Honeymoon in Bali

What’s more romantic than going to Bali for your honeymoon? Let me tell you, not much! Bali is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It seems as if Bali is constantly sitting on the top of most travel destination lists. With it’s amazing tropical beaches to the lush green forests, it’s easy to see why. Bali has a long history of religious and spiritual turmoil. Through it all, they seem to have preserved a significant amount of rich Balinese culture. Leaving it a popular destination for yoga and meditation retreats. Regardless of your reason for wanting to visit Bali, it won’t disappoint.

*Throughout this article I will be ghost writing for my beautiful sister Ciara. She recently got married and the newlyweds were lucky enough to spend their honeymoon in Bali (jealous). *

As far as the flight, we flew from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Bali. All the flights to choose from were very broken up. It’s very hard to find flights with less than 2 layovers. Unless you can fork out $4-5,000 USD. That was not in our budget, so we went with the longer flight. I actually like how it was broken up though. We flew from MSP to LA (3 hours), LA to Australia (14 hours), and Australia to Bali (6 hours). Total it cost us about $1,200 USD, per person.

*If you are trying to find the best and cheapest flights, check out the article How to use Google Flights to Find the Cheapest Flights.*

Your money will go a long way in Bali. So, while you may spend a lot more on a flight you might save more on expenses while there. As I’m writing this post, $1.00 USD converts to $14,680 Indonesian Rupiah (IDR or Rp). It’s always good to have cash on you while traveling abroad. A lot of places around the world don’t take cards. If you are a member of Wells Fargo, you can exchange money for free prior to leaving. If you are traveling to a less common area, you need to order the money in advance. But doing so will save you exchange fee’s!

Day 1-Ubud

The first first morning we had breakfast at Milk & Madu. They had amazing fresh fruit and was overall a very cute restaurant. We happened to be able to rent a scooter from the owners of our Air BNB. The scooter was the easiest way to get around. Especially since driving can be hectic in some areas. It costs us approximately $20-$30 a day. In Bali, they drive on the left side of the road. I was surprised that it was fairly easy to get used to driving on the opposite side of the road (being from the US). As a female I never drove. This was only because the weight distribution will be off, if someone bigger is on the back of the bike.

After breakfast, we went to the ancient sound healing at the Pyramids of Chi. This was very relaxing and overall a unique experience! It is a unique meditation strategy you experience with sound. According to their website it costs $22 USD per person, to visit the Ancient Sound Healing.

Honestly, I think this is a MUST DO if you are visiting Bali. Personally, I felt as if I was having an out of body experience. I was put into a dream like state. I was worried that we would be super tired after it was over, but we weren’t. My husband Justin on the other hand, just cramped up and waited for it to be over. He was not a fan. The instructors told us that everyone would experience a different “trip”. If I planned a trip back to Bali, I would try and schedule more experiences like this. It felt like we were constantly on the go.

Next we visited the famous Bali Rice Terrace. It’s as picturesque as it appears in photos. If you’ve done any research on Bali, you have seen photos of the Rice Terrace. You do have pay if you want to go all the way down the hill and take pictures. It will cost you roughly $100-150 IDR. This area is perfect for someone looking to get some awesome Instagram photos. The area in general seemed to be surrounded by tourist traps. We didn’t pay to go down.

Honestly, I thought it was cooler seeing these rice paddies randomly around the island compared to the one everyone knows about. There is many local shops nearby, including places to eat and drink. Many of the places had pools as well, but I didn’t have swimwear. You’ll find the giant swing here as well. That is also plastered all over social media… This cost me about $50 IDR. Afterwards we traveled back home to our beautiful AirBNB, Namaste Villa. We had a refreshing jump in the pool before heading to the monkey sanctuary in Ubud.

*If you are new to AirBNB, use this link to get $55 USD of your first trip.*

It cost us roughly $80,000 IDR per person to get into the Ubud Monkey Sanctuary. But the price was completely WORTH IT! It was so much fun to see all the monkeys that weren’t in cages. You are able to get so close to them! They were all so friendly and interactive with humans. But, DO NOT TOUCH THEM UNLESS THE JUMP ON YOU. I think there is roughly 1,200 monkeys hanging around.

Just so you are aware, you are more than likely going to see a lot of monkeys having sex. At one point I opened my purse, and a monkey jumped on top of me. I believe it thought that I had food in my purse. if you start walking though, they almost immediately jump off of you. It’s highly suggested that you put away all your loose belongings. These monkeys are known to take things.

