Bali
Bali has some lovely places but you need to know where to go. Parts of Bali have huge amounts of tourism so if you are trying to get away from the beaten trek this probably isn't the best place to visit. A lot of Australian visit Bali are it is one of the closest places to Australia and certain places are just set up for tourists to drink. I would highly recommend taking a trip out of Bali to Lombok or one of the other nearby islands in Indonesia if you really want to experience the country.
For Bali I would suggest 10days to 2 weeks. If you want to go and explore the Gili Islands and do the Komodo tour you will need about 3 weeks.
Minimum spend £200 per week
This is how I spent my time in Bali, this is one of the places where I don't think I managed my time very well so I will try and explain what I did and what I would have done knowing what I know now.
Kuta | Seminyak | Ubud | Gili Islands | Lombok | Komodo Experience
Entry: 1 month entry on arrival but make sure you have an outward flight booked.
Accommodation: Dorms are less common but accommodation is still cheap and easy to find. If your booking accommodation check out our accommodation page.
Getting round: Buses around Bali and Boats for Gilis and Lombok.
Food: Lot's of restaurants selling western food or you can always find local cusine.
TOP TIP: Haggle with the people selling stuff, they know you have money and will almost always start way to expensive
Kuta
Seminyak
Kuta is the main place to go for tourist wanting to drink. There are a lot of Australia visiting on holiday and a lot of places to go out in the evening. During the day you can go to the beach or go and haggle at the markets with the locals. I stay several night here when I was in Bali but I would reckon only staying a short period of time or missing it completely.
Ubud
Ubud is great little place, you can go and walk round the rice fields, visit the the Monkey forest and explore the temples. As it's only small you can get round most things within a couple of days. While I was there it is a good place to walk up Mount Batur which is something I didn't get round to doing but really regret not finding the time and something if you have time would definitely be worth doing.
Gili Trawangan
Gili T is the party island of the gili islands with a strip of bars to go to in the evening. During the day there are also places to have drinks on the beach and amazing snorkelling straight off the island. If you want to find turtles I had great success going out from the turtles sanctuary. If you want to get a classic picture on a swing in the sea during sunset you can head over to the other side of the island and queue up to get your photo. This is a great place to chill on the beach to a bit of snorkelling and then go out drinking in the evening. If you're feeling adventurous you can buy magic mushrooms from certain bars as a shake, they're a bit hit and miss but if you have a good amount they can be well fun.
If you want a quieter holiday away from most of the tourism head over to lombok. I didn't spend much time here as I just travelled though but the beaches are much quieter and just get a much better feel of Indonesia. If you want to spend some time at the beach head to kuta lombok. Another thing to do here is a fan of hiking is to climb Mount Rinjani, this is something 4 days to do and I had planned on doing but it erupted while I was in Bali and all tours were cancelled.
Komodo trip
The trip from Lombok to Flores via Komodo island was the best thing I did while I was in Indonesia, but it's not for the faint hearted. The sleeping conditions are 20 people sharing matts on the boat deck and the food is very basic but if you can get past that you are in for an absolute treat. With plenty of stops for snorkelling and a trip to Manta point to swim with the Manta rays. If you are lucky you will get to see dolphins and flying foxes. You also stop at the islands with the Komodo dragons and go onto Flores where I recommend staying a couple of days to do some diving. I have dived in plenty of places and this is definitely one of the best! Unfortunately I didn't have an underwater camera at the time but it is incredible!
Lombok
Seminyak is just north of Kuta but with much less