Ubud

LOVE LOVE LOVE UBUD. The architecture here is a beautiful blend of Balinese temples mixed with jungle and a modern touch. You will also want to buy everything here! The shopping is so good! Also, a scooter is not really necessary here, you can easily walk through the whole town.

Eat:

• Clear Cafe. Don’t leave Ubud without eating here. Amazing architecture mixed with jungle garden, fountains, wide spiral staircase, fire pole, multiple tea lounge areas and tables. They have amazing healthy drinks and food.
• Bali Buda. Their name is soon changing to Bali Bunda though. I love this place. They are all organic, local, sustainable. They have the Snail of Approval – don’t know what that is? They explain it in their menu. Just go. Their newspaper menu had so much good information to read about on superfoods; the slow and loving process of good, clean and fair food; ayurvedic techniques; local news about companies, brands, organizations and movements working hard to better the planet and the wellbeing of all who inhabit it.
• Soma. High vibe organic delights, conscious eating, beautiful set up with comfy raised tables and soft jam sessions during the day and night.
• Atman Nourish Kafe. There are 3 locations. The third one was made special so that this location would have no animal products at all inside. At sunset, find this one and sip on their house kombucha while looking out at the rice fields. It’s gorgeous!
• Warung Siam. Bomb Thai basil beef salad with crunchy stuff on top – SO GOOD.
• Warung Biah Biah. Authentic Balinese food!
• Siam Sally. Live music Friday-Sunday nights. On Friday, the Red House band performs – they are blues-y folk rock and really good! Also, their food is to die for..THAI. Definitely order the fried mushrooms…MMM
• Kafe for dessert.
• Tukies the Coconut Shop. holy. shit. Sweet coconut ice cream topped with coconut meat slices and roasted coconut brittle.
• Alchemy. All vegan grub. so good.
• The Seeds of Life. Raw and vegan foods and desserts, Taoist tonic bar combining Chinese, Ayurvedic and Indonesian herbology systems. They also serve tea with alkalizing wild ancient artisan and bio-diverse teas from China. These teas come from 800 years and older wild trees hand picked and rolled by family lineages going back up to 2,000 years. There is also an Ashtanga yoga studio upstairs. Try their warm Mexican lasagna – SOO YUMMY.
• Sari Organic. Walk through the rice fields during sunset to get here, have dinner, then walk back at night to hopefully see the fireflies!

Stay: We stayed at Jiwa’s House. And in my opinion, this is the best place to stay while in Ubud. But you have to make sure you book ahead of time and request a deluxe room (in the back by the pool). Those rooms are newer and nicer. They are by the beautiful pool and you get served breakfast of your choice every morning at whatever time you choose right on your own balcony. And the food is GOOD! He has traditional Balinese food and some American breakfast options as well. Jiwa is the man and so is his son Gede. They will help you with anything you need! Especially if you are going to the Gili islands or need a ride to another town, they will help you out. If you ask him about Stephanie and TJ – they will know who we are!

Love:

• Yoga Barn. Amazing food, beautiful yoga oasis within the jungle. Beautiful wooden architecture, rock sculpture fountains, the Man hidden in the art. We also went to their ecstatic dance on Friday night – definitely a must!
• Radiantly Alive. I took their RA vinyasa class with Daniel and he was amazing. LOVED what he had to say and class felt soo good.
• You can get a cheap massage anywhere, they are all over. We liked Gotouma (it’s on Gotouma street which is such a cute street to walk through) and Rembulan Spa (on Hamuman street). If you have the time, make a reservation at Shambala spa for a 4.5 hour spa day. Don’t worry the whole thing is under $60 USD for a massage, facial, pedicure, the works…
• Monkey Forest
• Goa Gajah Elephant Cave. This gorgeous meditation cave in the jungle was built in the 8th century and was uncovered only in the 1950’s! Must check this out!
• Campuhan Ridge Walk. Got to go in the morning before it gets too hot!
• Paradiso. This place is amazing. It’s an organic vegetarian cinema with lounge chairs and couches, they have piano concerts, shoes off at the door, amazing kombucha, good imported beers and wines, elixirs, smoothies, really bomb popcorn. They play new movies, old movies, classic Disney movies, TV shows like Westworld – we saw an episode of BBC’s Planet Earth II here. SO GOOD! Such a cool idea.
• Find Cafe Lotus (a restaurant) and visit that temple. There’s a lotus garden in front of it – sooo cool. I’ve never seen a lotus garden until this one.
• Coming Beads (on Hanuman). This is where you can get real stone malas. They can make you a custom one too if you want!
• Laughing Buddha bar for live music and drinks.
• CP lounge is really pretty and would be fun to grab drinks at but there is usually no one there 😦

Canggu

love love love Canggu. Definitely more of a hip vibe with tons of bars and more trendy shops and restaurants. This is where we needed a scooter. If you are a girl, definitely get a Scoopy. It’s more of the light-weight, cute European type scooter (wayyyy more easy to drive – you’ll see a lot of people who have had accidents and fallen off scooters). The other option is a Vario which is like Fast and the Furious and way more difficult to drive in my opinion – also VERY heavy.

