The availability and range of watersports in Bali is very wide. Visitors can paddle in the surf or go kayaking or whitewater rafting, or anything in between. Diving and fishing tours are popular too, as could be expected from one of the most popular island and water destinations in the world.

White water rafting tours along the Ayung River provide a thrilling ride down the 9kms length of the river. Off the main track are hidden waterfalls and lagoons where some rafters take a break for a quick swim. All tours along the river come with safety equipment like helmets and vests and most boats are new and state of the art. Beginners can start in the shallower parts of the river and learning courses are plentifull.

More white water adventures are available on the Melangit River. This course is strictly for experienced rafters as the waters here are treacherous and the rapids cover steep drops and can be quite rockj. Major white foamy sections do exist for rafters that aren’t as experienced as others. Incredible drops and rapids make for superb white water rafting experiences on the Telaga Waja River, and most tours here start out of the village of Langsat.

Diving sites encircle Bali. The wonders of the Menjangan National Marine Park draw divers of great experience from all over the world but are just the tip of the iceberg of dive sites in Bali. On the opposite cast of Bali to Menjangan are a cluster of superb dive spots and courses are available for beginners.

Coral reef bottom fishing opens up tuna, sail fish and barracuda as well as Spanish Mackerel and Dolphin Fish. Tours can be booked out of anywhere in Bali’s main drags but fishermen should check the ecological ramifications of fishing in certain protected areas for assorted endangered species.

At many of the dive sites great snorkelling is possible, but snorkelling off the main beaches is not really a good option here since the busy beaches with their jet skis and never-ending tourist traffic mean that snorkelling right off the main tourist beaches is impractical and fruitless.

Of course, Bali is famous as one of the world’s premier surfing destinations. The swells off some parts of the coast are legendary and only Boracay in the Philippines competes with Bali as the primary focus of surfing culture in Southeast Asia. Learn to surf courses are popular and any visitors leave Bali with great new board skills.

Kite surfing is a growing new extreme sport where surfers are attached to a parachute-like kite that harnesses the power of the higher winds to speed surfers across the surface of the water. Wakeboarding and wind surfing are ever-popular too, and again, learner classes are easy to arrange and exceptionally good value.

Bali’s relatively low costs have helped it grow steadily as one of the region’s golfing capitals. Stunning green landscapes and perfect weather (outside of the wet season) make Bali ideal for golfing and the main courses and clubs are the Bali Golf & Country Club, Nirvana Bali Gold, Bali Handara, Grand Bali Beach and Lombok Kosaido.

The Bali Golf & Country Club is probably Bali’s most luxurious and exclusive golfing course and club. It is located in the upscale town of Nusa Dua and its 18-hole course was designed by Rodney Wright and Robin Nelson. It has been regularly voted one of the five best golf courses in Asia. The course cascades over hilly terrain and most holes offer sweeping views of the sea and the district. Coconut palms and sapphire blue lakes complete the atmosphere.

The Bali Golf & Country Club club house is famed for its restaurant that overlooks the ocean and there is a great bar and cafe located at the midway point of the course. Luxury villas are available on a time-stay basis and the club has its own health and wellness spa and several swimming pools and massage centres.

The Nirwana Bali Golf Club boasts a course designed by Australian golfing legend Greg Norman and has been welcoming players from all over the world since it opened in 1997. It is repeatedly voted the best golf course in Indonesia and is located within the vast grounds of the Le Meridien Resort on the southwest coast of Bali. Rice paddies are part of the rough and there are at least three cliff-top holes that offer serious play hazards but incredible views.

The traditional Balinese themed clubhouse and halfway house offer the upscale facilities and cnveniences that are a standard part of the Le Meridien chain. Stay and Play packages come at a premium pice but have every trimming and luxury imaginable.

The Bali Handara Kosaido Country Club is a very well established Bali golf course, having attracted players and great reviews since the early 1980s. The entire course is located almost 4000 feet above sea level and is designed by Michael Wolveridge and Peter Thompson around a volcano crater. Many travel here just to see the scenery, even if they have no interest in golf.

The Grand Bali Beach golf club and course is a 9-hole play with a par 36. Unlike many of the grander courses in Bali, the courses here are flat and the landscaping and foliage is relatively natural and un-sculpted. The club house here is very standard and no golf carts operate here.

On Lombok, the Kosaido Country Club was designed by Michael Wolveridge and Peter Tompson and is a par 72 course with the first 9 holes facing the Indian Ocean. The course’s signature hole 4 curves around the tranquility of Sire Bay. Stay and Play packages are easy to book and the suites and villas here spill down the mountain side.

