This year myself and Eunan (boyfriend) felt like going half way across the world and well no better place than Bali to explore for roughly 2 weeks.
Stop 1 Seminyak
As we had 30 hours of travelling just to get there we decided to start of with somewhere close to the airport. Seminyak was roughly 1 hour car journey from Denpasar airport (lots of traffic around this area). From airport to hotel you are probably best asking your hotel for a airport transfer as the drivers at the airport were very expensive. We landed around 5pm ishh so wasn’t much to do more explore the streets around us and get settled into our hotel.
We stayed at Villa Bunga which we thought was cheap and reasonable, was such a good location to most places in Seminyak. For example 10 mins walking distance from Potato head Beach club
We stayed in Seminyak for 3 nights, in my opinion that was far to much time as there wasn’t much to do in Seminyak.
If your a fan of beach clubs and drinking all day then yes but if your like me who loves exploring maybe not. We still enjoyed relaxing for a couple of days and getting use to the climate.
My fav places to definitely try out in Seminyak are;
Potato head Beach Club it was so chill and funky, although quite expensive, we got around it the cheaper way in that we didn’t buy a bed but got a table at the bar at which it is yours for the day unless you leave it. There was baskets under the tables to leave your bags and towels in if you wanted to go for a dip so no one was able to take your table if the baskets were full. Thought it was a very good idea instead of playing lots for a bed. Cocktails were roughly £5/7 which to be fair I’ve paid worse at home lol One other thing I must say about the beach club is the sunset it was sooo beautiful, and to be at such a chill place was really special I thought chilling at the pool watching the sunset go down
KU DE TA was another beach club we went to, I would say it’s a more classier beach club. The beds were free which was really good for the location of the club, we chilled her for half a day. The food was gorgeous and not to bad of a price either
Two of my must see places to eat were definitely Kynd Community Cafe and also Neon Palms Restaurant
I seen Kynd community on instagram quite a lot and was obsessed such a insta spot 😂 for it being such a small cafe with roughly 20 seats there doing well. It was actually hilarious every person (including myself) fighting for the famous wall just for the gram.
As you can see had to be insta perfect😜 the food and drinks were delicious too.
Ps don’t know why they wrote marry on it, thought it was funny (Eunan thought it was some Australian slang lmao)
We went to Neon Palms for dinner an evening, I heard about it from one of Lily browns YouTube videos (if u see dis Lily I luv u)
Eunan really enjoyed it food was brilliant, it was cute wee tapas but we couldn’t even eat half of it we were so full! Each dish was beautiful so delicious
The restaurant itself was really cute and funky.
Stop 2 Ubud
Ubud was my favourite stop, so much culture so much to do! It is situated in land so no beaches was like living in a jungle. From seminyak to ubud we got our hotel to organise a private car to drive us there, in which was 300k we didn’t think this was that expensive saying as we paid double that at the airport lol
Our driver was so nice and stopped off at a few places on the way to such as jewellery making and weaving workshops, it was interesting to see everything hand made. These were also free of charge to go and see. We then went to a Luwak coffee plantation, this is where luwak animals eat the coffee cherries, and well poop them out lmao. The shell is then taken off and they are roasted and made into coffee. Although I never drink coffee because coffee does not agree with me at all… it was actually the best cup of coffee I had. Was so smooth and easy to drink, I can see how it is one of the most expensive coffees in the world. They then gave you a taster of different coffees and teas the plantation provide.
We stayed at Tukad White House, I enjoyed my stay here. The staff were amazing and did a lot of us. Hotel owners even went to the effort of getting us Guinness!
Sacred monkey forest
That evening we walked to the sacred monkey sanctuary, I was excited for this as the monkeys were in there habitat. Well my excitement changed quickly…. Monkeys running around everywhere, there was monkeys everywhere, I am not the biggest fan of animals but thought monkeys were cute, I was wrong. Angry lil animals they are, you can just imagine me looking at one and them growling at me, I Just legged it to get away from them, could not deal at all. At least some Americans got enjoyment out of me 💁🏻♀️
Straight outside the monkey forests there was a bohemian restaurant it was soo funky, upstairs no shoes allowed all pillows and small tables. Vibey music playing down stairs. Food and drink was fab and cheap.
