The 2 nights in HKG is the result of flyer mile seat availability. They have flights LAX>HKG on the 22nd (arriving the 23rd) and then a flight HKG>DPS on the 25th, with nothing in between. There is a flight from HKG>DPS on the 23rd, but nothing LAX>HKG for several days before that!

Not a bad excuse for a short visit to HK, in my opinion.

Your trip looks like a pretty good plan to me.

When you get around to booking the hotels you might consider one more night in Ubud. But that depends on your personal likes. The beach areas are generally much more sophisticated, more beach tourism types, while Ubud is more traditional, culture tourism types. If you want to do most day trips, they are usually more convenient to get to from Ubud, which is more central. (like staying in Westwood, say, instead of Manhattan Beach...sorry for the analogy...couldn't resist.)

It's not to shabby to be "forced" to do 2 nights in HK, it's a good halfway start to Asia. Its worth the trip just to ride the Star Ferry across the Bay! Singapore is also fun, and both cities are really not so much asian as high tech global. Bali is unique in itself.

Have fun planning. Write again if you need more help! I live in Indonesia and am quite opinionated. :)

Thanks for the feedback Kuluk. We are considering more time in Ubud. Just need to figure out what we want to see/do then figure out the hotels and such. I'm sure I'll have lots more questions!

Okay, just booked our LAX>HKG>DPS and SIN>HKG>LAX flights. We've got lots of time to work out the rest :)

LA; I think your itinerary is quite good as well except if you are going to only spend 1 day in Java I might save it for another time. I am not a big fan of HK and it seems others are. Based on 3 trips to Bali over the years I do think 7 full days is sufficient on this trip so maybe you do add the day to HK. In hindsight I would say drop HK and add it to Central Jave so you have 2 full days/3nights. because there is a very real difference between VBali and Java and to experience the difference I think is very worthwhile. Much of HK is city oriented though there are interesting sights you do not get a feeling for the people and culture, IMO.

Hi StanKase, thanks for the suggestions! For HK, we really have no flexibility due to flyer mile seat availability. There were very few flights from HKG>DPS left, so we took what we could get which resulted in 2 nts HKg. That part is set and our flight home from Singapore is set (we had to do that because there were no flyer mile flights left leaving DPS at all). We need to spend at least one nt in Singapore so that we can catch our flight home in the morning.

The eleven nights we have from arriving in Bali until needing to get to Singapore for our flights home are wide open. We can really arrange those days however we want. If anyone has any suggestions for the best way to spend those days, that would be great. For example, should we maybe consider taking the early morning flight to Java (JOG) rather than the afternoon flight, giving us basically two full days?

LA_FadeAway; When you say 11 days you probably mean 11 nights and 10 full days. With that I in mind I would still suggest if you can afford it and get in, probably if it's second week of Sept. ypou would have a chance and you made reservations 5-6 months in advance (only because as I said earlier they only have 20 units) The Chedi Club for $320 with tax/service and full brakfast for 4 nighs would be like staying at the Aman for 1/3 the price but nicer, IMO. We have avoided the ocean areas since 1999 when we enjoyed the FS-Jimbaran Bay but I would expect that is ~$500+with tax/service. You have good shuttle service from the Chedi but I would suggest a guide foor 3-4 full days. The better ones are ~$60-$65/day for 10 hours. While near Ubud there are many good inexpensive ($25 USD) complete dinners with out wine but a beer in town.
marmot is correct the flight on Garuda Air is $150 RT to jogja and takes 1 hr.&15 min.but it is 1 hour earlier in Central Java than Bali. There is a 7AM flight so you really can even spend your arrival day going to Dieng Plateau and the next day seeing the sunrise, if you are interested at borobudur or just tour it with the guide I suggested or some one else and then Premanjian Temple, Sultan Palace, etc. I made this suggestion earlier. You could then fly on to Singapore if there is a night flight and stay at the airport. You can use the fast train the next day into town or a taxi which cost $25-$28 USD. We had the money and enticed a taxi for $125 to take us for 8+ hours to the places I mentioned in my forst post that I found in my several trips to Singapore (mostly on business) as the most interesting when we were on vacation.

