The Ultimate Bali 10 Day Itinerary with Nusa/Gili Islands

When to visit Bali:

Best time to visit Bali and the surrounding islands is April, May, June, September, October.

July, August is peak season. So its better to visit here either just before or after peak season, in the dry months.

This is my September visit to Bali and the neighboring islands.

My Short itinerary:

Day 1 & 2 - Seminyak

Day 3 & 4 - Nusa Ceningan

Day 5 & 6 - Gili Islands

Day 7 - 9 - Ubud

Day 10 - Fly back home

General tips:

• Use Grab taxi app to reach to hotel from airport for cheapest price.
• Currency - Carry USD and exchange at local Bali shops with good rate.
• Sim card can be bought from the airport. We bought Telkomsel (only 4G data) and it has a good 4G coverage.
• Average price of Bintang beer in entire Bali and islands is 25K IDR. So if you are buying from a shop or having at a very basic hotel or restaurant, you may keep this in mind while comparing prices.
• One dish that I would recommend is Soto Ayam, a traditional Indonesian dish - soupy noodles with chicken and egg.

Day-by-Day itinerary breakdown and tips:

Day 1 & 2 (Seminyak Stay):

We checked in to our Seminyak hotel, near Ku De Ta beach, late noon. First day we just rested at the hotel. In the evening we strolled through the streets up to Seminyak Square and pub areas at night, where in at a pub we enjoyed live music performance.

Day 2, We hired a scooty from our hotel. I was looking for a beach with less crowd, towards south of Seminyak and found this beach, Balangan. Turned on the GPS to reach to the beach view point. The view from the point is beautiful. We climbed down the beach and also had our lunch at a shack. If you like surfing, you can surf at this beach. Surf boats with trainers are available at the shacks.

Later after lunch we reached Uluwatu temple, further south. Before entering this temple one has to wrap a Sarong available at the temple (free of cost). The view from the cliff is beautiful. We spent some time there before heading back to Seminyak. Although sunset from Uluwatu would be beautiful but we did not want a scooty ride after the sunset.

For sunset bar experience, reached Potato Head Beach Club of Seminyak, which was super crowded. To get better seats it has to be booked in advance. The infinity pool overlooking the sea along with the sunset and good music made the ambiance beautiful.

Tips and prices:

• Cheapest way to reach Seminyak from airport is Grab. You can download the grab app and reach the grab pick up point of airport. The ride costed me 120k IDR to Seminyak which is way lesser than hotel taxi price and all other price that I was offered.
• Scooty standard price - 50k IDR
• Uluwatu temple entry fee - 50K IDR
• Beware of monkeys at Uluwatu temple, they can take away anything, inclusive your sunglasses.
• Potato Head Beach Club - Entry fee - 150K IDR per person during 4-7 pm, inclusive cover charge

Balangan View Point

Balangan Beach

Potato Head Beach Club, Seminyak

Uluwatu Temple

Day 3 & 4 ( Nusa Ceningan Stay):

Today we were heading towards Nusa Ceningan, for the next 3 days. We took the 11 am fast boat Dream Beach Express from Sanur port. It takes 30 mins to reach Mushroom Bay of Nusa Lembongan from the port. Ticket can be booked in advance or from the port. When booked in advance they include transfer in Bali and also Lembongan. After reaching Lembongan we crossed the yellow bridge to reach Ceningan. No four -wheeler can cross this bridge to this island. The drive in the island along the coast with greenish blue ocean already mesmerized us.

We hired a scooty from the hotel and started exploring the 2 islands, Nusa Ceningnan and Nusa Lembognon. Devil's tear, Dream Beach, Blue lagoon and secret beach were our destinations. Secret Beach is actually at a secret location through a private property/hotel and there was hardly anyone around. In between had lunch at a cute beach shack named Sea Breeze and sunset was spent in our little infinity pool overlooking the sea.

Day 4, we booked Nusa Penida Day trip, covering both east and west Penida from Ceningan. Our destinations were Klingking Beach, Tree House, Atuh Beach, Diamond Beach. All the places are surreal. There are nests, swings at most places to click pics for an entry fee. You can hike down to all the beaches. We got down at the Diamond Beach. The driver was too sweet to click many photos of us.

