cswusd

Hello fellow travellers. My wife and I are planning to use our Starwood and Hilton points for an extended stay at the Westin Nusa Dua in Bali with a two day stopover at the Conrad in Hong Kong in November. Any advice on organized day tours in Bali? We found numerous different tours via a websearch and the rafting and elephant park tours looked appealing. Has anyone been on these tours or any other memorable tour that you would recommend. In addition, does anyone have any recommendations on where/who we should purchase the day tours from near Nusa Dua? In our other travels, we always seem to get the gullible tourist prices at the hotel that are always more than what others paid for the same tour. We want to avoid the mistake this time around. Finally, any recommendations on a good spa with reasonable prices in or near the Nusa Dua area? I thank you in advance for your comments.

hobbes

www.balidiscovery.com has some rafting and other activities. Bear in mind that rafting in Bali ALWAYS entails numerouos steps up and down. I also suggest u get on the www.baliforum or www.balitravelforum. I got amazing Bali sp info from there b4 my trip. Distances in Bali are short and drivers cheap. There is a great, basic stand alone spa in the Seminyak area which I went to on my visit - Jari Menari. Is on the main road so after you browse the shops can be a welcome break. I am sure there are spas nearer Nusa Dua but do not know them - maybe someone else will post else def go to the Bali forums.

Craig

Arrange rafting through www.balidiscovery.com. Hire a driver for anything else. We used [email protected] (Putu Arnawa) - you can find many posters' experiences with him on this site.

mrwunrfl

And positive experiences they were with Putu. His website is: http://www.balifriend.net/

rhkkmk

putu is the guy...he is fantastic....he will totally customize anything you want to do....his is the standard type of touring but with a very personal appeal...he may or may not do rafting etc...he can do all the standard stuff....his maximum price is 400,000 rp for a 10-12 hour day....we found that 6-10 hour days were all we wanted to do....
he has a very comfortable suv with tons of a/c and a very pleasant appealing way about him....he is a cross between the traditional bali man and the modern bali man, although he would want you to think of him as an intelligent traditional bali man....

skip canned tours...do it on your own at your own pace...book him early...correspond with him and tell him what you want to do and he will tell you ideas that he has as well and you can blend them...

he will go at your speed and pace...his english is excellent...

do a search on my screen name and you will find my lengthy trip report from june and can read about our time with him...we were in bali from june 4-11, 2004...

the conrad is fabulous in bali by the way...take a look at it...it just opened in may...can you use some points there...??

i did some of my hotel res with bali discovery and found them great....thanks to craig...also read his report from a year ago june...

rhkkmk

also the murdochs just published a blog on their stay this month in bali and they used putu...you might want to read it...

[email protected]

its a fabulous report of a family vacation to bali this year...

John_Rambow

The blog's at http://www.themurdochs.blogspot.com/

cswusd

Thanks for all of the helpful information!!!

rhkkmk

thanks john i screwed that one up...did you like it?

stockexchanger

Hi everyone, it's me of "the murdochs" blog
YES highly recommend Putu. He is the same thing as having a tour, and if you tell him what you are interested in, will plan an itinerary and mail it to you before you go. Really the same as an organized tour but much better. We did (as you can see by our blog) the elephant safari, he made the reservations ahead of time for us but we paid for it separately.
We really don't enjoy package tours, but recognize the benefits. This was a great way to have the benefit without being with a crowd.
Also I realize you are using points so you may not be able to do this, but if you can possibly spend a couple of nights in Ubud, I would do it.
Have a great time! Any questions just write.