Our last stop for the night was dinner at Hippie Fish. It was a very good light dinner for us, that included lots of seafood options. Hippie Fish brings Mediterranean cuisine to Bali, and brings two different cultures together in one place and one concept. There is also a bunch of local shops in the area if you are looking to do some shopping. This was located in the main downtown area in Ubud. This area seemed to have a lot more expensive restaurants and boutiques. Down each alley way, you could find a lot of random stands that sold a lot of things for tourists.

Day 2-Ubud

We woke up around 0530 and headed out to Mount Batur. We left early to try and beat all the tourist’s. My husband stated that his favorite thing in Bali so far is being able to drive the scooter. Although, I do have to remind him to keep on the left sometimes. It’s honestly hard to put into words, but the drive was beyond beautiful! It took us about an hour to get there.

We literally got to see the town wake up and go about their daily routine! We watched as the kids went to school, people setting up food stands, and even women washing clothing in the creek. It was just breathtaking! Our wonderful AirBNB host told us, “The best part of Bali is just getting lost with the locals.” Once you leave the main tourist areas, you can really get lost with them. It felt like Ubud literally had a two mile radius, and once you got outside of that it was a whole different environment.

Our early wake up call was a success. We beat out the other tourists to the hot springs, and were the first ones there! It was a little pricier, but really nice! This was the first time that my husband saw a mountain (crazy right). He did not believe me when I told him that’s the mountain. He was pretty amazed and thought it was a cloud! We had lunch and breakfast at Lakeview Hotel and Resort. The food was average, but the views alone were worth it. We probably spent around $12.

It took us about an hour to get to the Nungnung Waterfall. It was very pretty but at this point our asses KILLED from the scooters. We found that the waterfall was very challenging because of this. Once we got there, the hike up and down was not easy. It was paved but very uneven! Some of the stairs went up to my knees! Overall though, it was completely worth it! The force behind Nungnung Waterfall was crazy (Also a bitch to get to). We saw maybe 10 other people around throughout the hike. But, by the time we left we were the only one’s!

It was funny, as soon as you get down there is a mini waterfall. We thought the small one was what we hiked down for. We thought THAT one was super cool and it was our first waterfall. It’s funny to look back at the pictures we took with it, and how grateful we were to even be seeing that.

We ordered in a couples massage after our long and rainy day. Could not have been more perfect hearing the rain while we received our first couples massage as husband and wife. The massage costs us a whooping $29 USD ($400,000 Rupiah). To have them in the Villa it was actually only $200,000 Rupiah, but we gave the ladies a bigger tip. They really appreciated the tip, and It was money well spent. Finding people to do the massage is not hard. We would see people on the side of the roads advertising their service.

For dinner we finally had our first big and satisfying meal. We had veggie spring rolls, crispy duck (which my avid duck hunting husband was very impressed with), a lightly deep fried duck, and a deep friend banana for desert. The desert tasted like a warm banana bread (warung d’carik). The appetizers at all the restaurants are very small. So if you are ordering something, I would order double. Also you can’t go wrong anywhere in Bali ordering spring rolls.

Day 3-Ubud to Seminyak

We spent the morning swimming at our villa, and tried to make the most of our time here in Ubud. I truly can not get over how peaceful and beautiful this place is. Later, we decided to take a break from packing and head down to Tumu. They had and amazing selection of very filling breakfast food. We ordered coffee, fresh Orange Juice, cheese and mushroom balls, and Asian Sliders with smoked salmon.

We’ve noticed a few things regarding the restaurants in Bali, that should be noted. They all seem to be either very run down, or extremely modern and minimalistic. We never once ate at a place were every table is full. So don’t worry about reservations. I believe this is due to the fact there are so many restaurants around, that no single place gets full. Also, a lot of the places have a service fee, and that is usually listed as: Service Fee 6%.

We arrived in Seminyak around 2-3PM. Immediately, I noticed how the traffic here is VERY crazy. To be honest, sadly Seminyak reminded me of a dirty Cancun Mexico. We visited the beach and grabbed some lunch at a local restaurant. All the beers they serve come with a coozy because of all the sand from the ocean. We changed into our swimsuits and walked down to the Potato Head Beach Club. This place is right on the beach and very expensive. It also appeared to be mostly young couples. Honestly, this place wasn’t really our scene. So we only had one drink and left. You can “rent” the lounge chairs and day beds, but you need to spend the minimum amount. You had to spend about 750,000-1 million Rupiah to get a day bed. That added up to about 5-6 expensive drinks there.

