Bangkok To Bali

[TwoDogz]

Anyone been recently.

Looking for advice on best areas to stay, family.

Looking at flights it seems around 9000b each way.

But looking at hotels on wotif.com and blown away at cost of around $300 mostly, I thought Bali was cheap.

So, looking for a bit of a mix, a beachfront stay for few days and a mountain stay for few days.

[smokie36]

Was gonna go for Xmas till we looked at the combined price.

[KNJ]

Try the next island over, Lombok, if you like beaches and grenery.

3 good golf courses, ( MUCH cheaper than Bali ) fishing is better.

Still a little nightlife if you want it, but nothing like Kuta.

I rented a house on the beach with swimming pool for less than 1000 USD for the week ( breakfast included )

[KNJ]

Try the next island over, Lombok, if you like beaches and grenery.

3 good golf courses, fishing is better.

Still a little nightlife if you want it, but nothing like Kuta.

I rented a house on the beach with swimming pool for less than 1000 USD for the week ( breakfast included )

[londoedan]

If might be worth looking at flying to Singapore with one of the cheapies, catching the boat to Batam and then getting an internal flight to Bali. Batam can be an interesting place to spend a few days, to say nothing of Sing itself.

Bali is cheap - you can find places, even between Xmas and NY by looking around the small gang's and lanes around Jl Poppies in Kuta. There are rooms there, with breakfast, for between 150 - 250K Rp's a night, depending on whether you want AC and/or hot water.

There are also lots of decent family style hotels in that area.

I only use Agoda when booking hotels in Asia (plenty in Bali at 20-40 US per night next month), but in Bali I usu. arrive and find something when I'm there. The LP recommendations for Bali are spot-on IMO.

Edited October 10, 2012 by londoedan

[smacko]

Checkout Villa's on airbnb dot com. Depending on the age of the children it might be a better option than hotels.

[finy]

You have to wait until you get to Bali to find cheap places to stay. Once you're there it's not hard.

[siam2007]

Bali is ridiculously overpriced. and the main reason is that the biggest part of the tourists come from a neighboring country where everything is ridiculously overpriced (this country gets the "worst value for money worldwide" - award permanently) , so those people won't complain if things are ridiculously overpriced at other places too.

The only acceptable deals can be had in low season (which is RIGHT NOW, in October).

for flights it may make sense to check many Airlines, AirAsia is usually ridiculously expensive too,

If you do some research, you should be able to get a better deal easily (Garuda, MAS, SIA, Tiger, Jetstar/Mandala etc...).

Air Asia's only advantage is that they fly non-stop and arrive in Bali early in the day, so you still have a lot of time to spend there on the day of your arrival.

and about the Hotels: Wotif is based in a country where everything is ridiculously..... nah ok, you already understand what I wanna say.

Wotif doesn't list the cheaper Hotels, as their customer base is used to pay high rates.

you would be better of with agoda, which has by far the biggest selection of hotels as well.

If you wanna go there with your family, I suggest to stay away from Kuta / Legian, where the hordes of drunk juveniles can be found in the evening hours.

Seminyak is just five minutes North of Legian and therefore still very centrally located, but much more laid-bacl already.

Or go to other more quiet areas such as Sanur, Candi Dasa (black sand though) and further East.

If you don't need beach-front, you can try hotels such as QUEST KUTA (okay then it's KUTA again), or ALL SEASONS LEGIAN (an accor-property, Northern Part of Legian and in a more quiet area but still walking distance to plenty of food and drinking places).

Do not stay anywhere near the Denpasar-Bypass-road, as there is traffic jam 24 hrs a day and nothing around so you will always depend on cabs.

when it comes to CABS, you will always use the reliable BLUEBIRD "Bali taxi" Cabs, which can be identified by their windscreen-sticker "Bluebird - group". ALL, and I repeat, ALL other taxis with not a single exception will rip you off as much as they can. though they all try to look like BLUEBIRD now, so only the windscreen-sticker will make sure you are really dealing with a genuine Bluebird-Cab.

Bali is overcrowded most months of the year, but nevertheless a lovely place with a lot of lovely people, once you left the tourist-spots of Kuta & Co.

Selamat Jalan !

[TwoDogz]

Ok, thanks for all the info.

So travelling with 2 kids and the boy wants to learn to surf, not that he will pick it up in a few days, but wants to try and most likely the daughter will then want to try.

Thinking this place, good price and locale by sounds of it anyway.

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/491878

Do i have it right that Kuta and seminyak are the touristy lively spots and Ubud is the mountain and arty cultural area ?

and like this for Ubud https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/583386

We want to break it up, few days in downtown, few days in mountains and might wish to go to Sarawak for a few days also to look at something.

.

Edited October 10, 2012 by TwoDogz

[TwoDogz]

do australian pp holders need a visa or is it on arrival ?

[roamer]

Wotif, an Australian company that believes you can fool all of the people all of the time.

[krisb]

BTW its 10 year anniversary since the Bali bombings this Friday.

Id never holiday in this country again. Thailands way better.

[KNJ]

do australian pp holders need a visa or is it on arrival ?

VOA no issues