Next day we got the same private taxi man that drove us to Ubud to do a full day tour around Ubud as we thought it was just handier doing most stuff in the one day as we didn’t know how to drive mopeds.
UBUD DAY TOUR
Stop one: bali swings over rice terrace
This is really for the gram, the main swing was 250k each which was quite expensive for being on a swing for 5 minutes although the rest of the picture seats were free.
The tour guide we got at the swings was hilarious knew every setting on a iPhone and angle to get the good pics, wouldn’t stop til we got the perfect one.
Stop 2: Tegalang rice terrace
I loved this, it was the tourist rice terrace but still fab. We were able to walk around the terrace and go on different levels, seeing how rice is made by using the terrace water system.
Stop 3: Temples
We stopped at 3 main temples. I love going to places like this to explore the countries culture and religion. Btw outside temples people may be trying to sell you garments as you need to cover up when going into the temples although as you pay into the temples garments usually come free so don’t buy them off the people outside.
First temple we went to was Gunung Kawi Sebatu, this was a Hindu water temple. This was my favourite temple as it was the prettiest and very chilled out, not as much tourists.
Next temple we went to was Goa Gajah also know as the elephant cave, which has a cave carved into an elephants face. Inside the cave is two Hindu statues one is meant to bring good fortune, slot of praying to that god was done lols. At this temple there was also a Buddhist temple which can be found walking down steps near the back of the temple area.
Last temple we went to was Tirta Empul, this is another water temple but is known for ritual bathing. You can bath and get involved in the bathing ritual although I wasn’t to fussed in having wet hair for the rest of the day so we didn’t actually get into the springs although you could still watch the rituals being done.
Stop 4: Tegenugan waterfall
Last stop of our day tour was Tegenugan Waterfall. Bali is known for their waterfalls although we maybe didn’t go at the best time to see one of the most popular ones as it was all muddy water so you couldn’t swim in it and it didn’t look the nicest. At least we can say we been there done that.
That night we were to wrecked to walk a mile or two to get food so we ordered food in… yes we ordered food in, in Bali.. lmao I seen an App on YouTube that some people used to order taxis etc but it also had takeaway on it. So we tried it out. Basically the Deliveroo of Bali. It actually worked, you could even text your driver which he understood English which was fab!
The app was called Go Jek som of it is in Indonesian although you should be able to work your way around it! Very handy app to have.
Ceningan Ridge walk
The next day we didn’t want to do that much as we needed a really early night to be up for 2am to climb Volcano Batur. So weight a taxi into town to Ceningan ridge walk, thought this was quite nice wasn’t really busy either. At the end of the walk was more rice fields.
That evening we went to a restaurant called Taco Casa which is a must stop restaurant in Ubud. The food was amazing, was definitely needed for the night ahead. Eunan loved it that much he even bought the merchandise 😂
Volcano Batur (even unfit people can climb volcanos)
We booked this though our hotel although there are lots of people on the streets that you can book through. We tried to get as much sleep as possible before our lovely hike up a volcano..
The bus picked us up at our hotel around 2am, drove for about an hour and stopped off at a “cafe” this had only tables and you couldn’t buy anything. We were given choice of tea or coffee and fried banana (not a fan of bananas) so I just drank tea, after this drove another half an hour which we landed at the base camp of the volcano roughly around 4am. We were given our food boxes, water and torches and we were ready to go. (Pre warning I am no way a fitness queen I run 5 mins and I give up lol) so I was expecting to be helicoptered Home. The way up we took our time slow and steady but it got steeper and steeper, it took around 3hours. The last half an hour was really tough practically climbing up the volcano on our hands and knees.. but it was worth it. The view at the top was insane and just in time for sunrise 🌅
The pictures themselves just tell the story of how amazing getting to the top was.