Eat:

• Green Ginger. Amazing vegetarian food, everything on the menu is bomb. We ate here a few times.
• Avocado Cafe
• Gypsy
• Crate. Same owner as Pretty Poison. Super good.
• La Baracca. Italian guy moved to Canggu and makes fresh, homemade Italian food. SOOO GOOD. It’s more expensive than most other meals you will have but still cheap compared to back home and it’s amazing.
• Cafe Veda. If you eat meat, you need to come here and try their Veda burger. I’m salivating thinking about it.
• Dandelion for dinner.
• Lacalita. pigged out on Mexican food here one night.
• The Savage Kitchen. In a super trendy outdoor courtyard with other really cute restaurants. Lots of gluten free options including banana flour. A little more expensive than a usual Balinese meal but worth it.
• Finns. Good food, amazing view of the surf, tons of surfers, swim up bar, DJ all day, live drummer, dancers, 6 bars/restaurant sections, big grassy area next door with hammocks, visit the upstairs lounge bar to watch the sunset and for a different menu and fancier cocktails.
• Satu-Satu Coffee Company
• Hungry Bird
• The restaurant under Old Man’s is pretty good for a late dinner.

Stay:

• If you are traveling alone and want to meet other travelers, stay at the Farm hostel. They are usually booked up so you will need to make a reservation ahead of time.
• If you also want to meet other travelers but the Farm is full, the Base hostel is on the same gang (road) as the Farm. They have dorms to meet people; BUT, you can also get a NICE private room (still super cheap) here. This is where you want to stay.
• We also stayed at the Berawa Beach Residence. All private rooms, really nice with a kitchenette (not that you need one) and poolside entry from the room. This is away from the main street but right between the main street and another less popular street (where Green Ginger is) with still plenty to see.
• For 3 nights our group rented an Air BnB. It was a beautiful house, in a prime location and was soooo cheap. We paid the same price per night here as we did to have a private room at the other spots.

Love:

• Desa Seni, a village resort. oh my heavenly goodness. this place is magical. I could live here for the rest of my life. We came here for a full moon singing bowl session where each crystal bowl took us through the chakras while we laid under the full moon. They have amazing daily classes, workshops, trainings, a pool, restaurant, spa, cute little gift shop and tiny little garden.
• The Practice. Took a yin and meditation class here. It was perfect.
• The Lawn. Get here early or make a reservation. You are going to want to be here for the sunset. It’s a giant lawn with big Balinese umbrellas a mats to sit on. Definitely my favorite hang out spot in Canggu.
• Old Man’s bar. Every night is fun here but Wednesday is the big night of the week. Really fun DJ and good people. After Old Man’s shuts down, the party continues on the beach (the Sand Bar). Super fun people and we were lucky to have a fire dancer that night!
• Pretty Poison. This bar faces an empty pool where local skaters show off their skillz. Feels like dogtown in here and is definitely a must see! Really good cocktails. Also fun every night but Thursdays is their big night with live music (each week a different genre).
• Deus Ex Machina. International motorcycle and surf shop. Definitely a good spot for happy hour (2 for 1 drinks) and also live music at night.
• GOLDUST Beauty Lounge. One of the fancier spas (but still SO cheap)…totally unnecessary because the other cheap massage spots (like Amy’s) are just as good and a third of the price. But I took Teej to this nice one on his birthday!
• Take a drive out to the rice fields. Really beautiful to watch the sunset at!

Uluwatu

This small surf town is fun to check out for a day or so. If you don’t surf, there is not much to do! The beach is fun to relax at for the day but is only accessible during low tide!

Eat:

• Single Fin – really nice view of the ocean. On Sunday nights this place gets crackin’ (more for the young and single crowd)
• There are a bunch of little warungs (stores) to eat at. You’ll see them as you walk up to Single Fin from the beach or down from Single Fin to the beach. We had lunch at Salin. Decent local food, nothing fancy but had a great view.
• Ulu Resto

Stay: We stayed at the Sandat Mas Cottages. Pretty basic rooms but its super cheap, a walk to the beach, a short walk to the Surf Villas for morning yoga and we got the only room where we could watch the sun set from our bed so we got pretty lucky.

Love:

• Uluwatu Surf Villas has this beautiful yoga shala called Morning Light yoga. You can hear and see the ocean from it and they host daily yoga classes at 7:30am. You also get a free coconut after class!
• The Uluwatu temple has AMAZING coastline views. Definitely check this out in the late afternoon so that you can get a ticket to see the Kekack fire dance ceremony at sunset.