Bali travel recommendations – 3 weeks in Bali!

When we’re not photographing weddings – we like to carry our passion over into other things!

Firstly – travel. Exploring exciting places, going off the beaten track a little, and taking epic photos along the way.
Second – food. Glorious food. Naturally, along with that comes the all-important elixir of life… coffee.

Bali was a country we found inspiration aplenty – both for our love of exploring, and our love of food.

This is by no means the definitive guide to Bali, and guaranteed we missed far more than we saw.

But here’s a few of our experiences, tips, recommendations – that maybe will help with your own Bali trip planning.

There were 4 main places we based ourselves – Canggu, Ubud, Nusa Lembongan, and Uluwatu.
We’ll break down the trip by each of these four places, in order.

However – our favourite spots would be in this order : #1 Canggu (our favourite!); #2 Nusa Lembongan (amazing surfing, diving, snorkelling, and beaches); #3 Uluwatu (breathtaking surfing and clifftop views plus chill vibe); #4 Ubud (too busy for us, but the surrounding natural beauty is the saving grace!).

General Bali recommendations:

#1 – Money. Many places in more developed areas will accept credit card – but don’t count on it. You’ll usually be charged an extra 3% fee to use your card too.
You can get cash from ATM’s pretty easily – but most have a fairly small limit (sometimes $125 AUD, up to $250 AUD). Considering you’re paying bank fees each and every time you withdraw – it’s not ideal.
There are plenty of money changers everywhere that offer decent rates – if you bring your local currency to change while here, you can at least have a smaller wallet thickness than hundreds of Indonesian notes.
One thing we discovered (too late) is that in Australia you can order foreign currency from Australia Post branches. You don’t have to pay any conversion fee either – so it’s a really cost effective way of getting lots of cash. It takes 5 working days though, and we only found this out a couple days before the trip – so missed out this time. Next time we’d probably get say, $1000 AUD worth of Indonesian currency ordered before our trip.

#2 – Scooters. We hired a scooter in every place we stayed – the going rate is usually 50,000 – 70,000 IDR per day ($5 – $7 AUD). If you’ve never ridden a scooter before, find a quiet street to practise in – you pick it up really fast. Make sure you ask for petrol before you ride off. It’s compulsory to wear helmets but many people don’t. We didn’t get an international licence and didn’t have any issues – but technically you need one of those, too. Just wear a helmet and ride sensibly – and you won’t give the police any excuse to stop you. Having a bike REALLY increases your mobility and chance to explore things – so it’s worthwhile.

#3 – Hiring a driver. When moving from place to place, it’s easy to hire a driver. It should cost you around $25-30 AUD for a trip that takes 1-2 hours (say, from Canggu to Ubud, or to Uluwatu, etc. Or – if you want to do a tour, for around $50-$60 AUD you should get a driver for a full 8-10 hour day to go pretty much anywhere you want. If you’d like the details for our driver, send us an email using the contact form and we’ll hook you up!

#4 – Hygiene. Bali is heaps better than it used to be, but you still need to be careful of things like not drinking the water (brushing teeth, etc). We took a little hand sanitizer with us, and also some activated charcoal. Also, just watch where you are eating… we avoided places that were dead quiet – instead using TripAdvisor, etc to seek out popular and well ranked places. In these places it’s totally safe to eat salads / fruit / ice in your drinks – as it’s all made with filtered water.

#5 – Sunscreen. While many things are super cheap in Bali, sunscreen costs about the same as Australian prices – or more. So there’s no harm in bringing your own. Also it’s a great idea to have something to cover up while you’re on the scooter for long trips – a few days of burned shoulders taught us that lesson quickly!

#6 – Power board. It’s my geeky travel tip – because we have laptop + 2 phones + camera batteries + electric toothbrushes (yes!) + kindle that all need charging, we always bring along a 6 way power board… that way we only need one adapter / outlet in the place we’re staying. Geeky? yes. Logical? yes!

#7 – Get a SIM card. Having quick, easy access to Google maps while you’re out hunting waterfalls, or easy access to TripAdvisor when you’re hungry and need to find a good spot to eat – is invaluable! It cost 50,000 IDR ($5 AUD) for a SIM that came with 5GB of data.

 

CANGGU

 

This was our first stop upon arriving in Bali. It’ll take you around an hour taxi ride to get from the airport over to Canggu. Organise a driver in advance if you can – makes things super easy. 150,000 – 200,000 IDR ($15 – $20 AUD) is about what you’d expect to pay for the trip.

