Bali: Seminyak
This spring I traveled for 2 weeks in Bali and Singapore with my fiancé and 2 friends. I will be blogging about what we did and where we ate for each area/city we stayed in, starting with our first location – Seminyak in Bali, Indonesia!
Seminyak is a beach resort area at the southern end of Bali, Indonesia, with many luxury hotels, villas and spas, as well as high-end shopping and restaurants. It is one of the more popular/touristy spots and I felt like since this was my first time in Bali, I had to stay here for at least a few nights.
Arrival to DPS
I’m a planner so I’ve had my price alerts set up for awhile. We snagged kind of a good deal on flights, with roundtrip from Vancouver to Bali + 1 layover both ways in Taipei costing us $1000 CAD per person before tax and fees. We flew with China Airlines and the food was just mediocre (but we didn’t really have any high expectations of airplane food). Entertainment was also mediocre because sadly we had already seen most of the movies they have available, but we did enjoy their mahjong game 😂.
Visa on arrival costed us $50 per person and it is a one-time entry.
Private airport transfer
We booked a private airport transfer on Klook and it only costed us around $10 (includes a 2 hour free waiting time). Once you exit the airport, there are a ton of people holding signs or taxi drivers who will try to poach you. It was pretty easy to find our driver and they also communicate with you via Whatsapp.
SIM card
There were a lot of people trying to sell you sim cards at the airport, but we just got it from a street store/vendor near our Airbnb for a much cheaper price. For 5GB and 30 days to use it, it costed us around $12-15. At the airport, prices are closer to $25+.
Grab and Gojek
Apps you should download include Gojek or Grab. They are both ride-sharing apps like Uber that can help you arrange rides and food delivery. You don’t need to link a credit card to your account, you can pay in cash.
Accommodations
We booked an Airbnb at Seminyak, which costed us around $100 per person per night. It is a 2 bedroom villa (they actually have 3 bedrooms, but it was closed off since we only needed 2 rooms) and has a kitchen, living area and pool. The place does look like the photos and there is a property management team who is in contact with you if you need anything like cleaning services, transfers, private chef, etc. For $100 a night, the villa looks amazing. In Vancouver, you pay $300+ per night for just a queen size bed and a washroom in a hotel.
Kelvin and I got the master bedroom, which was really nice and spacious. The AC in the room was super cold because there’s 2 of them and some water started dripping on our bed when we turned it off in the middle of the night. However, the downstairs living/dining area has an indoor/outdoor concept (i.e. no walls) and so it was actually really hot during the day and lots of bugs at night.
We spent our first day mostly relaxing at the Airbnb, playing in the pool and walking around the areas close to us.
Things to do in Seminyak
Here are some of the things we did in Seminyak during our 2 days!
Balinese massage
I was really looking forward to a massage after our 20 hour flight from Vancouver. We called a nearby spa and booked a 90 minute massage for 4 people for around 1 or 2pm (the hottest time of day). The spa we chose to go to is called Putri Ubud Spa Seminyak.
When we arrived, we had to remove our shoes before going in and be careful because most shops have a little bowl or plate of flowers and offerings at the entrance. Don’t step on that! They wipe our feet after we sit down and give us water with cucumber in it to drink. We chose from a list of services that could add up to a total of 90 mins. Kelvin and I both chose the exotic balinese massage 90 min for 245,000 RP, which is only around $23 CAD 🤯!
Then you pick what scented oil you want for your massage, and the 2 pairs of couples each got their own room. The Balinese massage felt really nice and they incorporate a lot of stretching and acupressure to improve your blood circulation. Afterwards, they give you some cookies to eat and tea.
Potato Head Beach Club
There are a lot of beach clubs in Seminyak and they are exactly what it sounds like – a club on the beach! These beach clubs usually have a minimum spend in order for you to secure a spot or table and you can stay there for as long as you want.
Potato Head Beach Club is one of the more popular beach clubs in Seminyak, and I freaking love potatoes so this was a must-go-to-place for me. Not that this place has anything to do with potatoes… the hotel and beach resort is all focused around sustainability and recycling.
The vibe is really cool and it is right on the beach! We didn’t make reservation, but we were lucky that there was one seating available on the ground floor. They have a second floor but it’s not very convenient to go all the way downstairs to use the pool or access the beach, plus it’s more like a dining room upstairs with a table and wooden chairs. The spot we got is more of a lounge with sofas and it is facing the view.