Tip maybe bring a sandwich or crisps at the top to watch the sunrise come up. We were given a good box although it came with 2 slices of plain toasted bread and a boiled egg not the nicest breakfast also a dog ate into mine which I didn’t mind at all.
The hard part was getting down, standing on dodgy rocks slipping everywhere trying to not fall down the side of the volcano wasn’t the best craic… made it to the bottom without breaking a bone , proud of myself tbh
Yoga barn
You will roughly get back to your hotel around half 11 we went for a couple hours sleep then wanted to be relaxed so decided to do yoga.
Yoga is such a big thing in Ubud, Bali in general everyone is so chill. Bali is mostly Hindu which is a very peaceful religion which in a way you can understand why Yoga is such a big hit in the country.
The most popular yoga spot in Ubud was The Yoga Barn which we went to. I researched about it a bit and it did say on there website to cover up when going to classes which we kind of were hesitant as we didn’t have much light cover up type of clothes, though it was good craic trying to find Eunan clothes to wear etc this lmao
When landing at Yoga barn this wasn’t the way everyone was just in exercise gear really, shorts and sports bras. Eunan also took a strike and wore shorts and said if he isn’t allowed in he doesn’t care so he got his way.
We did a starter yoga class, we both actually really enjoyed it definitely chilled us out so if you want to try something new in Ubud definitely check out the Yoga barn. The place itself is so chill even just a nice place to bring a book to and sit and read and grab a smoothie.
After this we got a full body massage which was sooo needed after a hike up a volcano, we paid 90k roughly £5, we spent most of the time giggling at the people around us screaming and hearing the cracks of there bones 😂 Good massage all the same felt so relaxed and no tensions in my neck was brilliant.
Stop 3 Gili Trawangan
I gave Eunan one thing to organise… one thing the transport to Gili T, well it wasn’t done til 2am that night which we were meant to get the boat that morning at 7am. Did not happen, at least we got the boat that day. It was actually a good boat company Wahana Gili Ocean in that it felt like you were on a magaluf booze cruise. Up on the top deck with music blasting and a few bitangs being served, definitely made the 2 hour boat journey fly in. The boat cost was 250k single and 500k return which included our bus to the port from hotel.
Our B&B owner was waiting at the port for us on his bike which was brilliant as my bag was very heavy and the roads were not the best. So we followed him to our stay. We stayed at Meisya Cottage which had only two rooms to the B&B which I thought was nice as more care was given to us. Our room was great and even better there was bikes and snorkelling gear available to use free of charge, definitely saved you a few pound instead of renting.
That evening we got dinner and went for a few drinks. Gili T is known for its nightlife although we maybe went at a bad time as it was Ramadan so music had to stop at 11 so no late nights. So try not to go when it’s Ramadan if your into partying. As we are Irish we couldn’t not go into Tir Na óg Irish bar. The place was buzzing. Met a Galway couple and well I don’t know if it was a good or bad thing meeting them as we were not well afterward. If you love your kebabs after a night out Gili T is for you they have kebab shops open 24/7.
Next day we got up (hanging) and went scuba diving this was definitely one of the top highlights of our trip! We loved it so much! Neither of us had been scuba diving before and what a place to do your first dive! There were many diving schools along Gili t we got one for 850k (roughly £45)
I had a waterproof camera but someone (Eunan) broke the case for it so it got water logged meaning no pictures of this amazing experience. I would really recommend doing scuba diving in Gili T, get place to start and I’m excited to go scuba diving in other parts of the world! It is definitely worth the money!
That evening we went to the night market for food, I know night markets can be dodgy but a lot of good reports on the Gili T, even get a corn on the cob just to try it out. We also tried out the Jiggy bar on the island it was nuts everyone just dancing away on tables and chairs was class craic.
