howswedeofme
Contributor
We went on our first trip to Bali in May 2019 and we overall loved it. I planned nearly all of it with the help of suggestions on SB and, in particular, many recommendations from @Luko.
We arrived around midnight (Delta and Korean Air into DPS) and our Garuda Air flight to Labuan Bajo didn't leave until 11am so we reserved a room at Novotel. It's a little confusing to find Novotel through the airport and you need to walk through throngs of people trying to offer you a taxi. The room at Novotel was very clean and quiet. I was surprised at how nice it was given that it is an airport hotel.
Our first night on Labuan Bajo we stayed at La Cecile. The hotel arranged an airport pickup and had a shuttle option to town for 50k IDR. You cannot beat the view at sunset. The rooms are a bit dated but they were clean and comfortable. Because of the location up the side of the hill there were very few bugs and a constant breeze. I would stay here again.
We then did a 4 day/3 night Liveaboard with Dragon Dive Komodo. They only take cash so make sure you bring plenty of cash! The boat itself was quite nice and laid out well. We booked the suite and loved having the extra space (especially since we had two huge bags with our two weeks of clothes plus we bring our own dive gear). With all the windows open it was comfortable for sleeping. We lucked out with who we had on the boat and the other divers (and instructors) made the four days really fun. The food was delicious, especially the calamari and curry dishes. We had two dive instructors and one guide on our boat (and an instructor who was learning the sites but not working yet). Our group of four was assigned to the guide and the other two groups were with the dive instructors. Based on the experience levels it made sense to have the others with the dive instructors but I was pretty unhappy with the guide we had. He didn't attend the dive briefings and didn't dive the plan. We had a number of dives where we didn't follow the depth plan or didn't follow the route around we talked about at the briefing (for example, we spent half our time at Batu Bolong at 30m when the most beautiful part of the reef is at 5-7m and we only had <10 minutes there). It seemed like we often went to sit on the edge of the current to hope something big went by and didn't go to the areas we talked about during the briefing where you could expect to find big/other interesting stuff (and the other groups saw said things in those spots). Getting into the water was chaotic (but comical) with different groups announcing they were going first but then not going, then re-announcing they were going, then we announced we were going and didn't go (you get the picture). The diving was objectively very good and the coral was incredibly beautiful. We were quite lucky and saw 5+ mantas which I guess have been scarce lately. I would still recommend DDK as our experience was overall very positive.
For our last night in Labuan Bajo we stayed at Sunset Hill hotel. It's a much smaller feel than La Cecile and the rooms are more updated. I liked La Cecile a bit more just because of the infinity pool overlooking the ocean for the sunset. We had dinner at Mediterraneo and the next day we had lunch at Bajo Taco. The food at Mediterraneo was phenomenal. Bajo Taco had great chicken enchiladas and it turned out that the owner grew up 20 minutes from where we live in Michigan so that was a neat connection! We took Garuda Air back to Denpasar and arrived just in time to be driving into Tulamben when Mount Agung erupted.
We stayed our first two nights on Bali at Toyabali Resort in Tulamben. Toyabali is our favorite resort/hotel of the trip. It is a very small resort with 5 bungalows that have an attached outdoor bathroom with a shower and tub and a very romantic feel. The pool and small seating area for the restaurant are very clean, a great view of the ocean, and surrounded by gorgeous gardens. The staff made it feel like a home away from home. It was an easy 5-10 minute walk to town and a very short walk from the beach to Liberty Dive Resort, who we dove with. LDR runs a great dive op. Our guide/spotter Wayan (John) was very friendly and very, very good at his job. He made my 100th dive quiet memorable (and no, not because I was naked). The Liberty Wreck dive was just OK. I'm glad we got in the water early to see the bumpheads because on our way out the site was getting crowded. This was my first experience muck diving and I absolutely loved it! We saw ghost pipefish, a wonderpus octopus, and a harlequin shrimp with a bunch of little tiny babies on the same dive!
