Bali honeymoon - who did you book with & price range?

Hi Mets, we are just back from Singapore and Bali. We spent 4 days in Singapore (for GP) and then on to Bali for 12 nights. Had room only in Sing and B&B in Bali and excluding food and booze and GP stuff it came in around 4K. I did loads of shopping around and the cheapest quote (which we chose) was Hayes & Jarvis. Second holiday we've used them for and it was perfect. Let me know if you want any more details.

PS: I've just joined this forum after a lovely proposal in Bali ?

Hiya

We've just booked our honeymoon to Bali & Dubai. Paid £6500 for 14 nights Bali in AMAZING hotels (top rated on trip advisor) and 3 nights in Dubai. I think it was Dubai that pushed the price up though as the flights were awkward and the hotel was ridiculously expensive. I think you could easily do it in budget.

We booked with Top Drawer Holidays and they were very competitive. Also got quotes with Turquoise & Trailfinders x

Like I said before, Dubai bumped the price up by at least a couple of grand and the hotels were staying at are the number one hotels in Ubud & Seminyak as rated on Trip Advisor so I don't feel we've got a bad deal. To say £6.5k was the cheapest out of 3 quotes from travel companies we've got then they can't be ripping us off!

Hey everyone thank you for your responses, all v helpful!

congrats finty on your engagement :-) where did you stay in Bali and how much would you say you spent o2n food/drink/other expenses etc? Would you recommend Singapore? Its a place on the natural route to Bali and a lot of places offer free stop offs there, would be nice to visit. Did you do any other site seeing whilst there or just GP things? Also who did you fly with?

@Wherts2b sounds wonderful! If we had a bigger budget we would def splash out a bit more but alas we must be strict and stick to the budget! How long are you spending in Ubud and Seminyak and why did you choose Seminar over other areas? Oh also lol sorry for so many questions which airline are you flying with?

@bionicgrasshopper lots of info thanks so much I did consider this as I think I would really like to spend some time in the south, Ubud and the north. I guess booking a package or tailor making one takes away any poss stress and I def don't want to be stressed!

I had a look at flights to Bali today... For economy next year Sept the average seems to be about 700.. Is this a good price? I've seen under 600 but that's with Air Asia....... Not sure if I want to fly with them as it's a long haul, anyone experienced air Asia?

thanks for all your help hopefully you can help answer my many more questions! So exciting this is the best part of the wedding planning lol

Were flying with Emirates, Malaysia Airlines & Garuda Airline! We were warned you have to be careful with some of the indonesian airlines as their health & safety regulations aren't up to scratch and so in the EU they're not permitted to book with certain airlines. I would definitely look into this and use an agent if you can.

We're spending a week each in Ubud & Seminyak. Going ubud first for the seclusion and relaxation and will be nice to experience the culture there. We then wanted to spend a week by the beach and when I researched we found seminyak is probably the most cosmopolitan of the resorts in bali with nice bars and designer boutiques. I borrowed this book from the library http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bali-Lombok-Eyewitness-Travel-Guides/dp/0756661315/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1319615877&sr=8-3 and found it was really good in helping me make my decision! I Say "me" and "I" because the OH wasn't bothered either way!

I've been more excited about the honeymoon than the wedding tbh!! We're staying B&B as we found all of the hotels we looked at were, but look for some that offer complimentary afternoon tea and there's lunch taken care of. When I've looked on trip advisor at some of the restaurants in the area the prices were coming out a little higher for meals than people have put on here

Good luck! xx

How exciting! We are getting married on 11 August next year too and we are looking at doing the exact same thing, so all of these posts are v helpful! We've been doing quite a bit of research and it seems Ubud appeals to us a lot more. Hayes & Jarvis seem to be offering the best deals - price wise and for quality of hotel - a little over £2k between us. Virgin have some amazing looking packages, but were a bit more pricey. Last year Hayes & Jarvis had quite a few deals to Bali, so we are torn between waiting a little while for a deal or just booking something now, so we get exactly we want. You mentioned Singapore - I've been there before and it is very pretty, but I'm imagining Bali to be a lot nicer! I went to Singapore Zoo which was great and there is a nice bay/Quay with nice restaurants, but I can't remember the name - sorry! Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling cocktail is a must! I've travelled quite a bit and can't say that I was blown away with Singapore, but you may love it - there's certainly nothing bad to say about it! xxx

BUT I'M GOING TO DUBAI AS WELL......AHHH!!!

