Retreat holiday in Bali, Indonesia

Retreat holiday in Bali is an absolute must do on your holiday list. My first visit on this beautiful island was back in 2010, returned in between and today with my partner for a relaxing holiday. This island has so much to offer, a lot to explore and to see, like serene nature, diverse landscape, beaches, mountains, culinary and cultural experiences and above all friendly Balinese people. For those, who like a vibrant life with music & (beach) party scenes with busy traffic, stay at Seminyak, Canggu, Kuta or Gili Trawagan.

The major income of this island is tourism and infrastructure to move yourself from A to B is by taxi or private drivers. Some also call themselves as tour guides or tour organisers and often speak basic English. To my knowledge, there is not much public transport. I heard, there is a red coloured public bus with a service route driving in the south area and may also go to Ubud but not further more. Nevertheless, Bali offers a wide range of activities that will fit to everyone’s interest. You can rent scooters or e-bikes to explore the area where you are staying in.

I will share some practical tips if you have plans to go to Bali. Normally, I stay at least 2 weeks up to a month and still have not seen everything yet. I like exploring on a slow pace and absorb the tranquillity and beauty that this island has to offer.

Climate

• Dry season is from April to mid-November. It can feel very hot with the combination of sun and humidity, but you will enjoy more of rainbow colours on the underwater activities like diving and snorkelling.
• Rainy season is from December until March. Rain can be for a few hours or a half day long. Bring your flip flops in case you like to be outdoor wandering in flooded streets. Get cheap ponchos at the convenient store for IDR20-25K or bring your hotel umbrella. Climate is very humid and often its cloudy sky. Bear in mind, you can still get heavy sun burns under a grey sky.

How to get around

• Hire a private driver for travelling from A to B or for a full day to see more in a specific area. Do not only underestimate the distances; road quality, landscape and traffic can have a big impact on your trip too and the time that you spend on each site. A day trip (8-10hrs) including driver and fuel cost approx. IDR 600K-700K for max 2 guests. A nice gesture is to offer your driver a meal and drinks, and tip extra if you are happy with their services. Their English are often basic. In case you like to know more about facts of the places you are going to visit, suggest you to hire an official tour guide. High likely, it will cost you more but for sure it would give you a memorable tour with knowledge and professional experience.
• You can also rent a scooter for approx. IDR 80K per day but bear in mind of rocky roads, pot holes or crazy traffic especially in a town. Ensure you arrange an international driver’s license and legitimate to be used in Bali. In bad luck, you can be hold off and get a ‘fine’ by the local police or urged to buy a Bali drivers license from them.
• Download taxi service app e.g. Gojek or Grab. I don’t like using Grab as this app inquires a lot of privacy details. Uber does not exist here.
• At Nusa Dua Benoa and the west coast around Seminyak, Kuta, Canggu, Legian – there are plenty of Bluebird taxis available that runs by the meter. Others, you will need to negotiate for a fixed price.

How do I find a private driver

Most local drivers use Facebook as their business advertisement channel and can be contacted via FB messenger or WhatsApp. Before my trip, I signed up for FB group “Bali Travel Forum”. In this private group, you can find travel tips from other fellow travellers, queries about travel itineraries or local advertisement on day tours or just post your inquiry related to your travel to Bali. During our trip in Bali, we had good experience with below private drivers.

• Angga Bella: friendly male driver from Bali. He had exposure working across borders in shipping and speaks good English. In our opinion, Angga is a decent tour guide as he was able to answer our queries about local daily social life things. Find him on Facebook or contact him on WhatsApp +6281239237529.
• Jhon Gus: funny male driver from Bali. Jhon speaks decent English and we had good fun with him during our drive from Nusa Dua to Ubud followed up by an unexpected daytrip in line with our itinerary. Jhon is genuine, honest and is not shy at all when you ask questions about life and tourist scenes in Bali.   
• Evi Rose: friendly female driver, originally from Java. Evi speaks basic English. She is so kind in helping me out to get lemongrass roots. They are here so more fragrant and delicious. I hope I can grow them in my home town. Find her on Facebook or contact her on WhatsApp +6287858866379.

Money exchange

At the airport, the money exchange booths offer a less beneficial rate. If you wish to exchange cash, suggest letting your driver to stop by a BMC money exchange shop just outside the airport area or just withdraw money from an official ATM of a local bank (BRI, BCA, BNI). Exchange rate depends on your ‘home’ bank. During your travel in Bali, be cautious for unauthorised money exchange booths. The bank does not always provide money exchange service (I have no idea why but it happened to me) for which you will have to go to a money exchange booth. Pay attention if their bill board display starts with “PT.”, I have been told that they are legally authorised money exchange brokers. Don’t go to places where they also sell clothes, souvenirs and tours etc.

Lovely mosquito’s

I always buy local repellent at a convenience store. The brand Deet or western stuff just don’t work and are always so expensive. I don’t mind the chemicals in the local products for a short period of usage because it’s more effective. The itchiness is unbearable, scratching continuously and getting open wounds is a no no. The product I buy is called Soffell. A small bottle cost approx. IDR12K. They sell in different fragrance and come with spray or body milk. Personally, after trying both, I like the body milk. Less sticky on your skin and nicer in smell. For after-bites, I buy Autan cream and cost approx. IDR14K. Prices differ in each store.

Pricing

All made for tourists. Don’t stress if you don’t see price displays. For local art and souvenirs, you will have to haggle to an acceptable price. Don’t pre-book your tours online. There are plenty of local suppliers with different pricing and are decent low comparing to online bookings.

