Before I went to Bali I had watched many videos about the island. The reviews were very mixed, some people loving it, some hating it. But I had agreed to go there with friends after visiting Lombok solo.
The leader of our Bali trip had been there many times before and he had very strong opinions about it. He refused to go to Ubud, Seminyak and Canggu. These places were not for him and he promised to show us parts of the island that he liked much more. He agreed slightly reluctantly to stay in Kuta just for our party to meetup.
Many of the videos on Bali of course are about these places. Hugely popular with tourists and digital nomads they are the reason for the tourist boom in the south of the island. Also many Indonesians have migrated to south Bali to work in the hotel and construction industries to support tourism there increasing the population further.
One of the main problems of south Bali is the bad traffic and driving with no rules or at least much fewer rules takes some practice. For those of us new to Bali it was not feasible to start driving on scooters in such traffic so we hired a car and the lead guy who had driven many times in Asia did all the driving.
If you have no experience of driving in South East Asia starting in Bali would be tough so better to hire a driver, or if you plan to ride scooters get some practice in before going out into the bad traffic.
As we didn’t go to Ubud, Seminyak or Canggu I can’t talk about these places. Personally I would have gone and had a look, but we had agreed not to as a group.
So our plan was to meet in a hotel in Kuta then head north west. The traffic was bad for at least 3 hours, then when we got onto one of the twisty interior roads heading north off the main Java road it eased. The road north to Ubud apparently also has bad traffic so wasn’t a better option.
We had a lunch stop in Tabernan getting some great Thai food by the road and our next stop was on the north coast of Bali. We drove west along the coast road and now the journey was getting more enjoyable.
We spent three nights on the north coast, did some snorkelling, found some good restaurants and all was good. There will be more about this in a video I’ll link below.
We had talked about going to Munduk, but one of the guys found this great looking airbnb in the hills by a remote village. It was amazing and we stayed there two nights. With its own pool and a local lady bringing us Indonesian meals. There were waterfalls to visit and we explored some very minor local roads. There were not many tourists.
Heading south we passed the volcano of Mount Batur with its crater lake. More waterfalls, then we continued south to Sanur to cross to Nusa Lembongan.
Sanur didn’t promise much, but when we arrived the locals were practicing for a festival playing Gamalan music with the women dancing. It was amazing. I liked Sanur myself, a busy port with plenty going on, though for many people they just pass through there on the way to the islands.
We had found some alternative options in Bali, really enjoyed ourselves and the trip was a great success. Good luck with your own trip.