Next was Candidasa for three nights at Sea Breeze Candidasa. The resort itself was nice. We booked an oceanfront bungalow and wound up with the room that is below the honeymoon suite. When we booked an oceanfront bungalow, I thought we'd have a standalone unit. The ceiling/floor is thin so anytime people were walking around or moving furniture around on the patio above us, it was very noisy. If we were in the bathroom, the people walking up the stairs to the suite seemed to be able to see inside. Our room also had a very strong mold/mildew smell that made it uncomfortable when we were in there. We went through a lot of cough drops and tissues from the sore throat/runny nose from whatever was in the air causing the smell. We had massages while we were there and thought that the massage therapists were both good. The food at the resort, with the exception of breakfast, was disappointing and bland. I ordered the chicken burger one of the days for lunch and it was raw. The mixed drinks with the exception of the guavarita were bland. We went to eat at Vincent's which was the best food of our trip. I can't even begin to describe how much I loved their chicken curry. The creme brulee was the best dessert but I really should have just gotten a second chicken curry for dessert!
We dove for three days with Geko Dive in Padang Bai. On our first day the inflator/air2 on my BCD malfunctioned and they didn't have the key to open my inflator so I used rental gear the next day when we dove Gili Mimpang and Gili Tepekong. We didn't see much on those dives, unfortunately, as I understand that they can be quite active with sharks. We saw one shark, one turtle, and one eel between the two sites. Gili Mimpang was covered in nudibranchs, though. I've never seen anything like it. On Day 3, my inflator was miraculously fixed! As they were giving it back to me, one of the guys gently shook the end of it while saying "we can't get it open but we think something is lodged in there causing the pin to stick." We heard a rattle and out fell a tiny piece of rock. Weird! We dove Manta Point and a Penida drift dive for our last day. Manta Point was crowded where we dropped in but we did see a manta right away as we were descending. We went out a little deeper after a few minutes and saw a few more mantas out there (and a dozen people from other groups who made a beeline at a manta any time we saw one, poor mantas), a whole bunch of bluespotted rays, and a cuttlefish. The Penida drift was a beautiful dive but my husband kept going out into the blue which drove me nuts! I'm a worry wart underwater and didn't want to become a widow because he got swept out to see or caught in a down current. The reef was so healthy, though, and there was an abundance of fish life. It was a sunny day and the vis was good, which helped with being able to see all the beautiful coral. I thought that the shop/boats for Geko were both run really well and our guide was great both above and in the water.
We did two days in Ubud last and stayed at Bliss Ubud Abangan. The hotel is off the main road and not accessible by car, but is a short walk and they helped us with our bags. It was a 3 minute walk to get to the shops on the main street. The hotel itself is small but clean and has a relaxing pool area. We had a view of a small rice paddy and the pool from our balcony. They brought breakfast to the room in the morning to your balcony. There is no other food services besides breakfast but there is a small fridge with beverages in the room. We ate at a sate place multiple times because my husband discovered he loves sate. We also ate at Luxe, Spice, and Naughty Nuri's. We liked both Spice and Naughty Nuri's. Luxe was disappointing and the food wasn't very good. We also tried the dessert tasting at Room 4 Dessert. The flavors were a little too crazy for us and we really only enjoyed two of the nine desserts enough to eat more than a bite or two. The cocktail pairings, however, were great and the waitstaff was impressive. There were a bunch of other places I wanted to try but with my picky eater husband those were a no-go so we will have to travel with friends next time so I will have a more adventurous dinner companion. We did a day tour through Bali Ubud Tour and our guide, Agung Oka, was a true delight. He taught us so much about Bali, Ubud, and Hinduism. He also stopped with us at a glassblowing shop where we bought the most beautiful glass vases that are blown around pieces of coffee root. We had Agung to bring us to the airport the next day. I can't recommend him as a tour guide and driver enough! If you'd like his contact information, send me a DM.
I don't know how we got so lucky but all of our flights were on time and none of our bags were lost or damaged. The trip to Komodo was worth the effort for at least one trip because the diving around Komodo is really unique. Next time we will likely do our first 3-4 days in Ubud then 8-10 days in Tulamben, which seems backward with having to do a surface interval, but we like the relaxing atmosphere in Tulamben and with an extended stay we could fit in a day or two with day transfers to dive in Padang Bai (and eat more chicken curry at Vincent's!).
