Three weeks roaming in Bali

The Trip — Three weeks in Bali with a big group of friends.

Duration — 21 Nights

Origin — Perth

Type of Trip— Culture, Relax, Food, Surfing, Scuba Diving, Snorkelling

Group Size— 2 people

Trip Dates and Average Temperature — End of August / beginning of September. It was a little bit busy due to the Australian school holidays. I would go again in April or May. Lovely temperatures but quite humid.

Mode of Transportation — Aeroplane

Arrival Logistics — Landed at Denpasar airport, took a pre-arranged driver to our first night’s accomodation in Sanur.

Cost per Person — $1000 - $2000

General Route — One night in Sanur, boat to Nusa Lembongan, 12 nights there, boat back to Sanur, taxi to Amed, 4 nights in Amed, taxi to Ubud, 3 nights in Ubud, taxi to airport, home :(

Accommodation — We booked the first night in an AirBnb. Thereafter it was all winging it! On Lembongan we ended up in another AirBnb for 3 nights, then an unexpected move to Big Fish dive school for 7 nights. In Amed, our dive school put us up with a local guy called Hans. Legend. And finally an AirBnb in Ubud.

Main Activities — Beaches, eating, exploring on mopeds, surfing, scuba diving, accepting a Bintang every time one is offered, speaking Indonesian.

Food and Drink Highlights — Warungs! The cheaper the better the food was. Bamboo Warung on Lembongan was the best but I’m not telling you exactly where it is… You’ll have to find it yourself.

Essential Packing for this Trip — Take half the clothes you think you’ll need; I found it so cheap and easy to have laundry done that you can halve the amount you need to lug around with no worries! At the last minute I decided not to take my surfboard which was a good call; I ended up renting boards that were better suited to the conditions than mine would have been anyway!

Our Experience

Fantastic trip. We were there for three weeks and during that time a lot of our friends came and went to the same places; I think at one point there were 12 of us for dinner! It was really really easy to find accomodation, dinner, activities, tours, moped hire, etc. etc. without any forward planning, which made it ideal for a big group. You were able to stay near enough to each other to hang out, without having to spend 24 hours per day together.

Learning some of the language really transformed the trip for me. I felt like on many occasions it scored us some preferential treatment at lunch or dinner (never a bad thing!).

The waves were awesome and the diving was world class so I will definitely be going back at the beginning of the season.

Best Bits

Surfing at Shipwrecks was awesome and one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Lembongan in the first place. Scuba diving in Ahmed was also amazing and I would definitely go back to dive there. Eating in warungs was brilliant. However I think my favourite thing was speaking Bahasa Indonesia, the locals just LOVED it if you made an effort. Super rewarding.

Worst bits

The litter and general attitude towards littering are very saddening and quite shocking to see. Although I do understand that for some folks there, they have more important things to worry about.

In general I was also a little embarrassed by other tourists; some were so rude and disrespectful to the locals, which was very sad. If I was going to go back I would try and go at the quietest time of the year to avoid that.

Ratings

Rate the overall trip — 8/10

Rate the activity on your trip — 9/10

Rate the ease of logistics — 9/10

Value for money — 8/10

About The Traveller

Gender & Age Range
Male, 25 - 35

I’m from
Devon, UK

My favourite trip as of late
Skiing in the French Alps

Travelling Style
Book the first night and wing it from there!

I like to go on the following types of trips
Adventure, 4x4, Beaches, Hiking, Surfing, Culture, Scuba Diving, Camping.

It’s a dealbreaker when
There are kids or generators (or, horror… Both!) in the campsite

Continent I know the best
Australasia / Oceania