After nearly 4 years of no overseas travel, I was one wee excited photog to be headed off to Bali for 2 whole weeks of holidaying. My sister-in-law was hosting her wedding celebrations in Sanur, so we had a week of family fun at a resort - I wasn’t used to this kind of holiday and it took me a few days to relax into doing literally nothing lol. And you know what. That ended up sticking for the rest of the trip.
Being a photographer, I usually have adventures and shooting ideas from dawn til dusk when travelling. I had big plans in my head for a big juicy Bali blog, taking my camera with me everywhere I went. Making the absolute most having not been overseas in so long. Banking content for socials and my print shop. Then quite honestly, once I slipped into “pool, eat, sleep, repeat” I couldn’t pull myself out of it. And nor did I want to. I even had big plans to hit a waterfall in the early hours of one morning, and I just couldn’t be arsed. I only saw one sunrise (and that’s because of the jet lag). This is so very unlike me, and I think my husband was pretty happy about it haha.
So the below is my account of the most relaxing overseas holiday I’ve had in, I don’t know how long. I only took my camera out when it felt right, or I was inspired by something I had seen on a previous outing. In my mind I had taken sweet F all photos, but turns out I have enough to give you a sweet little taster of our trip.
We begin at Auckland airport with a very excited boy about the planes and find ourselves in Sanur approx 12 hours later. Where I got my camera out only twice…
After a very fun and relaxing week at Puri Santrian, it was time to say goodbye to the fam and head down to Bingin in Uluwatu. When we had been here in 2018, we really loved it, so wanted to give it another shot with a toddler in tow. Aside from the 200 steps down to the beach in 30 degrees 1-2 times a day, we loved it all the same as the first time. (As hot as it was, we actually didn’t mind the exercise. We have longer and steeper tracks down to the beach in NZ for sure.) We stayed at Rasasvada Cottages just a short walk away from the beach. We didn’t want to stay down on the beach as the thought of hauling our bags down and up the cliff with a toddler was a big ol no. We also had plans to surf Padang Padang and do some shopping too, so made more sense to stay slightly inland. Stoked with our choice, as Rasasvada was reasonably priced, clean, super cute and did an amazing brekkie (included).
Bingin itself was actually not super busy and we easily got front row seats multiple times at Kellys Warung (HIGHLY recommend). We ended up eating here for most of our time as it was so fresh, delicious and quick to the table. We couldn’t fault a single thing we ordered and the fresh cold juices were out of this world good in the heat.
Padang Padang was a whole other story though. So.fucking.busy. The tiny beach was absolutely PACKED. My last couple of times to Padang Padang were so mellow and had the funnest surf of my life there (at Baby Padang). This time: sardines. Beach umbrellas packed in side by side. Rammed right next to a bunch of expats having a passive aggressive pissing contest on who was the most knowledgable expat on the ins and outs of Bali life. I didn’t want to surf because with every wave came a massive “crunch” sound of multiple long boards smashing together. Not a fun party wave. Jord gave it a nudge though and managed to squeeze in a few between the surf schools.
We were in Uluwatu on our wedding anniversary, so we treated ourselves to a day at Sunday’s Beach Club. Again, this is somewhere we had been last time (and again when I travelled back here with Carmen Huter) and I loved it both times. It’s a little less pretentious than the other beach clubs around. More down to earth and family friendly. We arrived at high tide, which meant there wasn’t any space on the beach to set up the umbrellas and bean bags. But I would actually recommend actually doing this on purpose if the tides line up right. It meant we could sit and have some lunch and have a frolic on the beach while our names were first on the list for when a spot opened up. This place didn’t disappoint again. The food and service is incredible and they even made us a cute little anniversary dessert on the house.
Things to note:
It is expensive on Bali standards at 500k per person (about $50NZD) but 300k of that is a food & beverage credit. Kids under 5 are free. A beach towel, access to water sports and fast wifi are all included in the price. So not bad at all for a day out at a fancy beach club really!
The ocean can be a bit “sucky” on the high tide when the waves are crashing over the reef, so make sure you stay between the flags and keep a keen eye on your kiddies.
The chicken burger is bomb AF.
There is an adults only area so you can be away from the fams if that’s your preference. Although there weren’t many kids there at all when we were there.
You get access to the pool at the top that belongs to The Ungasan Clifftop Resort.
There is a little cable car that takes you down, but you can choose to walk it if you are crazy and don’t feel heat like the average person.
The sun starts disappearing behind the cliff around 3pm, but makes for beautiful light in the seaspray.
Then it was back to Bingin’ for sunset & a feed at our fave, Kelly’s. Speaking of feeds - A super handy travel hint: get yourself a Wise card. This was so handy as most eateries accept card now. Also saves you carrying a huge stack of cash around Bali. It saved us so much money that would have usually been wasted on exchange rates and bank fees. We saved about $300 alone on the exchange rate compared to Travelex. We loaded it up with IDR and used it to get cash out and cover the bills where card were accepted. Which is actually most places now, as Bali is becoming more and more streamlined in the tech world thanks to their ever booming tourism. Loading it with more money from our bank account only took up to a couple of hours, but often was in less than 30 minutes.
This isn’t sponsored for Wise, we just thought it was really epic and would save people so much money. And we can all benefit from a nice little discount these days right, so if you’re interested, here’s our referral link - https://wise.com/invite/u/jordang90.
There was a perfect little spot at the top of the cliff walkway that I could shoot the surf from (with my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 of course). So I snuck in some shots before the sun disappeared behind a stubborn band of cloud that was dominating the horizon line every night.
Our last stop was Canggu. Well technically Berawa Beach. We found a beautiful Air Bnb that was walking distance to the beach and away from the craziness of Canggu. I couldn’t believe my eyes when we walked into this place. I’ve always dreamed of staying in a trendy Bali Air Bnb like this, and man it did not disappoint. The main strip was only a 15-20 minute walk away, but we mainly stuck to the Berawa area with heaps of great eateries nearby. So there was a lot of “Grab” orders being made to maximise pool time (grab is like Uber eats). This was an epic base to get out for a surf every morning and enjoy all that Canggu had to offer, without being in the thick of it all. Although, holy cow, that Canggu shortcut still gets choocccaaaa.
We didn’t get so lucky on the sunset front, but got very lucky with the swell. It was a bit too big for this Mumma, so while Jord surfed, I shot some snaps. I mean, I did try surf one day in waves that were fully out of my comfort zone and took a set wave to the head. So that was fun. Thankfully I live to tell the tale and did not swallow any of the water (if you’ve ever smelt the state of those waterways pouring out into that beach, you’ll know what I mean. Ick.)
And with that, I put my camera back in my bag and didn’t pull it out again. Everything you see here was shot on my trusty Nikon Z6ii. That little mirrorless beauty has truly been a huge service to my photography progressing the way it has over the past couple of years. Going back to the ol D750 DSLR is so jarring now! Still love it, but so hard going back from the ease of a super intuitive mirrorless!
Thanks for coming. Appreciate your time and support as always. Any questions, just holler.
