Honeymoon! Malaysia Airlines.

Could you potentially take out a 0% credit card and pay on that? Trailfinders don't charge a credit card fee, which is rare

I'm really struggling to book the honeymoon for August! Everywhere I look it says that flights aren't available yet as its too far in advance. We wanted to do something similar too - perhaps maybe Borneo (via KL or Singapore) but no where is letting me book that far ahead. Maybe I'll check out trail finders then - that's a great price you got! Malaysia Airlines are really good, often make the top ten best airlines (I'm a bit of a plane nerd!)

Paying it isnt a problem as we've got the money in our Principality account - it's meant for house savings but as we're not aiming to buy until Dec next year anyway, we'll be able to pay it back by then! I just feel a bit uneasy about parting with so much money so far in advance - what if the airline goes bust or the flight times change etc etc!

I think the flights for us have only just come out this week, we're going on 2 Aug, coming back on 16.

Yep.

Malaysia is one the premier airlines in the world. It's not going to go bust. They are rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

Flight times may change, but that can happen right up to the day of flying.

Malaysia Airlines are a massive airline - they are very unlikely to go bust.

Haha - thanks for the reassurance girls. I've only flown longhaul once before, when I was much younger, so apolgies for my ignorance!

Your in safe hands with MA. I fly to Malaysia every few years as I have family there but only had the luxury to fly with them twice in my life time, every time having to pay just the plane fare ticket in full for family of three which amounts to about £2k. Also some travel insurance will cover certain unforeseen circumstances. Great price you have there and you get to go to Bali as well! Recently went and it was amazing.

Thanks for the feedback everyone it's great to hear! I'm a very nervous flyer so I'll feel better knowing I'm in a nice plane haha! Where in Bali did you go Lionel? Any activities you'd recommend?

I'm also flying Malaysia Airlines for my honeymoon next year and we paid up front. From memory I think we had to on Singapore airlines last year too as this was the only way to get the offer at the time on that flight (as the prices change). We went to Sanur last year - it's lovely, very laid back and some great restaurants on the beach front. ALso taxis and hiring drivers is very cheap so you can go to lots of different places very easily. We hired a driver for a couple of tours and a trip to Ubud and took a cab to a few different places in the evening too.

HundredMonkeys - when we were looking most flights were released a year/11 months before so they should be on sale shortly if not already.

We stayed first in Ubud which is more in the countryside, so amoungst the paddy fields, it was very scenic. The roads in bali are pretty mental, never experienced anything liked it so decided to hire a driver for the day who showed us various sites such asTanah Lot Temple(temple on the sea), the Jatiluwih Rice Terrace, the monkey forest and elephant park which are all worth a visit. You will have to do a little research on doing this as there are alot of companies and touts, most of the hotels are very good at advising the best options though. Second area we stayed in was actually Sanur which we kinda just lazed either by the pool or the beach, great place for honeymooning as the beaches werent too busy, had loads of amazing food and market places.

We're about to book our honeymoon to Bali next September and cant wait! We're based in NZ at the moment and are often flying back and forth to the UK via Asia. unfortunately most of the big Asian airlines require payment within a month of booking which is a bit of a pain

Wow I'm even more excited now DreamCatchMe/Lionel - as we're staing in Sanur! Which hotels did you stay in? We originally were going to go with the Bali Hyatt but it's closing now for 2 years, so we're staying at Sanur Beach Hotel instead. How expensive is Bali? We're planning on taking £100 a day between us, the hotel includes breakfast and we're only planning on going for proper meals a few times, most of the time we're keen to just get market/street food. We want to do a combination of beach lazing and trips though, I really want to go to an elephant sanctuary/park, to the waterfall, and up to Ubud as well. Does £100 per day (between two people) realistically sound like enough?

You can eat normal restaurant food and drink local beer (it's rebranded Heineken) for about £10 per couple per day. Where we were (Seminyak), there wasn't a huge amount of street food, but also no impetus to eat it - why would you when they're standing in front of a restaurant that sells a bowl of pasta for £2 and a steak for £4?

