Bali

Bali is a little island kind of like Guam . . . beautiful beaches, friendly people, and a laid back attitude. I would say that Bali has a bit more culture and a lot more tourism. In fact, Bali has become such a popular destination that some locals have the opinion that tourism is wrecking their beautiful island. When we went we stayed in Sanur. It’s an area on the southern side that is known for preserving its culture and being family friendly and relatively quiet compared to the young adult party areas like Kuta. I’m so glad we stayed in Sanur. Our airbnb was a cute little bungalow in a shared living space called Little Tree. We had our own room (with AC) and bathroom and the pool and kitchen were shared with about four other units. Our hosts Dewa and Dwi were awesome!

Our Airbnb was a five minute walk to the beach where there is a board walk with lots of restaurants. Street cafes in Bali are called warungs. Our favorite warung in Sanur was baby monkey. When we went Lionel threw the biggest tantrum of the trip and we were definitely getting those scornful looks from other people (who left their kids at home to come and watch our kid throw a fit). But it was a casual cafe, literally open to the street, so we stayed and ate anyway with Lionel kicking and screaming. Sorry not sorry. He calmed down right as we left.

Our other favorite spots in Sanur were Soul in a Bowl and a special coconut based ice cream place called Soul Whip on the board walk. There’s a huge subculture in Bali consisting of hipsters and vegans. It’s interesting.

If you find yourself in Sanur and you only have time to do ONE thing. Go to Genius Cafe. It’s right on the beach and the food is awesome. This is where my husband ordered the honey banana pizza that changed my life. I was not expecting it to be so good.

We made a day trip to Ubud where we visited temples, the monkey forest, and got lost in the endless streets lined with shops. Ironically, we didn’t buy anything. On the way back we visited the rice fields but it started pouring rain so we weren’t there for long.

One of my favorite days was when we went to Seminyak. It is colorful and hoppin! If we go back to Bali I would want to stay in this area. It’s a little bit more lively than Sanur and one day wasn’t enough time to explore around the area. We went to the very popular Potato Head Beach Club. It was a fun experience and I’m glad we went but it is kind of overhypped. If you are into architecture and design, it’s a sight you should see. We got there at 10:30am and all of the beach cabanas were already taken. We actually stayed until 4pm at a table on the periphery and enjoyed the infinity pool and atmosphere. The food there was good too.

We also got to go to Sea Circus which is a short walk from Potato Head. It was fun but my millenial toast was over salted. Sad, because it would have been really good otherwise. My coffee was yummy though. It came with sweetened coconut cream!

The beaches we visited were Bingin, Dreamland and Padang padang. We didn’t spend too much time on the beaches because we live on an island and we spend most of our weekends at the beach! This part of Bali was kind of sad though. When we were driving to Dreamland we passed through all these resorts that were abandoned or closed down. They seemed really nice though, like at one point they were luxury vacation hotels.

Seven days in Bali was too short! We want to go back!