On our way home, we passed three little beer stands. My husband laughed and said, “It’s a very competitive market.” After a few beers we sat down on the beach to watch the sunset. It was crazy how much the town came out at this time. It looked completely different then it did earlier.

Day 4-Seminyak

Another early morning for us and we decided to watch the beautiful sunrise. For breakfast we went to Nelayan Sanur Bay, which was stunning. My husband loved eating the poached eggs in Bali. Especially since they all come with raw salmon. I ordered a smoothie bowl called Nelayan am in love, for 60,000 Rupiah. This came with Mangga Madu, banana, pineapple, chia seeds, granola, coconut flax, goji berry, yogurt, honey, and fresh milk. It is honestly intoxicating how fresh the food is here.

We then headed over to Sweet Heart Boat, through My Darling Boat Charter. We actually found this tour through Air BNB’s website. The charter stopped and we snorkeled for a few hours in a couple of different places. My husband enjoyed this a lot! We saw thousands and thousands of fish. Including the whole entire cast of Finding Nemo and even a sea turtle. Everywhere you look there are fish. Also, on top of the boat they were serving fresh fruit the whole time!

We had lunch at Semabu Hills Hotel and Villa. This was a nice place on top of a mountain. They had a fresh water pool which was perfect for washing off the salt water. Plus, it had amazing views (Note the Volcano in the background). By mid-afternoon the clouds covered the top of the volcano. There was any rain today though, and it was the nicest day by far!

Nusa Penida Island

We finally made it!!! One of the most beautiful sights in the world. Sadly, with our tour we didn’t have enough time to actually climb down. But the views were amazing!

The ride up and down was it’s own experience… Very shitty roads, with a lot of cliffs and turns. These turns have a lot of blind spots as well. The drivers are supposed to honk to warn people. That didn’t seem to matter though since the locals just do whatever they want anyways. My husband said the drive up the mountain was worse then the 6-7 foot rollers we experienced on the boat. We finished up with one last boat ride, to spot that was easy to snorkel at. The whole 8 hour tour costs us $95 USD. This included all the snorkeling and the island tour. The guide also took pictures and videos. Which he didn’t charge us for!

Day 5-Seminyak to Jimbaran

We had a 5AM wakeup, and were picked up a 530 AM by Bali fishing Boats on Sweet Stanly. We went with this boat, because they seemed to have the best reviews. Don’t expect the guides to talk much though. I don’t think this was them being rude, it seemed as if it was their cultural norm not to talk much. It was an hour boat ride out to our first spot. Here, we jigged and bottom fished. This is also where I caught my first fish of the day. On the way to the next spot we had a few dolphin friends join us. I had never seen them swim up to that boat like that, so it really was amazing to see.

The second place we fished at had substantially rougher waters. Where we were was so much fun and a big success fishing wise. My husband said that is was the best fight he has ever had fishing. It was a lot of work to cast, jig, and bring the fish in to the boat. These fish fight like crazy. I cheated and just reeled it in. If it isn’t in a rod holder, the fish could bite the line and rip the rod right out of your hands.

You can snorkel down and spear fish, but the owners of the charter don’t do that kind of fishing. Afterwards, the guide used a stone to sharpen his knife, and cut up the fish for us. With the smaller fish they removed the scales, cut the tail, and grilled it for us. One of the fish was even put into a soup.

That night we swam and watched the sunset go down at our villa La Joya Biu Biu. This was a nice place, but we basically just used it to sleep since we had to get up early in the morning. While it was nice, I didn’t love it. While the idea was cool, it still felt like a hotel to me. We had dinner at the villa that night. This restaurant was a lot more expensive than eating out at most places though.

Dat 6-Jimbaran/South Kuta to the Gilly Islands (Gili Trawangan)

We needed to be at the Blue Water Express by 730 AM, so we left our villa at 615AM. It takes about 30 minutes to go roughly 5 miles here. It was about a 3 hour boat ride, including the 4 stops picking up and dropping off other travelers. There was a bit of rough water, and one girl next to us got sea sick. The blue water express, went to the majority of places around Bali. Try and stick to these charters. It is worth the extra $20ish USD that you spend. They have air conditioning, a seating deck, mints, and hot towels. We made it without problems though. In Gili Trawangan cars and motor bikes are not allowed. You can only travel by horse or bike.

