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

A weekend trip to the hills, Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani

Four of us started at 7:30 am from Pune for the Mahabaleshwar-Panchghani trip by car. The weather was cloudy. We had our breakfast at some roadside dhaba and started towards Mahabaleshwar again. Slowly we were in the hills. Before entering Panchgani we gave a toll. And in the entire trip I lost the count of tolls I paid as everywhere people where charging us.

Our first stop was Mapro Garden where we spent some time and continued our trip. We reached our hotel which I already booked. It was a few kilometers away from Mahabaleshwar near Lingamala Waterfall. We entered our hotel room and I was delighted. Our forest view family room at the top floor had glasses all around with some great views. I was happy over my hotel selection :). We just dumped our luggage and left the room to travel around. It was around 12:30 pm by then.

First we went to Arthur's Seat view point. We started enjoying the roads bending through the forests. Slowly it was more cloudy and we were inside the clouds with almost no visibility. We could not even see the nearest car. We got down from our car. We climbed down the steps there to several points. But nothing was visible because of the excessive fog and mist all around. This point is named after British officer Arthur who sat here and gazed at river Savitri, where he lost his wife and children in a tragic mishap. We left it to our imaginations how he must have been sitting here all alone ages back and gazing at the river with chilly winds striking him, at this barren hill.

Then we went to the Savitri View Point which is just next to Arthur's Seat view point. Here also nothing was visible to us since we were in the clouds.

We then headed to Kates point and enjoyed the views of the dam and falls with different shades of green all around.

It was around 3:30 pm by then. We were already very hungry. We came back to Mahabaleshwar town. We started hunting for a restaurant to have good non-veg lunch. We went to Shere Punjab and had a delicious lunch.

We started again and went to the Venna Lake. We took a boat for us and spent some good time sailing in the lake. The chilly winds striking us and the hills around, merged in clouds, made our sailing more beautiful. Even I tried forgetting that I am at Mahabaleshwar and started imagining that I am in Kashmir's Dal lake :). After this we had tea and also played some silly games at the nearby joints which was fun.

We left the place for Lingamala waterfall. It was 6:30 pm by then. We just realized after reaching there, the forest leading to the falls is only open from 8am-5:30pm. So we had to return back to our hotel with a plan of visiting the place next morning. Before entering the hotel I had a short walk around the hill with tress all around. I was amazed by the sound of chirping birds in the evening in an otherwise silent hill. It brought me back some beautiful childhood memories of evening of my small hometown. I found an empty green lawn with some benches, sat there for a while. Also discovered a temple with noone around. I loved spending time at these deserted places with myself before returning to my hotel. From my balcony I enjoyed the evening red sky merging with the hills. It started raining in a while. The occasional sound of rains on our tinned roof and chirping of insects was the melody of our night.

Next day we woke up to chirping birds which we rarely hear in cities. We had our breakfast and hot tea facing the hills in chilly morning. We got ready and headed to Lingamala Waterfalls. Through a forest we reached the entrance. We paid 10 rs as entry fee each and entered the area. We were in a dense canopy of trees with occasional penetration of sun rays through them. We climbed up and down the steps to reach a place which bifurcated into two ways, left and right. First we took the right route and walked around 400 meters in the forest with narrow brooks along our way. Soon we could see the falls surrounded by greenery. We walked through that route till the end and then again started moving back to the same point where we took left. Then we took the right route where we walked around 100 meters and reached a small waterfall where everyone was enjoying the falls by getting wet in it. We did not get wet. We returned back from there.

Next we started for Pratapgad Fort. The road leading to the fort was beautiful with greenery all around and some water falls at places along the road. We reached Pratapgad and started walking through the history with ruins of the fort. But there was a lot of human settlement inside the fort which looked disturbing to me when I was trying to relish the history. We climbed to the top where there was a Shivaji statue. We enjoyed the view from the top half merged in clouds. We returned back and had delicious lunch at a roadside dhaba.

Our journey back home started after lunch. But my last destination was Wai's Dhom Dam which falls on the way back to Pune. We took a left turn and started enjoying the village road to the dam. After sometime we reached Dhom dam. It was incredibly beautiful. Stretches of land with almost noone around, greenish blue water and green hills half merged in clouds, white ducks floating in the water. One of the most beautiful places  I have ever seen in western ghats. Although there was a boating club, but I did not see anyone boating.

It was drizzling by then. After enjoying the beauty and emptiness of the place we started our journey back to Pune in rains with memories of these beautiful places.

Day trip to Malhargad Fort from Pune

I was looking for a place nearby from our Pune home for a very short trek. After some research I found that Malhargad Fort is around 35 kms from my place. A short trek from Sonori village near Dive ghat will take me to the fort.

On a Sunday noon after an early lunch the two of us started at around 12 pm by bike for Malhargad. We carried a lot of water as there is no water at the fort.  Through GPS I searched Sonori Village and started our journey. After crossing dive ghat, from Pune-Saswad road we took a left turn to reach Sonori village as per GPS. The road was in a very bad condition in the village. We could see the fort from this village at the top of a hill. We were looking for the base where we were expecting to see more vehicles parked being a Sunday noon. We knew fellow travelers like us must have parked their vehicles somewhere at the base so that we can follow them and start trekking from there. After following the directions given by the locals we reached a place which was the base of the fort hill. We saw just another car being parked there. So we were kinda sure that we can park our bike there and start climbing :). We parked our bike beside the lone car. It took us around one and a half hour to reach to the base from Pune home. We could see noone around, also none climbing the fort. The place was very much deserted. We started our climb. We climbed for around 15-20 minutes towards right just to realize that there is no route there leading to the top. We again climbed back and started climbing uphill through another route. There was no defined paths. So we had to climb with our own routes. We finally reached the top in another 20-30 minutes and it was the entrance to the fort. There were some 10-15 people there. There was nothing much in the fort other than some wells and two temples. We enjoyed the magnificent views from the fort, the breeze, the valley. After spending sometime there we started our trek downhill from the back side of the fort. We saw from the top that this side there are more cars and bikes parked at the base and also other people were trekking downhill through this way. We realized that normally people take this route. This route was easier. But then our bike was parked at the other direction. So we gradually started moving to the other direction downhill. We reached the base and started our way back to Pune.

After reaching the Pune-Saswad road from the village, we stopped at a restaurant called Garva Family Garden to have some snacks. There were quite a few dhaba kind of restaurants at this road towards Pune. We reached home by 6 pm.

It was a short weekend trip and we loved it more because it was a place free from commercialization and exploring our own ways to the fort was fun :).