Canggu is a fast-changing, trendy, relaxing place that is still cheaper than Seminyak and (at least for now) still maintains a bit of the rural feel, nestled into the rice paddies. Our daily schedule was wake up, surf, go for coffee & do some laptop work in a cafe, go for breakfast, plan where we wanted to try for lunch, go for lunch, swim, take a nap or get a massage, watch the sunset, plan our dinner, go for dinner, plan tomorrow’s breakfast… and repeat. We did this for a week – and honestly, could have stayed longer. You’ll find fast, reliable wifi everywhere – along with people running their businesses from their laptops in the cafes.

Accommodation : We stayed at the cutest little hostel / villa at Echo beach – Olé Olé Ollie. They have dorm accommodation but also one super cute private villa which is perfect for a couple. We booked through AirBnB the first time but it’s cheaper direct through their website.

Food : Canggu has the best variety of delicious cafes that we found in Bali. Like – seriously good. So good in fact, that we’re writing an entire post about eating in Canggu – coming soon!
The condensed version though – for brekkie / lunch visit Nude, Ruko, Satu Satu, Crate, Betelnut, Milk & Madu, and (if you like vegan food) Peloton Supershop.
For dinners – check out Moana, Betelnut, Milk & Madu, Dandelion, La Baracca.

Things to do

Surfing : There are great waves at Canggu – options for both first time learners (plenty of board hire & lessons available) and also more advanced surfers. There are breaks over sand and also reef. Echo beach is a 2 minute walk from Ole Ole hostel.

Shopping: You can, but expect to pay Aussie prices in most places here. There are some stunning shops, but nothing is cheap.
There is a cute Sunday market at Samadhi Yoga which has cool local artisan products.

Massage : There are some great massage spots to try. About 5 minutes walk up the road from Ole Ole is Yoga Bali Spa – they’re a fairly new spa (only 1 month old at the time we visited) and you could get a 60 minute massage for 100,000 IDR (about $10 AUD). Ask for Cehya – she was the best therapist!
Otherwise, a 2 minute walk in the opposite direction from Ole Ole is Therapy. Number 1 rated spa on Tripadvisor for Canggu – they are more of a luxury experience, but still only 240,000 IDR ($24 AUD). Totally blissful.

Explore : We rode the scooter out to Tanah Lot temple at sunset – it’s super busy / touristic – but also has a lovely view at sunset, you can see why it’s popular. We also headed to Tegenungan Waterfall (although in hindsight – this would probably have been a quicker / more logical day trip from Ubud instead of Canggu) – it was about an hour on the bike, and walk down mannnnyyy stairs. It was cool – but we found prettier, less touristy waterfalls during our time in Ubud that we’d recommend more. Tip for navigating Canggu – find “the shortcut”. It’s a super dodgy, small road that connects the 2 parts of Canggu together. It doesn’t show on Google maps as a road when you have car directions selected, but when you set it to ‘walking’ it should come up. The name is Jalun Echo Beach. Saves lots of time, and adds some excitement to your life.

Swimming pools / chill out / sunsets : We went to The Lawn a few times, a cool beachfront bar with an infinity pool. Not cheap, but great for drinks / swimming the afternoon away. If you’re feeling more thrifty, there’s a great local warung next door that has a deck with the same view, comfortable beanbags and cheap Bintang / coconuts. Soak up the Lawn’s atmosphere & music for a fraction of the price, while supporting local businesses 😀
Just a 2 minute walk from Ole Ole we discovered brand new ‘La Brisa‘ – a cool new beach club with a nautical theme. This opened literally the week we stayed there, and was still very much under construction – but it looks awesome already!

A little further afield – we spent one sunset at La Plancha beach – about a 30 min scooter ride, just where Kuta turns into Seminyak. There’s a bunch of beanbags & umbrellas – each attached to a warung that supplies cheap drinks and average eats. Once the sun goes down, each little spot has their own live entertainment – you can just stroll along & find music you like, and grab a spot.
We spent one evening at Potato Head beach club in Seminyak. This was great to check out the sunset / swim in the pool / party vibe. It’s uber expensive and filled with the Instagram crowd – but totally worth a look.
We also spent a cool day chilling at Woobar pool & resort, which is part of the W Bali resort. The entrance is about 200m down from the entrance to Potato Head, complete with a bamboo lined arch driveway & complimentary ferrying from the scooter parking to the resort in golf buggies. For all that, we just enjoyed the pool, relaxed on loungers, and there’s no obligation to buy anything.

