Affordable Luxury in Bali

There are some places that seem unattainable to me. No matter how I try to work it, my dream trip in an overwater bungalow in the Maldives just never seems to come together. Mongolia is an experience high on my list, but also an overwhelming project with communication that would be mostly miming. And as much as I’d like to be able to brag about being at Everest Base Camp… well, we all know where my strengths are not. But when I went to Southeast Asia for three months, there was one destination I was not going to skip out on.

I was getting to Bali somehow.

It wasn’t quite as easy as just booking a fifty dollar flight from Singapore some lazy weekend, but we eventually found the time in our packed schedule. I was elated and fixated. Bali was luxury. Bali was a grown-up vacation. Bali meant I had made it in the world.

But then a bastard volcano on Lombok Island starting spewing ash, disrupting flights several weeks before our vacation. I kept to my general life policy living in denial of disappointing situations and didn’t even think of our vacation being cancelled. Boyfriend, however, is a little more sensible and started making contingency plans. But none of them were Bali.

Let’s just say, the one thing you don’t want to get the night before your vacation is the phone call that your flight is cancelled and you can rebook for the next day but to be honest that’s not looking so good either.

I had to switch from my ostrich-head-in-sand approach and move to my much more successful where-there’s-a-will approach. A 3am strategy meeting with Boyfriend, a rebooking on a different airline, and the next morning saw us still sweeping our way to the airport, Bali bound.

But now I was wired with anxiety. For all my dreaming and determination to get to Bali, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I got there. One of the things I was worried about the most was the cost. We had found reasonable accommodation, but for a luxury destination like Bali, would we just get ripped off at every turn? People had complained about the prices in Bali, but in an uber-cheap place like Southeast Asia was that just comparative sorrow?

But it turns out one of Bali’s best-kept secrets is this – you don’t have to book a private villa, complete with personal butler, to enjoy the indulgences of Bali (though if anyone’s interested in hosting me on a press trip, I’m down). Affordable luxury in Bali works for every budget – the most expensive part will be getting yourself over there!

Luxury Accommodation

I’m sure it’s easy to spend hundreds of dollars for a night in one of Bali’s finest hotels. It’s also easy to have a budget of fifty bucks a night and lounge around in the ocean-facing infinity pool or on the daybed on your balcony.

Spa Goddess

I found my inner spa junkie in Southeast Asia, and it all started in Bali.

When Boyfriend said he might be interested in getting a massage for basically the first time I’ve known him, I started hurriedly pointing out the different ones I saw. But we didn’t want just any pop-up massage table. We wanted to feel like we were getting pampered even if we were spending less than we do on a Friday night in New York City.

Sang Spa 2 won us over immediately with their hospitable welcome, skillful massages, and post-session fruit and tea. And even though the prices are listed in the hundreds of thousands, our hour-long massages came out to fifteen dollars per person.

We were so impressed we went back, two days later.

Fancy Coffee

For me, the epitome of luxury is always in food and drink. Outrageously expensive meals in equally ridiculous tiny portions? I’ll pick up a dollar slice on the way home. Bottles of champagne worth thousands of dollars? I’ll put it on eBay. Gold dusted desserts? I don’t even understand. But when we had a chance to try the most expensive coffee in the world, I was on board. Even if it’s made from animal poop. (Sort of.)

Bali Pulina Agro Tourism gives you a brief tour of how kopi luwak, the most expensive coffee in the world, is made before offering you a sample cup for the affordable price of five bucks. I’ll try any drink at least once, ignoring the fact that the coffee beans were dug out of civet scat. The kopi luwak to me seemed unremarkable, but what’s really worth the stop is the outstanding view over rice paddies. Bali Pulina also gives you a complimentary tray of all their coffees and teas, so if weasel poop coffee isn’t for you, you can sample something a little more normal, like vanilla coffee or ginger tea.

Rich History

After a descent down hundreds of stairs and through dozens of vendors, we arrived at the ancient Hindu temple of Gunung Kawi. I had a sari wrapped around my waist and I slipped off my shoes to tread lightly into one of the even more holy places. I stood in front of giant carvings that had dwarfed people for centuries. I hummed the Indiana Jones theme song more than once.

And what was even more amazing – we had the place almost to ourselves.

There are loads of beautiful Hindu temples and ruins on Bali. Some of them were packed – Tampak Siring was especially busy, with tourists and locals. But with the emptiness of Gunung Kawi I felt like I was discovering it myself. It’s hard to find places that are truly remote anymore. Travel is more accessible than ever and technology permeates our every experience, dragging us back to modernity no matter how we try to lose ourselves. And so the chance to explore an ancient ruin in silence and reverence goes beyond luxury – it’s priceless.

Dining like Fools

We stuffed ourselves in Bali. From babi guling (suckling pig) to room service breakfast to the sidekick cafe of world-class restaurant Locavore (really need to learn to make reservations), we ate fantastically. But my favorite meal of all was our last night, down in Uluwatu. Which is not a food mecca at all. There’s one supposedly fabulous restaurant with fabulous sunset views, but we didn’t learn our lesson in Ubud and, once again, failed to make a reservation.

Instead, we found a French fusion restaurant on a top of a hill. We had missed sunset, but were still seated on the terrace facing the deepening purple sky. We were the only guests in the whole restaurant, and the staff rallied around us with hospitality and pride.

We had piping hot cheese bread (cheese! my heart sang. In Asia!), steak and duck and a carafe of wine. All for maybe a third of what our last fancy meal in New York cost us.

Natural Beauty

We were riding up and down the hills of Ubud, me clutching onto the back of the motorbike, and I couldn’t not stop grinning. I made Boyfriend pull over on the edge of a hill and stared down at the terraces of rice paddies. Bali is stunning, and even if you don’t indulge in fancy hotels with infinity pools, ultra-hipster coffee, or lavish massages, the sheer natural beauty of Bali will overwhelm you with gratitude. The luxury of Bali comes not from what has been brought and built there, but what could be found there all along.

Have you ever experienced affordable luxury in Bali or elsewhere? Or, more relatable to me, when did you first feel like you were vacationing like a grown-up?