TerimaKasih means Thank You in Balinese. Thank you Bali for an unforgettable Honeymoon.
Ok guys I am writing my Honeymoon post before my wedding post since so many people are going to Bali soon that reached out and I want to give you ALL the tips! Ok bare with me, this might be a long one…
Of course we all see pictures of Bali on Pinterest and hope to go there some day, but our experience to Bali was so pure and amazing I will forever treasure that island and will be back soon. I just want to start off by saying, if your planning a trip to Bali, experience places not all Instagram worthy. There are so many amazing places / restaurants that we just came across that was so beautiful so just keep that in mind since Instagram consumes us and I tried to really take it all in! I will also be giving you tips and tricks and how we booked our trip.
TRAVEL PLANS
So I love traveling, researching places to go and hotels. I found 3 cities we wanted to visit in Bali (I wanted to go to Gili Island but it would have been a longer trip, time off work & we heard it’s still not cleaned up from the huge Earthquake they had) so we kept it local. We decided to visit Ubud (the jungle), Seminyak (the city / beach) and Uluwatu (resort beach). I have a few friends that go to Bali regularly and asked tons of questions / places to go so these spots were totally different and I am so happy we went. Also, Tip #1 travel to cities is a little more time than I thought. Maybe allow half of the day for travel between cities because traffic is literally crazy JUST like LA. We booked our trip through a travel agent since when I added everything up myself if was a little more than we wanted to spend. Let’s be real weddings are SO expensive and we didn’t want to spend a ton since we wanted to start off on a good note financially. Our travel agent we have used before – her name is Carla. She was amazing, I basically just emailed her and told her our budget, places we wanted to stay and how long we could be there for. Chris and I both took two weeks off work for our Honeymoon and I didn’t think the travel would take so long to get there LOL boy is BALI far oyyy. Definitely add 4 days in total for travel, 2 days to get there, and 1 day since time change to get back but take off a day to sleep when you get home because jet lag is literally no joke. We could take off more time but I’m glad we didn’t because 13 days was plenty of time and I was kind of getting homesick at the end, and I love love love traveling but we were so far away and it felt different being gone rather than just a week to say in Palm Springs for example. With booking with Carla she finds you the best deals, hotels within her company, and transportation. I wanted to stay at the Udaya Hotel but wasn’t in the company’s hotels but I am so happy with the hotel we booked, the other hotels I found obv. through Instagram of course! Each of our hotels had a full breakfast which is awesome to find since yes it’s cheaper in Bali but things still add up lunch, dinner, alcohol + activities. We went in the off season (which was amazing) and the rainy season. The weather app said it was going to rain everyday and I was so sad but low and behold the weather was amazing and only rains at night when you sleep we got VERY lucky! Here was our itinerary plans:
Red Eye from LAX to Hong Kong – 14 hours Nov. 27th
Hong Kong to Denpasar – 5 hours Nov. 29th
Hotel #1 Komaneka in Tanggayuda (November 29 – December 3)
Let me start by saying this Hotel was amazing – mostly because of the employees, they are like family now it is pretty amazing, just because you don’t stay at a huge resort with awesome instagram spots might be cool the people are what make your trip to0! Our room was upgraded because it was our Honeymoon and they were the sweetest. Our room was huge and we had our own pool which we loved because it was our private oasis. This hotel was so beautiful tucked away in the Jungle of Ubud, with 3 big pools and a warm pool in case there was thunderstorms. They give you afternoon tea and food which is awesome to taste their type of food and learn about their culture. Here are some pictures of the hotel + our room.
Our Room:
Hotel #2 The Indigo Hotel in Seminyak (November 3rd – December 5th)
I got so many questions about this hotel because of the cute decor! All of our hotels were so unique in their own ways, this hotel was very modern and had awesome art decor. I heard from friends we needed to experience Seminyak because I was iffy on even going there but so glad we did. Everything was walking distance compared to Ubud you have to drive to everything! Our hotel was right across the street from the beach it was actual paradise. We also got upgraded here and the room was ADORABLE, like my style to a T. Seminyak if very laid back, beach/ city wear super casual and it felt like home in that sense. This hotel has 4 large pools, full breakfast (buffet style) and was walking distance to the market, beach and tons of popular places to eat.