Nightlife : We can’t really comment much here as we’re not super into drinking / partying – but Old Man’s and Deus Ex Machina are two of the Canggu hotspots. Both walkable from Ole Ole hostel. We met a cool crew of people staying at the hostel & joined them on a night out once, it was definitely fun.

 

UBUD

 

Our next stop after Canggu was Ubud. While Canggu is filled with hipster types, centered around surfing and coffee – Ubud is a bit more “health / spiritual” focused. There’s yoga in abundance. Plenty of healthy cafes and restaurants – however if you’re not into super healthy / plant based / raw / etc style eating – then you might find the food options more limited than Canggu. One thing we quickly learned is that Ubud is BUSY. Like – super busy. The pavements are narrow, and there are always people walking in front of you – you sort of shuffle along in line. This busy-ness means that places book up too.

Accommodation : Here we stayed at The Lighthouse guesthouse, which we booked through AirBnB. It was in a super central location – walking distance to everywhere. The only downside was the freaking rooster which woke us up at 5am every single morning, without fail. If you plan to stay in central Ubud – you won’t need a scooter (it’s actually an inconvenience, because the traffic is so bad). However – if you’re keen to explore nearby places like the rice terraces, waterfalls, monkey forest etc – then having a bike is a plan.

Food : There’s a bunch of really highly rated restaurants on Tripadvisor that we were keen to try (Kubu, Locavore, etc) but they were booked up nights in advance. So if you want to eat at some of these places – try book like a couple of weeks before you arrive and make a plan in advance. The best coffee we found was Seminan coffee studio, and the best restaurant we found was Watercress.

Things to do 

White water rafting : We rafted the Ayung river, and it was really fun! Around $35-40 AUD gets you a half day tour, 2 hours or so rafting, and lunch at the end
(just be careful with what you choose to eat – this was our only experience with upset stomachs the whole trip).

Shopping : There’s plenty of markets / shops in Ubud. Many have no fixed prices, so get your hustle on.

Exploring : We spent a day chasing waterfalls, and it was totally worthwhile. Without a doubt, the highlight was Tukad Cepung waterfall – which you enter through a cave. Spectacular. It’s about an hour scooter ride from Ubud. On the way, you can also visit Kanto Lampo falls, a lesser known waterfall – when we were there, there were only 2 other people there with us. You can climb up the fall and sit in the middle, it’s pretty cool.

Sangeh monkey forest :  Sangeh monkey forest is a short distance from Ubud. Note – this isn’t the “main” Ubud monkey forest, but a quieter, less touristy forest set amongst giant nutmeg trees. It was beautiful, and a guide walked us through. We were almost the only people there. We’ve heard the monkeys here are a bit less aggressive than the ones in the Ubud monkey forest, too.

Yoga : Ubud has so many yoga options. We did zero yoga – haha. Despite the fact that both of us love yoga, it was just too hot / unappealing most days.

Overall – Ubud was just too busy and crowded for our taste. It was a great base to explore waterfalls / etc from – but there’s just something about being near the coast that Ubud can’t offer. Next time we probably would skip this area – but we’re pleased we visited and saw what we did.

 

NUSA LEMBONGAN

Nusa Lembongan is a small island just off the coast of Bali. It was super relaxed, slow paced, and laid back. We really loved it here!

First you need to get yourself to the coastal town of Sanur – and from here, it’s a short 25 minute boat trip over to the island of Nusa Lembongan. Abandon any notions of glamorous travel right at the beginning as you wade through thigh deep water to board the boat (and again getting off) – they just park right up on the sand. The advertised prices are around 200,000 IDR for a one-way trip ($20 AUD) – but our driver talked on our behalf and managed to get us 250,000 ($25 AUD) return tickets! Score.

We stayed on Nusa Lembongan for 4 nights – it was a good length of time for us.  This is one place you’ll definitely want a motorbike. Even if you didn’t feel confident trying in Canggu / Ubud – the island is much more slow paced, and there’s far less traffic on the road. The flipside is, the quality of the roads is pretty rough in some points! But do get a bike, because you’ll need it to get around. We saw a few Western people on the backs of scooters with Indonesian people driving – so I assume it’s also an option to hire a driver to take you around on a scooter.

Accommodation : We stayed at Puri Nusa resort – which was around $60 AUD per night. It was in a really nice location, beachfront, great pool – I think by Nusa Lembongan standards it was quite nice. However, Nusa Lembongan standards are a bit different to other parts of Bali!

