10 day Bali Itinerary : Exploring the Island of Gods

Itinerary: 

Denpasar -> Ubud -> Singharaja (North Bali)  -> Nusa Penida -> Gili T -> Canggu -> Denpasar

A bit of background for this trip:
We travelled in the second half of March, just before the peak season started, so we got the benefit of the off season prices without much rain. We travelled as a couple, but we did bump into a friend and we did stay in a few hostels since we love having that kind of experience. In Gili T especially, since it is considered a party island, I would recommend staying in hostels as you get to meet great people there. 

We are the kind of people that like to get a lot of stuff done the whole day while on vacation, especially abroad, to make the most of the trip. This trip involved adventure, waterfalls, spas, beaches, snorkeling, diving, partying and hidden natural pools by the ocean. Some days had a lot of stuff going on and then we would include rest / party days also. So, if any of this is your kind of vibe, you might wanna take some tips from our experience.

Cost: The overall cost per person (with flights) in this trip was under INR 1,00,000 (around INR 90,000) and this includes a stolen cycle :p

Visa: Bali has visa on arrival, but you can apply for it online to save time while leaving the airport, which is what we did. 

Money exchange: we could use our cards in many places but carrying cash was quite useful. There are plenty of currency exchangers but you have to be careful while exchanging, as we saw a few videos online where people can scam you here. What we did was exchange INR to USD and then got that exchanged to IDR in Bali. And we also withdrew some cash at the airport when we landed. 

Sim card: Telecomsel is quite popular in Bali so we picked up a sim card after checking in on our first day. We didn’t pre book the sim card and found it more expensive at the airport so we just got it from some random shop on the road. 

Ferry bookings: You can get the best deals on ferries on 12goAsia, we would recommend booking all ferries from there. After Nyepi, we faced some delays in ferries which was because of high traffic to Gili T on that day. From Ubud we were able to book a shuttle to the jetty, which our host helped us with.

Day 1 : Settling in at Ubud

We landed in Bali around noon and made a beeline for our Airbnb. The first day we stayed in Bije house which was centrally located, perfect for exploring the buzzing market of Ubud. We got a sim card, a scooter, some coffee and grabbed a bite at Where Else which turned into a fun Reggae live music scene.

Day 2 & 3: Singharaja:  Mountain Majesty and Hidden Waterfalls

We left early in the morning and headed north to the heart of Bali’s mountains, an 80km scooter journey filled with breathtaking vistas.

Along the way we stopped at Leke Leke Falls, which was a 10 minute hike downhill to the bottom of the falls, and the Ulun Danu Temple, a cute temple set on the shores of a beautiful lake. Finally, we made our way up a steep mountain to our stay for the night and were greeted by stunning views of the valley and the ocean from our room. 

An unexpected encounter with Bob, a local legend, opened a gateway to a day filled with wonder and exploration through his “Eden” as he called it. We started our day with a short ride to his house. From there, we first crossed a deep blue lagoon, where we could have a Tarzan moment, swinging from the roots of a tree into the lagoon. Then, Bob showed us to a cliff jumping spot, and a natural water slide down waterfalls.

Side note: I would not suggest going beyond the 5m cliff jump unless you are confident with your technique as one of my friends injured herself by jumping from the 12m cliff. 

All of this was on the way to our final destination, Aling Aling waterfalls, which were quite majestic, given the season. You need to get a guide to see the falls and they will show you all the above mentioned places. Post this, we went on to have the best Mi Goreng in Bali courtesy of Bob, before making our trip back to Ubud. This time, we were not so lucky with the rains, but we made our way, stopping many times when the rain became overpowering, and for some coffee to warm ourselves.

As night fell, we reached our cosy stay for the night(Villa Bukit Sari) in Ubud, which was once occupied by the Royal Family. Although the room was a bit small, it was definitely my favourite stay from the trip as the house was covered in greenery and colourful flowers, and had a very “zen” vibe

Day 4: Chill out at Ubud Day Club

We decided to go for a well-earned massage after the adventure of the last 2 days. Walking in with broken bodies and sore legs, the massage felt nothing short of re-birth. We were now ready to party.

In the lead up to the trip, we had seen too many reels of this club in Ubud called Cretya. It’s a massive day club which has 3 levels of infinity pools overlooking paddy fields, and we just knew we had to go there. It was a very chill, low key, lounge-in-the-pool kind of party. Not a rager, but worth the experience. The entrance fee was just IDR 50,000($3), but there is a minimum spend if you want a table or a cabana by the pool. We ended up getting a table with a view of the pools, ordered a pizza and some drinks and spent the rest of our day here.

Day 5, 6, 7: Gili Trawangan – Diving, Snorkelling and beach parties

22nd March in Bali was Nyepi – the day of silence followed by all Hindus in Bali. This meant there was absolutely nothing happening on the island anywhere, and on the neighbouring island of Nusa Penida. They even cut off all electricity. Fortunately for us, Gili Trawangan, another island close to Bali did not observe this holiday so we hopped on a ferry and spent the next 3 days there.

