50th Birthday Bali Holiday!
We had planned to take a holiday to Bali in 2020 for my husband’s 50 th birthday, but, due to Covid, we had to cancel. Three years later, and for another big birthday, we finally got there, and it was well worth waiting for.
Here is a review of my trip.
We started the celebrations by having a couple of nights stopover in Dubai on the outbound journey.
Arriving in Dubai after a 7 hour flight with Emirates, we then had a short private transfer to the Amwaj Rotana hotel, located on the start of The Walk in Jumeriah resort.
There were plenty of bars, shops and restaurants in the immediate vicinity of the hotel and just a 5-minute walk to the beach.
The views over the city from our room were amazing.
Alison & Blue in Dubai
On our second day in Dubai we took a 20-minute taxi ride to the Adventure Waterpark located at the Atlantis The Palm hotel, which is the world’s largest waterpark. There are endless activities
to keep you busy from Shark Lagoon/Dolphin Experiences, over 105 slides, Aquarium Tours, and a lovely sandy beach to relax on if it all gets too hectic. We had a great day here as a family.
From Dubai we flew direct to Denpasar Airport on the beautiful Island of Bali.
The first 3 days were spent at the Sol by Melia Benoa Hotel directly on the beach in Nusa Dua. This hotel has a calm relaxing feel with lush gardens.
Here there is plenty to do including hiring bikes, water sports, jet skis and paragliding. In the evenings there is light entertainment with local Balinese Dancers and singers.
After our relaxing time in Nusa Dua we took a private transfer to Ubud, about an hour’s drive away. Ubud is situated inland amongst the rice paddie fields
Ubud is a great area to visit. There is a lot to see and do with a great local market, plenty of chilled bars and reasonably priced restaurants.
Although, be aware of the mopeds on the roads that always have the right of way!
Our home for the next 4 days was in a 2 bedroomed villa with pool at the Ubud Wana Resort & Spa, right next to the Monkey Forest. These Monkeys are very cheeky indeed. Be careful not to leave your bag unattended as they will take whatever they like. They particularly like to steal everyone’s sunglasses and hats!
This was an amazing opportunity to have our breakfast early in the morning with the Orangutans. We were picked up from our hotel at 7am and transferred to the zoo which took about an hour. The breakfast provided an extensive range of foods from an egg station-any egg you could wish for, to sweet treats, to chicken and Noodles!
They had two Orangutans, one of which had recently had a baby so to get so close to them was a brilliant experience.
Baby Orangutans at Bali Zoo
Other animals around us were parrots, an anteater, porcupines, and rabbits!
Next was Elephant Mud Fun. This was an amazing interactive 2 hour experience with the Elephants. We learnt all about the Asia Elephants, getting to put mud on them to keep them cool, having lots of photos taken with them and brushing all the mud off. They are particularly proud to have a new baby that was 18 months old. He joined us in the mud fun. It was a day that I will treasure the most and remember for the rest of my life.
The following day we enjoyed a full day tour. First we took in the breath taking views at Wanagiri Hidden Hills for some Instagram pictures and then onto Banyumala Twin Waterfalls.
Alison on swing at Beratan Lake
We stopped for lunch at Beratan Lake, again enjoying fabulous views.
The whole trip took about 8 hours and we had our own private, local driver for the duration.
I didn’t really want to leave Ubud as it was amazing. I could have spent longer here.
After leaving Ubud, we travelled to our final destination on the edge of the resort of Legian/Seminyak. We stayed for the remaining 7 nights at the stunning hotel Astagina Hotel Resort & Spa in a spacious 2 bedroomed suite on bed and breakfast.
Double Six Beach was just an 8 minute walk from our hotel and had plenty of shops, bars and restaurants to choose from. This area is quite lively if you want that. As a family we preferred to go down to the beach to watch the amazing sunset and relax on the many coloured bean bags and just watch the world go by.
Double-Six Beach
Whilst in Legion, we enjoyed a day trip to Uluwata. This was about an hour’s drive from Legian.
We visited Pandawa Beach for an hour then went onto Uluwatu Temple, which has stunning dramatic cliff views and was home to more mischievous Monkeys!
Pendang Beach was our next stop. This beach has a lively atmosphere with lots of surfers and again some naughty Monkeys. In the evening, we went for a lovely meal on Jimbaran Beach. We enjoyed great Seafood, good service and another beautiful sunset. They also treated us to a firework display to celebrate our final evening.
All in all, it was an unbelievable family holiday. I would highly recommend anybody to visit Bali and would be more than happy to discuss it with you further if you are thinking of going yourself.
Butterworth Family Sunset Photo
Please do get in touch – 01706 250006 or email me on [email protected]
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