Where we are staying is just north of the main area on Sunset Beach. This area is a lot quieter. It takes about 30 minutes to bike around the island. Be aware that the roads have no drains, so they fill up with water. The roads are also not paved. This area had a very unique feeling. A lot of the locals appeared to be big fans of magic mushrooms! We got some lunch and my husband tried surfing. The waves weren’t the best, but he was able to rent a surfboard for approximately $7 USD. By this time the sun and constant traveling had caught up with us. It does not take long to get burnt here. So make sure you are taking proper precautions. The South side of the Island is where the port is, and the majority of the traffic as well. We wanted somewhere quieter though.

Day 7-Gili Trawangan to Lombok

We had our morning breakfast at Hippie Place. There is hundreds of restaurants along the beach, all around the island. I ordered a banana pancake were the banana was cooked inside. The boat we took was public transportation, and not as nice as the big boat we took yesterday. When we got off, random guys started grabbing our bags to take off the boat. They did this and began asking for a $50,000 IDR tip. This was a lot for a tip, and Justin basically told them to fuck off. Beware that people are going to start grabbing your bags, and “being helpful”. But they expect money in return for helping you.

Our AirBNB was one hour south of the port. The rental cost us slightly over $100 USD a night. The owners honeymoon villa is very big, and the majority of it had AC inside. The manager who let us in provided us with a bike for $50 IDR a day. This was a third of the price of what we paid in Ubud. For lunch we made our way over to Warung Sate Rembiga Utama. This was very good, very cheap, and very spicy. Overall, we preferred staying in AirBNB’s over the hotels. It seemed as if the hotels in Seminyak were aimed at partying.

Driving in Lombok is a lot crazier compared to other parts of Bali. We were able to visit our first black sand beach. The sand was very cool and had a much different feel to it. While at the beach, two local women wanted to take my picture. I’m not sure if they liked me or were making fun of me. All the women wear a head wrap here, but not in other parts of Bali.

I don’t believe the women are able to uncover themselves like we do. My husband said that some boys looked at me as well, so I am assuming I stick out in this area. Everyone was very nice though. At first, I thought they were asking if I would take their picture. In Thailand I had a similar experience where someone wanted to take a photo with me. I believe that it is cultural, especially since Lombok doesn’t get as much tourism as other areas. Later, I did notice a few men taking a photo of me while out to eat. I did not appreciate that, and felt extremely creeped out.

Eventually, we made our way out to dinner. Something crawled up our asses and we bought touristy things on the way. We spent 1 million IDR (so about $70 USD). For dinner we ate at The Office. The restaurant was located in the art market area. The Office is a cute place right on the beach. Which was very quiet. I enjoyed negotiating prices with the locals. My husband Justin is not very good at it. “Just give them this amount”, he would constantly say. I on the other hand I just wanted to rob them. Our food was very good, very fresh, and at a good price.

Day 8-Lombok

In the morning we encountered a different and new experience. You know how when you stay at a hotel, it might include a complimentary breakfast? Well this Airbnb included a free breakfast as well, except they come into your house and cook it for you! It was a very strange experience, but nice at the same time! The hosts did go above and beyond, it was just kind of awkward for us.

After breakfast we drove down to Kuta beach where we thought it would be very busy and fun. Sadly, it was completely empty. We didn’t stay long cause there wasn’t much to do, and I didn’t feel the best. This was a very pretty area with unique sand. The atmosphere was underwhelming in my opinion. There also wasn’t really any bars or restaurants around either. From what we have read, this was supposed to be a really cool beach. But, we ended up getting bored rather quickly.

At night we had dinner at Nuf’said Waroeng. This was a local seafood place right on the beach. Beer is more expensive than fuel is here. You can drive all day on $20,000 IDR, where a single beer costs roughly $30-45,000 IDR.

Day 9-Lombok

We woke up around 7, and got ready for our two hour bike ride. We had to stop a few times to give our legs a rest. The stops were very pretty though! For breakfast we stopped at a “gas station”. As you can see from the photo, gas comes in glass bottles here. While driving we passed a lot of school kids. They would smile and yell at us when they saw us driving by.

After a lot of driving, we finally arrived at Piu Kelete for our hike. We read online that they will pressure people into buying a tour guide. Piu Kelete was not challenging at all. We believe they just wanted to make some extra money out of it. The majority of the hike is actually paved. At one point there was a stray dog that followed along with us. The waterfalls were very beautiful. At Piu Kelete you weren’t allowed to swim. This was alright though, since it was refreshing but very cold.

