Anyone who’s been to Tahiti/Bora Bora, Bali, Maldives: Looking for ideas for a holiday for me and my teen daughter late next year. We are both pretty active and would want to do some activities other than laying on beaches. We are not hikers though hahah
Would love any advice- cost, best time to travel? activities etc at any places such like these. It doesn’t matter if they would be all inclusive or not- I don’t drink and we don’t eat too much
Thank you!

I love Bali, so much to do and see and tons of activities and hikes,

We just got back from the Maldives Dec 22. It was stunning! We stayed at Mercure Maldives Kooddoo. This was an all inclusive We got it on a sweet deal through travelzoo. They often have deals to the Maldives. I would highly recommend the resort we stayed at. We had an over the water bungalow with our own pool. You could sit in the pool or on the deck and watch tons of sealife. Turtles, Eagle Rays, sharks and tons of fish. It is , however, a long ways to travel for a short time. It was 5 flights going down with a total of 45 hours travel time. On the way back we stopped in Singapore for a few days to break up the travel. I think it was worth it though. The ocean water was the warmest I’ve ever swam in. The activities there are all water based because you are on a small island with just the resort

Laurie can I ask what you paid

Lachele sure. We got a travelzoo coupon that was essentially half price so we paid $7500. An excellent deal. Fights were about $3600. But there are cheaper routes than we took. We also looked at Tahiti too. Found it would be way more money. But. We are both drinkers and foodies so that was factored in as well

Hey Laurie! Was that each or together?

Natasha together. For 2

Laurie where did you fly from??? That flight length would so me in lol

Teri we did Calgary Vancouver Tokyo Singapore Male Kooddoo. It was tough. But there are some better options

Laurie oh boy ! I’m not a flyer so would be very hard for me to do that many !

Teri I don’t recommend what we did

Laurie your trip sounds amazing though! I work for an airline, going to investigate and see what a different route might look like.

Heather we could have gone through Frankfurt and Doha. We wanted to see Singapore so we went the long way. The very long way. Lol. And yes it was a bucket list trip for sure

Laurie it sounds like a good call, would love to see Singapore

Heather it was pretty cool. We just didn’t have enough time. 2 days and 3 nights is not enough

Laurie I want to go back to Maldives so bad but the flights are so long! How was Singapore?

Lynda really loved Singapore. We hired a private guide for the first day. 8 hours. Best decision. The next day we did a private evening tour. Also a great decision. We only had 2 full days so booking these private tours ensured we saw everything. Really a wonderful city

I have been to Bora Bora and the Maldives. Both are absolutely unbelievable locations. Paradise on earth. Bora Bora is much closer so that is a bonus over Bali and Maldives. That being said I would not say Bora Bora or the Maldives are action packed destinations. Not much to do on land, so most activities are water based. Of course your resort will have a gym, yoga, etc. I found the excursions in Bora Bora were good, but expensive. The snorkelling right from our over water bungalow in Maldives was the best I have ever seen. Overall I would say most people go to those 2 locations more for relaxation. So if you are wanting more action and adventure I would go to Bali. Also much more affordable in Bali.

I’ve been to Bali. we stayed near the monkey forest in Ubud for a few days- lots to explore there- markets, gelato (passion fruit 10/10), monkeys, yoga, hire a car for a tour of some destinations like waterfalls, temples,and rice terraces, live music in restaurants.
Then we had our driver take us to the boat which took us to Gili Air. Definitely recommend going to one of the gili islands. We did some snorkeling there and did a tour one day which took us to see an underwater statue, some turtles (so many turtles) and lunch at another gili island (I think meno). If you go there make sure you have everything you need- they have restaurants on the island but one small convenience store for shopping. There are also no cars on the island or paved roads. It is easy to walk around the island but I would recommend a backpack- not luggage with wheels. Super chill vibe there and so nice to enjoy live music in the evenings.
We stayed in a slightly different location back in Ubud before getting our driver to take us to Canggu (first location was better). Canggu is a bit of a surf town and I wish we had had another day there. More shops and restaurants there and you could do surf lessons as well (we didn’t but it looked fun).
Food is inexpensive in Bali and lots of vegan options.
It was three long flights for us to get there and we stopped in Japan for a couple nights on the way there. I wouldn’t go that far for less than 2 weeks.
They have little motor bikes in most of the cities to rent but we didn’t want to learn how to drive them down there. It was worth it to have a personal driver. Dm for the contact info for the guy we used.

Carolyn did you stay 2 weeks and may I ask Approx how much was your vacation total with flights ?