We also went Snorkeling the next day which was roughly for half the day 10-3. This was 150k which was decent for the amount of time in the water and exploring the other Gili islands, Gili Air and Gili Meno. There is so many companies around the island doing Snorkeling trips so you don’t need to look hard. Snorkeling you can swim with the fishes and turtles. We were swimming a lot with turkeys at one point was such a nice experience. We also hired a go pro (since mine died a horrible death) with the person we organised our trip with. This was handy as we did have memory cards already so we had some under water footage.
That evening we watched the sunset (my fav hobby) it was really beautiful at Gili T. We cycled to the other side of the island to see it as you can’t really see it from the front of the island. There is so many beach bars that have seats positioned for you to sit and enjoy the sunset. To many to even try half of them with the time we were there. A lot of them have swings for you to take a pic on which are cute.
We tried Ombak sunset bar which was lovely, even had there own photographer for the swing photos!
Stop 4 Nusa Penida
As we were going straight from Gili T to Nusa Penida we had to take two different boats, luckily the company we booked with sorted us out before we left for Gili T which included the taxi to the different port and the boat costs etc (except for the way back to Bali from Nusa Penida. After getting boat from Gili T then Transfer to the other port we were sat at that port for roughly 2 hours with not much to be at very rural port. We met 3 solo travellers waiting on the boat as well, amazing to think they were travelling the world all by themselves and were just constantly meeting new people each place the went. Fair play.
Once we got to Nusa Penida there was also of people asking us for taxis etc, we ended up taking one. ( none of these people are actual taxi drivers just locals wanting a few extra pound.. so kindof dodgy). Luckily the driver we chose was dead on and didn’t kill us. He offered to drive us around the next day on our tour around Nusa Penida which we weren’t to sure as we were planning on renting bikes.
We got to our stay Petal cottage and oh my, the cutest lil huts ever. (One negative thing was the hill getting up to them soo steep.) We were literally staying in little tree huts with the prettiest view.
To travel around they had mopeds available to rent but no helmets which we both didn’t feel safe driving them without them especially for our first time trying it.
It was only 4pm when we landed so didn’t want to waste half a day so we asked the owner was was close to our stay which he said crystal bay was only 20 mins walk, which was a complete LIEEEEE as we realised the next day.
Ended up just getting food beside the beach as we had walked enough and were hungry. Bit of an issue when getting food I forgot my cash bag in a different bag and they don’t take card at all even the local ATM don’t take foreign cards basically I had to ask a German girl could she drive me to our stay to get my money lol thankfully she did and didn’t mind at all. (So BIG TIP when going to Nusa Penida, bring lots of cash, had to even pay our stay by cash)
That night we text the man that brought us to our stay if he could take us on a day trip around Nusa Penida due to the no helmet situation and also the German girl said the roads are horrible to drive on. Although it was quite expensive 700k, it was totally worth it for our safety lol
Next morning we got up to get breakfast which our stay included breakfast but it wasn’t at the stay it was 4 min bike journey so had to hope on the back of the owners bike to get to it lol ( all a bit of craic). The place we stayed at seemed like it was only opened as they were in the middle of building the reception area.
Nusa Penida is an island that not much tourists go to although it’s getting very popular so is probably why they are trying to build the area the huts were up.
Breakfast was lovely, pancakes as usual and a beautiful view!
We got collected by our taxi man for the day as the weather was quite bad (first rain in months 🙃🙃🙃🙃) some of the places I wanted to visit we couldn’t as it was to dangerous.
So stop 1 was KlungKung this was on the top of my list anyway so was happy enough. On and off heavy showers during our visit to Klungkung so it was a run to have a look whenever it wasn’t raining and run to shelter whenever it poured. We also couldn’t get down to the bottom of Klungkung as it was to muddy and dangerous. There is a beautiful beach at the bottom of it which I wanted to visit but obviously because of the weather we couldn’t get down to it so if you have good weather go for it!