Tips and prices:

• Fast boat cost 200k IDR. You can bargain at the port. You can even buy tickets from Bali so that you can include transfers, if you stay far from port in both the places.
• Nusa Penida trip for both east and west with transfers from yellow bridge costed us 100k IDR for 2 . We booked from Ceningan itself to avoid hassles. You can take boat transfer from yellow bridge and search a taxi at Penida as well. It takes 15-20 mins for the boat transfer.
• Tree house entry fee : 50K IDR

Yellow Bridge, Nusa Ceningan

Secret Beach, Nusa Ceningan

Secret Beach, Nusa Ceningan

Nusa Ceningan

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Klingking View Point

Tree House

Nusa Ceningan Relaxation

Day 5 & 6 ( Gili Island Stay):

Crossed the yellow bridge up to the Ekjaya Boat counter to buy tickets to Gili. We got the tickets in lower price compared to online price. It's a 2 hours long journey by fast boat which first took us to Padang Bai ( Bali port) and from there to Gili Trawagnan.

The first look of Gili already impressed us so much. Gili is an island of no motorised vehicles, only cycles and horse carts. We walked to our hotel through the road along the coast with pretty shacks and blue ocean.

These 2 days were spent in a cycle circling the entire island, relaxing in the shacks, taking Balinese massages, enjoying the sea and the swings. You can spend your day snorkelling in the sea and also can visit the other Gili islands islands like Gili Meno and Gili Air.

Gili T has a rocking night life. You can spend your evening with a drink, enjoying a live performance at a pub or dancing the night out at a night club. You can buy a pub crawl too.

Tips and prices:

• Ekjaya boat price from yellow bridge 400k IDR
• Bicycle price: 40K per cycle/day

Bicycle bliss

Sunset at Gili

Cycling through the entire island

Gili T

Balinese massage at Gili T

Night market at Gili T

Day 7 - 9 ( Ubud Stay):

It takes about 2-3 hours to reach the Bali port, Padang Bai, from Gili Trawangan. After a long journey we reached our hotel which is around 3 kms from Ubud Market. The view from the hotel overlooking hills and river along with an infinity pool made us happy and relaxed. Ubud has many cute lil restaurants with soft romantic music playing, in one of them we had our dinner.

Next day, we started our day trip covering Ulu Danu Beraton Temple, paddy fields and Tanah Lot Temple. Ulu Danu Beraton is located at a very scenic location with a beautiful lake. Next was paddy fields. We loved hiking around in different directions at this world heritage site. There are maps with directions everywhere denoting long/medium/short routes, which you can choose depending upon your time. Our next stop was a little quite restaurant with coffee plantation, where we had Luwak coffee and tasted different flavors of coffee. The soft music playing there with the setting hue of sun surrounded by rice fields made this place magical. We then proceeded towards Tanah Lot to watch a good sunset before retiring back to our hotel. This day trip we had booked from Klook, although we had booked a join-in tour but we got a private car ,with pick up and drop from hotel in a very good price.

Last day of our trip, we didnot want to travel much. We took the free drop service of our hotel up to Ubud market. Visited the Ubud palace and monkey forest. Monkeys of this forest were perhaps the most decent and well-behaved monkeys I have ever seen in my life. We then walked through the Ubud Art Market for shopping.

Last evening was spent relaxing at the infinity pool with the nature, followed by a candle light coffee date, discussing how Indonesia has captivated us through out this beautiful journey.

Tips and prices:

• EkJaya fast boat from port costed me 350kIDR along with Ubud transfer from the port.
• If you have sea sickness, its good to get a bigger fast boat to feel better in transfers, since the sea can become violent sometimes.
• Try to include transfers since Padang Bai is far from Ubud. You can save on Taxi price.
• In Ubud, book a hotel surrounded by forest/hills for a beautiful experience.
• The price for the join in tour for 2 people is less than 600K IDR from Klook with hotel pick up/drop. Although it turned out to be a private taxi trip for us.
• Ubud Monkey Forest entry fee : 80K IDR
• Ubud Palace : No entry fee
• If you are shopping from Ubud Market, bargain hard. The asking price might be about 10 times higher.

Ubud Room with a view

Ulu Danu Beraton Temple

Beautiful Paddy Fields

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Somewhere in the paddy fields

Different flavors of Coffee Tasting

Tanah Lot Sunset

Monkey Forest

Ubud Art Market Shopping

Day 10 (Home-Sweet-Home):

Fly back home with memories.