The gently undulating landscape of Bali is a trekker or walker’s dream come true. Divine sunrises and sunsets, fabulously lush foliage and off-the-track tracks that offer a glimpse into secret paradises are all part of the Bali trekking and walking experience. About the only drawback is that during the wet season, roads and paths can become impossibly muddy.

Adventure trekkers can head straight for the summit of Mount Batur, an active volcano covered in green grass. Most trekking groups set off in the very early morning to be at the summit in time for the sensational sunrise. After that, a pre-midday descent offers great opportunities to explore the dramatic lava scapes of the mountain’s sides. Mount Batur can be explored from base to summit and back again in around four hours.

A harder trek starts at the Mother Temple in the village of Besakih and reaches the peak of Mount Agung, Bali’s highest mountain, many hours later. Most trekking groups do the trek overnight to catch the dawn spectacle. Mount Agung towers over Bali and the entire island can be viewed in panoramic splendour from the summit. From base to summit and back down again takes around 12 hours.

Walking through the Batur Caldera has been described as being like trekking “among the Gods”. While that may seem at first like travel brochure hyperbole, most people who take the walk along the caldera wall and reach the vast inner crater testify to the magic of this walk, that passes through some of Bali’s most untouched tiny villages, where walkers can stop for a much needed bite to eat and if they like, a cold beer.

Organised tours are the only truly safe way to reach the peaks of Lombok’s Mount Rinjani, one of the more active volcanoes of Indonesia’s violent Ring of Fire. Most adventures here last around four or five days and packages include all transfers, accommodation and food and bottled water. The moonscapes and steaming mud pits of Mount Rinjani are just part of the eye-popping sights on offer here.

Less adventurous walkers will enjoy strolling the streets of urban Bali. The frantic mayhem of downtown Kuta may be too much for some, but others will enjoy walks that pass from frenetic markets and commercial hotels to quiet temples and quaint private homes in the blink of an eye. Alleyways and lanes take walkers down towards the beach, or deeper into the daily life of locals who live and work in Bali tourism.

The slopes and slight hills of Ubud main town are a walkers delight too, with the nearby Monkey Forest and the surfeit of art galleries and restaurants provide ample opportunities to punctuate a day’s walking with plenty of sit down time. Ubud is quiet and light on motor traffic, though a lot of people take a motor cycle taxi here before setting off on a day’s exploration on foot.

Bali’s surfeit of superb diving sites include the adjacent underwater paradises off Nusa Dua and Sanur as well as the nearby island of Lembongan which hosts spectacular Nusa Penida. Both these main sites are on the east of the island, where Padang Bai and Gili Tepekong are also located. On the west coast are Sacret Bay and Menjangan Island, other great dive sites.

The dive sites off Sanur and Nusa Dua are five minutes from shore by outrigger boat. The reefs are from drop-off depth through to moderate depth and the current is gentle. While visibility is limited to about seven metres, clearer weather outside the wet season can extend this by up to double. The coral is more lush and diverse closer to Nusa Dua, while fish species are greater in number at Sanur.

It takes around one hour to reach Lembongan Island’s Nusa Penida by speedboat. There are steep slopes off the drops here and visibility is consistently around 15 metres. The coral strand of Dendronephtya grows in abundance here and pelagic tropical fish species breed here too. The hawksbill turtle and large ocean sunfish and manta rays are among the highlights here.

Padang Bay is about 15 minutes from shore by outrigger boat. Visibility runs to 15 metres at best and the sea bottom is flat and sandy. Blue-spotted stingrays are common here. Nearby Gili Tepekong is part of a dive site complex that includes Biaha and Mimpang. The coral walls here are steep and there is even an underwater canyon. Visibility is standard at 20 metres and the schools of fish here are absolutely teeming. Some divers claim the water here can be subject to unexpected, very cold currents.

Possibly the diving highlight of Bali is the Menjangan Island National Marine Park, off the west coast of the island. It is listed to become a World Heritage Site, and is surrounded by a reef wall that plunges to 50 metres with visibility of up to 60 metres at all times of the year. The variety of coral and marine life here is outstanding and the caves, canyons and coral formations offer a magical atmosphere. Butterfly fish, sweetlips, frog fish and black and white tip reef sharks are part of the marine world here. Many divers spend two or three days diving at Menjangan Island.