Minimum spend for our spot and 4 people was 500,000 RP, which is like $46 CAD total 😭. Guys these are tears of JOY. Getting a table/minimum spend at any Vancouver club is like triple the price and you have to chug a whole bottle of liquor. Anyways, we order a shared cocktail boat called the Bali Boat for 600,000 RP to share and that already covered our minimum spend.
We stayed at Potato Head Beach Club until the sunset and also walked down to the beach because it was so pretty. We then spent the final moments of the sunset in the swimming pool, which has a nice infinity edge to it and a great view of the beach and the waves. There is also a more shallow side for children.
Grab a drink
I like to drink and I was ecstatic at the prices of cocktails in Bali. You can find one for as long as $8-9 CAD. There are a lot of cool spots to grab a drink, whether it’s by the beach or on a busy street. All the restaurants have really good vibes but I do also notice that every place we go to is filled with foreigners. I don’t see local Balinese folks drinking $9 whiskey sours or lounging at the beach clubs.
Shopping
We wanted to do some shopping and we checked out Seminyak Square and Seminyak Village, but we were mostly disappointed in the shopping options. Cheaper stalls had no A/C and are outside and they all seemed to sell things that looked the same (similar clothing, souvenirs, etc.). Brands we recognized were super expensive, for example Kelvin wanted to buy some swimming trunks but they were like $90 CAD 🫨.
Where to eat in Seminyak
Here is everywhere we ate during our stay in Seminyak. Some of these include a separate food review.
Naughty Nuri Warung
We had dinner here on our first night! Super casual and fun pub-style with tender pork ribs and lots of juicy meat options.
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Recommended: Read my full review of Nauty Nuri Warung in Seminyak.
Monsieur Spoon
For brunch, we ordered from Monsieur Spoon, which is like a french cafe. They offer baked goods, coffee/tea, juices, smoothie and acai bowls and desserts. They also have some pretty cool sandwiches like wagyu with a swirly croissant bread. Everything is like under $10 CAD each (even the sandwiches and the avocado toast). Highly recommend their items for breakfast or brunch!
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Seasalt
Seasalt is located right next door to Potato Head Beach Club – you can walk down the beach and access it via the Alila resort. They are a seafood x Japanese restaurant and $$$$, so the prices are much higher than other places in Bali.
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Recommended: Read my full review of Seasalt in Seminyak.
The Junction House
We came here for brunch on our last day since it is really close to the Seminyak mall. They offer western and Balinese dishes in a very cool Parisian style building.
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Recommended: Read my full review of The Junction House in Seminyak.
Final thoughts on Seminyak
So our first few days in Bali were really great. I loved how cheap things were and how tropical the climate is. It is pretty hot but I find I fare pretty well in temperatures that are above 30 degrees, but I did get some bug bites.
Seminyak is a beach area so if you love beaches, you should definitely make a stop here. It is also kind of known to be a party/nightlife spot, but we were so jetlagged in our first 2 days that we couldn’t stay up 😅 (we are so old now). We enjoyed drinking and relaxing at our airbnb with our friends.
Balinese people are very service oriented, friendly and big smiles. I find that they all work really hard and while everything seems cheap to us, the $1-2 they earn per Gojek ride makes a big difference, so I would recommend always leaving tips if you can afford to do so. Like I mentioned before, I found Seminyak to be full of foreigners (or at least the places we went to). The local folks eat at street stalls and not the restaurants/establishments we go to.
There was actually a little fishball soup cart outside our Airbnb with customers from the workers at the local villas. A bowl of fishballs cost around $2. Our friend ordered it and we all thought he was so brave because we were all afraid of getting diarrhea.
On another note, if you are planning to go to Bali, you probably will get diarrhea. It’s been coined “Bali belly” – everyone gets it. The water is dirty and you can get it often from food as well (ex. a salad that has been washed in dirty water, or ice cubes in your drink). Kelvin and I tried this liquid vaccine called Dukorol that’s supposed to help with traveler’s diarrhea, but we still got some upset stomach probably starting around our 3rd day in Bali. Invest in some good accommodations with nice bathrooms 💩!
Throughout our trip in Bali, you may notice we don’t “do” a lot of activities or see a lot of tourist spots. Our main goal for Bali was just to relax and live in luxury so yes we didn’t make it a priority to go to all the tourist spots. Just so you know if you are following along and planning your own trip!
Part 2 will be coming out with our next destination: Ubud!
Sincerely, Loewe
Bali + Singapore trip 2023 recap
Seminyak | Ubud | Kuta + Uluwatu | Singapore part 1 | Singapore part 2
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