For this trip in Bali, I travelled with my mum (who organized everything, she’s amazing!) and I’ll tell you here what we did! This is our itinerary for this 15 days Roadtrip together!

First stop: Nusa Dua

About Nusa Dua, you should know that for all that I saw, it was really touristic. Hotels were all around with also big and fancy houses. You won’t see the true Balinese’s villages there if that’s what you were searching for. The beach has black sand because of the volcano on the island so don’t be surprised! And nobody is really going swimming in there, as it is mostly mud near the coast. We spent 5 days in Club Med Bali hotel relaxing by the pool. It is an excellent hotel that I highly recommend. Although, if like me you love eating local, you’ll might be disappointed as most of the food at the buffet was Japanese, Korean, Indian and Western. Each night is a theme night if you like getting dressed for the occasion. It was a good start, especially as my mum needed to relax but after 5 days there, I couldn’t wait to go on adventure!

 

Second stop: Ubud

On the way to go there, I have to say that I was kind of disappointed but mostly as it was the first time that I was really going out of the hotel, I found that Bali was not as beautiful as I thought it would be. Don’t know why I had expectations though…. But the shops were so Western oriented that I didn’t really find any Bali vibes other there. Though I thought the same about Ubud, there are still some things that you absolutely need to do:

• Monkey Forest: pay attention to your food and your shiny objects, especially cameras! As monkeys other there are used to tourists and not shy at all. At some point, I even had one on my shoulder without knowing from where he came from xD
• Traditional market: beautiful way to see Balinese food and people in the daily life
• Cooking class: you can do it in most cities of Bali, I think but the one that we did with our hotel was particularly amazing. We were brought to the market and cooked only with my mum, the cook and me and ate with a nice view over the hotel. It was a really nice immersive adventure.

And the place we were staying was called Hotel Plantaran Ubud. They are implemented almost everywhere in Bali and are really qualitative hotels (210AUD approximately the night).

Can’t recommend this place enough as we had the chance to meet some of the nicest people I’ve met on the island. Caring so much about everything and were happy to tell us everything about their culture, rituals and ceremonies. We really enjoyed with my mum eating typical food, as we don’t really like eating Western food outside of the country and rather try the specialties. Another recommendation if you are going in this hotel, you should try the spa which has a beautiful view all around.

3 minutes away from the hotel, we also found Yoga Barn. I had never heard about it before but after my Yoga Teacher Training, I definitely heard about it! We visited and it was truly a beautiful place! A place completely dedicated to yoga, with classes all the time in a beautiful setting. If we had stay longer, I would have loved to try all the classes! So if you are a yoga addict as I am, take some time to enjoy the place a few days.

Then after 3 days there, we moved to our next destination: Munduk!

 

 

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Not far from Bali, check also all my trips in Australia!

Third stop: Munduk

On the way to Munduk, we were really astonished to realize how much the Hindu part and the Muslim part were so different. The atmosphere is really different and locals I thought were not as friendly other there than in the Hindu part, but this is a real personal point of view. Although, you can really some amazing temples other there like Mengwi and Tanah Lot. Then, we left to go to Jatiluwith rice terraces, recognized by UNESCO. You will have to pay a fee to go in but it’s really worth it. There are some beautiful hike pathways. If you have the time, you can also stop at Pura luhur Batukaru temple, which is beautiful.

When we got to Munduk, we discovered our hotel Sanak Retreat Bali that I can’t recommend you enough to stay in. It’s a beautiful place, completely lost in the city. You are living in spacious eco-lodges, with a view on the surroundings rice terraces. This is such a relaxing place, the kind that I love. A really silent hotel where you can embrace the beauty of the landscape and get yourself lost in the contemplation of nature.

But what I loved the most about Munduk was the fact that there were no tourists at all! We didn’t see any! I don’t know if we were lucky or it’s because of the season (we went there at the end of February, which is not usually the best season to travel there because of the weather).

 

 

Fourth stop: Amed

On our way to Amed, we decided to make some stops:

• Bedugul: not worth it seriously, we saw on Internet that there was an amazing botanical market but nothing…
• And 3 temples: Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, Pura Ulun Danu Batur Temple (close to Batur lake) and Pura Penataran Agunh Besakih Temple: all of them were beautiful and are worth the stop

Arrived in Amed, we stayed at the Hidden Paradise Cottage, a really nice place. We had our own little lodge. What we enjoyed the most at this place was: the restaurant on the beach and the fact that only 5 metres away when you go into the sea, you could find a beautiful barrier reef.

 

 

 

Fifth stop: Dempasar

Although, we were really sad to go to the airport, meaning that it was the end of our trip. We went to see the royal baths Tirta Gangga Palace that were completely stunning.

 

 

And we did Bali Bird Park. Although, I’m really against the concept of the zoo, we really saw beautiful birds.

We were then supposed to do Pura Bukit Temple but finally didn’t have the time, which was too bad because it looked beautiful…

But we had some emergency because we realized that we booked our flight on Bali National Day (Silent Day or Nyepi, March 17^th every year) and as everything were closing the next day and everyone in the streets celebrating the Gods, we were worried to miss our flight. My mum got hers fortunately, but I didn’t have this chance because of a storm in Darwin that kept me in Bali for 2 more days.

And you have you been in Bali? What’s your stories? I really want to hear them as I want to go back there as soon as possible and do Java and all Gili’s Islands!

Read about my other travels here!