Choosing a Holiday in Bali

Before leaving for your holiday in Bali, you must decide the type of holiday you want. If you just want to relax by the beach and get away from it all, just book yourself into a beach hotel and spent all your time there. There are several popular beach areas, all in southern Bali, around the Airport. Kuta is the most popular and thus crowded and has plenty of nightlife. Nearby, Jimbaran is less crowded and famous for sea-food restaurants. Sanur is less popular and is less hectic. Nusa Dua is more exclusive with plenty of luxurious hotels and hence the most expensive area. Then there are those who go for mainly sight seeing in Bali or for the art scene and culture and I suppose the majority of the tourists are somewhere in-between, combining both sand and sight seeing.

For doing this, there are 3 main choices. 1. Take an all-inclusive package tour where everything is arranged for you but you have no choice in what to see. 2. Hire a car and self-drive around Bali where you are in complete control but may have to endure some chaotic traffic. 3. Lastly, get a car with a local driver where you can decide where you want to go and without all the stress of driving in a strange land. But you'll need to do some planning for the last two options to minimise the driving time and maximise the numbers of sights to take in.

For my holiday, I opted for the last choice. (Actually my daughter decided for me since this trip was arranged by her, I just tagged along and enjoyed the free ride!) She has booked rooms in the Puri Sindhu Mertha Suite in Sanur that comes with a free use of a car and driver for a day for each room booked and you can pay for any extra days to extend this service. Also, this is only for day use and night use is extra. I cannot remember the price but it is best to check on their website here and I believe there are many hotels that have this kind of arrangement. (This hotel is differenct from the Puri Sindhu Mertha Guesthouse further down the road that has more rooms and less exclusive, same management though.)

This is a smallish boutique hotel in a quiet part of Sanur (near a scuba driving centre) with only 9 rooms and a family suite and all are facing a swimming pool right in the middle. No crowd and great for relaxing.




The included breakfast is very simple and basic but location is good for exploring the major tourist sights in Bali. The NPV provided was fairly new and thus very comfortable and good for sleeping in between sights!


OK enough about the hotel, so back to my travel story. The driver was waiting for us at the airport when we arrived and we went straight to Jimbaran for dinner before checking into the hotel. Since we did not specify any restaurant, the driver took us to Aroma Cafe, so probably not the cheapest in Jimbaran Bay. Nevertheless, the food was fresh and good but we could not sit out on the beach as it was drizzling and the wind was very strong. Liked the orange juice (the green skin type) since it has a tinge of lemongrass. After dinner we headed for the hotel and rested for tomorrow's full day outing.

Ronald Kwok