Bali was actually where we spent our honeymoon! We chose Bali because we felt like, being fairly frugal travelers, we can really splurge more with our money going a lot further than in a lot of other vacation destinations. We could do off the cuff things like renting jet skis on the beach or parasailing because we felt like they were great deals and would be way more expensive anywhere else.

There’s no shortage of things to do in Bali, and after a lot of research and exploring, here are the top things to do in Bali in our opinion! If you have more suggestions, we’d be happy to hear them in the comments 🙂

Surprisingly there are actually more than one Monkey temple in Bali. The one we went to Alas Kedaton, which was just part of a tour we booked at our hotel. The tour went to a place to try different teas (Kopi Luwak Baturiti), Bedugul Botanical Garden, Ulun Danu Beratan Temple, the Monkey Temple Alas Kedaton, and finally Tanah Lot temple. It was definitely a full day tour! The monkey temple was pretty deserted by the time we got there, which was cool cause there were plenty of monkeys hanging out and not a lot of people. Definitely don’t bring any valuables if you’re not planning on hanging tight to it cause those monkeys are not shy. One was pretty friendly and even decided to just climb onto Nate and sit on his shoulders and then mine! Not all of them are that friendly though but it was really cool to walk around them and see their interactions with you and each other.

Kuta is know for their surf and night life. Don’t worry about not knowing where to rent, there are places to rent boards all up and down Kuta beach. The surf was great the day we went, perfect for beginners and intermediate surfers!

There’s not a whole lot to do at Ulun Danu Temple, it’s mostly just sight seeing a beautiful temple over a lake. It was one of our many stops on our tour so we’re glad we got to take pictures of this beautiful area. We opted out on the generic food they had serving there and asked our driver to take us to Bali Strawberry Panoramic Terrace right outside that had better food with a much better view! The Bedugul Botanical Garden is also next to Ulun Danu Temple so I’d check that out as well if you go.

Nusa Penida is an island off the south coast south east side of Bali. You can take a boat there from Sanur’s port and there are also plenty of snorkel and dive tours that will take you from Sanur to Nusa Penida since there’s not a lot of accommodation on Nusa Penida. Manta Point is a spot on Nusa Penida where a lot of manta rays come and feed and congregate. You actually have better luck seeing them if you snorkel cause they tend to feed closer to the surface there. Scuba there is also a lot of fun and we went with Nico Dives Cool there and they were great! We met at the the Sanur port and they took us on a fast boat to get to our dive spots according to conditions. Sadly our underwater camera broke so we lost all our underwater photos but here are some photos from the dive shop!

Sanur is located on the opposite end of Kuta on the south east side of Bali. There are plenty of beach resorts along the coast, it’s also close to a lot of food, markets and cheap massages, and most importantly it’s close to the port so you can take a boat out to Nusa Penida for a day trip if you’d like (which we totally recommend). We stayed at the Griya Santrian for $375 for 4 days/3 nights and it was our favorite place by far in Bali! It was even better than the pictures we saw online with pools and gardens and breakfast and being right on the beach. Would definitely recommend staying here for the value and location.

Tanah Lot Temple is a temple that is only accessible during low tide. It’s pretty cool since it’s a temple built on a mini island. Sunset there is pretty gorgeous so I definitely recommend watching the sunset over the temple and ocean there. As you can see behind us in one of the photos, it does get pretty busy!

Kelingking Beach is probably one of the most iconic place in this area. It’s on Nusa Penida, a small island off the sound east side of Bali, and I would definitely put this on the top of your must do’s! Just to warn you, it does take a while to drive to the spot since a lot of the roads are very unmaintained and are extremely bumpy and just takes a long time to get anywhere. Also, if you are not staying at Nusa Penida, the last boat out of the island I think is around 5pm, so you have to make sure you set enough time to be at Kelingking if you want to hike all the way down to the beach. We didn’t have time when we went but we did hike a quarter of the way and it was still pretty breath taking!

Angel’s Billabong and Broken Beach are right next to each other (you can walk from one to the other) and are both very scenic places on Nusa Penida island. Again, it does take some time to get there through bumpy roads, and I probably wouldn’t recommend this as the only thing you do since there’s not too much to do besides walk around and take in the view. It was also pretty crowded but luckily not a lot of people wanted to get in the water at Angel’s Billabong because of all the waves that periodically crash into the tide pool. There was also someone with a whistle there warning you every time a wave is about to cash in. It was fun for a bit but you kinda get tired of getting in and out on sharp volcanic rock. Broken Beach is also beautiful to look at but sadly you can’t get down into the water there.

You can’t go to Bali without exploring Ubud for a bit! There’s a lot to see, eat, and explore in Ubud, but our favorite (besides getting banana Nutella blizzards at a Dairy Queen there) was silver making at Chez Monique Silver Smith Class. We kind of stopped by last minute without an appointment but they welcomed us with open arms and showed us what we could do and how. It’s like a little workshop, you have all the tools you’ll need and you can ask someone if you need help with something. A bit hard to find but it’s just nestled in with people’s homes. Together we made a silver pendant and even soldered it with a peddle solder. It was pretty cool!

Lastly, make sure you spend some time just relaxing and getting massages and hanging out by the pool/beach.There are countless gorgeous airbnbs so take your pick! We were recommended to stay at La Joya Biu Biu south of the airport and it really was as beautiful as all the photos. It had cliff side massages and a secret stairway entrance to the beach down below and a beautiful infinity pool perfect to watch the sunset, but the biggest inconvenience is that it’s in the middle of nowhere. You’re pretty much stuck with the food option they have there so I wouldn’t stay here unless all you want to do is bum around and relax and not try to get around too much. It was perfect for kicking back on the last few days of our honeymoon though!

Learn more travel tips in our Bali Travel Guide