Food : The biggest difference we noticed was finding good food – it was really hard here! The best options we found were-

Ginger & Jamu– a beachfront health-orientated cafe that does breakfast through to dinner.
Bali Eco Deli – another healthy option with tasty iceblocks!
Warung Putu – a local place near the yellow bridge to Nusa Cenigan, best Indonesian food and great prices.
The Deck – pricey, but a lovely location for sunset drinks.

Things to do

Explore : We rode our little scooter across the entirety of Lembongan Island, and over the yellow bridge to explore Nusa Cenigan too. Our favourite places were The Blue Lagoon cliffs on Nusa Cenigan, and the Devil’s Tears rocks at the bottom of Nusa Lembongan – dramatic and epic!

Snorkel :  You’ll see so many places offering Manta Ray snorkeling trips – which is where you head over in a boat to Nusa Penida and snorkel in Manta Bay – where huge Manta rays come in to feed. It was such a unique experience, being in the water with these huge, graceful, and gentle creatures. At one point, a manta swam directly underneath us – so close we could have reached down and touched it. We took a tour with a guy called Diasa, who runs a place called D&B Warung – close to Bali Eco Deli. He was a really knowledgable guide, and you could tell he wanted everyone to have an awesome experience. Definitely recommend him!
Cost was 200,000 IDR ($20 AUD) each for a 3 hour trip, snorkeling at 3 different locations.
At Manta Bay it got really busy – so many boats were around that at times it felt a bit sketchy. If you’re prone to sea sickness – this tour might not be for you.

Surf :  Puri Nusa resort was directly in front of Shipwrecks break – a long paddleout over the lagoon, but a really fun wave to surf.

Dive :  I took a dive trip off Nusa Penida with Tamarind Divers. It was probably the best diving conditions I’ve ever experienced – super clear water, amazing sealife, and only 1,000,000 IDR ($100 AUD) for 2 dives including full gear hire – which is pretty cheap by dive standards! If we stayed a little longer I’d have done my PADI Advanced course – they offer it for $3,800,000 ( $380 AUD ) and it is basically just 4 fun dives, split over two days.

 

ULUWATU

 

If you surf, you already know about this place. The most famous Bali surf break totally lived up to it’s name. It was spectacular from a visual point of view – amazing cliff views into the ocean. Although we were only here for 2 nights, we could have easily stayed longer. It was definitely quieter than the Canggu / Seminyak areas – but not quite so laid back as Nusa Lembongan. Would definitely recommend trying to include Uluwatu in your Bali itinerary. It’s about a one hour ish drive from Kuta

Accommodation : We stayed in a cliffside villa we booked here on AirBnB. This was our “splash out” accommodation for the trip – and the view from the balcony was worth every cent. The location was also amazing – two levels down from the iconic ‘Single Fin’ restaurant – it meant that getting to the surf was only a few sets of stairs away. I actually don’t think you could get closer accommodation if you tried.

Food : Our favourite was Suka Espresso – we had breakfast, lunch and dinner here during our short stay and it was always top notch. Great coffee too!
We also tried Bukit Cafe – a bit more pricey, and not quite as good (but still totally nice enough). There’s a La Baracca restaurant just next door to Suka which we didn’t go to, but if it’s anywhere near as good as their sister restaurant in Canggu then we can thoroughly recommend.

Things to do

Surf : Surfing is obviously the main attraction at Uluwatu – but there’s also a few cool things to explore nearby. You can hire boards at many places, there are heaps of board repair shops, places where you can book someone to swim out with a camera and be your own private photographer for your surf session… this place just revolves around surfing and surf culture.

Explore: Uluwatu temple (we didn’t actually go here) – and also the beaches / rockpools that you can access from mid tide > low tide through the Uluwatu cave at the bottom of the stairs. Just don’t get caught out by the rising tide! Padang Padang beach is also a short scooter ride away for a more sheltered / swimmable spot.

Final thoughts

Bali is a country where you really can have the holiday you choose to have. If you want adventure, you’ll find it aplenty. If you want to chill and lounge in the sun / pool all day – there’s so many options. If you want to shop your heart out for local bargains – cheap markets are everywhere. If you want to surf – there are hundreds of breaks. If you want to eat – the food is incredible. It really is like one of those ‘choose your own adventure’ books – and we loved it.

If you have any questions about the places / activities / etc in this post – feel free to leave a comment & we’ll do our best to help 🙂

Can’t wait to come back to Bali again soon! If you – or someone you know – is planning a wedding in Bali and are looking for a Bali wedding photographer, let us know. We’ll definitely work out an amazing deal for you 🙂

Isaac + Amy.