Indonesia
As a TL;DR summary/recommendation:
Again in 2018, I had the chance to bounce a bit around Indonesia, specifically Bali, Gili Meno, and the Komodo Islands. I wrote the following as a recommendation guide for my friends who were considering taking their honeymoon there!
Bali
In Bali, we stayed 5 nights in Ubud and one night in Kuta just as a stop before our flights.
Ubud
The city was amazing! It’s a walkable town if you stay nearby and there are a variety of spas, food, waterfalls, day trips, and more. It’s pretty hip.
Hotel – Sthala – The hotel is a bit outside the Ubud downtown, but they were really cheap and an SPG property, so we stayed there as we chased platinum status. I was surprised of how NICE the hotel was for the price, and they have a regular shuttle to take you in to town. I enjoyed it and would stay again. I think there might be a 4seasons or something closer to Ubud you can look into because I know you’re ballin’
Activities
OKAY so for most things in Bali (and asia) you can organize all your activities with local tour agencies, your hotel, or with taxi drivers in the street who can just drive you to the destinations you want.
For one day, we negotiated with a driver to take us to …
Tegelalang Rice Patties – Pretty cool rice patty that you can walk through. You do have to pay a small fee to enter as well as fees at checkpoints along the hike. They also have random swings and stuff, but it was a pretty nice walk through.
Pura Tirta Empul – at this water temple women need to wear a wrap you can get on site and for a small fee you can rent a swim robe and bathe yourself in the holy waters of the temple.
For the next day, we organized a sunrise hike with a local agency on the street who provided transport, “breakfast”, and “lunch”
Mt Batur Sunrise Hike – Hit up my man Ketut. He dragged us up the mountain. You leave at like 3am and then hike a couple hours in the dark to make it to the top for sunrise. We did it in runners, though hiking shoes might have been nice. Either way, it was totally worth it! I can give you Ketut’s number so you can see if you can negotiate a good price or at least make sure he’s your guide.
Pura Penataran Agung Lempuyang – Sky Temple. It’s far as hell and we didn’t get a chance to go while we were there, but it makes for a damn good instagram picture
Nusa Penida
This can be done as a day trip where get a boat ticket and you hire a car to take you to all the main sites. We only did the day trip that took us to 3 locations on the island. I felt it was a bit quick, but I don’t know much about the accommodations on/around the island. I could have seen staying a night here just so I could have spent more time at …
Kelingking Beach – This is THE site on this island. There are these other beaches you hang out at, but this is THE spot to come and take a picture.
Kuta and other areas that aren’t Ubud
North Kuta – We stayed in a marriott hotel or something in Kuta and didnt really get a chance to explore fully. It was reminiscent of a typical asian city. Lots of bars and restaurants and also a beach to visit. The beach is not as nice as the others listed in my recommendations below.
South Kuta – This area has a bunch of beautiful beaches and a lot of high end resorts. It’s pretty touristy IMO, but I have to admit, it’s still nice/ balling. One of the ballin’ ass hotel’s we visited that you might consider is…
Ayana – If it’s your honeymoon, you might want to splurge on the luxury here. If you don’t get a room here, then you should at least visit the Rock Bar
Rock Bar – The bar in Ayana. Get there for sunset, it’s freaking beautiful. We showed up about an hour before sunset and they were packed and not accepting people until there was space. We waited in another bar and caught most of the sunset before being let in to catch the last 15 minutes. You can have a driver take you here and he’ll drop you off while you explore and grab a drink. There are a TON of people who come to Ayana to see the hotel and the bar. It’s ballin… worthy of a honeymoon. But it’s also very busy so you might not get the alone relaxation here… which you can get in Ubud!
Jimbaran Bay – Once you’re done with the rock bar, head to this area and have dinner on the beach. There are a ton of restaurants serving seafood on chairs set up around the bay and if you just walk and find a spot that is crowded, it’s pretty good bet
Gili Islands
There are 3 Gili’s to visit and each one is known for their own vibe. We only did 2 nights in Gili Meno, but could have totally chilled there for another night or two.
Gili Meno – Relaxation ( this is where we visited and we loved it) – There are no cars on the island. They transport stuff with horse drawn carriages. You can literally walk around the whole island in an hour. It’s a place to really slow down and chill out. The water is freaking beautiful and you can snorkel right off the island without needing a boat to take you out. You COULD also get a boat to snorkel some other areas around the Gili’s but we literally just launched off the beach and it was great. They even have this sweet underground statue thing to snorkel at. I literally have a million pictures that cant even describe how beautiful it was.
Gili T – Party Island – we could hear and see all the nightlife on Gili T from the shore of Gili M which is where we stayed.
Gili Air – Mix of relax and party – We took the boat from Gili A to go back to Bali.
Hotel on Gili M – Kura Kura Beach Resort – This was a budget friendly hotel that was actually pretty nice. Room was clean and updated, and again surprisingly good for the money. There are only a few hotels around the island, and we walked past a couple of the honeymoon level resorts that looked balling.
How to get to Gilis
Fast boat from Padang Bai. It has like 2 or 3 stops. Pretty easy to do and research.
Komodo Islands
Komodo islands are beautiful and exciting. It has beautiful islands and is a DIVING paradise. Even if you don’t dive exploring the islands and snorkeling is great! There are two ways that you can explore the island – 1. Stay at a hotel then take 1 day boat trips to see the islands and snorkel 2. Do a live aboard boat and spend 1 or 2 nights out on the water while exploring the islands. Option 2 is more expensive but you get to maximize your time exploring. There are so many varieties of liveaboards so if you do this, make sure to do your research. We did option 1 where we stayed for 3 nights and did 2 day trip excursions plus a bonus private boat.
Hotel – We stayed at the Golo Hilltop Hotel. The place could have been nicer, but reasonable for the price. It’s at the top of a hill so it was a walk to get there and back, but they’ve got a great view though!
Labujan Bajo (LBJ) – this is the port town that you’d stay in and that the boats launch out of. The town is not very developed and only has a couple restaurants to eat at. You don’t really spend your time here in the port as you just hop on boats to see the surrounding islands.
At LBJ you can walk around and find/negotiate prices for your day trips. We took 2 day trips that fortunately did not overlap locations but one was focused around Komodo Island, while the other was focused around Rinca Island.
Komodo Island – The tour that day probably had something like 4 stops. It involved snorkeling, nice beaches and of course… seeing a Komodo dragon. While it was cool to see the dragons, the experience overall was not so exciting. They were these giant lizards that COULD kill you if you pissed them off, but they just laid there and sometimes fought with each other. You have to pay IN CASH the entrance fee so if you do this, don’t forget. We had to spot some Canadians who forgot their cash.
Padar Island – Hiking up Padar island gave me one of the BEST pictures i’ve ever taken.
Rinca Island – Along the Rinca Island tour we stopped at Pink beach which is a tiny island that comes and goes with the tide. its beautiful but as with most tours, you are on a schedule so we couldn’t spend as long as we wanted there.
Private Boat Rental – Since we had one extra day with nothing planned, we rented a private boat for ourselves. It was just one guy in his rinky dink boat but he took us to our own private beach. It was pretty cheap (negotiated of course) to rent the guy for the whole day and it was a pretty cool experience to have him just take us to the private beaches for us to just lay at, snorkel, drink, and chill. I think it ended up being something like $50 to rent the guy for the whole day.