excellent modern rooms and a good bar/restaurant set-up. Brand new hotel.

Went to Gilli Islands - make sure you book accommodation, we didn't and stayed in a real dump. Got a bking off the G/F for that as I was meant to book it! Looks like there are some great places on the islands. Would not stay there for more than 2-3 nights as not much to do. Book a high speed boat across and back.

We booked all of our hotels through www.agoda.com

[VxDuncan]

Will second the comments above - we think of Bali as idyllic - the Aussies think of it as their Ibiza! As mentioned, Kuta beach is the main centre for the aussies, with good surf, bars and everything you'd expect of St Antonio, just without the british bars. I stayed in Seminyak, which is oriented toward couples, quieter and with better options for eating. They are not that far apart - a 20-30 minute walk down the beach will get you between the two, and obviously the taxis are cheap. Can't vouch for the rest of the island - was using bali as a staging post for papua.

I flew singapore airlines, via singapore (duh!). Was the cheapest way at the time, and had the benefit of an A380 back into heathrow (though I wouldn't pay extra for it).

[Bill]

sday12 said:

If you stay away from Kuta you will miss the Aussies

Fair enough, it was a while ago and I can't say that I wanted to avoid them

[Dupont666]

If you search through my history.... then you wil...

OH fk IT.... Hang on

me previously said:

best advice would be to have a look round on sites like this:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g2976...

and

http://www.indo.com/hotels/ (cause its so much cheaper than doing it direct)

Alam puri is where we went for 2 nights of our stay in bali, but we didnt do a sit by the beach type of stay it was:

1st night - cheap hotel booked near airport (arrived 9pm so whats the point)
3 nights at home stay - see the sights that you wouldnt normal see with a local family (£100 including all meals and several temple visits, monkey forest visit and local markets)
speed boat to gili trawangan (£100 for 2 return tickets)
3 nights - £35 a night for a bungalow at http://www.manta-dive.com/diving-accommodation-gil... $20 for dive (this was our beach holiday)
speed boat back to bali
2 nights at alam puri (£50 a night)
2 nights in ubud (£10 a night)
fly to borneo to drop OH with friends
fly to Singapore to see friends for 2 nights.
go home.

And include the fire dance and palace dance at ubud and it was quite a special holiday for me and the OH, plus we stayed away from all the tourist traps.

The above is my kind of holiday, but as mentioned, we need to know what kind of holiday you want?

Also look at this one that is mainly me explaining it from the last time I went last time this question was asked:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Enjoy and PM if you have any queries about it all.

Also note that I didnt do the biggest and the best places as I wanted to experience the culture and have a laugh and I most certainly didnt do any hotels if I could help it.

[bint]

I did do the posh hotel thing (was free - long story and irrelevant) - Nusa Dua Sheraton and it was fabulous. Had a suite and quite honestly, I loved every minute of it as I have never done the posh hotel on holiday before. Had a driver to take us around the sites, Temples, monkey forests, silversmiths and woodworkers and it still remains today one of my favourite ever holidays and I would love to go back.

The most friendly people I have ever come across, and I also highly recommend having a meal at Jimbaran bay in some of the local restaurants where you pay for seafood by weight. Omnom.