Bali Tours

Bali’s multiple attractions can be daunting for many visitors. Tours are a good way to get a good overview of what’s on the island and they can save time and money too, since everything is pre-booked and hassles with hawkers and touts are generally avoided.

There are all kinds of Bali tours available including golf tours, hiking & trekking tours, marine tours, surfing tours and diving tours. There are shopping and art tours, too, as well as mountain tours that take in several of Bali’s most dramatic peaks.

General one-day tours of Bali can take several forms. Travel agencies in Denpasar and Kuta can offer mini-bus tours that take in Kuta, Ubud, Mount Agung and the Mother Temple, as well as Nusa Dua or Jimbaran Bay before dropping guests back at their hotels before dinner. Alternatively, motor cycle drivers can be hired for very cheap rates. They will take solo visitors around the island a lot quicker, and diversions and spur-of-the-moment diversions are easy to arrange.

Volcano tours are best left to the professionals, however, since the mountains of Bali tend to be spread out and some of the climbs are hazardous. There are plenty of tour agencies with shop fronts in Kuta and Denpasar or with websites where prices and booking arrangements can be found. Depending on the mountain, tours may depart before dawn or late at night to catch dramatic sunsets.

Tours of Bali’s traditional villages are often best handled by the experts too, since motor cycle taxis will often speed past some of the best destinations. Also, it’s good to have a guide who can explain the various points of significance of some of the places hidden away in Bali. Most village tours take in the town of Batulban with its famous Barong dancers, and also Celuk, where gold and silver smiths work traditionally.

The ubiquitous Southeast Asian elephant ride tours operate in Bali, and the two main places are the Elephant Safari Park at Taro and the Bali Elephant Camp. Taro is said to be the world’s best elephant park and visitors can ride elephants in teak chair-saddles and enjoy swimming with elephants and their babies in cool jungle streams. The Bali Elephant Camp is less flashy, but the standard rides take in a good swathe of the nearby jungle.

Cycling tours through Bali’s rice paddies and breezy jungles is a real adventure. There are numerous outfits with modern and new mountain bikes that run group tours daily, and some tours last for several days with all camping gear or village accommodations factored into the tour cost. Alternatively, second hand bikes can be rented by the hour or by the day and many hotels, even the cheaper ones, have bicycles for complimentary guest use. Visitors should be aware of unpredictable road traffic in Bali, and grab a map and head instead for the rice paddy areas where heavy traffic is absent.