Kendra we left Nov 1, 2019 and returned Nov 20, 2019 with about 1.5 day layover in Tokyo on the way there.
13.75 hours to Tokyo (1 very short layover on the way there).
Then a non stop 7.75hr flight to Denpasar.
On the way home our trip duration was 1 day, 11.75hrs (layover in Tokyo and Minneapolis- not enough time to leave the airport, but did stock up on some excellent Japanese chocolate).
Flights: $1520.88
Trip during- almost 3 weeks(- I wouldn’t go for less than 2 with all that flying. )
I can’t remember exactly what the trip cost but we stayed in prebooked Airbnbs so most of the trip was paid for by the time we arrived. After flights and accommodation the driver was probably the next biggest expense (worth it). We figured out pretty quickly that food is cheaper there than it is to eat out here but drinks (alcohol) are pretty comparable to here so we saved some money when we stopped dinking so much. Lol
Japan was more expensive than Bali- we stayed with one of my friends the first night and in one of these cubes the second night (myCube - $122.02CAD/night, for 2 rooms, booked on hotels.com). I probably spent more on Japanese chocolate at the airport than I did food in Bali.
Ubud 1st location (location-great for walking around)
Check in nov4, out Nov 9.
$239.01CAD
Hosted by Koming
Address: mandia bungalows, jl wenara wana ubud mandia bungalows, Ubud, Bali 80571, Indonesia
Second location: gili air island, H2O yoga resort.
Check in Nov 9, out 13
$204.30CAD
(Island easily walkable which is great because there are no cars- wheeled luggage not recommended)
Then we stayed in Ubud again but I can’t find the info for that place. (Location was not as central as first location so i probably wouldn’t recommend anyway).
Then we stayed at the Gosling hosted by Nyoman.
Address: Jalan Pantai Batu Bolong, Kuta Utara, Bali 80361, Indonesia
Check in Nov 18, out 20th.
$99.49 USD (not sure why we paid in USD here)
Would have liked another day here.
If you want to do tours you could spend a bit more- we just had our driver take us to some of the tourist spots (for like half a day). You can ask ahead of time how much they charge for that- I think it was reasonable. Plus he let us know some of the etiquette for going to temples. And we did a snorkeling tour on gili air, and a couple yoga classes. And we bought some souvenirs at the market in ubud (haggling expected). And as said before, food is cheap.
I brought with me, $200cad worth of yen and $800cad worth of IDR and probably withdrew another $500-1000cad worth of IDR. (At least I thought I did but I don’t see any record of it- maybe I just used my credit card).

Carolyn awesome thx for your help !!!
Sounds amazing . Did you try any exotic foods ?

Kendra not really. Everything I ate was stuff you could get here (I think). Maybe cooked a little differently and presentation was really good. There are lots of vegetarian/vegan places (which I am not) so I did try some dishes that I wouldn’t normally that probably had tofu. And lots of fruit drinks. But nothing like monkey or snake or anything like that. You can check out some of my pictures if you like on Instagram. @carolynellena

P.s. e went in November and it was beautiful.

Bali. I spent a few months there. Have an amazing driver as well a a very nice place to stay. If you would like the info message me.

Bev I’d like the info pls . I’ll pm you .

Just got home from 2 weeks in Bali - it’s amazing! It’s a far trek (3 flights from YYC, so I wouldn’t say it’s worth it to go for any shorter duration). Tons to see and do, lovely people, great food, nice beaches, beautiful temples and fantastic spas.
We stayed in villas in 3 locations on Bali and 1 on Flores island. All were amazingly beautiful and affordable. Food is inexpensive but alcohol is pricey (although you don’t drink so that won’t be an issue).
We had a private driver several days - happy to share his info as he was fantastic!
We participated in many activities on Bali and surrounding islands (jungle buggies, cooking class, boat/snorkeling trip, Padar island/ Komodo island, waterfalls, temples, beach clubs, spas and more)! Activities aren’t particularly cheap, but worth the price.

Only been to Bali but it's cheap! Like $30 to go white water rafting. Meals are a few bucks type of cheap. There's lots to do in Bali before heading to the beach on one of the island to enjoy some relaxing time.

Bali was so Amazing ! Just came back ..

When we went to Maldives, the island we were on had a lot of activities, daily snorkel trip, dolphin watching, one day a week, the staff played a soccer game against guests
Meeru.com
it's a boat transfer to this island from Male

a couple that we met on this island has gone back several times and they now stay at the Hard Rock and love it
https://www.hardrockhotels.com/maldives/rock-star-offer.aspx

Thank you so much! Bali is sounding really like the best option for us

If you are going to THOSE places you should get your diving certification! It's an amazing world under the water you should see especially in those locations.