Ubud & Bali Travel - Trip Report
- Jubin Edachery
- Sep 22, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: Sep 22, 2023
On the way to our summer family trip to India, in the summer of 2023, we stopped over at Bali for about 8 days. The weather was perfect, and the experience was a wonderful start to our summer.
Planning and Preparation
We traveled via Singapore airlines, and Bali (Denpasar airport) is a short 2.5 hour flight from Singapore.
Need to buy Visa on Arrival after landing (just need Passport with 6 month validity & outward ticket) - could buy this online as well, but we didn’t. Costed about $35 per person.
Bali is a little different from Indonesian islands in terms of language and culture of people (it’s mostly Hindu in terms of religion). Even though many people speak english, learning a few Balinese words helps; also follow dress and other protocol at the temples (dress conservatively), do not step on the sacred trays left on the floor etc.
Most touristy places / big restaurants accept credit cards, and guides accept USD - but i still ordered Forex from my bank and carried with me.
Bali is fairly cheap - but the touristy places can get expensive. The currency also can be confusing - 50,000 Indonesian Rupiah is about $3 USD.
I have Google Fi for my cell phone plan and it had good coverage most places so didn't get a local SIM.
Bali belly is common - but we used bottled water and ate at safe places, so we were good and safe. But kept some medication with us just in case.
Transportation
For airport transfer, we arranged for airport pick up and drop with the resort (there are a lot of taxi touts and scams in Denpasar - it is recommended to pre-book airport transport).
To travel locally,
Some days and short trips we used the Resort provided transportation.
For longer itineraries we hired a local driver and his car - we hired him for about 3.5 days staggered across our stay. Costed about $65 for an 8 hour day.
I rented a scooter for about 5 of the days there (our guide set up and dropped it at the resort. Costs about $15 a day). It was very useful and fun as Ubud town is about 5 km from the resort - I used it a lot for grocery or food runs, or just riding along the nearby villages.
I'd recommend knowing how to drive a scooter if you plan to rent it. International Driving Permit is needed but they don't really check. Helmet is a must though, or you are likely to be caught by the cops.
Do be careful with dogs in Ubud as they have a nasty habit of chasing scooters.
Our Itinerary and Stay
There is a lot to do in Bali, and many people split their stay between Ubud and the beach towns. The beach towns are also amazing, but since we had limited time and were traveling with a child and a toddler, we decided to keep it relaxed, and stay and travel mostly around the Ubud areas.
Stay:
Natya Resort, Ubud
We stayed at the luxury pool Villa at the Natya Resort in Ubud.
It had a private pool, outdoor shower, and our booking included breakfast, and afternoon tea at their restaurant - both of which were great and serve local cuisine.
Natya is built on in a rural valley, with farmland around, and villas overlooking the valley.
Rooms are named after Ramayana and Mahabharata characters - we lived in ‘Bima’. The resort grounds are very beautiful.
The resort staff were also incredibly friendly and helpful - they went above and beyond to take care of our needs, and enjoyed taking care of, and playing with our little one (esp when we ate).
This was our villa:
On the day of our arrival, and a couple of days in between long trips we just took the day(s) off to relax, used the spa, the pool, and scootered around the villages
The resort also arranged a BBQ and Cultural night - where the local villagers (including kids) played and performed their traditional music and dances as we ate the local bbq. It was a wonderful experience.
Found some great eats within walking distance of the resort too (like Tiny Kitchen with good and nice paddy field views).
I found that a nice meal for one at a local place like Tiny Kitchen (and this is not a cheap place, its a nice proper restaurant) would cost me ~IDR 20,000 (USD $1.25); and a very similar meal at a very touristy restaurant would cost IDR 165,000 (USD $10.5)!
The resort breakfast was always great, and we even had a floating breakfast in the pool one of the days...
Before picking a resort in Ubud (there are several amazing ones), if you have kids (or mobility issues), check if kids are allowed - few resorts do not allow kids because of safety reasons.