Hello everyone ?

I havent got much to add I'm afraid but I just wanted to say I am watching this thread with interest as we're planning to go to Bali for our Honeymoon around Sept next year too. (Getting married in May but having to postpone the honeymoon)

We're hoping to go for 2-3 weeks and travel around. We want to splash out on a couple of nice hotels probably the first and last few nights but then go a bit more budget in the middle to extend our stay. We're looking at the North coast, Ubud and the Gili islands probably as our main destinations, avoiding Kuta or anywhere similar like the plague (I try to avoid drunk Britains in Britain, I dont want them on my honeymoon!!)

We'll probably end up booking it all ourselves, as we dont mind a bit of the unknown (aka 'stress'!) to our travelling but also looking into seeing what trailfinders could do for us. Will be looking at all your suggestions too.

Happy planning! x

ETA: we also dont want to spend a penny over 4k, hopefully less.

lol well that's just your opinion. I did my research and got quotes from 3 different agents over the space of 6 months, changing flights, hotels etc and this is the cheapest, others came out a grand higher. The hotel we're staying at in Dubai is mega bucks. I'm happy with the deal we've got, and though I'm sure as you say you can do it for 3-3.5k it all depends on where you're staying and how straight forward your flights are.

Good point, yes drunk anybody wouldnt be great! I like drinking, but I'm picturing just me and the H on a deserted beach watching the sunset with a few Balinese beers ?

Oooh, you're making me really excited now ? I just want to go!

Hi everyone, thanks for being so active on this post & glad that it's going to help loads of others including my wedding date & so it seems honeymoon twin Charandjay - welcome!

So I did some research and looked into Hayes & Jarvis and also Thomas Cook - both coming up with lots of 14 night deals in Bali for well within my budget - £2k / £3k but I'm not keen on all of the hotels and definitely want to move around when in Bali. I got a quote for Singapore and Bali and the price of the holiday was just under £4k so I may forget Singapore if it bumps up the price considerably - tbh I only wanted t go Singapore because someone suggested it as a good stop off and I thought it would be nice.

So I'm thinking 14 nights in Bali... I'd like to start up in the North and have seen the amazing Spa Village Tembok - I saw this accommodation at a Turquoise / Brides Magazine honeymoon event it sounds fantastic! So I'm thinking perhaps 4 nights there to relax and unwind together and then move south to Ubud for a few days and then onto one of the white beach areas... I'm not sure which white beach area.. would like to steer clear of Kuta and Nasua Dau like Scilly B2B but not sure which area is the best? Want to just be able to relax on the gorgeous white sand beach while still taking in the Balinese culture.. let me know if you have any ideas!

I am swaying possibly more towards DIY... TBH I always usually do my holidays DIY and get the most amazing hotels & flights well under budget! (I'm called "Mets Thrifty" lol) I've checked flights with Qatar who I have flowed with before & loved and their flights are coming in at £726 which is quite expensive but the cheapest is Air Asia (just over £500) and Korean Air which is about £20 cheaper (rather spend more for Qatar) that way we can choose exactly which hotels... thinking of splashing out for Spa Village Tembok, somewhere nice but not too expensive in Ubud and then somewhere really nice in the white beach area...

I'm waiting to see what Turquoise holidays have to offer

I have just googled spa village tembok, I will look properly at the weekend when I have more time, but my my!! ?

Why did I never come across this spa village! It sounds wonderful ?

Re a week at the beach - when we got quotes with Turquoise, the Elysian in Seminyak was coming up very affordable and all accomodation is in a villa with private pool. Jimbaran area is also meant to be nice.

