With our travel PT lifestyle, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to take as much time off as we want. This gives us the chance to take off 8 weeks to explore SE Asia, and that started off with Beautiful Bali. Read more about our 8 week SE Asia trip here.

Bali is literally on the other side of the World. It is a long plane flight and nearly takes a whole day to travel there. You even lose a day because of the time change. So, we decided to make the most of it and take advantage of this travel healthcare lifestyle. One of the many perks, taking as much time off between contracts as we want (and can afford)!

Our plan was to spend ~3 weeks in Bali. The first week we would be on our own, and be able to visit the surrounding islands. Followed by the next ~2 weeks with Kim & Erran and Travsessed Bali! They put together such comprehensive itineraries, we only had to check out things that are hard to do with a group of people. This included going to the less built up islands around Bali including: Nusa Lembongan, Nusa Cennida, and Nusa Penida.

Quick links…

Travel from the US

Our journey started from DFW, and we knew we were in for a long one. A 3 hour flight from DFW to San Francisco, 12 hour flight to Taipei, 6 hour flight to Denpasar, and ~30 hours later we finally made it to Bali! We left on a Tuesday and got there on a Thursday. We usually will try and find a red eye flight for the long haul portions so that we can try to “sleep” for most of it. This helped knock out a big section of the 12 hour flight to Taipei.

Apply for your visa beforehand to make things easier when you get there. Most likely you will be exhausted, so the less work the better. Here is the link for the visa on arrival website.

While we travel, we enjoy having a cold beverage or two and some food in a comfortable lounge. Hence the reason we splurge on the annual fee of our American Express Platinum card for the travel benefits. The Centurion Lounges around the US are always great, and we have found a lot of really nice Priority Pass lounges internationally. If you are in the market for a new travel card, check out our referral link for our Amex if you are interested. Of course, we get some extra points if you sign up with it, and you get your bonus points too!

Getting around once you get there…

Kim & Erran teamed up with Gede after they worked with him many years ago when they first went to Bali. Now, he has a huge business that seems to involve almost everyone in Bali!

Gede is an AMAZING human being who owns his own transportation business (and part of a tattoo shop, Mr. Ink) in Bali. He helped us out with planning and scheduling the taxis and ferry to the islands. Feel free to reach out to us for his WhatsApp if you need a taxi (or pretty much anything) while in Bali. We would love to help support Gede any way we can, and pass along his amazing hospitality to visiting tourists!

While Uber does not operate here, their version is Grab or Gojek. We used Grab multiple times, and it just as easy as Uber. So this is a very good option for transportation from the airport and around the city. But, be prepared for heavy traffic if you are heading to the popular/busy areas like Canggu. If you do not have your luggage, and you are comfortable enough on the back of a motor bike, use the option on Grab for the motor bikes. You will get wherever you are going much faster, and have a little adventure.

We did not use any public transportation, so we cannot provide any insight there. Also, I would not want to have to drive here, so would not necessarily recommend renting a car. If you get a motor bike, BE CAREFUL! There are always tourists all bandaged up from mishaps on them.

Canggu

We spent one night and most of one day in Canggu at the start of our trip and came back for a few days after Nusa Penida. It is a very busy area thriving with tourists, digital nomads, and scooters. The beaches in Canggu are a great place for sunset as it faces the West and there are many beach bars with bean bags or balconies to watch the sunset or surfers. 

Adam and I even tried out some surfing lessons! It was 300k (~$18) each for a 2 hour lesson. There are photographers on the beach taking photos with professional cameras. They will send you your photos for some rupiah in return (haggle with them to a reasonable price). Erin crushed it, as expected, and I at least got up on the board. It was really fun though, and would definitely recommend.

The beach is walking distance from most boutiques, restaurants, homestays, and hotels in the area. There is traditional Balinese food, lots of smoothie bowls, and so many Western options in the area. We recommend Milk and Madu for brunch or pizza. Secret Spot Canggu is a really nice vegan restaurant that we checked out. Our friends also said that Amo Spa was the best massage of their life! Maybe worth checking out if you’re into that.

Where we stayed

We ended up staying at two different home stays because we had one night on either end of our trip to the other islands

Lila Loka Homestay was our first spot, and we thought it was very nice. Walkable to everything in Canggu and the room was great, would definitely recommend. The price we paid was $22 for the night.

Pucuk Bali Guest House was the other spot that we stayed at. Lila Loka was probably nicer, and where we would choose to stay over this place. There was nothing wrong with it, we just liked the other better. It is also located in a good spot, walkable. It was around $20 also.

Overall, we do not care too much about where we stay. Our main criteria are wifi, AC, and a private room. We have stayed at places with shared bathrooms to save a few bucks, and do not mind that here and there.

Hotel Daun Bali Seminyak is where we stayed with Travsessed. Kim and Erran always pick nicer hotels for the group, so this one was definitely an upgrade. But, it was still only $37 for the night. It has an awesome rooftop bar, and is close to a lot of good food.

Nusa Lembongan

Sanur Harbor is about an hour and a half car ride (depending on traffic – there is usually traffic) from Canggu. We arranged a speed boat to take us to Mushroom Bay at Nusa Lembongan with our driver. He took care of buying our tickets for the correct boat and for the return boat (I told you, Gede is amazing). This was all included with the cost of the ride. 

Nusa Lembongan is a small island with winding bumpy roads and seemingly less infrastructure as Bali. The roads are thriving with motorbikes and some small work trucks with seats in the back to pick up passengers. On your ride across the island, you are likely to pass Panorama Point, a viewpoint overlooking the East side of the island and Mount Agung across water. 

