barry0

Hi,
We are mid 30's professionals that are about to tie the knot. I'm in charge of the honeymoon and need help. We were planning on the southern island of New Zealand and decided on something warmer. We want something tropical, but don't want to sit on a beach and read. My favorite girl has become quite the "adventurer" and loves to mix it up. Kayakin', snorkelin', whitewater raftin' ,hiking, zip-linin', swimming in waterfalls, you name it, she's up for it. I love all of the above, but my passion is surfing, so if there's surf, even better. We have a budget of $5000 and only want to spend a couple of nights in a really nice place, other than that, we can go low budget if we need to. My Bachelor party is in Costa Rica, so that's out. Some possibilities Kauai, Samoa, Bali, ect..... Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

rhkkmk

bali is fantastic and there is both rafting and surfing....plus the place is really special and the hotel situation is all over the map---from very cheap to very expensive and all in between...

some of the thai islands are very nice as well....phuket, samui and phi phi....

langkawi in northern malaysia

check some of these out and see if any pique any interest..

marmot

barry, I can't say I've ever seen kayakin' or zip-linin' in Bali but it offers everything else on your wishlist, including surfing.

cruisinred

Another vote for Bali....I think it would be ideal for what you are looking for.
Tons of activities, as already mentioned, such as trekking, biking down from the top of a volcano, surfing, snorkeling, etc. Here are some sites to give you an idea.
www.balisobek.com
http://www.balispirit.com/tours/bali...p_walking.html

Tons of great accomodation to suit any budget. For example, you could even rent a villa with private pool for around $150 per night, including breakfast (as I hope to do later this year) www.tamuseseh.com

barry0

To all that replied thank you very much! Where is the best place to fly into and any other suggestions for places near Bali since we have two weeks?

barry0

Also, can we "do" Bali on $5k and what is the food like there? While my soon to be wife is now adventurous with activities, she is picky about food, she likes to eat very healthy!

cruisinred

Is that $5K including airfare or just for your time in Bali? When are you going and for how long?
My short answer is that you can definitely do a 10-14 day trip for that amount, mixing some higher end places with other accomodation options.

There are a ton of dining options in Bali, particularly in places like Ubud.
Many high quality restaurants with some healthy options for a fraction of the price you would pay at home in US/Europe. Of course, if you wanted to eat at local places, the prices are very inexpensive (does your soon to be wife like Thai food? That is a very rough approximation of Indonesian cusisine= rice, noodles, stir fried veggies, curries)

Any hotel/villa you choose will almost certainly include in the price of the room a healthy breakfast with lots of fresh tropical fruit, etc.

Kathie

In terms of flights, where will you be flying from?

The easiest connection to Denpasar is through Singapore. So if you live somewhere serviced by Singapore Air, they have non-stops from a couple of US cities. If you fly Singapore Air, they will often give you a free stopover in Singapore with great rates on hotels there.

Another place close to Bali is Lombok. Lombok is very different culturally from Bali and much less developed. We stayed at a great place on Lombok two and a half years ago - Qunci Villas - on a lovely beach. The price for our room (including breakfast and transport to and from the airport) was US$70 a night. It's likely a bit more now.

barry0

Thanks Cruisinred! We do want to include airfare with the 5k, we are not careless with money and only want to go all out in a nice place a few nights. We do not dine out much and usually view food as fuel, nothing else. Although, I do enjoy local food on other trips and my girl loves Thai, she is more worried out getting sick from the water.
Also, thanks for the info Kathie! We really appreciate it. We are tryin' to decide between Bali and Samoa and all your info is making the decision easier!
Thanks again all!
Barry

cruisinred

Hi barry-

Where are you flying from and how long are you staying in Bali? The best price I have seen on airfare from NYC (as an example) is about $1200-1300...that would leave you about half your budget for, say, 10 days @$250 a day could be just fine.

rhkkmk

5m would be fine if you do not need all high end places to stay....

try balidiscoverytours.com for some help.....they have good rates on hotels as well....

sanur and ubud are good places to base yourselves...

cruisinred

One last budget tip for ya'-

I've spotted an amazing deal on a nice hotel in Bali, in an "off the beaten track" location on the Northwest coast of the island. The hotel offers activities like diving and kayaking and gets great reviews on tripadvisor. It has been going for $1+$32 tax on Skyauction.com, which is an amazing deal as the rack rate is around $150-200

http://www.gawananovus.com/cover.htm

http://www.skyauction.com/action/offer/1304843

barry0

We looked into Bora Bora and the Maldives, but it looked like beaches and diving were the only main things to do. We've heard they are amazing places, but we want to do something on our honeymoon that we'll not get a chance to see or do. We are going to start a family and will mostly be taking "Griswald" vacations across the US for the next decade or so. I had an aunt that was a teacher in Guam and she absolutely loved Bali and it seems off the beaten path. That's why Bali seemed like a great place to visit.