Re ubud - a couple of nice hotels we came across were the Alila & any of the Tomaneka resorts. You can stay in normal suites quite affordably but the villas with private pool bump the price up quite considerably.

Have you thought about a nights stopover in hong kong?

xxx

Oooh thanks Wherts will look into them, still waiting for Turquoise to email me back!

I looked into The Four Seasons that is in Jimbaran Bay... it looks amazing!

Oh and now OH has thrown a spanner in the works saying he wants to go somewhere all inclusive... blah!!!! I'm going to have to investigate some other places now.. men!

We were considering a stop off in Singapore but we could look into HK too, I think it will depend on the airline - if Cathay Pacific I think HK is their layover so it would make sense but with others its Singapore

xx

Good luck! I struggled to find any all inc. hotels in Bali but there must be some somewhere.

Turquoise suggested a stop over in hong kong for us to break up the flights from heathrow but we decided we would just rather get there and suffer the long journey. Might be nice to have a day to experience somewhere different though ?

xx

I know I'm with you 100% here Bionic, it's so cheap out in Asia & I would want to experience the food out there! The Spa Village Tembok is full board so I'm hoping that I can sway him with a few days there, Ubud just B&B so we can experience difference places there to eat and then in the white beach resort similar especially if going to Sanur or Seminyak. We're going to save so much going to Bali anyway that we'll have lots of ££ left to spend on food & drink etc.

I have started to look at Maldives AI options and they're not too bad either to be honest but I I wanted to go somewhere a bit more exciting! Like Bali ... lol!

Hiya!

Couldn't resist posting here as we spent 2 weeks in Bali for our Honeymoon just over a month ago. It's a great choice - plenty to do and it's an absolutely beautiful place - stunning landscape and wonderful people.

I'd like to echo what others have said and say you really don't have to go for the all-inclusive option! We stayed in two places - both Alila hotels and both AMAZING and I would thoroughly recommend them. At Alila Ubud the monkeys live in the surrounding forest and you see quite a bit of them, so we didn't feel the need to make a separate trip to the Monkey Forest. At Manggis, on the east coast, we relaxed at the hotel quite a lot, but then it was always going to be the lazier part of the honeymoon. You get massive breakfasts, we usually only needed quite a small lunch. We played it quite safe and did eat dinner at the hotels quite a lot which wasn't cheap, but it was just so easy and it was nice having the option. The food at Alila Manggis in particular was of very good quality. We booked with Trailfinders who were fab!

Thanks Mets . We stayed at the Laguna Resort and Spa in Nusa Dua http://www.starwoodhotels.com/luxury/property/area/index.html?propertyID=277 and we loved it, definitely worthy of the 5* tag. We ate a few times at Bumbu Bali Restairant, the food was fab and not overly expensive. Drinks in hotel were expensive but if you stay 5* then that's the price you have to pay (pardon the pun!).

We liked Singapore but we feel the same way about it as we do about Dubai, it's okay for 2 or 3 nights. We went to Sentosa Island by cable car, Chinatown, Raffles for the obligatory Singapore Sling (not as good as the one on the plane), Marina Bay Sands Skypark. We didn't have much time for anything else due to the GP being a night race. The humidity was unbelievable, very warm and steamy. We would go back, but only for a couple of nights en route somewhere else.

Flew with Singapore Airlines who were fantastic (upstairs economy on the A380, small quiet cabin and we had leg room woohoo). We missed our connection from Bali on way back due to bad weather in Sing but SA put us up in a hotel for the night and rearranged our flight home including our connecting flight from LHR which was brilliant considering we had booked that separately. Plus they got us business class lounge access. Definitely first class service. Only one thing, not that it's important... we didn't find the plane seats as comfy as Emirates but they did have an adjustable headrest.

I would agree that the price of a hotel in Dubai would push the price of a holiday up. We paid 1800 for 5 nights, hotel only, last year, no flights as we were already in the Maldives and decided to stop over in Dubai on way home.

