It’s about a 2 hour drive from Ubud to Munduk. We hired a driver to bring us up north but of course, had to make a few stops along the way. This waterfall is easy to access. Takes about 15 minutes to get there (mostly downhill) and ALOT of uphill to get back. Recommend getting there early to avoid crowds and the heat.
Beautiful temple on the lake—the grounds were really pretty but they also has some cheesy aspects too it, I guess to appeal to tourist? There was a ton of kids there, who looked to be on field trips and I had a couple of girls in hijabs come take pictures with me because I was “pretty” 🤣
Our hotel in Munduk. The pool had this really large, unnecessary Hindu deity in it but other than that, the resort is beautiful and the service/staff here is EXCELLENT. We stayed in Room #32, which actually had 3 beds in it and an upstairs. The pool looked out on the mountains.
There are 4 waterfalls along this trek.
It’s actually super easy to do without a guide but the hotel set one up for us. Our guides name was Harry (probably not 😂). We started at Golden Valley then Red Coral and lastly Labuhan Kebo. Labuhan Kebo was definitely the best one, so we decided to skip the last one (melanting) since it took about 40 minutes from this waterfall, back to the parking lot.
Instead of going to the last waterfall (melanting waterfall), we decided to take the shortcut back and stop at this precious rest place called R&R. Shockingly, there are a ton of different warungs/places to stop along this whole entire waterfall trek. We got coffee and a beer, along with lots of pets from a baby puppy!
After getting back from waterfall trekking, we got some afternoon tea and a workout in. Getting to the gym was a workout in itself. It was pretty far from our room and mostly up hill. The gym was pretty barebones and HOT AS FUCK. It was like a damn sauna. When we got back to the room, we had naked pool party!
The sunsets are unreal, since we are essentially above the clouds. We made it to dinner at the hotel restaurant where they had live music (with a great playlist and lots of singing along). There was an American couple there that we were listening into their conversation and it was apparent they just got married and WERE NOT happy😬
Drove about an hour to see these waterfalls. You apparently need a guide and matter what for these waterfalls, which I didn’t read in any of the guides online. In order to get there you had to ride a scooter for about 15 minutes holding on for dear life. Once you got to the top of the waterfall you had to track down about 450 steps to get to the fork in the path, to see both of the waterfalls. Going up the steps was a bitch to return back to our takeoff point.
This was the first waterfall we visited. Everything I read on the travel blogs was that this is the most beautiful waterfall in all of Bali but I have to disagree. Although this was stunning, the other waterfall, Fiji was much more impressive. I recommend getting to these waterfalls as early as possible to avoid crowds. We were one of the first people to this waterfall, which made for taking pictures a lot easier.
This waterfall was definitely our favorite. It’s massive. It has four waterfalls in one area. It’s absolutely stunning. We could have spent much more time here, even bringing a picnic, to just admire this waterfall
At the end of our track, we stopped at the warung along the rice terraces and had some coconut water. We found these rice terraces almost more beautiful than the other ones, probably secondary to the backdrop of the beautiful mountains surrounding them.
Ended our last night in Munduk with a pool side/fireside dinner at the hotel. We had the whole fire pit to ourselves overlooking the pool and underneath the stars, with a ridiculous amount of food. They cooked literally everything in their kitchen for us. We had this amazing mushroom soup to start. We of course ended the night with wine, desert and live music up in the restaurant.
This is the take off point to get to nusa penida. They have about 5-6 different boats to get to the island. We took Axe Stone at 11am. The boat itself is packed with people and HOT AS FUCK. Recommend sitting close to where you get into the boat, just so you can get off the boat as quick as possible and sitting next to a window, to get some air.
When we arrived to nusa penida, there was a 25,000 price pp visa. We had someone from our hotel come and pick us up. The parking lot to get out of the harbor is a fucking shitshow and the roads in nusa penida need a lot of work
Staying in room 2 with our own private pool. The resort itself is very small and boutique.
Rented motorbike to get to crystal bay, which was close to our villas. Honestly, unless you are comfortable driving a motorbike—this was kind of scary especially since the roads are so small and there’s a mix of vans, cars and other motorbikes. We did see some tourist in accidents but since it was real actively close to our hotel, we risked it!