Hi StanKase, thanks for all the great suggestions! I looked into the night flight to Singapore. Air Asia only has a morning flight and Lion Air (safety?) has a connecting flight via Jakarta that leaves early afternoon. Looks like Garuda has some evening flights but they are four times the price of Air Asia! I'll definitely look into the Chedi too. That's a little more than we usually spend on a hotel, but may be worth a splurge for our first few days in Bali. We've got lots of Hilton points so are considering the Conrad for our beach time. We're also using Hilton points for the Conrad in Hong Kong. Saving a bundle of cash on that one!

How is the beach around the Conrad Bali? Any good swimming beaches near there?

LA -- the Conrad is in Nusa Dua -- which is really a tourist enclave -- so you'll be spending your time mostly at the resort unless you book a car/take a cab -- I'm sure someone can chime in on walking down the beach in that area -- I'm not familiar with it myself.
As to Ubud -- I just checked and the Chedi is at 391 a night in September -- there are SO many gorgeous boutique hotels around Ubud -- I would let myself drool over all of them for a bit if I were you. You can look on jetsetter.com and type in Bali -- whether they have a current deal or not, you can still see all the Ubud area hotels. Most of the ones like the Chedi are out of town -- so you'll be taking a hotel shuttle in/out of Ubud.
The 4 Seasons at Jimbaran is up to 800 - 1000 which is insane -- we have company perks or I would probably stay somewhere in Seminyak/Legion to go to restaurants, etc.
We've all talked a lot about logistics, but what do you like to do? Because that will have something to do with where you will want to stay.
I am so excited we are going back this year -- and I'll be doing the Borobudur trip so can report back on that. One thing I've done on all my SE Asian trips is hire a guide/driver -- which I would never have done closer to home but I find invaluable for that part of the world.

The Conrad is at the extreme tip of Nusa Dua in Benoa. It's a fairly new resort and is well designed and attractive with swimming lagoons, several restaurants, good spa, the usual for Bali.

The downside is that the beach is not good. It's a manmade beach and it shows. I don't know about walking from the Conrad to the main Nusa Dua beach. I'm sure it can be done, but it may not be directly connected.

Nusa Dua itself has a nice sandy swimming beach, though it's a bit shallow at low tide. Nusa Dua was designed as a tourist enclave with resort after resort along the beach and on the cliffs. It doesn't have much Bali feeling but the it's a reliable international resort environment.

Personally, I prefer Seminyak beach. The places that are right on the water have become incredibly pricy, but there are dozens of villas and less expensive boutique resorts that are a short walk from the beach. I'd recommend the Colony for a charming environoment and a good value.

In the medium-high price range and right on Seminyak beach are the Resort Seminyak and the Grand Seminyak. I haven't stayed at either, but they are well located for restaurants, shops and spas.

Seminyak is a big wave sunset beach. It's fun for swimming and body boarding but you have to like getting bounced around.

In Ubud you'll have a lot of choices with atmosphere in the medium price range. I like the Alila, Uma Ubud and Alam Sari. There are also several new small villa complexes, like the Samaya. Kayumanis is a little more expensive but lovely.

On airlines between Yogyakarta and Singapore: the budget airlines are safe enough but they operate few flights and can often be delayed. Garuda has the most frequent flights which can be important if flights are delayed or cancelled, which frequently happens.

Try to avoid transiting in Jakarta as it just adds unnecessary airport time. You could also look at flying out of Solo (Surakarta) which is about an hour from Yogya.

Wow, thanks again for all the great info everyone. This sure gives me a lot to work with. I had a feeling the Conrad was a bit out of the way and possibly not on the best beach. At least we have pleanty of time to figure all this out :)

As far as what we are looking to do, a nice mix of culture, site seeing, and downtime at the beach pretty much sums it up.

