July 30, 2025

I think I’m becoming a Bali person

Chiara Di ASIA, TRAVEL Bali, Canggu, Finns Beach Club, Indonesia, Nusa Penida, Seminyak, Wander 0 Comments

I’ve just returned from my second of two trips in two months to Bali, and I think it’s finally grown on me.

The first trip was my annual girl’s trip. We decided early on that Bali would be the best option for a warm getaway, easy for everyone to get to from our three different cities.

We arrived to heavy traffic leaving the airport due to a couple of breakdowns, taking 90-minutes to arrive at our villa in Canggu. We had booked a Luxury Escapes package at Secana Beachtown Resort & Residences including daily breakfast, cocktails and a free lunch. The resort also offered free buggy rides around the Berawa area which was both convenient and a fun ride.

We checked in, popped our swimsuits on, and went straight up to the rooftop pool bar for lunch and cocktails. We all opted for the nasi goreng – after all what better way to welcome yourself to Bali. The view was really nice too, overlooking the surf of Canggu.

After lunch, we swam in our villa pool which was a nice spot to chill throughout the weekend. The three room, three level villa was very residential, modern and masculine. It had a main bedroom on the top level with bath, two bedrooms on the middle level – a queen bed and two singles – and the living area on the ground level. The outdoor area was quite small so it was nice to have facilities of the wider resort available to us, including a 24-hour gym with a spa and cold plunge pool. I never saw any of that.

The breakfast at Secana was great too, although a bit wasteful with the amount of food offered. There was a choice of cooked breakfast plus a continental board of overnight oats, croissant and fruit plate.

On our first night we took a Gojek car to dinner at Luma on the other side of Canggu – it took 40-minutes to get from one side of Canggu to the other. Though, on the way back our driver took a back-street and the drive was only 10-minutes. It was a very nice Mediterranean restaurant, with lovely decor including a lounge garden with a DJ. We enjoyed a round of cocktails before sharing the burrata, pumpkin risotto, octopus, snapper and more with a bottle of rosé.

We also had great dining experiences at One Eyed Jack for Japanese – spicy salmon, sea urchin and pumpkin sushi, chicken skewers, miso cod, sizzling wagyu sticky rice and soft shell crab bao; Alma Tapas Bar for Spanish – mushroom croquettes, tomato salsa bread, Spanish meatballs and octopus; and Ulekan for Indonesian – steamed vegetables with tofu, satay chicken, grilled corn, beef rendang, coconut chicken curry and more.

On this trip to Bali we decided we needed an adventure day, a beach club day and a day to relax. For our adventure day we did a snorkelling trip around Nusa Penida. We were picked up and transferred to Serangan for our Day Trip Bali check-in. We walked to the jetty and onto our speed boat for the day. We set out to sea for a 40-minute journey to our first snorkel stop at Mangrove Point – a very rapid drift snorkel. The water clarity wasn’t great and with the current pulling us so rapidly, it was difficult to focus. We travelled a fair way by the time we met back up with the boat.

The second stop was SD Point – my favourite of the day – with lots of coral gardens and turtles. It was also a calmer drift snorkel. I tried my first ever duck dive here, getting up close to turtles. The third snorkel was Wall Point which literally was snorkelling against a big cliff wall with various corals beneath (a little more damaged). It was another faster drift and quite rough against the wall. We saw more turtles, a sea snake, and lots of colourful small fish. It was then time for a break from the water and lunch on Nusa Penida.

Once we got off the boat on Nusa Penida Island, we were greeted by vehicles ready to take us to lunch and our island tour. Our buffet lunch was at the ‘best restaurant’ in Nusa Penida, according to our guide, Amarta Restaurant. It looked like it was specifically built to cater for day trippers like us. The buffet included fish ball soup, tempeh manis, steamed long beans, Indonesian fried chicken and banana fritters. The grounds of the restaurant were beautiful with a temple-like photo setting and infinity pool to enjoy.

It was then time for our land tour which was a 50-minute drive to Kelingking Beach and back. The viewpoint of so-called ‘T-Rex rock’ is pretty spectacular but full of tourists, to be expected. It had been on the list for a while, so I was glad to finally see it. I was surprised at how many vehicles were on the barely two-laned, windy streets full of pot-holes – not made for this level of traffic. There must be so many variations of the day trip from Bali with the same restaurant used for many lunch groups.

Once we were back at port, we picked up some Bintangs and cruised past Crystal Bay and Kelingking Beach, before making our way to Manta Point where we were lucky enough to swim with five manta rays. The ones we saw were huge enough at 3.5m, but they can get up to 5m!

We enjoyed our well-deserved Bintangs on the way back to Serangan Port, another 40-minute journey. It was nice to enjoy a wholesome adventure day and get out to one of the islands as we did try and stay on Nusa Lembogan for this trip, but it didn’t work out with flight times.

This time we had booked Finns Beach Club for our beach club day. We enjoyed our free cocktail before heading to our 1pm reservation. Once we got through the entry line, we were taken to our lounge. It wasn’t too long before our welcome jug and icey poles were delivered.

We were seated towards the quieter side of the beach club so spent most of our time in what I labelled the ‘party pool’ meeting fellow travellers. There was lots of entertainment from card magicians, to disco ball dancers, drummers and fire guns. We ended the night on the dance floor singing and dancing. It was a fun day.

I enjoyed a much needed sleep in on our ‘relaxing day’ before a 90-minute signature massage at Korra Spa, which was a blend of Hawaiian and Balinese practices. It was splendid. Then it was time to relax by our resort’s rooftop pool and enjoy our last free cocktail and a mie goreng lunch.

It was a fabulous girls trip, and great we’re able to make it happen with us all in three different cities now. Next year is the big year of 40s, so excited to see where that takes us.

Speaking of which, my second trip to Bali was to celebrate my work husband’s 40^th. And the best part about it was he’d planned an itinerary, so I didn’t have to think about a thing for once.

Leaving Perth after a 16-hour delay meant my four-night trip was reduced to three. But once I arrived in to the balmy Bali air, all was forgotten. I stayed central to all the festivities at IZE Seminyak, which was the perfect choice location, safety and amenity-wise for the price.

Santorini vibes was the theme of the weekend and we definitely brought it. As well as various dress codes we dined at Bali’s very own Mykonos Greek Restaurant renowned for its lamb chops. We were seated in the outdoor courtyard which was a very picturesque space reminiscent of the Greek Islands.

The festivities also took us to Buzo for pre-dinner drinks, Mrs Sippy for a chill pool day; Ku De Ta for the official birthday celebrations on a gorgeous deck overlooking Seminyak’s sunset and various fireworks displays; and Motel Mexicola where I got to relive tabletop dancing and experience a flaming tower for myself. I also enjoyed some healthy lunches and great smoothies at Sisterfields and Revolver.

Apart from eating and drinking, I was on the search for some pendant light shades for my upcoming kitchen renovation. I browsed the boutiques of Seminyak and success – I found some gorgeous light shades for $32 each. After a bit of back and forth on how I was going to get them home and with postage being too expensive, I realised I could check in another bag on my flight home so bought a large duffle bag, surrounded them with bubble wrap and clothes, and they made it home safe and sound. I can’t wait to hang them.

I tried very hard to have some downtime, to read my book by the pool, to have sleep ins and work on my novel a little. I also indulged in daily massages which were so nice and really helped me unwind. It didn’t seem to help though, as I came back more exhausted than I left. Must have been a little too social.

Next up, I am heading to Brisbane for a weekend with my bestie, followed by a Western Australia road trip to Denmark and Albany for mum’s birthday weekend.

Until then…

LWL xxx