Ubud Town
For a full day and another half day, we explored Ubud town (15 min car ride from resort, shorter scooter ride).
There's lots to see, do, and eat in town - we shopped for local stuff (crafts, clothing, souvenirs) in large market, as well as smaller stores in the alleys.
Also explored the beautiful Saraswati temple (surrounded by a lotus pond), and the Ubud Palace.
The Monkey forest (walkable from the town) came highly recommended but we skipped it as we heard of incidents of monkeys scratching babies.
Ate at some nice places in Ubud - Milk & Madu (great food and a good hangout), Naughty Nuris (good bbq and ribs), Ibu Rai.
Ubud (and Bali in general) is a Foodie’s paradise - there are tons of great restaurants. The vegetarian food is also very good here. There are a lot of fine dining places too - but we kept our dining to local cuisine mostly.
A recommended activity is also to do an early morning hike on the Campuhan Ridge Walk, which starts from Ubud town and takes you along rice paddies. Timing didn't work out and I didn't get to do it. (And since i'm from Kerala, have done a few rice paddy treks).
There's also a few good super markets in town that sell everything.
Rice Terraces & Coffee
Tegallalang Rice Terraces
Bali is known for it's rice terraces and this was one of the must do items in our itinerary, we went to the Tegallalang Rice Terraces (at the Ceking entrance). The views were absolutely breathtaking.
We (adults) did the Bali Swing here (there are several places in Bali that have the Swing, this is one of the popular ones). They do rent out the instagram-gowns that flow in the wind for ladies. It was fun!
There are a lot of instagrammable places in this area, there are folks there who will help you with the pics and props (for a small tip).
Just walking along the terraces was a refreshing experience - it was gorgeous and it felt like we were immersed in nature, and didn't want to leave. We spent a total of about 2-3 hours here.
Coffee Plantation
Very close by is the Pulina Coffee - where you can explore coffee making with great views, and try out (and buy) the famous Luwak Coffee. You can actually get to feed the civets there too.
There are many coffee plantations across Bali that offer this experience.
My experience with Luwak (supposedly the world's most expensive coffee) is that it was great tasting coffee - but not really worth the price, the taste may have been hyped because of the process. My wife was weirded out and did't want to try it.
Not far from the terraces, we had lunch at a beautiful bamboo restaurant called Teba Sari. There was a nice fish pond and field adding to the views. Food was excellent.
On a very long day trip (starting at 5:30am), and persuaded by our guide, we decided to go against our plan to stay near Ubud and went all the way to the north beach area - Lovina - to swim with the Dolphins.
We also covered the Handara Gate, Waterfalls, and Ulun Danu Bretan temple on this trip as they all were on the way to Lovina.
Tip: When we had to leave our resort very early on trips, we could request our resort for a simple box breakfast which they provided as early as 5am in the morning, to take with us. I’m told most good resorts do this on request.
Dolphins & Snorkeling
Then we reached Lovina where we took a thin catamaran type boat into the ocean. My wife and toddler stayed back as the boat seemed too small, so it was just me and my older one. Larger boats with big motors would scare away the dolphins.
The dolphins come closer to the shore for feeding in the morning, and then later they come up top to play.
We didn’t see too many dolphins at first, so we had a snack, and did some snorkeling - which was turned out to be amazing.
A little later, and going a little deeper into the sea, we saw the wild dolphins came out to play. I hung at the side of the boat, parallel to it, with a rope and stick and was watching for dolphins underwater and guiding the captain which direction they were headed. Sometimes the captain had to speed up the boat to catch up, and I felt my body and arms drag and glide on the water at high speeds as i held on tight, adrenaline rushing - it's definitely not for everyone.
Chasing 100s of wild dolphins into the deep ocean while half underwater, getting within touching distance when they popped up on the surface - was such a surreal experience!
It was worth the long trip. We spent hours in the water. This was one of the highlights of the trip.