I am not sure where the $390+ figure came from. I booked my reservation last July for Sept/23-27 through Agoda.com and can assure you I paid $321 inclusive of all charges. I did check about a week afterwards and saw that on The Chedi Club website that the 1 bedroom suite were full, considering there are only 20 units and about 4-5 have plunge pool units and 2 two bedroom units so I checked dates 2 weeks later which is still high season and up popped $321 inclusive. I can understand they may adjust rates for next year by 4%-8% but not 30%. Agoda gets a small allocation but they get more than Asiarooms.com, I think, and over the years I have found often these internet sites do have rates 5%-10% below the hotels rates, but not always. All I can tell you is having stayed at both FS's in Bali,the new Kominika (this Sept. 3 nights and 4 at Chedi Club),the Viceroy (2006) as well as the Aman in Phuket,Thailand. The Chedi beats them all, even for 3 nights. Yes,it is outside Ubud but though they had a shuttle schedule as our butler told is we set the schedule. They left when we wanted them to and picked us up after dinner 2 hours after dropping us off as we requested.

I just chexked THE CHEDI CLUB for next late Sept. the rate as I thought on Agoda.com is $335 all inclusive.
La_FadeAway; It is worth taking advice from those who really have been to the hotels and are ardent travels.

Thanks for the tip on Agoda.com StanKase!

Hi guys, I'm back! Now that our Machu Picchu and Galapagos trip is over, it's time to get serious about planning this one. After looking at Java some more, I'm starting to think that we should include Mt. Bromo too if we can work it in or would that be too much??

The possible itineraries look like this:

Option A:
LAX>HKG arrive 18:45 spend 2 nights
HKG>DPS arrive 14:55 spend 8 nights (Ubud and Amed?)
DPS>SUB arrive afternoon(Garuda or Lion)private transfer to Bromo, spend 1 nt. for sunrise tour transfer back to SUB
SUB>JOG arrive 16:05(Sriwijaya Air?) or 20:02 (Eks Train) spend 2 nights, include sunrise tour at Borobudur
JOG>SIN arrive 10:45(Air Asia) spend 1 night
SIN>HKG>LAX leave SIN at 08:05

Option B:
LAX>HKG arrive 18:45 spend 2 nights
HKG>DPS arrive 14:55 spend 8 nights (Ubud and Amed?)
DPS>JOG arrive 06:10(Air Asia) or 15:55(Garuda)spend 1 nt., include sunrise tour at Borobudur
JOG>SUB arrive 16:10(Wings Air?) private transfer to Bromo, spend 1 nt. for sunrise tour transfer back to SUB
SUB>SIN arrive 19:10(Valuair?) spend 2 nights
SIN>HKG>LAX leave SIN at 08:05

Please keep in mind that the Hong Kong part cannot be changed. Due to lack of frequent flyer award seat availability, those 2 nights are required. The flight home from SIN>HKG>LAX is also not changeable. The rest is open for suggestions!

Would this be too much? Are those airlines safe? Should we skip java all together or just skip Bromo if we need to drop something?

I'll comment further, but would first like to ask:
Can you change your HKG-DPS flight to HKG-Java (still CX)? What's the date of your arrival in Indonesia?
Are you open to one or two fewer days in Bali so that you'd have more time in Java?

Hi Marmot,
There is a chance we could switch HKG-DPS to HKG-SUB, but it would be a day sooner only giving us about 15 hours in HKG including an overnight and they want over $200 in taxes/fees to change the tickets. Not totally out of the question though.

We would really prefer not to cut more time off Bali. The original idea was a "beach vacation", before I started doing my research and realized Bali is about a lot more than beaches. We still need to include some beach down time (snorkeling) and want to leave time to experience the island.

Still open to any suggestions though!

I could actually fly into Jakarta any day too, except that's hardly worth changing from DPS (and paying the fees) since we'd still have to take another flight to JOG or SUB.

I've also looked at flying back to HKG via SUB rather than SIN, which is also an option. Problem with that is that the flight leaves early in the morning requiring an overnight. If we need to spend that last night somewhere, we'd rather do it in Singapore than SUB (and again avoid the change fees).