Our Room:
Hotel #3 The Rimba Jambaran by Ayana (December 5th – December10th)
Something funny I didn’t tell you is that when we got to Seminyak we were so blown away by the hotel we thought “should we even go to Uluwatu” but little did we know this would be our favorite place yet. We are both beach people so when we got to this resort which is three hotels in one so its VERY big but it was so awesome. The resort was The Ayana Hotel, The Villa’s and The Rimba which they have a trolly every ten minutes that runs to each. Overall there are 12 pools, bars, beach access and tons of restaurants inside. Every space was so top notch, it used to be called the Ritz Carlton but changed ownership and is still a 5 star resort. I would highly, highly recommend this hotel for couples and families because they have so many kids clubs and kid pools that made Chris and I want to be a kid again lol.
Our Room:
TRAVEL / TOUR GUIDE INFORMATION:
Travel Agent: Carla
I promised you guys awesome tour guide information and here it is! We used Carla from The Travel Address. Transportation is huge in Bali, as you need to go semi far from place to place so you want to have someone reliable, trusting and knowledgeable to tour you around and she booked us amazing travel guides that I felt so comfortable with. Email: carla@thetraveladdress.com Phone: (559) 432-8747
Tour Guide: Wira
We met Wira when he picked us up from the airport. He took us to our hotel and then we really liked him so much we booked all of our activities through him and at the end of our time in Ubud we became like family. Wira was so awesome, he was an Ubud local so he took us to all the IG worthy spots but not the super touristy ones where it would be more expensive for say the swing, the nest pictures and the wait times. We got to do everything so much cheaper with less people it was awesome! He also has an AirBnb inside his compound household with 4 different casitas its so cute if you ever want to stay with him on a budget! Tell him Chelsie & Chris gave you his contact! Whats App # +62 812-3983-667
EXTRA TIPS
Here are some tips on Bali that I will just put in bullet points..
- Get a reliable tour guide to show you around, the streets of Bali are very crowded and the driving there is insane you will need it.
- Heres a link to buy power converters not every hotel provides them and you will need for hair tools / chargers. Power Adapter Link
- Don’t do all your activities in one day in Ubud, it gets tiring because you are in the heat and humidity is no joke. Below I will have what we did each day that was so perfect!
- Better to obviously book in advance but we booked like only a month out and we spent $5k on 3 diff hotels (which we went more crazy on our ubud room to have a pool in the jungle), full breakfast at every hotel, flight tickets, travel to and from each hotel and airport.
- Money goes a lot further there but alcohol isn’t that cheap. Depends on where you go / stay but it will add up fast especially at a nice resort.
- When you go eat somewhere / or at the hotel, service charge is included in your bill. Alot of people don’t realize so they tip the servers on top of that but just something to be aware of. Everyone is sooo thankful for tips its the sweetest!
- Activities in UBUD are not that close together so just take that into account when planning what to do each day, it takes time to go to each place and there is traffic like Los Angeles.
- I suggest UBUD, Seminyak, Uluwatu and Gili Islands. (Canguu is very similar to Seminyak so it’s just preference on places you want to go to there).
- I would not drive / rent scooters in Bali. I have researched and heard so many things. I wanted to rent a scooter so badly, but after being there I am glad we didn’t. If I knew someone there or was more familiar with the area I would 100% but the streets are SO crazy I honestly don’t know how there are more accidents.
- Keep an open mind, everything is completely different there so really try to stay off phones and just experience it all, its magical.
- Bring plane accessories I will link everything we bought from amazing below that really helped for the long flight. Sleep as much as you can, I was totally fine with Bali time once we got there but coming home was a different story I am so JET LAGGED! Flight accessories: Travel Pillow, Inflatable Head Rest (get this) , Butt Pillow (this came in handy).
I will also be sharing more tips / what activities we did on my next post later this week so keep an eye out. You can always DM me for exact info if y’all need to as well for anything I didn’t cover.
xx. Chels