Data sim card for tourists

Free WiFi is almost available everywhere in cafes or restaurants but sometimes it bring some inconvenience to ask for the password or it could be that the WiFi is not fast enough. Personally, I prefer buying a local sim to be online whenever I want without any hassle. In Bali, you can buy a tourist sim card that is only valid on sim-lock free smart phones and valid for xx days . Regular sim cards are only for residence. Registration might be required with a copy of your passport. Try to avoid unofficial sellers and buy a sim from a mobile shop. Operator Telkomsel has a good coverage in Bali as well as in remote areas. I paid via my driver’s contact for approx. IDR200K for 32GB.

Retreat areas

On arrival from a long-haul flight, I like to stay in a serene surrounding and the ability to visit local ‘tourist’ eateries in the area. When you stay at a resort for more than 3 nights, the menu gets boring at some point and it’s nice to wander around and see local places 😊

• Nusa Dua ITDC, is a luxury hotel area with lushy and clean streets. Perfect for an arrival retreat for a few nights and not hearing cars honking all the time. Borrow a bike from your hotel and bike to Benoa area where its more lively.
• Or stay at Sanur, it’s less serene than ITDC but excellent stay for a few nights along nice beaches that offers more cafes and restaurants in the area with easy access to Nusa Penida or Nusa Lembongan. It’s a great place to stay with family or finding peace with stores on walking distance.
• In Ubud area, stay in a villa or in a lushy landscape along rice terraces. These are often located outside the town centre. Choose a stay where they offer free shuttle service to Ubud centre. Check with the reception how much a pickup will cost if you miss the shuttle. Then, at least you know an approx. price for a taxi haggle to get back to your hotel. Ubud centre itself is quite busy with traffic and offers mainly touristic (hand)craft markets, retail boutiques, massage salons, cafes and restaurants which are for sure super convenient if you like to drink & eat.
• Menjangan National Park, is a lushy remote area with deer’s and monkey’s. We stayed here for 6 nights because we like diving at Menjangan island, a divine place for snorkelling and diving. Would highly recommend the beach villa’s if you are looking for a fabulous experience. Our resort, unfortunate offers only a range of paid activities and to our regret, is that we should have rent a scooter at the closest town so that we can mobilise ourselves a bit among local shops and have some variation in food choices or get local snacks and chips. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay at The Menjangan Resort but personally we think that 5 nights would have done good.

Tipping

Tipping is always appreciated but certainly not expected like the tipping standard as in the US. Some restaurants have a service charge which is divided between staff. I don’t tip for everything but do tip extra for good service e.g. IDR20K or a bit more. For drivers, I give between IDR 50 – 100K depending on the service duration. And hiring a driver for a day trip, a nice gesture is to offer them a meal & drinks.

Food journey’s

• Try out different sambal types along your local food tastings. I like sambal matah which has fresh shallots, lemongrass and chili.
• If you like snacking, try out their local chips. We really like the brand “JACKnJILL Piattos”, they have different sambal flavour chips and are yummie! There are also nice coconut ‘digestive’ bisquits.
• Ubud: had an amazing dinner experience at Hujan Locale. Enjoy your coffee breaks at BitterSweet located in a retail store or at Pison.
• Nusa Dua: visit a seafood restaurant at Jimbaran beach and enjoy a sunset dinner on the beach. Grilled seafood packages between IDR300-1000K for 2 persons including a beer. Just walk along the beach side and pick a place you like or where most people hang out. At the north point of Benoa, there is a hidden local gem, it’s a seafood place with nice view over the sea seeing airplanes taking off or landing or people enjoying watersport. This place calls Pinisi House Bali. Bear in mind, they have squat toilets (Feb-2023).

Not to miss out places

• Uluwatu temple
• Sunset grilled seafood dinner on the beach at Jimbaran. Lots of seafood places to choose from.
• Tegenungan waterfall
• Tegallalang rice terrace
• Pura Tirta Empul temple
• Mount Batur trekking
• Ulun Danu temple
• Try out the famous Luwak coffee at a plantation
• Tanah Lot temple
• Some luxury hotels offer a day pass for their (infinity) pool looking over a lushy jungle view or rice terrace. We enjoyed our swimming dip at Padma Resort Ubud a lot as the pool was comfortable heated. It’s about 1hr drive from Ubud centre. Cost IDR400K p.p. including towel and IDR 200K for food/beverage. Reservation would be recommended. The hotel has a shuttle service to Ubud center, perhaps you can check if you can hop-on for free with the day pass that you have booked with the hotel.
• If you travel from south to the northern part of the island vice versa, make a stop at Belimbing Rice Terraces. These are so much more impressive than the Tegallalang rice terrace. There is a restaurant cafe where you can sit down and absorb the serene view. No entrance fee required (Feb.2023).
• The Pupuan region has the largest rice field landscape. The car ride among those fields are amazing.
• Other places that would be nice to go but I haven’t been there yet are: infinity pool with rice terrace view at Alas Harum Bali in Ubud (agritourism park), divine Diamond Beach at Nusa Penida, Tirta Gangga in Karangasem (former royal palace with three pools available for swimming), mountain retreat spa with spectacular views at The Monkey Bar @BellaKita in Klungkung (2022 daypass price IDR75K including towel and IDR50K credit for food consumption.

Happy travels in Bali & feel free to reach out if you have questions.

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