Stop 2 was Angels bay once again would be prettier if weather a bit better but still amaze! You have to walk down a good amount of steps to find the secret beach. Our tour guide said this was his favourite spot on the island just because it is so chill. There was a few cafes there but it was more locals at them than tourists. Only negative thing about going here is the walk back up the steps, it was a tough one.
Stop no.3 was King five it was definitely my favourite on Nusa Penida. There is two sides to King five, so first walking to angels bay you see the back of king five which I thought was the nicer bit of it.
We drove to the other side of the cliffs and down a few steps to see the amazing views of king five, the views were insane!
Our last stop was Crystal bay this was such a pretty beach but very touristy. There was wedding photo shoots happening everywhere so it kindof ruined the scenery for me. Still a beautiful beach.
There is other places I wanted to visit although we didn’t get a chance to in Nusa Penida so if you are able to do them. These were Broken beach and Angels billabong.
In Nusa Penida it was more of a place to eat that was close to us than going to the hot restaurants. Due to this there isn’t much recommendations for food places that I can write about. Some of the food places we did drive past were very cute.
I would recommend maybe doing a day trip here from Ubud or Seminyak as your tour guide would have everything planned for you and it wouldn’t be a waste of a few days.
The next day we got the boat back to Bali at 7 in the morning. This was the local/public boat bus which was roughly 100k each which was fab.
Stop 5 Uluwatu
We booked our taxi driver that we got in ubud so we were getting our taxis a bit cheaper. We wanted to be a bit fancier on our last stay in Bali so we stayed in Wyndham Dreamland Resort hotel. Dreamland resort is based in Uluwatu full with all the fancy hotel resorts.
We went to Dreamland beach that was 2 mins walk from the hotel. It was beautiful but far to over crowded and also so much litter everywhere which is so disappointing for such a big tourist spot in Uluwatu. Dreamland beach is a known surfers paradise so we had to try surf. Repeat try. As I surf at home I was buzzing to try out surfing in Bali. We rented boards and well they were shortly returned to get our money back lmao. The waves were MENTAL, like I’ve never been drowned as much in my life. I could not get the board out even 5 metres. Was actually nuts. At least a few people got the enjoyment of watching me drowning and my bikini not staying on me lols. So Just gave our boards back and watched the pros do the work. Although one of the surfers came out of the water with his board broke in half, showed how mental the waves were.
We watched the sunset from here, which was beautiful. We got recommended a Spanish El Krabon restaurant which was on the cliffs so we decided to go there for the evening . It was very fancy but beautiful restaurant. It was mostly tapas and nice wines, although I really enjoyed the atmosphere. We didn’t stay for long here as soon as we got here Eunan started to feel really ill. Felt really bad for him as his results came out this night, even better he got a first in his masters but he was so ill he couldn’t properly celebrate. :((
The next day we didn’t want to waste the day even though Eunan was still really not well, but we hired a moped and I drove us to Uluwatu temple which was really beautiful. A temple on the cliffs of Bali. I really really enjoyed the temples just exploring the Balinese culture.
We also on the way home stopped off at Padang padang beach, although you do have to pay to get to it.. Another surfers haven, but another tourist spot.
There is some places I really wanted to go to but unfortunately due to Eunan having food poisoning we couldn’t go to.
One of which was Omnia nightclub, it’s a beach club off a cliff which seems unbelievable from seeing pictures of it. Our friends went a few weeks after us and went to it. They really loved it so I would recommend going to it from the reviews I have heard about it.
Our flight home wasn’t til late so Eunan sat over the toilet bowl and I sunbathed. We then went to the discovery mall in Kuta before we went for a bit of shopping. Places I would not go near is here. Not get shops, full of tourists but no shops were worth going to.
Bali has been one of the best holidays of my life. I would recommend it to anyone! It is one of them holidays that you would go back to in a heart beat!
I hope you enjoyed my travels to Bali!
Lots of love Frans Travels❤️🌎✈️
Frans Travels 