Haven't read through the rest of the thread as I've been away for a few days, so not sure if you have booked yet lol.

We decided to give the Monkey Forest a miss after hearing how agressive the monkey were when my friend was there last year. Monkey jumped on her head and scratched right across her forehead, totally unprovoked, she didn't have any food and it was just at the entrance.

Aww I can't WAIT to see the monkeys!!!!

Did you go to the elephant safari park?

Hello,

We went to Bali last November and December

We book flights with Cathay Pacific for 689 each via Hongkong. We stopped 4 days in HK and then to Bali for 3 weeks. Then back via HK with no stopover.

Ive never been to Asia before, But HK was out of this world. And I want to go back again. We done Disney world there, shopped our asses off. Got loads of bargains for christmas presents. And ate some really nice food. (Although the beer in HK is mega bucks)

Then we stayed in Seminyak. Which is about 20 minutes up the beach from Kuta. It is quite an expat area and it is really nice. We did go to Kuta but it was a bit like Benidorm.

We stayed at Seri Villa and Villa Aqua. My cousin owns these villas and a few others and he gave us use of them for a wedding gift.

Eating out in Bali is really cheap we went to probablly the best italian resteraunt I have ever been too and me and the wife had 4 courses with drinks and it cost about £20 all in. We went to Metis which is the top resteraunt on the island had 2 courses and drinks and cost £85 for 4 of us all in. We ate japanese food, traditional balinese food and even had pizza delivered to us on the beach. And I had trouble spending money to be honest.

We spent a day on the beach in Seminyak, 5 sun loungers about 40 bintangs pizza dlivered, the misses had a pedicure and manicure on the beach, I had a massage and we spent about £50 quid.

Ciggys were about £1 a packet....

Taxis were cheaper than walking..... 20 minutes from Seminyak to Kuta was about £3. I think we spent more tipping our driver from the villa.

We went rafting about £40 each it was awesome. About 2 hours in the boat. And the locals would happily swim out and deliver a bintang of 2 on route

I would look at DIYing as you will save a fortune, most of my cousins guests are people who booked first holiday through and agent and now deal direct.

Some places are quite dear, we went to Ku De Ta one evening to watch the sunset. I bought the first round of cocktails £50 needless to say the rest of the night was on my cousins account. haha.

Gili isles are gorgeous. I would only recommend going to them in addition to a Bali holiday as nearly 2 days will be spent travelling to and back from them as they are quite remote. and the time would be better spent enjoying your holiday in bali. They are very remote, but relaxing and indulgant.

rob

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to let you all know that after much consideration we have decided to goto Mauritius instead. The hubby really wanted a relaxing trip and to be honest after the wedding I probably will too! We have decided on the Heritage Awali Golf & Spa Resort 5* Deluxe All Inclusive it has amazing ratings on Trip Advisor and I think will be much better. I'm definitely going to have to book a trip to Bali in the next few years and will do the whole twin centre & travel around Bali thing but for now Mauritius wins!

For those of you still interested I would definitely advise looking at Tembok Village Spa in the north of Bali. I spoke to Audley Travel and Turquoise who I would highly recommend - the Audley lady was realllly informative and helpful. Found great prices on Hayes & Jarvis - think they were the best.

xx

We went to Bali for our honeymoon and booked using expedia. We stayed at the Conrad, which was beautiful but has a really disappointing beach. Altogether, for 1 week's stay we spent about US$2000 (excluding travel fees). I think £4k is definitely doable as there are so many great hotels in Bali that are affordable. Take note though that you'd probably need to hire a taxi for a whole day to go sight-seeing, but you can probably bargain with them to go down to around £25 to £30 to take you from Nusa Dua to Ubud with a stopover and Jimbaran for the lovely seafood there.

I wrote a bit about our honeymoon in Bali here: http://www.jqweddings.com/single-post/fun-bali/ hope that'll give you some idea as to what to look forward to!

That is true. for 4k, bali is very affordable. and for 1 week, you can go all around bali. bali is a small island.