What is a good 7 day Bali itinerary?

Seven days is the first length where Bali opens up: two bases, one day trip, and time to do nothing for an afternoon.

The standard week, and it is standard because it works

Nights 1 to 3: Ubud.

• Day 1: arrive, settle, Campuhan ridge walk late afternoon, dinner in town.
• Day 2: Tegalalang at 7am, Tirta Empul at opening, lunch, monkey forest, spa.
• Day 3: cooking class in the morning, or the drive north to Munduk for waterfalls and the lakes.

Nights 4 to 7: the coast. Canggu, Seminyak or Uluwatu.

• Day 4: move in the morning, arrive by lunch, beach and sunset.
• Day 5: surf lesson or beach day, massage, beach club.
• Day 6: the Bukit — Melasti, Padang Padang, Uluwatu temple, kecak, Jimbaran seafood. Or Nusa Penida if you are based in Sanur.
• Day 7: last swim, airport.

The alternative week: water

Nights 1 to 3: Sanur. Calm swimming, the beach path, a day in Ubud.

Nights 4 to 7: Nusa Lembongan or Nusa Penida. Snorkelling with mantas, the cliffs, island pace.

This version has the best water and the least driving. It is the one I recommend to people who say they want Bali to look like the photographs.

The alternative week: quiet

Nights 1 to 3: Sidemen or Amed, east Bali. Rice terraces, water palaces, shore diving.

Nights 4 to 7: Uluwatu or Canggu.

More driving, and almost no other visitors for the first half.

Which base for the coast half

• Canggu for surf, cafes and a social scene.
• Seminyak for restaurants and walkability.
• Uluwatu for cliffs and scenery, at the cost of longer drives.
• Sanur for calm water and easy island trips.
• Jimbaran or Nusa Dua for families and short transfers.

The one long day trip

Pick one, not three:

• Nusa Penida, best from Sanur, a long day with the most dramatic scenery.
• The highlands, Bedugul, Munduk and Jatiluwih, ten hours.
• Mount Batur sunrise, 2am start, back by noon, and you will be tired.
• East Bali, Lempuyang, Tirta Gangga and Sidemen, eleven hours.

Practical notes

Move at 9am, not 2pm. The afternoon transfer is the one that ruins a day.

Book the driver in advance for both the transfer and the day trip, with the same person if you liked them.

Do not plan the last day. Flights to Europe leave late in the evening and flights to Australia leave very early; check yours before booking anything for day seven.

Budget for a week

Per person, sharing, excluding flights:

• Backpacker: 300 to 450 USD.
• Comfortable: 800 to 1,300.
• Villas and a driver most days: 2,000 and up.

What a week does not include, and that is fine

You will not see the north, the west or the far east. You will not get to Lombok or the Gilis properly. And you will not see anything like all of Bali, because nobody does in a week.

What a week does give you is two regions done properly, which is far better than six seen through a windscreen. The people who come back for a second trip almost always design it around the thing they had to skip.

Booking order

1. Accommodation for both bases.

2. Airport transfer for the arrival.

3. A driver for the transfer between bases and for the one long day.

4. The kecak performance if you are going in high season.

5. Everything else on the ground.

A week with children

Swap Ubud for three nights in Sanur, keep four on the coast, and plan half-days rather than full ones. Calm-water beaches, a cooking class, the safari park, a morning at the rice terraces and a lot of pool time is a better week for a family than any itinerary that involves a volcano.

A week that includes work

Canggu, Pererenan and Ubud all have fast fibre and dozens of cafes and co-working spaces set up for it. Work mornings, go out in the late afternoon, and treat the weekend as the trip. If you are working from Indonesia for more than a short visit, check which permit that requires before you travel.