Dive trips are easy to arrange in Bali. Any of the official or private tourism agencies around Kuta will be able to book tours that commence within 24 hours, and in some cases on the same day. There are many, many learn to dive schools and courses available and these cater to all levels of experience. People with absolutely no diving experience whatsoever can be confident that learn to dive courses in Bali are run by patient and empathetic instructors and that they will be sharing the experience with novices.

Sailing and boating opportunities in Bali start at the Royal Bali Yacht Club with its state-of-the-art facilities and vessels and continue across a broad spectrum of outfits that run from fully catered two week private yacht cruises to adventurous explorations of nearby islands and inlets on traditional Balinese boats.

The Royal Bali Yacht Club hires sail training hours at relatively expensive rates but these packages come with an experienced sailor and a very good boat. The Club has yachts for sale and a range of hire vessels that run from dinghies to catamarans. Membership is available, but not necessary for temporary hires.

Sailing groups like Sail Sensations have 87-foot yachts available for truly five-star sailing experiences. Groups or couples can charter fully-staffed yachts and sail about the waters of Bali and moor at the only the most beautiful parts of the island for sunset dinner and cocktails. Sleeping facilities on board are deluxe and overnight cruises are fully catered. Alternatively, one or two hour cruises can be booked.

Traditional Indonesian Jukung outriggers are a real sight at the docks and jetties of Bali, with their re-jigged exteriors a mix of old and new. Many are available for charter while others are used to tow surfers way off shore to hunt the big waves. Experienced sailors can hire unstaffed Jukung boats for up to one month at a time. The boats tend to sleep up to 16 people but choose carefully – comfort varies from the sublime to the ridiculous.

A couple of operators keep lovingly-restored wooden boats built several decades ago but now completely refurbished as luxury cruisers. Most have ben originally handcrafted by local boat builders and come with lovely cabins and experienced crews. Cruises on these incredibly atmospheric boats take visitors as far afield as Borneo.

Fabulous ‘Pinisi’ schooners decked out with the latest navigation and safety equipment tour in and around the Balinese waters and seven-day ’safari’ tours book out most weeks of the year and sail around Bali and to nearby islands. These tours offer fully staffed and catered luxury and privacy.

Apart from these options, private rental is fairly limited. There are always ample kayaks to be leased for the day or for the duration of the trip but only the most experienced sailors operating their own boats would be advised to head off on their own in Indonesian waters.

The range of classes and courses on offer in Bali is truly vast. Visitors to Bali can learn to cook, meditate, surf and scuba dive. There are classes in traditional Balinese music and dance, and visitors can hone their mountain climbing and motor cycle riding skills as well.

Heinz von Holzen wrote the book on Balinese cooking – literally. His book ‘The Food of Bali’ was an international bestseller and he operates a cooking school at the Ayana Resort and Spa in Nusa Dua. His restaurant is called Bumba Bali and diners who wish to emulate von Holzen’s skills are well advised to book in advance for his high demand courses.

Alternatively, traditional Balinese cooking classes are held in many other parts of the island and most resorts and hotels will have their own form of cooking course or school. Not all are as upscale and booked out as the von Holzen school, and a basic day class in just one or two dishes is often enough for most holiday makers. The Bali Culture and Information Centre in Kuta has a full list of cooking courses and classes.

Raya Yoga meditation classes are offered to all comers free of charge. They take place in Ubud and Denpasar and earn revenue via sale of meditation tapes and books, both of which make great souvenirs as well as aids to help the learning process continue once the holiday to Bali is over. Again, all the major resorts in Ubud and Nusa Dua will offer superb yoga and meditation classes on their premises.

Surfing courses are advertised everywhere, from the bulletin boards of five star hotels to colourful flyers nailed to street poles. Visitors can approach the groups of learner surfers and their teachers right on the beach, and usually join in on the spot. Prices vary, but there are few free learn to surf courses available in Bali. Many experiences surfers fund long stays in Bali by teaching surfing.

PADI-certified Scuba diving courses run out of all the main resorts in Nusa Dua as well as many hotels in Kuta. The tourist centres and travel agencies in Kuta will be able to co-ordinate and book scuba diving courses and most times, can arrange a starting time within 24 hours.

The Foundation of Pure Art in Ubud teaches traditional Balinese music and dance. One on one classes or group sessions are available and run from one day to two weeks or more. The Seni Klassik Museum in Klungkung offers lessons in playing the Gamelan and novices are welcome to enrol in the two-week training course.

Visitors to Bali can learn to paraglide off the Bukit Hill with an expert instructor in tandem on a flight lasting 20mins. Naturally, these lessons depend heavily on weather conditions and confirmations are subject to last-minute cancellations in conditions turn dangerous.