There are lots of Warungs, shops, and excursions such as scuba diving and snorkeling on the main street on the west side of the island. We found some beach swings on the West side of the island, checked out Devil’s tears and watched the sunset at Cloudland Bar. 

Swara Homestay was the placed that we stayed at while here. It was nice and quiet. This place was $12 for the night (hard to beat the price). This island is pretty inexpensive overall, and much quieter than the hustle and bustle of Denpasar in Bali.

Transportation

Something to consider about this island, is that it is less popular and not as many people go here, so transportation is a little more challenging. When we hopped off the speed boat, there were plenty of drivers available. We walked a little bit past them, to see if we could find a driver just off the main area. It ended up being cheaper, which was nice. All of the “taxis” we saw were these trucks with a two bench seating area in the bed of the truck. Most of them are covered and secured. They are safe and solid for the short trips between places.

Transportation was a little easier in the towns, you just had to walk around a little bit and you could find one somewhere. But, we explored a bit, and ended up at a bar to watch sunset that was a little bit out of the way. It was much more difficult to find any transport back to the other side. We ended walking quite a ways to finally find a ride back.

When looking back, we were able to learn a lot about travel in this experience here. This was our first place that was more remote, and we were not prepared for it. But, it all ended up great and we really enjoyed out time on the island. The people were as nice as you could ask for.

Remember to get cash, most things were cash only while we were there.

Nusa Cennida

Nusa Cennida is the island that is connected to Nusa Lembongan by the famous yellow bridge. We only walked across the bridge to Nusa Cennida and went up to the Mangrove Lookout. The yellow bridge is also where you can get a water taxi to go to Nusa Penida. You just wait there until enough people come along to fill up the boat. This is where our Chacos and Osprey travel backpacks really came in handy. You have to walk out into the water to get to the taxi. 

Nusa Penida

Nusa Penida is the island with the most picturesque beaches. We had seen pictures of Diamond beach a million times while doing research for our trip. But, none of those pictures do it justice, and my jaw literally dropped when I saw it. This island is bigger than Nusa Lembongan with real cars, restaurants, and shops. There are different ways to explore the island, by going on your own on a motorbike or hiring a driver for the day. 

We opted to hire a driver for 3 separate days because we have not had much practice with a motorbike. We paid 600,000 rupiah/ day + tip. The driver we had in Nusa Lembongan gave us the WhatsApp number for our driver in Nusa Penida. Kuat was great, he would walk us out to where we needed to go and was ready to take our picture everywhere we went. He hung out with other drivers while we went to explore at each stop. Reach out if you would like his WhatsApp number, we would love for y’all to support him and his family too!

1 day to explore the northeast side of the island: Diamond Beach, Atuh Beach, Thousand Islands Viewpoint. 1 day to explore the west side of the island: Kelingking Beach, Broken Beach, and Angel’s Billabong. 1 day to go to Tembeling Beach and Forest and Crystal Bay.

Broken Beach and Angel’s Billabong are just tourist traps in our opinion. It is beautiful, but swarmed with people. We wish that we went to Manta Point to snorkel instead. Next time 🙂

For our accommodation, we stayed at a homestay on the east side of the island called Setilas Bungalows. It was a nice place that had a great little courtyard. At $15 a night, this place felt like a steal. We did rent a motorbike here to go to dinner. There was happy hour and live music at The Chill Penida, the Cactus Beach Club, and Ba Pasih Warung all nearby. 

Travsessed Bali

This trip with Kim and Erran was our second adventure trip with them. It was not in our plans because we had gone with them to Patagonia earlier in the year and had such an amazing time! Buuuuuut, the opportunity arrived and we were talking with Kim and Erran, and ultimately decided to pull the trigger. There is not one ounce of regret in that decision. This trip with them was fantastic! Bali is such an amazing place, with amazing people and amazing culture. Seriously, the nicest people ever.

We got to experience all of the amazing sights, sunsets, waterfalls, beaches, and everything. But our tour guide, Gede, taught us so much about the culture of the Balinese people, and that was so cool to learn about everything they do.

If you are interested in learning more about their awesome trips, and which ones they will be doing this year, check out their website at https://imtravsessed.com/.

From food and drink pairings, to ATVing through the forest, to snorkeling with sea turtles off our private catamaran, to cliff diving off waterfalls. Kim and Erran pack so much into these trips, and make it such a unique, off the beaten path experience for everyone. As always happens on these trips, we became fast friends with everyone, and family by the end of it.

They put so much work into their itineraries, so all of the credit definitely goes to them for what they are able to put into the trips.

Some of the area we explored with them included:

  • Canggu (beach, surf, bars)
  • Seminyak (rooftop bar, food)
  • Uluwatu (temples, beach club)
  • Ubud (monkey forest, temples)
  • Pyramids of Chi (sound/vibration bath)
  • Mt. Batur (sunrise hike, hot springs)
  • Aling Aling waterfall (waterfalls and cliff jumping)
  • Gili Trawangan (beach sunsets, snorkeling)

Bali truly is a magical place, with some of the nicest people we have encountered. It is probably the safest we have felt also, there is barely any crime there. We would highly recommend for anyone to visit Bali and the surrounding islands.

If you have any questions about what we did or where we stayed, or need any other recs, please feel free to reach out to us.

Also, check us out on Instagram and give us a follow if you are interested! @acoupleoftravelingpts

*Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, we will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

Erin & Adam