My fiance & I have been doing a ton of research about Bali and I have been reading every review and article I can find. Almost all of them are 5 star reviews everywhere I look. However, I've noticed that most of the reviews come from Austrailian tourists, British tourists or other international destinations that have much shorter flight times. The flights from NY will take us over 25 hours each way and I'm worried about being underwhelmed when I get there and too exhausted to enjoy it. For example, I think many places in Mexico are great vacation options but I wouldn't tell someone to travel 25 hours to get there.
We want to do something "once in a lifetime", exotic and have luxury accomodations without having to pay astronimical prices. Bali seems to fit our $10,000 budget well because we can have a private villa with a pool for the same price as average hotel rooms in other locations.
Weather is also a concern. Our honeymoon will be in August so we ruled out the Carribean for that reason (we were hit by both Irene and Sandy and want to be as far away from hurricanes as possible) The Maldives is in monsoon season, Thailand is in the wet season and both are more expensive. Bali however, is in it's dry seaon and best weather to visit.
There are a few other issues concerning me. My fiance always gets eaten alive by mosquitos and I would hate to pay for an outdoor villa but be hiding under a mosquito net the whole time. Bali will be in it's dry season though so I don't think it is as much of a concern in August but bug spray will be packed anyway. Some reviews mention rats in places that have close proximity to the jungle. Other reviews mention garbage everywhere. I'm trying to decipher what are actual problems and what are just overreactions by people who like to complain. I don't know anyone who has been to Bali so I'm completely relying on accuracy from the internet.
If anyone has made it this far through this rambling post I thank you! Here are more details if anyone can help. So far we are considering 5 days at the W hotel in Seminyak in the pool villa. We like the W hotel chain and figured we might like the familiarity until we recover from our jet lag and get used to Bali.
Then, we would travel to Ubud to get a more authentic Bali experience. We have not settled on where to stay yet but there are several private villa options (The Chedi Club and Four Seasons seems to be out of our price range though). The Bidadari private villas have great reviews and offer a nice honeymoon package in our budget and we would even do the Volcano hike tour. Our main concern is that we will not like / get sick of/ get sick from/ authentic Balinese food. I am an adventurous eater but have a very sensitive stomach. My fiance is afraid to try new things. I am practically vegetarian, he loves meat. This won't be a concern for the first 5 days if we stay at the W because we know what we can expect (although we will have to pay sky high prices for it). But once we are in Ubud evey hotel seems to offer mainly Balinese cuisine and we have no idea what that means. We are willing to try restaurants in town so I have been reading reviews for places like Bridges and Swept Away at the Samaya.
Wow, I wrote a lot. If you read this far - thank you! If you can help, I thank you even more.
Best wishes,
Kerry