We hit Indonesia twice on our cruise from Abu Dhabi to Auckland. First was a quick cruise stop in Sabang on Pulau Weh, the northernmost island of Indonesia, in late December 2023 with Seabourn. Then we flew from Singapore to Bali on Christmas Eve and spent a week there before flying on to Sydney.
Sabang was one of those wonderful surprise ports. We visited a local school where the kids picked us out of the crowd and pulled us into their traditional dance — Jessica's fair complexion made her instantly famous and she ended up in approximately a hundred selfies. We also went out to the Jaboi Geothermal Valley, where steam vents up through the ground, and finished the day at Gapang Beach eating sticky rice and drinking out of fresh coconuts. Not a place we would have ever sought out on our own, and we loved it.
For Bali we stayed at The Westin Resort Nusa Dua for a week, which was the right call for a Christmas trip — big pool, full resort, easy to do nothing for a day at a time. We had a few big days mixed in. Sundays Beach Club down on the Bukit Peninsula is a great half-day beach club with good food and lounge chairs on the sand. From there we drove to Nyang Nyang Beach for the sunset, then over to Uluwatu Temple for the 5:45 PM Kecak fire dance show on the cliffs — get there by 5PM to queue for decent seats, and it is genuinely a special hour.
We did a boat day out of Harbour Serangan, snorkeling around Nusa Penida. Our big Ubud day went Tegenungan Waterfall, then the Tegalalang Rice Terrace, then lunch at Cretya Lite (touristy but actually a beautiful spot), then the Monkey Forest with its 1,000-plus monkeys, then a coffee stop at Teké Coffee on the long drive back. If you only do three things in Bali, make them the Uluwatu Kecak dance, a snorkel day out to Nusa Penida, and the Ubud loop.