We arrived around midnight (Delta and Korean Air into DPS) and our Garuda Air flight to Labuan Bajo didn't leave until 11am so we reserved a room at Novotel. It's a little confusing to find Novotel through the airport and you need to walk through throngs of people trying to offer you a taxi. The room at Novotel was very clean and quiet. I was surprised at how nice it was given that it is an airport hotel.
Our first night on Labuan Bajo we stayed at La Cecile. The hotel arranged an airport pickup and had a shuttle option to town for 50k IDR. You cannot beat the view at sunset. The rooms are a bit dated but they were clean and comfortable. Because of the location up the side of the hill there were very few bugs and a constant breeze. I would stay here again.
We then did a 4 day/3 night Liveaboard with Dragon Dive Komodo. They only take cash so make sure you bring plenty of cash! The boat itself was quite nice and laid out well. We booked the suite and loved having the extra space (especially since we had two huge bags with our two weeks of clothes plus we bring our own dive gear). With all the windows open it was comfortable for sleeping. We lucked out with who we had on the boat and the other divers (and instructors) made the four days really fun. The food was delicious, especially the calamari and curry dishes. We had two dive instructors and one guide on our boat (and an instructor who was learning the sites but not working yet). Our group of four was assigned to the guide and the other two groups were with the dive instructors. Based on the experience levels it made sense to have the others with the dive instructors but I was pretty unhappy with the guide we had. He didn't attend the dive briefings and didn't dive the plan. We had a number of dives where we didn't follow the depth plan or didn't follow the route around we talked about at the briefing (for example, we spent half our time at Batu Bolong at 30m when the most beautiful part of the reef is at 5-7m and we only had <10 minutes there). It seemed like we often went to sit on the edge of the current to hope something big went by and didn't go to the areas we talked about during the briefing where you could expect to find big/other interesting stuff (and the other groups saw said things in those spots). Getting into the water was chaotic (but comical) with different groups announcing they were going first but then not going, then re-announcing they were going, then we announced we were going and didn't go (you get the picture). The diving was objectively very good and the coral was incredibly beautiful. We were quite lucky and saw 5+ mantas which I guess have been scarce lately. I would still recommend DDK as our experience was overall very positive.
For our last night in Labuan Bajo we stayed at Sunset Hill hotel. It's a much smaller feel than La Cecile and the rooms are more updated. I liked La Cecile a bit more just because of the infinity pool overlooking the ocean for the sunset. We had dinner at Mediterraneo and the next day we had lunch at Bajo Taco. The food at Mediterraneo was phenomenal. Bajo Taco had great chicken enchiladas and it turned out that the owner grew up 20 minutes from where we live in Michigan so that was a neat connection! We took Garuda Air back to Denpasar and arrived just in time to be driving into Tulamben when Mount Agung erupted.
We stayed our first two nights on Bali at Toyabali Resort in Tulamben. Toyabali is our favorite resort/hotel of the trip. It is a very small resort with 5 bungalows that have an attached outdoor bathroom with a shower and tub and a very romantic feel. The pool and small seating area for the restaurant are very clean, a great view of the ocean, and surrounded by gorgeous gardens. The staff made it feel like a home away from home. It was an easy 5-10 minute walk to town and a very short walk from the beach to Liberty Dive Resort, who we dove with. LDR runs a great dive op. Our guide/spotter Wayan (John) was very friendly and very, very good at his job. He made my 100th dive quiet memorable (and no, not because I was naked). The Liberty Wreck dive was just OK. I'm glad we got in the water early to see the bumpheads because on our way out the site was getting crowded. This was my first experience muck diving and I absolutely loved it! We saw ghost pipefish, a wonderpus octopus, and a harlequin shrimp with a bunch of little tiny babies on the same dive!
