Indonesia Luxury Anniversary Trip Review: Bali, Ubud, Seminyak, Temples, Trekking, Waterfalls, Local Cuisine, 2-Week Tour

For anyone considering a trip to Bali, I very strongly suggest that you work with Dharsana at the travel agency. We had also worked with a second travel agency, but they just did not reach out as much as this one in coming up with a suitable trip and just did not seem as interested.

The trip to Bali, Indonesia was fantastic!!! It was a pleasure working with Dharsana at agency in arranging our vacation. He listened to what I had to say and planned the trip accordingly. His team met us even before going through customs and helped us through the process. I have never experienced that type of assistance with any other travel agency. Dharsana met with us after going through customs and drove with us and a driver to our hotel providing all sorts of information. He also had arranged to convert U.S. dollars into the Indonesia Rupiah when I arrived rather than having to go to a currency exchange. And when our trip was finished, his team helped us through the check in at the airport and took us to a lounge in the airport where we could relax and have free food and drink. I was so surprised by that. Once again, I had never had that kind of assistance before. I was planning on buying a SIM card for my phone, but Dharsana arranged for us to have a device that provided us with WIFI services wherever we went, so a SIM card was not necessary. Again, just another unexpected surprise.

During our trip, we had one problem with one of the hotels we stayed at. Dharsana drove at least one hour both ways to ensure the problem was resolved. In fact, he made two round trips to make sure everything was well taken care of. Further, during our trip he arranged for an anniversary dinner and a birthday dinner. They were great. At the 100 candlelit anniversary dinner, our table was in an excluded area by a river. It was incredibly romantic. They had rose petals spelling out "happy anniversary". The food was fantastic and the entire experience was beyond words. And the restaurant where the birthday dinner was held also provided wonderful food. And Dharsana drove to both restaurants to wish us well on those dinners.

Our trip of 15 nights included 9 nights in Ubud and 6 nights in Seminyak. At both places, we arranged different tours through Dharsana using their own staff. The tours were great. We traveled on these tours with a guide and a driver. He is an excellent driver. We had an excellent guide. Not only did they take us to some wonderful temples, but we got to participate in the prayer services rather than just watch the services. Our guide explained what to do during the services and provided all the prayer boxes that were needed. At one of the temples, whose name is Lempuyang Temple (The Heaven's Gate), there are 1700 steps to climb. My wife and I are in our sixties and found doing the steps a fun challenge. At one point, some of the monkeys on the way up seemed to be getting a little aggressive. Our guide took care of it and I got to learn what to do if monkeys become aggressive. He took pictures with his own phone in addition to using our own phones. He then created some excellent videos using different pictures that he had taken and set them to music.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the people of Bali. They were very friendly and patient. For example, after climbing the 1700 steps, our guide took pictures of my wife and I in front of a sign as proof of our success. Since we were the only Westerners who were successful in climbing the stairs at the time, the Bali residents who made the climb asked us if we would mind them taking pictures with us using their own phone cameras. They asked where we were from. As the photos were taking place, more of the Bali residents asked if they too could have their pictures taken with us. It was a great experience. All of our experiences with the residents of Bali were very pleasant.

In total we did about 7 or 8 tours. Visiting the temples was great. We took a trip to a place where we saw three waterfalls. It was excellent. My wife swam at one or two of the waterfalls, whereas I just walked around. Our trips to the rice terraces were excellent. They were beautiful to see and walk through.  And a must do activity is the sunrise trekking.  This involves climbing a volcano at around 4:00 am to arrive in time to see the sunrise.  It is a difficult walk.  Many young people would have problems.  My wife and I are in good shape, so we managed to climb it in 1 hour 45 minutes.  I only saw two others who were our age or older.

Our hotels were excellent and were suggested by Dharsana. In fact, he gave us a few choices to consider. I then did some research on the hotels to decide which ones to stay at. During my research Dharsana provided some very useful information about the hotels that I used in making a final decision.

The food during our stay was great. My wife is more adventurous than I am when it comes to food and made sure to sample as many Bali dishes as possible. I never heard one complaint from her. At both hotels that we stayed at, breakfast was included. They were superb! You could basically ask for as much food as you wanted and there was a great amount of choices in the foods. Of course it was not just the quantity of food, but the quality was great. We often skipped lunches because the breakfasts were so filling.

In Ubud we stayed at a resort. The rooms there are huge. The rooms also included an outdoor deep soak tub that we took advantage of. There was also a private plunge pool for each room. My only complaint about the pool would be that the temperature of the plunge pool is too cold. As a result, I did not use it as often as I otherwise would have. The main swimming pool was a little too cold as well. In Seminyak we stayed at another resort. I have never been to a hotel that provided such great service. The rooms may not have been as large, but they were easily large enough. The food was fantastic. There was a complimentary tea each afternoon and the swimming pool was wonderful.