barry0

The more we look into our choices, Bali is looking very appealing. Is it better to pick a couple of places and make reservations or could we "wing it" once we get there? We love "finding" our way during our vacations and hate to be tied down to a set schedule. Looking for recommendations from anyone that has been to Bali!

rhkkmk

personally i would not want to spend one minute of vacation looking for a place....

personally i would have it all done ahead of time...no hastle..

many of us like to have a driver/guide for part of our time in bali---to take us all around the island and see both popular and less popular sites.....i have used putu who is often mentioned on this board....he charges about $40-50 for a long day of touring....he is young and you would like him....just search for his name here...

marmot

barry, I have no doubt that you and your new wife will LOVE Bali. There is enough to do in Bali to fill up 10-14 days, but if you'd like to visit another island you there are several ideas.

1. I don't think you've said where you're starting from. If it's anywhere near Newark then I'd suggest that you take Singapore airline's non-stop Newark to Singapore then connect to Denpasar. If you do the same on the return you'd have to overnight in Singapore which is nice too.

2. Let's say that your airfare eats up $US3o00 of your budget. Might be a little more, a little less. So let's say, for argument's sake that you should average about $US100 a night for accomodation.

There are hundreds of places to stay in Bali and taking recommendations can make your head spin because so many people have had positive experiences at THEIR favorite place. What I'd do is structure your trip around 3 places that you'd like to focus on then find appropriate places to stay at those destinations.

3. For a splurge, I would recommend (in order of cost -- highest to least)
The Amankila
The Four Seasons Jimbaran
The Legian in Seminyak
The Sofitel

All of these are favorites among honeymooners and would be a good place to spend a few days chilling out on the beach.

MY personal favorite is the Legian.
http://www.ghmhotels.com/hotels/hote...p;section=home
It's beautiful and full of active energetic people and you can surf from the beach.

4. Next I would go inland to the Ubud area for nature, culture and adventure.
Again, there are a zillion choices but I would recommend the following for good value and pleasant surroundings:
Ketut's Place or Alam Sari.
http://www.indo.com/hotels/ketut-place/
The management and staff at both places would take good care of you.

5. There are many other choices for the third destination. The east coast and the north coast are both fairly undeveloped and have a lot to offer. Lombok has some nice beaches.

Or if you want something completely different go to Java and climb Mt. Bromo! (You can fly from Denpasar to Surabaya) It's an unforgetable experience.

6. There's plenty of good, healthy food in Indonesia. People eat a lot of tofu, vegetable, rice. You can always get bottled water which is safe. I'd be most careful with raw vegetables and salads. It's best to go with cooked vegetables and peeled fruits.

ajith

Hi..why not start from Maldives fabulous for diving snorkling and many other water sports and then for surfing in the east of Sri lanka at Arugam bay considerd to be one of the best in the world. It will be a great experiance to travel around in this Island as well. If you need assistance...please contact

barry0

First of all thanks to all of you. Your tips and insight has made our decision a slamm dunk. We booked our airfare into Denpasar last night on Orbitz for $1200/person R/T, so budget wise($5k) we are looking good. Now need to get a game plan of where we want to be, how long in each area and so forth.. We will have 12 days and after the flight (& wedding hangover) we will want to chill on the beach (surf for me, maybe spa for her) for a day or so.
Marmot...i liked your idea of spending time at the beach, then going into central Bali, then onto Lombok or Java. We loved the idea of the beaches on Lombok and some of the nature suggestions in Java (hiking, rafting, ect...) but we do not want to be too aggressive with our itinerary.
We are looking for all of your suggestions, so please don't be shy.
Remember, we like active and fun stuff, (more nature the better); I don't think we will need to seek out culture. From what I’ve read and been told, Bali is not lacking in culture department. If fact the deciding factor for us in picking Bali, was when Marmot suggested in another thread that Bali will draw a traveler in. That's exactly what we want, schedule activities over 3 or 4 different areas, then stumble upon culture, events and interesting people.
When traveling we love meeting people, but do not like crowds. Also, we absolutely want to hire a driver, so any suggestion as to who will help us out a lot.
Thanks again!
Barry & Melissa

Mohammed

Hi

I am from Sri Lanka and some years back spent my own honeymoon in Bali. Nice but gets a bit boring too.

Arugambay offers some of the best surfing on the world and it is good season now but other than the surfin it is a dump. If you are looking at sri Lanka there are lots of other noce things to do and see including swimming in natural pools of a waterfall and a jungle river etc, classy boutique hotels which you can get very reasonably priced these days, and magical Maldives is just a 45 min flight away.

ajith

If you are travelling to Sri lanka and then on to Maldives or the other way surely I can suggest you a good itinarery with a chauffer driven vehicle. All depend on where you want to go?