What mistakes do first-time visitors make in Bali?

None of these are exotic. They are the same nine mistakes, made by almost everybody, every season.

1. Too many bases

The single biggest one. Four areas in seven nights means four check-ins, four packing mornings and roughly eight hours in a car. Two bases in a week, three in ten days.

2. Believing the map

Bali is 140 kilometres across and it can take five hours to cross. Google's estimate is the best case at 6am. Add 30 to 50 per cent for the afternoon. See real driving times.

3. Learning to ride a scooter here

Bali's roads are busy, wet half the year, and unforgiving. Scooter injuries are the most common way visitors get hurt, and travel insurance generally will not pay if you were not licensed for the machine. If you have never ridden, this is not where to start.

4. Assuming Canggu is the beach in the photographs

The turquoise water and white sand in the marketing is the Bukit, the Nusa Islands or the Gilis. Canggu and Seminyak have dark volcanic sand and strong currents. They are great for surfing and sunsets, not for the postcard swim.

5. Booking on a wide-angle photograph

Villa listings are photographed to hide the construction site next door and the road at the end of the garden. Check recent guest photographs, check the satellite view, and read reviews for noise and access.

6. Arriving at the famous sights at 11am

Tegalalang, Tirta Empul, Lempuyang, Tanah Lot and Tukad Cepung are all transformed by arriving at opening time. The difference between 7am and 11am is the difference between a memory and a queue.

7. Ignoring the ocean

The west coast has serious rip currents and most beaches are unpatrolled. More visitors are hurt by the sea than by crime, and swimming after drinking at an empty beach is how it happens. Learn what a rip looks like.

8. Treating temples as scenery

Sarong and sash, shoulders covered, do not climb on shrines, do not stand above people praying, do not fly a drone over a ceremony. The province has become markedly less patient with visitors who treat sacred sites as a photo backdrop, and deportations have followed.

9. Over-planning

Six sights a day, booked in advance, is a tour rather than a holiday. Bali in the middle of the day is hot and slow. Plan mornings, leave afternoons open, and let the good accidents happen.

The smaller ones

• Changing money at the airport beyond the first hour's cash.
• Choosing to be charged in your home currency on a card terminal, which costs 3 to 7 per cent.
• Not carrying small notes for parking, temple entries and warungs.
• Leaving a passport as a scooter deposit.
• Booking Ubud as a day trip from Canggu rather than as a base.
• Packing for a beach holiday only, then arriving in the highlands with no layer.
• Forgetting the tourist levy, which is IDR 150,000 per person and asked for at checkpoints.
• Planning around Nyepi without knowing it, when the entire island, including the airport, shuts for a day.

The one thing that fixes most of it

Hire a driver for two of your days. It costs 600,000 to 900,000 rupiah, it removes the traffic and parking problem entirely, and a good driver will tell you what is worth seeing this week and what is not. Almost nobody books enough of it.