Tips and Prices

• Booked the cab to airport from hotel itself, since didnot want to rely on Grab for the fear of getting late - price - 350k IDR

Weekend trip to the secluded beach - Nandgaon beach

It was 6th May and we desperately needed a weekend trip to rejuvenate ourselves from the monotony of our lives. Although it was summer, hot and humid, still we wanted beach fun. We started off for our trip at about 7 am for Nandgaon Beach.

Nandgaon Beach is between Kashid and Murud beach, around 8kms from both the beaches and around 40 kms from Alibaug beach. From Pune there are 2 routes, although the 2nd route is lesser kilometer-wise, but the first route takes less time because of better roads:

• Pune - Mumbai Expressway - Khapoli Exit - Durshet - Pali -Roha - NandGaon (around 180kms)
• Pune - Paud - Mulshi - Tamhini - Kudali - Kolad - Roha - NandGaon (around 160 kms)

We opted for the first route. The road was mostly good throughout apart from few bad stretches.

We pre-booked our room. Our requirement was a budget room, having an a/c and a fridge, very close to the sea. So catering to the demands of everyone I thought pre-booking will be a better idea. We reached our home/hotel for that day, Nandai Villa at 11:15 am.

The Villa is managed by the owner lady who was very sweet to us and 2 cute elderly ladies who served us food and took care of all our demands.  We checked in. The beach is at the backside of the property. We walked upto the beach through the dense coconut plantations within the property. Its a 2 mins beautiful walk. We were brimming with joy with the first sight of the sea, hills, coconut plantations all around and yes it was only 5 of us and no human around. We relaxed and gossiped under a coconut tree, facing the sea. Although it was summer, around 12 pm, but the shore was not very hot, with sea breeze striking us was cool. One of us went back to the hotel to bring freshly home-cooked super yummy prawns which we relished at the beach.We came back to the hotel at 2pm and had lunch with home-cooked prawns and King fish.

Nandgaon Beach

Nandgaon Beach

Nandgaon Beach

After some rest at 4pm we went towards Murud by our car, which is around 8kms away. We enjoyed the drive through the shoreline. We did not go inside the Murud Janjira fort as it was hot, but liked the view from the hill. We came back at 6pm and then again walked up to the Nandgaon beach to jump into the sea. Though the sea here is not the best for taking bath, as the water here has lots of pebbles. Still we enjoyed the seclusion and the water for 2 hours before retiring back to our room. Dinner was rice/roti with chicken and pomfret fry :)

Road at Murud village, along the Murud beach

The view of Murud Janjira fort from the hill

Murud Janjira Fort during sunset

Nandgaon Beach during sunset

Next day woke up to a partly cloudy morning. Did not have much options at breakfast there. Inspite of not liking poha and upama, we had to settle down for them. We checked out of the hotel and again walked upto the backside of the property upto the beach. Nothing was more relaxing than sitting under the coconut tree shade there, by the beach and having lots of chit chats with the set of friends. After bidding a very good bye to Nandgaon beach we headed towards Kashid beach, around 8kms away. We took some rest at a shack there, relaxing in hammock, having maggi and tea. Although Kashid beach is beautiful but it is not isolated like Nandgaon beach.

Kashid Beach

It was time to return back Pune. We took the same route back. By the time we reached Pune it started raining and it was this season's first rain :)

Kinnaur-Kailash - A slice of paradise - A PhotoStory

Day 1: We started for the Kinnaur-Spiti trip from Chandigarh on 22nd October. We were greeted by our driver Ramesh who was waiting for us at the airport with his innova. Our first destination for a overnight stop was Shimla. We reached Shimla by 9:00 pm. We checked in to our hotel. The hills all around was twinkling in night lights. We already started feeling cold in Shimla and had a nice sleep with our blankets on, after our dinner.