Next was Candidasa for three nights at Sea Breeze Candidasa. The resort itself was nice. We booked an oceanfront bungalow and wound up with the room that is below the honeymoon suite. When we booked an oceanfront bungalow, I thought we'd have a standalone unit. The ceiling/floor is thin so anytime people were walking around or moving furniture around on the patio above us, it was very noisy. If we were in the bathroom, the people walking up the stairs to the suite seemed to be able to see inside. Our room also had a very strong mold/mildew smell that made it uncomfortable when we were in there. We went through a lot of cough drops and tissues from the sore throat/runny nose from whatever was in the air causing the smell. We had massages while we were there and thought that the massage therapists were both good. The food at the resort, with the exception of breakfast, was disappointing and bland. I ordered the chicken burger one of the days for lunch and it was raw. The mixed drinks with the exception of the guavarita were bland. We went to eat at Vincent's which was the best food of our trip. I can't even begin to describe how much I loved their chicken curry. The creme brulee was the best dessert but I really should have just gotten a second chicken curry for dessert!
We dove for three days with Geko Dive in Padang Bai. On our first day the inflator/air2 on my BCD malfunctioned and they didn't have the key to open my inflator so I used rental gear the next day when we dove Gili Mimpang and Gili Tepekong. We didn't see much on those dives, unfortunately, as I understand that they can be quite active with sharks. We saw one shark, one turtle, and one eel between the two sites. Gili Mimpang was covered in nudibranchs, though. I've never seen anything like it. On Day 3, my inflator was miraculously fixed! As they were giving it back to me, one of the guys gently shook the end of it while saying "we can't get it open but we think something is lodged in there causing the pin to stick." We heard a rattle and out fell a tiny piece of rock. Weird! We dove Manta Point and a Penida drift dive for our last day. Manta Point was crowded where we dropped in but we did see a manta right away as we were descending. We went out a little deeper after a few minutes and saw a few more mantas out there (and a dozen people from other groups who made a beeline at a manta any time we saw one, poor mantas), a whole bunch of bluespotted rays, and a cuttlefish. The Penida drift was a beautiful dive but my husband kept going out into the blue which drove me nuts! I'm a worry wart underwater and didn't want to become a widow because he got swept out to see or caught in a down current. The reef was so healthy, though, and there was an abundance of fish life. It was a sunny day and the vis was good, which helped with being able to see all the beautiful coral. I thought that the shop/boats for Geko were both run really well and our guide was great both above and in the water.
We did two days in Ubud last and stayed at Bliss Ubud Abangan. The hotel is off the main road and not accessible by car, but is a short walk and they helped us with our bags. It was a 3 minute walk to get to the shops on the main street. The hotel itself is small but clean and has a relaxing pool area. We had a view of a small rice paddy and the pool from our balcony. They brought breakfast to the room in the morning to your balcony. There is no other food services besides breakfast but there is a small fridge with beverages in the room. We ate at a sate place multiple times because my husband discovered he loves sate. We also ate at Luxe, Spice, and Naughty Nuri's. We liked both Spice and Naughty Nuri's. Luxe was disappointing and the food wasn't very good. We also tried the dessert tasting at Room 4 Dessert. The flavors were a little too crazy for us and we really only enjoyed two of the nine desserts enough to eat more than a bite or two. The cocktail pairings, however, were great and the waitstaff was impressive. There were a bunch of other places I wanted to try but with my picky eater husband those were a no-go so we will have to travel with friends next time so I will have a more adventurous dinner companion. We did a day tour through Bali Ubud Tour and our guide, Agung Oka, was a true delight. He taught us so much about Bali, Ubud, and Hinduism. He also stopped with us at a glassblowing shop where we bought the most beautiful glass vases that are blown around pieces of coffee root. We had Agung to bring us to the airport the next day. I can't recommend him as a tour guide and driver enough! If you'd like his contact information, send me a DM.
I don't know how we got so lucky but all of our flights were on time and none of our bags were lost or damaged. The trip to Komodo was worth the effort for at least one trip because the diving around Komodo is really unique. Next time we will likely do our first 3-4 days in Ubud then 8-10 days in Tulamben, which seems backward with having to do a surface interval, but we like the relaxing atmosphere in Tulamben and with an extended stay we could fit in a day or two with day transfers to dive in Padang Bai (and eat more chicken curry at Vincent's!).