Handara Gate
We stopped at the Handara Gate early in the morning for the Bali-must-do photo at this Gates of Heaven. Thankfully only 2 people (You tubers from India) were ahead of us as it was very early in the morning - otherwise the line is usually huge.
This is a beautiful gate and our guide recommended this over the other Instagram popular ‘Gates of Heaven’ at Pura Lempuyang.
The Gates of Heaven at Pura Lempuyang (apart from being far from Ubud) is usually extremely crowded with long lines waiting to take a picture, and the 'water' you see in the pictures is fake - photographers use a mirror to make it look like there's water.
Ulun Danu Bretan
we stopped at the spectacular Ulun Danu Bretan temple by the lake on the way back from Lovina, took a bunch of pictures and ate here (there is a decent coffee shop here as well).
There were a lot of tourists there, but the grounds were large to accomodate the crowds, and beautiful, with the backdrop of the lake.
Banyumala Waterfall
We also stopped at a couple of waterfalls on the way back from Lovina, but couldn’t hike all of them with the toddler. I did go down to the beautiful Banyumala waterfall - the climb down was a little steep at the end but worth the views.
Tegunangan Waterfall
A beautiful waterfall we visited (on a separate day) was the Tegunangan falls:
It’s not far from Ubud, and you can go down all the way to the falls - it's an easy walk down, and go into the water for a dip.
We also ate at the Omma restaurant which is a great place to view the falls from a distance; i recommend the food as well.
Tegunangan Falls from Omma restaurant
I do not recommend taking the glass bridge tour (a separate attraction created by a chinese developer, close by to the falls, they make it seem you will see the waterfall from the bridge) - it’s a scam, and you don't get to see the waterfall there - only the view down to the river.
Mount Batur area
On another trip with our guide, we decided to drive a little to Kintamani, and Mt. Batur.
A sunrise hike on top of Mt. Batur is supposed to be amazing, but was out of the question with kids. Instead we drove towards the scenic portions of the two volcanic mountains and the lake.
We ate at a place called Grand Puncak Sari - the restaurant had a good buffet, but the main selling point was the amazing views of Mt. Batur and the lake - hundreds of seats on different levels had been set up just for the views.
And the seats were filled with hundreds of patrons. The views are absolutely worth it here.
We then went to Toya Devasya hot springs area - it was a giant water park built on top of hot springs. Unfortunately, it was so over commercialized that we could barely tell it was natural spring (though my daughter enjoyed it, and there were some good views).
It was overcrowded and a little dirty at some places. I would avoid this if you have better water parks in your home town.
Kecak Fire Dance
Kecak is a traditional Hindu dance performed across Bali usually representing acts from Ramayana, and something we wanted to do in this trip.
I’m told the most spectacular Kecak dance is during sunset at the Tanah Lot temple, right by the beach.
Our itinerary did not work out to see it in Tanah Lot, so our guide arranged for us to see it in the Batubulan temple instead (not too far from Ubud, and kind of on our way from the Safari we did that day). \
The Kecak here was quite impressive - a unique experience for us, watching culturally familiar excerpts (like 'Sita Apaharan', 'Hanuman in Lanka'), in a foreign land as part of their deep tradition, and enacted with the same reverence and passion as we would. indirectly it was a Bali history lesson too for me and felt connected to this land.
The Batubalan temple itself is small but intricate and beautiful.
Safaris for kids
We wanted to do a few things specifically for kids and on different days as part of other trips, we did the Bali Safari & Marine Park, and the Bali Bird Park.
The Bali Safari was great actually - both kids and adults enjoyed this. There is a lot to see - especially in the Safari portion where we get to lots of wild animals up close. And go early so you won’t miss the shows, esp. the Big Cat show and Elephant show.
The Bali Bird Park was neat with a lot of birds and nice grounds to walk around, but nothing spectacular. Unless you really love birds, you can skip this.
We do plan to return back soon and do all the things we missed esp the beaches. But overall it was a beautiful and memorable experience.
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