You’ll find Bali located 3 miles off the west coast of Java with a comparatively small land area of just over 5,000km ; Bali could fit into Australia over 1,200 times. From the top on a Map of Bali in the north to the tip of the island in the south is only 55miles and east to west it is only ninety miles, so getting round the island is reasonably simple and the longest drive that you would need to do to get to any resort would be 2 hours at the most.
The hottest Bali Hotels are situated in the south of the island with a few others along the west and east coast. Nusa Dua is the most southern resort that is well-liked by travellers, though you may find other less known ones a bit further south. The roads around the coast of Bali are generally in good condition, it is when you leave the main stretch that you’ll find that the roads are very seldom maintained to any standard and are generally just dirt tracks regularly impassible by two cars and you must be cautious about folk and animals that use not only these side roads but the main roads to walk on.
Heading along the west coast from Nusa Dua you’ll come to Jimbaran another extremely popular and busy tourist resort. Perhaps ten minutes further along you may pass by Ngurah Rai International airport that’s used as a gateway for the rest of Indonesia. Kuta and South Kuta are maybe another 20 mins drive from here and this is where you’ll find the most commercialized area of Bali. Not only are the hotels designed to accommodate many tourists, but the leisure facilities and the shopping areas very tourist orientated.
The drive from here to the tip of the west coast will take you past some of the more up market holiday maker destinations of Bali. Legian and Seminyak are situated along the west coast and offer more magnificent accommodation including private beaches, gardens and swimming pools. The remainder of the drive up the west coast will take you past many places to stay, but they don’t seem to be the well known or well-liked resorts or hotels. For the tourist who likes secluded areas there’ll be plenty of places to stay along this western section of Bali without all the trappings and crowds of the big visitor places.
From here you might head inland in an easterly direction and you will come to Ubud which is situated in the mountainous area of Bali. The landscape is worlds apart compared to the coastal resorts. Here you will be encircled by lush tropical rain forests with stunning perspectives of the mountains and volcanoes. Driving further east you will shortly come to the eastern shore, where there are some popular resorts. As with the resorts further up the west coast you’ll find these are more expensive than the southern areas due to the fantastic diving locations around this area. The well known resorts on the east coast are Candi Dasa and Sanur. When you get to Sanur you can take a detour inland and come to Denspanar, the capital of Bali. Although this is not actually a well-liked holiday maker destination due to its absence of beaches, night life and shopping malls, it’s still worth taking time out to explore.
From Denspanar you would drive south again and before you get to Nusa Dua where you started from, you will pass Tanjung Benoa a truly well-liked, but very up market area. Tanjung Benoa is situated on the tip of the peninsula and has stunning views of the ocean.
As far as the most visited and popular places in Bali go, those are the better known ones, but Bali offers so much more. There are such a lot of more Bali hotels situated all around the island and on some of the smaller islands just around the coast. Bali is surely an island to be explored and taking one of the Bali Tours to one of the lesser know towns will give you a miles better comprehension of the real Balinese way of life.
