Bali is a place everyone can enjoy. Singles gang of friends, couples, elderly people and young children. We always wanted to go there after we got married but by the time we could actually go there we ended up having 2 kids. For travel enthusiasts like us who work full time and getting leaves at work at the same time being a rarity we decided to just go ahead and plan this trip .

We love travelling for our kids birthdays rather than spending on parties for our first one Kittu .With second one around this time and both just having 15 days of gap for their birthdays planning is gonna be messy every year so we decided to have one combined vacation for both birthdays. Since its Bujji’s 1st birthday the vacation fell on his birthday.

I spent reading around numerous blogs, articles for the perfect Bali vacation for 4 days. But Im not that traveller who’s gonna stay for 2 weeks to a month in Bali to relax and experience it. Im more touristy as I can at max spend 5-10 days at any place as I love my work and also the notion of travelling.

Which is the case with most people who wants to travel around but cant let go of their full time jobs. This is for those people like me who can visit Bali for few days but still experience Bali as it presents.

Easy way to cover the whole Bali is to divide it as 4 parts. So we decided to put our Base in Ubud which is kinda in the center of Bali.

It was a huge family trip with me, my husband, our 2 kids, my parents, my sisters family so we had to keep everyone entertained and our goal was to spend time together rather than go and do things each likes.

Being vegetarian , having elderly parents who prefer curd rice rasam than anything and having picky kids we decided to cook most of our meals.

We reached Bali at night to give rest to kids after their flight journey and to start a full day in swing. So our Bali plan was little slow and didn’t have space for adventure sports as we didn’t want to leave behind either our parents or our kids . I would advice if the kids are at least 4 years old.

We booked a driver with a car to drive us around for all the days of our stay in Bali. It wasnt very costly as well it costed around 400 $ SGD for a 6 seater to drive us around for 4 full days and pickup and airport drop .If you are a couple then you can book a car or take a scooter and drive around.

Day 1 Mostly Central /North Bali

1. Puri Saren Agung – Ubud palace
2. Ubud Market
3. Coffee plantation- Luwak coffee
4. Kintamani Bali- Volcano view
5. Tegallalang- Rice terrace
6. Goa Gajah Temple

This day was quite busy with many places to go around and being the first day in Bali we were breathing in every place,every corner and enjoying all. Our favourite was kintamani and tegallalang .

Day 2 West /Central Bali

1. Tegenungan waterfall
2. Sangreh Monkey forest
3. Taman Ayun Temple
4. Tanah Lot Temple

Waterfalls was amazing wish we had been better prepared with swim suits to jump in and place more but we still enjoyed in the water . Tanah Lot temple is hands down our favourite spot and at Sunset has this amazing view to just relax and sit along.

Day 3 East Bali — a day of temples

1. Besakih Temple
2. Lempunyang Temple

Loved the history of besakih temple. Lempunyang is great for photos but nothing much to see there except that. We were kind of bored of temples at this point. would advice to do some adventure stuff rather or just relax in beach.

Day 4 South Bali

1. Turtle Island
2. Pandawa Beach
3. Uluwatu temple
4. Kecak Dance

Turtle Island was amazing for the kids. Kittu loved it and wanted to stay there forever watching turtles and seeing all the animals inside . Though there were few he had great time touching them and learning about them. And the family favourite was Kecak dance, though when it started we were apprehensive but at the end of the show we were with this great energy singing kecha kecha all the way back to the villa.

There were many places we skipped intentionally . Try to see if they fit in your plan.

• Ulun danu temple– looked great . didnt want another temple and the journey to it was far so skipped it.
• Twin lake view– go there if interested for instagram worthy pics. can give a miss if you dont want to travel that far. choose the above 2 if you have more than 4 days in Bali.
• Goa lawah temple– Another temple everyone was ready to skip. can try this out during east bali trip.
• Taman Tirta Ganga- It looked great in pics and had friends who liked it but we gave it a miss as it didnt fit in our plan.
• Nusa Dua — It seemed a great place but our driver said not to take young child (our 1 year old) during that time there.
• Boeing plane– was interested as the kids might like it but gave more priority to sit and relax.
• Garuda wishnu kenchana — try to go there to see the great garuda wishnu sculpture.
• Mt Batur trek– we couldn’t do that with kids and elderly .
• Adventure Sports- try paragliding, banana boats, kayaking etc.

Best Tips

• Indian rupees, Singapore dollars and Indonesian rupiah all we were able to use to buy some goods there.
• Try renting a bike so its cheap getting around.
• If more than 2 people rent a driver to take around . All are very sweet and helpful.
• Coco mart is the supermarket everywhere buy fresh food there if eating out is not something you are looking for. We got milk, bread,curd, fruits some veggies there to cook for kids everyday.
• Ubud Market try to bargain for less than 50% of what they asked for. Don’t try to think to buy some other place, I found Ubud market the cheapest we had to go back there to buy as other places was more expensive.
• If interested in taking exclusive pics without tourists around go early.
• Lempunyang area esp not much food options was available check with your driver before you go if the food you eat is available(esp for vegetarians and other picky eaters )