We grabbed lunch at Angin Rinjani Cottages and Restaurant. It was very cheap. I believe the family actually lives there, and cooks everything right in their own kitchen. It was a really cool experience and we were the only 2 there. They were very friendly, and it felt extremely authentic. We made some pit stops along the way, including stopping for gas at a local pump. Watching that was really cool to watch. We found a local pearl shop along the way. After shopping, I had a beer on their deck area. We ate dinner on the side of the road at Sate Bulayak. This was somewhere that a lot of the locals frequent.

Day 10-Lombok

For breakfast in the morning, the villa manager actually cooked for us again. To us, this seemed to be a lot more common than we thought. Sadly we had to make our way back to the airport. For the boat ride back to Bali, we used scoot fast cruise. This was about $40 USD for both of us. Trust us, going the cheap route wasn’t worth the money we saved.

The driver picked us up later then what he originally told us, and the boat was also late! All the stops along the way seemed much longer then they needed to be. Scoot Fast Cruise also didn’t have any AC. So it wasn’t very enjoyable. It sucked and there was no safety precautions. The best comparison I can give is that Blue Waters= Delta, Scott Cruise= Spirit Airlines. And it only saved us like 10-15 dollars a person. The boat was jam packed. We had to play Tetris to make the bag fits. Blue Water Express leaves promptly on time, where as this one seemed lackadaisical.

They did provide us with a driver who took us to Jimbaran Beach, and that was included in the boat price. The majority of things come with a driver in Bali. It will actually state if it doesn’t. This is where all the overpriced seafood restaurants are located. We didn’t want seafood, so we ended up ordering two burgers. We were surprised to see that they put a 21% tax and service charge on the bill. Literally all the restaurants here have the EXACT same food.

At this point we were just trying to kill time, so we didn’t have to sit in the airport. Unfortunately, the beach was just full of garbage! Supposedly this place was so beautiful and had such good food about 10 years ago. This was before all the tourism hit. It reminded me of Seminyak (touristy and overpriced). Our plan was to kill as much time as possible before heading to the airport. But we left early to head to the airport.

The over tourism in Bali was actually the main reason that we traveled to Lombok. A lot of reviews that I found online said that Lombok is what Bali used to be 10 years ago. You can tell that a lot of hotels were built, assuming that more tourism would spill over. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, so you will notice a lot of abandoned hotels. This place appeared more untouched, but still has the beauty that Bali has. Lombok seems to be an area where more backpackers appear to go.

Bali Tips

• Make sure you always have the option to rent a bike. A lot of the time this is listed in the AirBNB rental. There really isn’t the option to rent cars. Be aware that there is the chance that you could get pulled over. From what we heard, you are supposed to pay the cops off. The locals told us to pay them roughly $50-$60 USD’s.
• Stay away from the tourist traps.
• Look at the map, I would go back to Bali and see more of Ubud. Especially the area North of Ubud.
• Spend more time on the ocean.
• Spend less time in Seminyak to Jambaree, seemed like a dirty Cancun in my eyes. Huge party area. Seminyak and down is very mainstream.
• Check out Ulwatu. There is some cool areas down there.
• Lombok and the Gilly Islands seemed a lot more of an area for free spirits.
• Wouldn’t go back to the Gilly Islands, free spirited area and there really wasnt any exploring. Perfect if you want to lay on the beach a possibly do some drugs.
• Once you leave the main areas, you rarely can use cards. Have cash.
• Tips are often included in the bill. The more modern looking places the tips are already included.
• Fee’s for using your card every time. It’s best to use the ATM if you do need more cash. If you bank with Wells Fargo, you can exchange money for free before hand.
• Pack some Tum’s.
• Bing Tang Beer makes you shit your pants. It’s one of there only local beers.
• You do have to pay to use the bathroom when you are out in public.
• Coffee wasn’t very good, except in Ubud.
• They don’t have Iphones in this area. We did have cell phone service the majority of the trip, except in when we were way north of Ubud. We didn’t buy a new Sim card either.
• When you book your accommodations, make sure they have a taxi service. This was the same with different tours a guides. Places would always be willing to come and grab you. It was never hard to get around. They have an app called Jek that is similar to Uber and Uber Eats. Driving in the cities is kind of hectic a lot of the time. There really isn’t any stop signs or things like that.
• GPS is a lifesaver for getting around.