Eco Friendly Bali Travel Itinerary: Two Weeks

Bali:

Two Week Itinerary

Indonesia:

Eco Friendly Bali Travel Itinerary

best chile itinerary. this is the best chile itinerary. if you want to make the most of chile, check out our guide to create the best chile itinerary for a two week itinerary or a three week itinerary of chile. however, the secret to making the best chile itinerary is to take at least four weeks to really make the most.

Destinations: Check out the Map!

Length of Stay: 17 nights
(December 2018)

Lodging: $19 USD/Night/Person Average

Two Week Bali Itinerary

Days 1-4: Canggu
Days 5-6: Selat
Days 7-10: Gili Air Island
Days 11-12: Sanur
Days 13-14: Nusa Penida

We went to Bali for 17 days and it ended up being a lot different than we expected. Our expectations vs our experience inspired us to make an eco friendly Bali travel itinerary. If you're looking for a Bali route with some recommendations and tips of how to reduce your environmental impact then this is for you!

Flying from Singapore to Denpasar, Bali took roughly four hours. After landing we spent quite a bit of time negotiating prices for the one hour taxi ride to our lodging in Canggu. Our Airbnb offered to give us a ride for 250,000 IDR ($17.50 USD) but we thought we could find it cheaper. It took a while, but we finally got a ride for 200,000 IDR ($14.25 USD) with a guy that seemed legit.

The next day we starting looking for fun things to do in Canggu and had some relaxing days at the beaches. From there we headed off to the jungles of Selat for a couple days in the secluded rice fields of Camaya Bali.

After Selat we took a fast boat to Gili Air Island, which is our favorite place out of this eco friendly Bali travel itinerary. Our final leg was spent between Sanur and Nusa Penida Island.

Report a map error

Map

Satellite

Get Directions

Eco Friendly Bali Travel Itinerary

Before we talk about our eco friendly Bali travel itinerary, we will be quite frank our experience. Before getting to Bali, we had pretty high expectations and ended up a bit disappointed. I feel like there is a lot of hype on instagram, and the island is not accurately portrayed. Perhaps we didn't see enough of the island to judge it because we were in some high tourist areas, which is our own fault.

The side of Bali not on Instagram: Trash on the beaches

Overall we would recommend certain parts of Bali like Balangan Beach in the south or Nusa Penida. However, the island struggles with a large trash problem which was a side of Bali that was shocking to see. We felt the need to bring attention to it so it can be solved by locals and by tourists.

Tourism drives the economy of Bali, but it also destroys it. So if you're planning a trip there, why not do your part to contribute to Bali's prosperity and sign up for a Trash Hero Cleanup while you're there. Better yet, learn some tips beforehand about eco friendly ways to travel so you can reduce your plastic consumption. It's better to reduce our consumption in first place so there's no need to clean it up later.

However, we did learn about other parts of Indonesia that are on our list for next time. We heard great things about the islands of Lombok, Komodo, and Sumatra. We got a small taste of Lombok in Gili Air, but not enough to satiate our cravings for Mount Rinjani National Park on the mainland.

Canggu

Length of Stay: 5 Nights

Lodging: Riviera House ($14 USD/Night/Person)

Activities: Balangan Beach, Karang Boma, Berawa Beach, Balibola Café

Our first day in Canggu we decided to go to Balibola café for brunch. Molly had seen this place all over instagram and decided we needed to check it out for ourselves. It turned out to be a flexitarian restaurant with delicious brunch choices. We even got to meet the owner and ask her about her reasoning behind the restaurant and future expansion plans.

The next afternoon we headed over to Berawa Beach to grab a beer and stick around for sunset. We met a Swiss expat woman named Marilesa who now lives in Bali and shared her traveling wisdom with us. For our last day in Canggu we decided to be ambitious and hit Tanah Lot Temple, Pantai Tegal Wangi, Balangan Beach, and Karang Boma Cliff. We opted out of renting a scooter since our first time driving one was earlier in the week. Though it was a bit more expensive, we thought it was worth it to play it safe after experiencing the road conditions.