Day 2: Today we started from Shimla, after breakfast, at about 9 am for Rakcham via Sangla. It was a sunny beautiful morning. Our first stop was Kufri. Though I was not keen to go to Kufri top but everyone was excited about the horse ride. We stopped at Kufri and sat on our respective horses. We gradually started climbing towards the top. The road was very dusty and I did not enjoy the ride at all. We reached the top, took some pics with the yak and then we went for the zip line adventure after a bumpy 1km ride. We returned back and had some yummy vegetable maggi and started our long journey towards Sangla. We drove through the beautiful pine forests. We stopped for lunch at Narkanda, where we had yummy food with a view of shining snow-capped peaks. After lunch we started our journey again and slowly the landscape started changing. It was a blend of yellow-white rocks and green trees. Near Rampur we stopped for tea. It was amazing to ride through the curvy roads, with rocks popping out of the mountains. Slowly we hardly could see any car on the road, it started growing dark and our driver Ramesh said its 3-4 hours more to reach Rakcham. In the darkness we started romancing with the hilly curves with soft music at background, in the car. Somewhere we got down and looked up above to be mesmerized by a sky full of stars. After that somewhere our car broke down with a Tyre puncture around 8 pm. Luckily it was near a bridge of a dam which had lights. Our driver quickly changed the tyre and then again we stopped at a small village, where I could see noone other than a car repairing shop, who repaired our car. Finally we reached our destination Rakcham  at about 9:30pm, after driving through some very bad narrow hilly roads in complete darkness. We were shivering in cold after getting down. We quickly had our dinner and then more adventure was waiting for us. Since the hotel rooms were fully booked, they requested us to stay at the river side tent, for a night. We agreed, knowing that we might be frozen until next morning. We got into the tent and realized that there was no difference of temperature, outside and inside. Mercury level dropped to around 2-4C. Though there were layers of blanket, but I hardly could sleep that night. Yes, it was an experience one of a kind.

 Making our way through the Pine Trips

Zip Lining at Kufri

Rampur

Day 3: We woke up around 9 am, came outside the tent and the view around mesmerized us. The gushing Rupin river was flowing beside our tent. With warm morning sunrays striking our face, we had breakfast at the cute hotel restaurant overlooking the mountains around. We started towards Chitkul which is the last inhabited village near the Indo-China Border. The Indian road ends here. A drive through the narrow broken roads with the mighty Himalayas all around mesmerized us. We stopped at multiple places to click pics, there was a checkpoint in between before entering Chitkul area. We reached till the end of Chitkul, got down from our car and started walking down the hill, towards the river. The place was beautiful. We spent sometime by the river, hiked around, climbed uphill again before reaching a restaurant for lunch. After lunch we reached back to our Rakcham hotel. There was still daylight. So we went hiking around Rakcham along the Rupin river before calling it a day. And tonight we were staying at a very big room with 4 beds, a corner room having great views all around and yes it was a warmer night for us after last night's tent experience.

Rakcham - our camp site

Chitkul

Way back to Rakcham from Chitkul

Rakcham

Day 4: After our breakfast we started our journey at about 9:30 am towards Kalpa. Our first stop was Kamru Fort. We started climbing up the stairs, towards the Fort. The fort is very beautiful, has a tower like architecture. There is also a shrine to Kamkhya Devi inside the fort area. We were given Himachali hat by a lady caretaker before getting inside. We clicked photos and came back. As we started moving, the beautiful Kinnaur-Kailash range was slowly visible and was growing gradually as we were nearing Kalpa. We reached Reckong Peo, where we had our lunch. Its a beautiful town, lots of shops, people and cute buildings, surrounded by the mighty Himalayan ranges. We then started moving towards Kalpa and after riding through some hairpin bends, gradually climbing up, we reached Kalpa at about 3:30 pm. We checked in to the hotel and then again started towards Roghi village which is around 8 kms from Kalpa. The road was very narrow and the cliff steep down, with almost no visibility downwards, which is also called suicide point. We reached the village and started hiking. There were very few homes with stone tiled roof. Far away we could see blasting for road construction. And at one side we gazed at the spectacular Kinnaur-Kailash range. After sometime we drove back to our hotel at Kalpa.

Kamru Fort

Towards Kalpa from Sangla

Reckong peo

Kalpa - View from my hotel room

Towards Roghi Village

Blasting for road making somewhere far away, during a walk through the village roads

A villager working at Roghi Village

At Roghi Village, mesmerized by the Kailash range

Day 4: Today we woke up early for our next part of our trip to Spiti. We were warned by hotel people that if we are late, blasting for road construction might delay us further at several places. They were kind enough to pack breakfast for us. We started and slowly the landscape started changing from green to brown, tress to rocks. And yes we entered Spiti.

Towards Spiti