Bali

We know, we know.

Bali is super far. But you need to trust us on this one – it's an amazing place. We wouldn't have chosen it for such an important date otherwise.

Trust us when we tell you that, in Bali, weather is great, scenery is stunning, people are nice, monkeys are crazy, flowers are fresh, food is delicious, water is pristine and cities are fun.

We don't only want you to enjoy our wedding – which will obviously be a blast – but we also want you to fall in love with the island. If you decide to stay a few extra days in there, we'll make sure you can discover the place the same way we did. To get ready for that, we’ve put together a small guide about Bali.

Basic information

How to get there

Assuming most of you will travel from Spain or western European countries, it may take around 16 hours to get to Bali. Generally there are no direct flights and you will need to stop somewhere in the way. The best companies you can use are Qatar Airways (stopping in Doha) and Turkish Airlines (stopping in Istanbul). Traveling with these companies is generally quite comfortable, even for long-haul flights.

Prices depend on luck, dates and how in advance you get the tickets, but the usual range would be 650-800€ return. If you get lucky you can get it cheaper, but if you wait too much you can end up paying more. There are some ways of getting cheaper flights:

• Be flexible with the dates
• Book between 2 and 8 months in advance
• Don’t pay extra for your seat nor your luggage – in companies like Qatar or Turkish it will be included
• Use a reliable price tracker like Google Flights, it seems to give the most accurate price comparisons
• Also in Google Flights, you can set up email alerts and get notified every time the price drops or goes up. If you do it as soon as possible you’ll for sure get nice deals

If you are not familiar with all these things, let us know and we’ll happily help you!

About your trip

You are the ones deciding how much you want to stay but, given the distance, price of the flights and amount of things to see and do, we recommend you to stay between 10 and 14 days. This should give you enough time to enjoy the island and maybe make a small trip to some other islands like Komodo or Borneo. If you can’t stay that long it’s a bummer but you can still see a few things if you only focus on Bali. And of course, if you can stay longer than 2 weeks, lucky you! You may even be able to visit a neighbouring country.

What to see

If you stay 1 week:

• Ubud:
• Monkey Forest: right in the city, this park is conquered by monkeys. Make sure you have your belongings secure, otherwise the monkeys may take them!
• Tegalalang Rice Terrace: the name is self-explanatory. You can walk around the terraces or have lunch in one of the many restaurants in the area.
• Campuhan Ridge Walk: a very easy hike only 5 minutes away from Ubud center


Rice fields in Ubud

• Tirta Empul Temple: if you could only visit one temple in Bali, it would probably be this one. If you feel like it, you can take part in the ceremony and dip in their sacred fountain. Water there is considered holy by Balinese people, so it’s definitely an unique experience


Ceremony in Tirta Empul Temple

• Canggu:
• City center: great for shopping, partying and dining out. Canggu’s beach is not the nicest but has a special vibe. This is also where you will probably see more foreigners
• Tanah Lot: just a quick ride away from Canggu you can find this tiny shrine. Its location –perched on top of an outcrop amidst constantly crashing waves– makes it a quite unique place


Canggu beach

• Uluwatu:
• Uluwatu Temple: here’s where you can see the famous Balinese fire dance at sunset
• Beaches: hard to choose only one, but Uluwatu is definitely the place to be if you are a beach person. Some nice ones are Dreamland beach, Bingin beach or Green Bowl beach


Uluwatu Temple

• Mount Batur: this is for those who like hiking volcanos and don’t mind waking up early. Mt Batur is not too far from Ubud and it’s usual to climb it up just on time to see the sunrise from the summit. Apart from that and if it’s not too cloudy you can even see the neighboring island of Lombok. The trek takes 2-3 hours to get up and 1.5-2 to descend and has a moderate difficulty


Hike over Mt Batur

• Nusa Penida: you only need a short boat ride to get there but it’s definitely worth it. If weather is good, you can do a one-day trip and end up swimming with manta rays and all sorts of tropical fish


Nusa Penida

Bali is not the only place you can visit in Indonesia – it's only one of over 17,000 islands the country has! If you stay between 1 and 2 weeks, you could try to do one or two trips outside of Bali. Depending on your interests, some classic options are:

• Gili Islands: the beach in the Gili Islands is pristine and the conditions are perfect for snorkeling – many sea turtles live there, so you can swim with them every day! There are 3 islands: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno y Gili Air. If you decide to visit the archipelago, you may want to stay in Gili T as it’s better connected to Bali.