Selat

Length of Stay: 2 Nights

Lodging: Camaya Bali: Nirvana Guesthouse ($41/Night/Person)

Activities: Selat Rice Fields, Motorbiking, Tukad Cepung Waterfall, Mahagiri Panoramic Restaurant

About a month in advance, we booked two nights at Villa Nirvana on AirB&B. We actually went a bit over budget staying here for a couple days. However, we kind of expected it because this lodging is billed as luxury getaway in the secluded jungle of Selat.

We enjoyed renting a motorbike and getting more comfortable riding around the hilly roads that were much less populated than Canggu. Read more about our experience in Selat at Camaya Bali here. Nonetheless, after a couple nights we were itching to head over to Gili Air and get a taste of the true island life.

Gili Air Island

Length of Stay: 4 Nights

Lodging: Seven Seas Cottages ($8.50/Night/Person)

Activities: Gili Meno Underwater Sculpture Park, Rent a Bike, Water Swings, etc

From Camaya Bali, we headed to the ferry terminal which was 45 minutes from the AirB&B. We took a fast boat out of Padangbai to Gili Air Island for 550,000 IDR ($39 USD) round trip/person. That was way to expensive! If we didn’t book in advance we could have gotten it for 400,000 IDR ($28 USD) at the ferry terminal.

When we got to Gili Air, we checked into Seven Seas Cottages where we got a killer deal for just $17 a night, plus free breakfast. We went to Gili Air with the intention of snorkeling at the underwater sculpture park made by artist, Jason deCaires. We called ahead and Lucky's Bar/Restaurant offered the best deal - 4 hours of snorkeling for just 100,000 IDR ($7 USD). The boat took us to 4 different diving locations and ended with a group lunch (not included) on Gili Meno.

Trash Hero: Gili Air

During our stay we ended up connecting with Trash Hero Gili Air and did two beach cleanups. We had seen a lot of trash in the water and on the beaches of mainland Bali and wanted to do something about it. It was an awesome experience since we had been looking for a way to clean up the beaches.

To get back to the mainland of Bali we took the fast boat back to Padangbai. If we didn't book ahead we could have gotten a better deal with a free shuttle included. Instead, we had to pay an additional 100,000 IDR ($7 USD) for the shuttle. So all in all, we ended up wasting around 150,000 IDR (~$11 USD) but we just felt stupid. We got the hour long shuttle back to Sanur where it was time to slow down and relax after a week and a half on the go.

Sanur

Length of Stay: 5 Nights

Lodging: Astana Made Villas ($21 USD/Night/Person)

Activities: Sanur Night Market, Nusa Penida Weekend Trip

Originally we anticipated to spend Christmas in Sanur and stay there for the remainder of our trip in Bali. However, we ended up spending 5 of the last 6 days at Astana Made Villas for just $40 USD/night. Breakfast was an additional $2 USD per day so we opted to do that and then ate the rest of our meals at the Sanur Night Market. The day after Christmas we headed to Nusa Penida to spend two days seeing some of the best beaches on the island.

Nusa Penida Island

Length of Stay: 1 Night

Lodging: Atuh Beach Garden Bungalow ($12 USD/Night/Person)

Activities: Kelingking Beach, Diamond Beach, Atuh Beach, Scooter Riding

From Sanur we took a fast boat to Nusa Penida. Learning from our mistake going to Gili Air, we booked it when we got to the terminal. We were able to haggle and get roundtrip tickets for both of us for 600,000 IDR - nearly half of what we paid to get to Gili Air!! The fast boat was roughly a 45 minute ride. When we got to Penida, we rented a motor bike for just 70,000 IDR ($5 USD) for 24 hours. After hoping on the scooter we rode about an hour down the west coast, to Kelingking Beach.

From there, we drove another hour to our homestay with a local on Atuh Beach. For just 250,000 IDR ($17.75) we got a private bungalow, but with dinner and breakfast it ended up being a total of 333,000 IDR ($24 USD). Our host, Made, was so kind and caring and we’re already planning a trip back. His bungalow was walking distance from Diamond Beach so we spent the morning there before riding back to the fast boat terminal.