I happened upon your post because I am reading about Greece for an upcoming trip. Two years ago, we spent 3 1/2 weeks in Bali in late October/early November, and then 3 weeks in Thailand. Bali came highly recommended by our 30 y/o daughter, who has been to Indonesia five times (including Lombok, Java, and South Sumatra and island-hopping all the way to Timor Leste), most recently a couple of months ago. (She surfs.)

There were things we loved about it, and things we didn't. We stayed in Sanur, Ubud, Gili Trawangan & Gili Air (these two islands are not technically in Bali, but accessed from Bali by ferry), Lovina, then Legian.

First off - if you love heat and humidity, then you will love Bali. We are used to a cold climate with little humidity, and our own climate at home was well on its way to winter, so it took us a couple of weeks before we felt like we were acclimatizing to the heat. When we were there, the rains were late ... everyone kept saying, any day now. We had only one little sprinkle at the very end of our stay, in Legian.

We did a couple of walks while staying in Ubud - the Campuhan Ridge, and a guided walk. While we enjoyed both, the climate is really too hot for outdoor activities, unless they are in the water. It was a consistent 32 to 34C (90 to 93F) every day we were there, with the humidity usually in the 80 or 90%'s. At night, the temperature dropped a few degrees, maybe to about 26 or 28C.

As mentioned above, Bali is overrun with garbage. In the morning, the air quality was often bad, either from piles of burning garbage here, there and everywhere, or from burning off the dead vegetation in the fields. A lot of garbage gets thrown into rivers and streams (which are dry until the rainy season), and then when the rains come, it all washes out out into the ocean... and then onto the beaches. The traffic is also incredibly bad in many places and observance of traffic laws is ... scarce. We hired taxis and private drivers; the cost is very reasonable.

The hawking by the street and beach vendors is unbearable. Lovina, while beautiful, was the very worst of all. Saying "no" and walking away did not dissuade them. I should mention that we were there in the off-season and so there were not many tourists around; they must be desperate but really, how many sarongs, bobbles, Balinese calendars and paintings can one buy?

One afternoon, we were in our hotel's pool, just off the beach after having learned in the morning that a peaceful walk on the beach was not possible, but an exercise in dodging men offering boat excursions. A woman vendor with jewelry and sarongs spent over a half hour at the edge of the hotel property holding up her various wares for display, despite our, and another guest's, repeated "no, thank you". We could not sit and enjoy the view of the beach, and we all finally just had to leave the pool because she was not going to let up. I don't mean this to sound heartless; we had already bought some items from other vendors, and we were, after all, supporting the local economy already - hotel, drivers and restaurants, etc.

In Ubud, rather than merchants, you run the gauntlet of the drivers. "Taxi sir?" "Taxi sir?" They are all sitting on the sidewalk and each one asks you as you go by, even if the buddy they are sitting and talking with already asked you one second ago, and you said no.

I don't mean to focus on the negative! Got off on a bit of a rant there, LOL.

The positives were that there are lots of beautiful places, and the people were friendly. Considering the number of western tourists that some areas are over-run with, they are remarkably patient. It's also quite an inexpensive place to visit, once you are there.

Of all the places we went, we enjoyed the Gili islands the best, especially Gili Air. These are small islands with no cars; you get around by walking, bicycle, or cidomos (pony carts). Gili T. is getting very, very developed and is turning into a party spot, but if you don't stay on the main strip, it's easy enough to avoid that if you want. Gili Air was much quieter and we wished we'd gone there first and spent longer. The snorkelling was great at both.

The other place we really liked - surprisingly, because we generally don't enjoy busy cities - was Legian. Our hotel was about five minutes from the beach and we had a blast playing in the waves every day (and took a surfing lesson). The beach vendors there were much less aggressive and you could actually take a long walk on the very long beach without being hassled. The water quality seemed good and there wasn't much garbage in it but I'm told it can be very different in the rainy season.

Hope this helps ... and now I better get back to learning about Greece!