 3h by boat

~30€ both ways

 1-2 nights is enough



Aereal view of Gili Trawangan

• Komodo National Park (Flores Island): Flores Island will be your base if you want to visit Komodo National Park. It has one of the biggest and better maintained marine protected areas in the entire world. Once there there are many tours that will let you do snorkeling, scuba diving or even a short trek to see Komodo dragons. Additionally, you can do a 2-day trip to the traditional village of Wae Rebo which, trust us, is worth it.

 1h15m to Labuan Bajo

~100€ both ways

 2-3 nights minimum



View of the pink, golden and black beachles in Padar Island

• Borobudur (Java Island): if you are into monuments, Borobudur’s temple is probably the most iconic one in the whole Indonesia (which is a lot to say!).

 1h25m to Yogyakarta

~80€ both ways

 1-2 nights is enough



Borobudur

• Borneo: this option is for those who really want to experience an adventure and want to see wildlife. This is one of the only places in the world where you can see orangutans in their natural habitat. Borneo is a massive island but most of it is pure jungle so you may want to focus only on one of its national parks. Getting there from Bali is doable but you may need to make a stopover at a bigger airport, like Surabaya or Jakarta.

 2h40 (without stopover time)

~180€ both ways

 3 nights minimum



Boat hotel in Tanjung Puting National Park

For stays longer than 2 weeks the list of places to visit is endless. If you have lots of time and feel like an adventure you can take a look at West Papua, where Raja Ampat is, Sulawesi, Lombok, Rote Island… Every island in Indonesia feels like a country itself, with its own traditions, way of living, language and religion.

Where to stay

At least for the dates around the wedding, we recommend you to stay somewhere in the Bukit peninsula and, if possible, close to the wedding venue. This part of the island is not well connected to the rest, so although coming from other cities like Ubud or Canggu is doable, it can take a while.

As the dates get closer, we will share some good accommodation options with you.

Balinese gastronomy

You can find pretty much any kind of food in Bali but do us a favor and try some local gastronomy. Food is not too spicy and dishes are typically basic. Some things you could try are:

• Nasi Goreng: fried rice with some meat and veggies
• Nasi Campur: mix platter with a few Balinese traditional dishes
• Sate Lilit: chicken minced meat in a lemongrass skewer
• Bakso: meatballs, can be served as a side dish or in a soup

Transportation inside Bali

One of the downsides of Bali is that most of the island is not really connected by public transport. Except for Ubud center, most of the cities are not very walkable.

This is generally not an issue because taxis are quite cheap and easy to order. However, traffic can be quite busy and if you don’t mind riding bikes you should definitely use moto taxis. They can take you pretty much anywhere (can skip traffic, take shortcuts, go through narrower streets…) and will always have a helmet ready for you. In any case, for rides that take more than 30 min a normal cab would be more comfortable.

The most used transportation app is Gojek, which works great everywhere in the island. Make sure you download it before leaving your country or as soon as you arrive in Bali. Another less used app but that you should consider downloading is Grab.

General tips

Bali is a great place for all the reasons we’ve mentioned above, but you need to take into account that Indonesia is still a developing country. We’ve put together some tips that may help your trip be seamless:

• Before traveling, get a travel insurance: as in any other place you can get sick or miss a flight, and a decent coverage will make your life easier
• Get the recommended shots: it takes a short visit to the hospital but when traveling to tropical countries like Indonesia it’s good to be extra safe
• Avoid playing with wild animals: monkeys are cute but keep your distance, they can bite 🙊
• Drink only bottled water: even when locals drink tap water, your stomach may not be ready for it. Stick to bottled water and try to avoid ice on your drinks. You can also buy some charcoal tablets before the trip, to prevent unexpected visits to the toilet
• Buy your mosquito repellent once you are there: we’ve proved that local brands work like a charm
• Bring less baggage: there are many laundry shops in the island, and they work great and prices are quite low. So keep all that extra space for all the shopping you’re going to do in Bali