LancasterLad

There's 2 Travelodge at LGW. Gatwick Central Travelodge is v.close to North Terminal, newish, and comfortable. Bag an online deal and you've got a bargain. TBH, just for a few hours rest it's not worth shelling out too much.

crellston

Totally agree it's not worth shelling out for a lot for a few hours and Travelodge fit the bill in that respect. A very long time since I used the Gatwick TLC and IT must have been the old one. It was in dire need of a make over then! £44 is a bargain for GW.

LancasterLad

I think I'll leave commentator Samur until towards the end.

We moved on to Ubud on Thursday morning. Had the option of a taxi @ c250,000 rupiah door-to-door, or a 5 minute walk to the Perama Tours office and get their shuttle bus @ 50,000 rupiah per person. We chose the latter, and caught the 1030 bus. The bus was a comfortable a/c 25 seater. It was full, and after Ubud it carried on to Padangbai for folk catching a ferry to Lombok.

A pleasant ride inland took just short of an hour. The bus entered Ubud from the south, and passed our hotel shortly before we got off. The usual greeting awaited at the bus stop, with touts offering hotel rooms or a taxi. Our decision was easy, a 5 minute easy walk.

Time for breakfast, see ya later.

LancasterLad

Oops! Please excuse the first line of my last posting.

LancasterLad

We arrived at the Agung Raka Resort & Villas just be for 1200. I didn't know what awaited, I'd only paid £157 for 7 nights B&B (Booking.com), and as the main lobby is only just off the main it doesn't look anything special.

We quickly checked-in. Our room wasn't ready yet, and we were told to follow the 'Boy', who'd organise a welcome drink in the restaurant.

The 'Boy' ushered us through the lobby, and on to a golf buggy.

From that moment we've been gob-smacked. This place is as close to Paradise as I'm ever likely to get. The description on Booking.com is pretty good, but the reality blows you away. I'm not the type of bod so gets carried away by hotels, but the location, size, how it blends in with the surrounding countryside, is really special.

LancasterLad

Time to leave Ubud already. The week has flown by, and I haven't posted a thing about our stay [yet].

Getting the 1030 Perama bus shuttle to the airport, @ 60,000 rupiah a ticket. Takes about 90 minutes depending on the traffic.

Our hotel in Tuban is walkable [I think] from the airport. Stay there until Sunday morning, when we have an 0800 Air Asia flight to Yogyakarta.

LancasterLad

Vacated our hotel at 0445 today, and walked to the airport.
By 0515 we were checked-in, paid our Departure Tax (75,000 rupiah each), and into the Departure Lounge. Very impressed.

rhkkmk

So what did you do during your stay in each place... All you have told us about is how you took the bus or walked from your hotels?? What's up with that...?

LancasterLad

I can't be bothered to go into any detail at the moment,as tapping away on my tablet is a pain in the butt.

So I'll scribble in more detail when we we get home after 24 October. Won't have much time though as we've got a cruise kicking-off on 14 November.

LancasterLad

Flight to Yogyakarta was full. Very clean aircraft, and got off just ahead of time, hitting the tarmac at Yogyakarta 15 minutes early.

Cleared the airport quickly, and a fixed-price only cost 55,000 rupiah for the 15 minute ride.

LancasterLad

Fixed-priced taxi!

LancasterLad

Two types of taxi at Yogyakarta airport. Either the ones that'll tout you as soon as you've collected your bags, or a few yards past them on the right is the Fixed-Price counter.

LancasterLad

Well. The week in Yogyakarta has flown past.

I think it's a bit of a marmite sort of place. But I'll expand on that idc.

0835 Air Asia flght back to Bali for our final 4 nights.

LancasterLad

Final day's arrived.

Fly out tonight at 2150, with a 2 hour break in Jakarta.

Just checked in online, and got good seats.

Bit of a rip-off with Departure Tax. Got to pay 75K rupiah each for the domestic flight, and then 200K each for the flight to London.

I'll probably get started on a trip report on Sunday.

LancasterLad

I've been sleeping on how to continue with my trip report.

Unfortunately, I've concluded that as some of my efforts on this forum attract too much hostility.

The forum moderators have already deleted 10 offensive or negative comments from this thread alone, and I don't want to waste my time posting a detailed report, only to risk the thread quickly going downhill.

If anyone is interested, I've posted plenty on the TA Bali forum, including hotel reviews, using the same User Name.