Where to Stay in Bali
My husband and I spent an entire month in Bali. We travelled around and saw as much of the country as we could while still having a relaxing time. Read on for all the pros and cons – the 4 areas we stayed in…Where to Stay in Bali.
This post is a bit delayed as the weekend after we returned from Bali, we found out I was pregnant! I had a tough first trimester and have been a bit slack in sharing our Bali trip until now!
Our baby girl is 1 year old already!! You can read all about our Journey To Getting Pregnant here.
Before I dive in, there were definitely highs and lows to our Bali vacation, it wasn’t entirely what we were expecting or hoping for.
Mike had been to Bali pre-Covid and had a great experience. It was affordable and charming and he had been telling me all about how amazing it was since we met.
So, naturally we were both expecting it to be how he remembered it.
A lot had changed since the Covid shut down…it wasn’t as affordable as before, and there were WAY more tourists roaming every corner of this beautiful country.
(Check out our month-long trip to Sri Lanka here – I absolutely LOVED Sri Lanka! With all the history, breathtaking temples, Galle Fort and Sigiriya Rock Fortress – all were amazing!)
I will write an entire post giving you an honest review of our time In Bali with all the pros and cons.
FOR NOW, let’s focus on The 4 Areas We Stayed In and the pros and cons of these areas, hotels and of course, can’t leave out the FOOD! (I plan to do an entire food-focused post at some stage, naturally lol).
Where to Stay in Bali:
In the order we visited them, and I’d say we (unknowingly) saved the best for last!
- Uluwatu
The first place we stayed when we arrived in Bali was Uluwatu. We stayed at Blue Point Hotel, which on the whole was very pleasant.
Our only gripe was that the hotel had opened up its pool to all patrons of the bar/restaurant next door called Single Fin, and so we were basically sharing our main hotel pool with a barrage of youngsters most evenings.
This is fine if you enjoy crowds and loud music til late at night, but it wasn’t always a welcome addition to our day. And yes, this made us feel old, haha.
In all honesty, given the choice, we’d have stayed at a different (quieter) hotel in Uluwatu.
But it was perfectly positioned for Mike to run down to Blue Point Beach every morning to surf, and that’s the main reason we were in Uluwatu, so that’s a win if you love surfing.
On the down side, Uluwatu doesn’t really have beaches where you can go and lie in the sun and take a dip in the ocean, so that’s a con from my perspective and will be for anyone who doesn’t surf.
The restaurants in this area are pretty good. We enjoyed sampling the local food most nights, and our hotel restaurant was amazing, we had breakfast included and it was SO GOOD every day. You can also find plenty of Western restaurants there if that’s your thing.
You will definitely pay a premium for food on this side of Bali as this is definitely one of the hubs of the buzzing Bali social scene.
On the whole, I think Uluwatu is great for folks in their twenties and early thirties, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a more peaceful holiday vibe or a family friendly location.
The stairs down to the tiny beach at Blue Point are extremely precarious! I would HATE to have a small child with me (although we saw people who did), just FYI.
2. Nusa Dua
We found ourselves trekking over to Nusa Dua even while we were staying in Uluwatu because Mike would go over to that side of the island to surf if there were no waves in Uluwatu.
One day I went with him and loved it so much that we ended up going there quite a bit for beach time (the beaches are stunning in Nusa Dua!!) and for lunches or dinners.
The streets are lined with absolutely breathtaking gardens with massive trees, lush green grass and gorgeous Balinese statues, water features and carvings.
Nusa Dua is a definite must-see in our opinion!
We loved it so much that we decided to book into a hotel there for a week once our stay in Uluwatu was up.
We stayed at Tigili Hotel and apart from the meals being expensive at the hotel, we really enjoyed our stay.
The pool was amazing and we could walk out of our room, past the pool and bar and straight onto the long, quiet beach with really calm waters – perfect for swimming!
There was a really long walking/biking path along the beach where you could walk for miles and this is what we did most evenings – we’d go for a stroll and find somewhere along the way to have dinner, there were lots of options right on the beach, so beautiful!
Nusa Dua is very family friendly and definitely has a much quieter, more laid back vibe than Uluwatu…We were much happier staying in Nusa.
Our hotel was also really impressive, and the staff were on the ball.
3. Canggu
Known for its delicious food – and I’d agree with this!
Mostly Westernised food mind you, but really delicious none the less, plenty of healthy options!
Canggu is also known for it’s beautiful beaches – well, I’d say the beaches are nice, but personally I preferred the quieter beaches in Nusa Dua.
Canggu caters for a younger crowd with beach bars etc, so perhaps this is why it’s so renowned for its beaches.
The other (not so great) thing that has to be mentioned is that there are open sewer canals running down the side of the roads throughout Canggu, it stinks, and is pretty gross to walk beside, which you constantly have to do to get to restaurants and shops etc.
All that being said, the hotel we stayed at in Canggu was really lovely! Right on the beach with a stunning (and quiet) hotel pool and restaurant…We really loved our stay there!
The traffic in Canggu, however, we did not love so much!!
Getting around on a scooter in bumper to bumper traffic at all times of the day was a bit exhausting. Especially when it was swelteringly hot.
For us, Canggu was a bit of a love hate relationship lol.
We loved the food there and our hotel was amazing, but the rest wasn’t really our vibe.
4. Ubud
The place that Eat Pray Love was written about!
And when you go there, you can see why Elizabeth Gilbert was inspired to return to Ubud in her year long quest for spiritual enlightenment and personal growth.
Ubud is charming! It’s SO pretty, the local people there are friendly and welcoming and seem unaffected by the Covid years and the influx of tourists.
Ubud seemed to me to be a little slice of the original Bali that Mike had told me about for years.
And I LOVED IT!!
Mike didn’t go to Ubud the first time he went to Bali, so it was new for both of us, and we were both so taken by it.
You can walk around the town without bumping into a million people (unlike Uluwatu and Canngu) and around each corner is another untouched temple or statue or stunning Balinese home.
The first morning we were there, we decided to do the forest walk. It was really lovely and I’d highly recommend it. It’s a LONG walk so wear really comfortable shoes and lots of sunscreen!
The grounds of the hotel we stayed at were absolutely HUGE!
The chalets and apartments were surrounded by rice paddies and our room overlooked palm trees, one of the pools and some large rice paddy fields beyond.
It was absolutely STUNNING and felt very authentic.
On our last day in Bali we went to see Tegenungan Waterfall which was really beautiful and worth the visit – prepare to walk down a LOT of stairs to get down to the waterfall, and back up them afterwards.
I’d say we had our best two meals in Ubud…both at the same tiny little restaurant called TWIST that looked like a hole in the wall from outside but WOW! This chef could COOK. And it was really authentic Balinese food too.
We found this little place on our first night in Ubud, and went back on our last night because we loved it so much. Our second meal there was even better than the first! It was the perfect meal to end our trip on that’s for sure.
Thank you so much for reading my post on Where to Stay in Bali, I hope that if you’re planning a trip to Bali this post will be useful to you.
Check back soon for more travel posts on Bali as I recap our entire trip and share all the pros and cons as well as our favourite places to eat, the activities we enjoyed most and the specific hotels we stayed in!
Also, if you haven’t yet, check out our month long trip to Sri Lanka.