This island is so small that there are no vehicles, only cycles and horse carts! So, we dropped our bags near the jetty, and rented cycles to go to our hostel – Mad Monkey Hostel. This hostel was on the other end of the island, right on the beach. The pool here faces the ocean and the hosts organise very chill day parties to lounge by the pool. They even had a foam cannon! On this day they had organised a music quiz for everyone to play which was a great ice breaker. However, while all this was going on, I realised my cycle was stolen (because I didn’t lock it) and finally, at the end I had to pay for it. So big tip: ALWAYS REMEMBER TO LOCK YOUR CYCLE, NO MATTER HOW DISTRACTED YOU GET. 

Anyway, we took the L and decided no point crying about it and went on to the parties that happen at night. In Gili T, most pubs and clubs are on the east side near the main jetty, and only a few clubs are open the whole night, while the rest shut down early. The pubs take turns every night in hosting the parties so every night you can experience different vibes. After renting a new cycle, we hit the main street to continue partying.

The next morning, we checked out of Mad Monkey and headed to Tipsea Turtle, another hostel closer to the jetty. We had a diving session planned for the morning. For our dive we chose Compass Divers, not too far from Tipsea. Compass is itself a hostel also, so if you’re super into diving, you could stay there, as there are many enthusiasts.

We did our training in the pool of the hostel and they took us to our diving spot for the day. They choose the dive spots for the day based on a bunch of factors, the day we went we saw turtles, fish and a whole bunch of corals. If you have your Open Water certification, you can go deeper and even see sharks!
Gili T is famous for the variety of dive sites you can visit, and it’s lighter on the wallet than most places too. The instructors were also very professional, and overall I would recommend it to someone going for their first dive or looking to get certified. Per person the dive cost around IDR 1,000,000 (INR 5000)

Post our dive session, we got changed, ate at a warung and went to the beach where we rented some snorkeling gear. Even in the shallow waters near the beach, we spotted a turtle and big shoals of fish. 

We spent our last day sipping on coconuts, snorkeling some more, and looking for our lost cycle. For snorkeling, I’d recommend going to the north, near La Moomba and just going into the ocean. You’ll get to see plenty of fish, the water is beautiful, and it barely costs anything to rent the gear. In the evening we stopped by a place near the Sunset point called The Exile. The music was amazing and every evening they have a hand drums session by the fire – great vibes all round.

Day 8: Nusa Penida : Hidden natural pool , Snorkeling and Instagram worthy sites

We took a ferry to Nusa Penida and reached late in the afternoon. From the ferry terminal we took a cab and decided to make a stop at the famous Kelingking Beach to watch the sunset before heading to our hotel. To get to the beach you have to scale down the cliff, a treacherous journey that takes the better part of an hour. After going half the way, we figured it would probably be too dark on the way back up, so we soaked in the views from where we stood. The best thing we did was stay for sunset, let the pictures do the talking.

We stayed in Temelling Jungle Inn that night, a very reasonably priced hotel. It was far from most sights but a nice place nonetheless. We were also able to rent a bike from them so we had our travel situation sorted. I would suggest calling and checking for availability before reaching there, because there is literally nothing around this stay. It’s in the middle of an island, in the middle of nowhere. The benefit, however, is the proximity to Tembeling Natural Pool.

The next morning we took a snorkeling tour around the island which cost us IDR 200,000(INR 1000) per person. A boat picked us up from the starting point and made 4 stops along the way. A highlight in Nusa Penida, is the Manta Point where you can see Manta Rays in the wild. We were not lucky enough to spot one, but someone in our group did – your chances are better the earlier in the day you go. We did get to swim with dolphins and saw some amazing corals. This area was just stunning, there’s a lot of diving options around here, so try to get in on that too. It would be a nice area to stay as well, with a sexy view of Mt Agung in Bali.

In the evening, we hit up some of the popular sites in Nusa Penida – Angel’s Billabong and Broken Beach. We then made our way to Amok Sunset, and caught a spectacular sunset by the pool.

While our hotel was pretty far from most places, it was really close to Tembeling Natural Pool. We set off in the morning with our scooter down this crazy inclined road down to the pool. I would advise taking the scooter down to the pool only if you are well experienced at riding as the road was quite scary.
Nestled among coastal rocks and overlooking the ocean, this secluded turquoise pool is filled with natural spring water. Right next to the pool is a small beach that had breathtaking views of the cliffs. We explored a bit, and found another small section which had these cool rocks stacked on top of each other. While leaving, we had a feeling that someone had tried to tamper with the lock of our scooter, so try to be alert in this area.

Last day: Relax at Canggu

We made it back to our hotel in time to take off to catch our ferry back to Bali. We reached Pandang Bai and got a Gojek to Canggu. We didn’t get to spend too much time in Canggu and wanted to just relax instead of partying on our last night before heading home early the next morning. However, if you do stay in Canggu, there is a buzzing nightlife which you should check out, one place we heard a lot about was Vault Nightclub. Staying in one of the surf hostels would be a vibe since they were reasonably priced. In this itinerary, you could reduce a day at Gili T and spend another night in Canggu. In the morning, we saw many people surfing in the gentle waves of Canggu beach, which we really wanted to do but sadly, had to conclude our trip and catch our flight back home.