Went to crystal bay beach but was filled with people. We made the trek from crystal bay to pandan. Easily accessible from crystal bay at the far end of the beach—but a 15 minutes uphill hike with some not so stable stairs to get there but SO worth it. There wasn’t as many people. Recommend bringing water shoes to get into the ocean—there are a ton of rocks and no telling if you’re going to run into a sea urchin
Grabbed a bite to eat on crystal bay. There are a ton of different warungs to stop at but we settled on warung crystalova, based on some reviews but they essentially have the same menus and a big focus on grilled corn for some reason. We of course found more cute dogs!
Dinner at our resort.
Wow—this place is just magical. So stunning from every angle. We made our guide take us here first, early in the morning, because I heard the lines can get really bad. We arrived at around 8am and there were already people there, lining up to take pictures. Our guide was impressive with the skills to had to take pictures. You can walk down to the beach but this takes about an hour and it pretty rough, based on everything I read and some videos I watched. So, we skipped this but I think if we would have had more time on the island, I might have done this. If your strapped for time though, skip walking all the way down.
Because we wanted to get to the east coast before the lines to other sights got too long, we skipped broken beach and billabong which were also two other sights in the west coast to see.
This beach is really stunning but again, the LINES!!! It was wild, I really don’t think people were even taking in the beautiful setting because they were too busy taking pictures. You can go down on the beach via very long and steep steps but apparently the waves are pretty rough so our guide didn’t recommend getting into the water here. Since we didn’t want to spend all day climbing up and down steps and wanted to see some more sights, we forewent getting down on the beach and instead just admired it from above.
Got away from the ridiculousness and mayhem of diamond beach and got to relax on this beach right next store. This beach was beautiful but the current was pretty strong and the drop off from the sand was still pretty shallow but just a ton of large rocks that was difficult to walk on. I literally had to get helped out of the water by a nice girl walking by because I kept slipping and the current kept pulling me back! To get to this beach, you have to hike down (and of course back up) some pretty steep steps but I would say, this was definitely a nice change in pace from all of the craziness and picture taking of the morning. There was a ton of warungs on the beach with food and beer!
This was worth a stop but DEAR GOD the lines to take pictures was INSANE. They give you a number so you are already queued in line when you arrive. Thank god for our guide because I’m pretty sure he paid someone off to let us skip the line because they called number 43 when we arrived and we had the number 79 but we really only waited about 30 minutes to take the picture. They also have a time limit of two minutes per picture session to help speed things along. If you are really looking at visiting here and taking pictures, I recommend going early in the morning.
We stopped at this place for a late lunch after a long day. We picked this one over another beach club called The Chill, mostly because the food looked more up our alley but I think either one would have been good options. We ordered a bunch of food, spent some time in the pool and chilled out before the long ride home. While driving back from this place, all along the north of the island there were GREAT looking little beach clubs that I wish we would have know about. Apparently, a popular one is called penida colada
Grabbed some dinner at the villas after a long day of sight seeing
Room 112. This place is great—the service, the grounds. Our room is in its own little complex with 5 other rooms. We have our own butler, shared pool/kitchen/dining/hang out area, in addition to our own private pool. The hotel also has tennis court and small putting green.
Sundays is a beach club that is right below the hotel and you get priority access if you are staying at the hotel.
View point to see the cliffs and the temple. Also, apparently a great place to see the sunset
You can’t actually go in this temple but can walk around the grounds. It’s worth a stop but you don’t have to spend a ton of time here. The monkeys here are ruthless, stealing stuff left and right from people!
Another great little spot for a lookout. Also, great for sunset!
This place is a must! The beach, between huge rock formations, is only accessible at low tide so make sure you check the tide tables. The water is shallow since the beach is protected by all of the reefs. There are ton of surfers out of here. The whole beach and area is very low key and laid back.
Sunset here is a must!!! They have a pool, hang out area, bar and restaurant. The views and vibes are great, the food is decent but the SUNSETS. Wow. We stayed here for WAY too long while our poor driver was just waiting for us but it was SO worth it. The highlight was watching the sunset with a DJ’s music going and watching the surfers catch waves. Highly recommend
Had a morning exploring the grounds and getting a work out it. They have a small putting green, tennis and a great gym!
Spent the last day vegging out at this beach club, right below our hotel. Recommend getting a day bed and spending the whole day. The tides really make and break the day—early in the AM when we got down at around 10, the waves were wild but by noon, it was like a different ocean with super calm seas. Prescott got a ridiculously cheap massage here
We did some exploring down to beach, past the cliffs, during low tide. The rocks were covered in seaweed. It was really beautiful
Ended our day right where we started it, at Sundays! After watching the sunset, we realized there was a live band playing near the entrance, so we stayed for a few songs and then ended with dinner in our villa