VIsitors can create their own Balinese souvenir at the Jenggala Paint A Pot school, where raw glaze is sold by quantity and subsequent teaching in hand sculpting and painting come free.

Learn-to-surf courses operate every day of the year in Bali and cater to all levels of experience. Novices are welcome to learn how to get their balance and catch their first wave and lessons are held over a couple of hours in the morning or after lunch. Experienced surfers will find no end of opportunities to catch waves of Bali’s fabled beaches, especially towards the west of the island.

Scuba diving can be arranged around the island but the best dive outifts are at the resort beach of Nusa Dua, where off shore excursions depart several times daily. Again, all levels of experience are catered for and lessons for absolute beginner divers are easy to book and have a relaxed and patient vibe.

Beach volleyball, jogging, beach yoga and every other sand-based activity under the sun are available all around the island. Some of Bali’s less obvious sporty attractions include a circus school where tourists can learn some impressive new tricks.

Bali’s beauty spas and wellness centres are justifiably world famous. Many of the upscale resorts are located in Ubud and Nusa Dua, but plenty of smaller places in the less upscale parts of Bali offer quality services. The beach ladies who endlessly ply their trade up and down the hot sand all day long do fine massages and excellent manicures and pedicures.

Motor cycles can be rented from any of the main tourist centres and the roads around the island are relatively safe and easy to navigate. Riders with out the confidence to take to the Bali roads on their own can just as easily hire a bike with driver for a half day, day or for the entire duration of their holiday. This is a great way to see Bali and get around from place to place and rates are very cheap.

Cooking courses come into their own in Ubud. In the hills above Bali marvelous schools operate classes in traditional Hindu cooking (avocado milkshakes and nasi goreng, for example) as well as basic tropical recipes. These classes are very popular with Europeans who return home with unexpected skills in cooking with coconuts and pineapples.

Temple lovers are well and truly in their element in Bali with thousands of temples of all shapes and sizes dotted all over the island. Bali’s rich cultural heritage as well as its status as the only Hindu province in Islamic Indonesia means that the island has a holy sense unlike anywhere else in the country. Virtually no home or business doesn’t have a small shrine out front, and no visitor needs to walk far before arriving at an interesting temple.

Outside the temples, visitors can find their own sense of inner peace at a meditation or yoga class. Some of the Raya yoga centres here offer free classes and courses and some morning sessions are held in the shadow of stunning dawn sunrises right on the beach.

Where to start with sightseeing in Bali? The fabled Hindu island of Indonesia hasn’t become one of the most popular tourist and holiday destinations in the world for nothing, and it continues to draw year-long crowds despite periods of economic downturns and politically-motivated violence.

Bali offers superb surfing, windsurfing and other sun and sand activities. Also, there’s an abundance of beautiful temples and nature reserves, as well as several mountains to explore. Hidden jewels like the hill town of Ubud are stacked with enough sightseeing attractions to be classed as separate tourist destinations of their own.

Most people head to Bali for the beach, and the main tourist beaches in Bali are around the suburbs of Kuta and adjacent Legian. Kuta Beach is long and pleasant though the seas here can get a little rough during some parts of the year. The beach stretches into Legian and then Seminyak Beach, which is a little more upmarket and offers a respite from the crowds and the endless beach hawkers offering their hair braiding and massage services.

Visitors wanting to do some real sightseeing may want to head to the Kintamani Volcano which is beyond Ubud. The town of Kintamani is 5,000ft above sea level and the views of the caldera and the countryside below are truly spectacular. Boat tours are available and excursions on the crater lake of the Kintamani Volcano are cheap and very worthwhile.

Visitors interested in more nature can head to the east coast of Bali and visit the enormous colony of tens of thousands of bats that hang upside down inside the Bat Cave of Candi Dasa. Another popular cave destination is the Elephant Cave near Tampaksiring, which is filled with remnants of Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimages dating back to the 11th century.

The largest Hindu temple in Bali – in all of Indonesia in fact – is the Mother Temple in Besakih. Dating from the 11th century, this enormous temple is worth a half-day visit to the slopes of Mount Agung. On either way to or from the temple, visitors can stop for a photo at the cascading rice terraces outside Tenganan village.

The Monkey Forest at Ubud is a must-see sight in Bali. Here, thousands of monkeys live fairly wild but are tame enough to eat bananas out of the hands of tourists. The Monkey Forest is the first place most visitors to Ubud will encounter if they are approaching Ubud from Kuta.