£100 will buy you a glam four course meal, plus wine, in a swanky restaurant.

Wine is the killer though. It's mostly imported and a standard bottle of Australian might cost you £50, The local stuff is perfectly drinkable at £5 per bottle, but not many places serve it.

We had a whole driving tour day, which cost £100 (lunch was extra, but still only £20, in the most gorgeous hotel in Ubud).

A previous thread on Bali:

https://www.hitched.co.uk/chat/forums/p/326930/2998875.aspx

That's really helpful, thanks FTLOMB. I've taken note of a couple of the restaurants mentioned, and it's great to hear how cheap eating out is! £100 a day is an average price, so on the days where we don't go on a trip and just lounge, we can save money to use on trips. Sounds like we definitely have to do a private tour of the island!

Oh and one more question sorry - what are the local alcoholic bevarages like? I'm happy to have local rather than paying loads for imported, I don't drink beer (h2b does) but I drink spirits, wine etc, pretty much everything else!

All scheduled flights must be paid in full at time of booking. Any "deposit" time you get is your booker giving you some extra time.

We did a very similar holiday back in 2009 - flew to KL for 2 nights with Malaysian, then onto Bali staying in Sanur 2 nights (Mercure), 5 nights on tour, 5 nights back in Sanur (Puri Santrian) then 1 night in KL again before flight home. Fab place. Sanur is lovey

Beer is fine. I think you can get some foreign stuff, but the local brew - Bintang - is fine. It's the Heineken brand in Indonesia. Cheap as chips.

Local wine is perfectly drinkable but not lovely, and certainly not widely available. I stuck to the standard wine lists, despite the eye watering prices.

We had a few gin and tonics - think they were imported Bombay Sapphire. Comparable to English prices, a little cheaper, but ginormous measures!

We stayed in the Segara Village Hotel and it was lovely, beautiful hotel and a beautiful setting. The beach is lovely but very very shallow along there.

FTLOMB is right about the food - it is so cheap in the restaurants that you don't need anything else. I don't remember seeing much street food in Sanur. There's lots of restaurants along the beach front and in the main town that do good food and you get noodles for lunch for about £1. Drink wise, ,again as FTLOMB says it's around English prices for spirits - I stuck to spirits and didn't try the wine. My OH loved Bintang.

We were only there for a week as we also spent a week in Lombok (which for anyone going that way a would highly recommend combining the two, or just Lombok as it's just incredible and some beautiful, relatively unspoilt beaches and a really lovely atmosphere). Some evenings we took cabs to other areas - Kuta just to see it (we didn't think much of it but found a lovely restaurant down a side street (I think it was called Un's). Also, we went to Jimbaran which has a long row of fish restaurants - where you choose your fish and they serve it with lots of sides and all the tables are on the beach front with the waves crashing around you. It was really lovely and great food.

Can't remember any of the names of the places we ate in Sanur but there were lots of nice ones. Trips-wise it is very cheap to get a driver for the day and just tell them where you want to go and Ubud is great - I also wish we'd spent a few days here.

Definitely avoid Kuta, not even to have a look. It's disgusting. An Aussie Newquay of cheap hostels, dirty nightclubs and overflowing drains!

Yes probably wasn't clear enough definitely don't bother (as we found out) but if you happen to be a fan of dirty nightclubs and overflowing drains then there's a nice restaurant there too ?.

Thanks everyone, really really helpful! Might try and acquire a taste for beer before we go seeing as it's so cheap!

In Sanur we stayed in Griya Santrian. As prev mentioned food is cheap and the main strip in Sanur has every type of restaurant you can think of. For local markets, we found there were more in Ubud area. For drinks go during happy hour usually before 8 as that's where the best deals are...apart from the Bintang we were treating ourselves to few cocktails on most days ; )

Oh don't know that happened there, seemed to have posted under my old profile as well?