Anyone wanting to see Balinese arts and crafts being created can take handicraft village tours that take in Ubud but also the silver and gold centre of Celuk and the wood carving capital at Mas. The village of Batubulan is famous for its stone carvers and fantastic, if heavy, souvenirs can be picked up here.

Bali is a well-travelled place – crowds have been coming here in large numbers for decades, and so the tourist infrastructure of the island is very established. What this means for the first-time visitor is that no real trouble should be anticipated in regards to getting around, finding accommodation or seeking help when it’s needed. Local hawkers may be a bit too keen to help sell goods and services to tourists, but there are several official tourist offices that offer extensive information and friendly assistance.

Most new arrivals will enter Bali via Ngurah Rai International Airport at Denpasar, Bali’s largest and capital city. After passing customs and other particulars, the journey into Kuta, Bali’s main tourist drag, takes around thirty minutes and there are ample taxis and auto-rickshaws waiting out front of the Arrivals Hall. Prices can be negotiated with the driver as elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Bali’s Government Tourist Information Center is right in the centre of Kuta, on Jalan Bakung Sari. It is centrally located and filled with schedules, brochures and tour and trip information. The officers here will be able to call hotels, arrange courses and classes, and provide pretty much any information required. Unless visitors have everything booked in advance or are prepared to take their chances with touts, the Information Center is a great place to start a first trip to Bali.

Renting a motor cycle is the next choice for many visitors. Bikes are cheap and cheerful and fairly reliable but visitors should be mindful that many travel insurance policies don’t cover accidents on rented motor cycles. If you are injured while riding or injure someone else, you may not be covered and prices can be astronomical. Also, you are completely responsible for any damage and subsequent repair costs to the rented vehicle.

The famous Bali surf is generally safe and the beaches at Kuta and Legian are very heavily populated. Visitors should be advised, however, that no beach in Bali is patrolled by any form of life guard service and the surf can get choppy at times. During rough weather, maybe reconsider going too far out into the deep.

The party scene in Bali is wild but visitors should bear in mind that the infamous drug laws of Indonesia apply here and that many foreigners are currently languishing in Bali’s squalid jails for minor drug offenses, including possession of minor quantities of soft drugs. Also, crackdowns of fake clothes DVDs and CDs that are sold at all Bali market places mean that penalties can apply either departing Bali or on arrival at your home airport for purchasing illegally pirated merchandise.

Hotels in Bali run the gamut from ultimate six-star luxury resorts right down to tiny bungalows made of bamboo. There are even ample opportunities to camp out on the beach or in the jungle, and backpacker-style dormitories abound. Good value mid range places are the choice of many, and these avoid the high prices of the upscale hotels as well as the discomforts of some of the el-cheapo places.

Because Bali is a religious Island and because the main religion is Hinduism, visitors may mistake being here for spending time in India. Like the subcontinent, there is rarely a time when some form of festival is not taking place and these festivals invariably involve some form of coloured face make up, gigantic icon statues and puppets, and all kind of music, incense, colour and movement.

Balinese celebrate festivals together, or individually, when families celebrate and worship their personal house deities, for example.

Religious festivals in Bali include odalan, a festival that mark’s the anniversary of a temple’s opening and this festival can run for an entire week and are signified by flowers, flags and lots and lots of music and noise.

Another common religious festival is melasti. This is a festival of purification and many will dress up in their very best clothes and head towards the waters edge where they will bathe and play music. After this festival, a period of silence or at least general quiet, follows.

Nyepi is the festival that follows melasti and it falls at the beginning of the new lunar year which tends to occur each Spring in early April. Even holiday makers are expected to observe the calm and peace that is called for on this day and most businesses including hotels will be closed or at least, non-staffed.

Galungan is observed over the eleventh week of the Balinese calendar and marks creation of everything visible in the natural world. This is a family oriented festival and is marked by feasting and drinking (not alcohol, necessarily).

This major festival is followed by Kuningan which marks the end of the festive period. Water temples and most expecially the water temples of Ubud are centres of this very popular festival.

Many other Bali festivals have nothing whatsoever to do with religion. The Negara bull races take place between July and October and feature decorated bulls harnessed in chariots ridden by festive local jockeys. Watch out if a couple come barreling around a street corner in your direction.

The rice harvest festival is marked with dolls made from rice and a general sense of happiness and feasting, and Indonesian Independence Day is marked in Bali, naturally.

Balinese welcome foreigners into their festivals. The more the merrier, but be sure to dress appropriately – there is no need to dress up or follow festive costume, but flip flops and beach attire would be considered inappropriate.