Honeymoon In Bali, Care Of Your Wedding Guests

by Jessica Marati on

Some couples request practical items like crock pots and cutlery sets on their wedding registries. But if you’re anything like the Gadling crew, you’d probably prefer experiences to expensive china … like, say, a honeymoon in Bali.

With that in mind, the Ayana Resort & Spa in Jimbaran, Bali, recently announced its new Ultimate Honeymoon Package and Wedding Registry Service – a way for wedding guests to pitch in toward luxury hotel experiences for the newlyweds. And luxury, Ayana’s got. The resort is comprised of 290 artfully appointed guest rooms and 78 private villas, each with its own swimming pool and butler service. Travel + Leisure named Ayana among the World’s 20 Top Hotels in 2010, and Conde Nast readers voted it Asia’s best resort in 2011. From appearances, it looks like the perfect spot for a little post-nuptial relaxation.

Honeymoon registry gifts can go toward the cost of the stay, or they can be allotted to specific experiences: a honeymoon yoga class ($45/person), a perfume spa package ($240/person), a cooking class and tour of the Jimbaran fish market ($90/person) or an extravagant five-course lobster dinner on a secluded pier, accompanied by bamboo xylophones ($580/couple).

Any of those options certainly beats a new set of craft beer glasses in my book.

US News & World Report Ranks Best Vacations

by McLean Robbins on

It’s time for summer vacation, and we’re pretty sure we could use a long week at the beach. Thanks to U.S. News & World Report, we now know the most statistically sound places to maximize our oh-so-precious vacation time, sorted by region.

The new rankings identify the top vacation spots based on a methodology that combines expert and consumer opinions. They reflect how strongly a destination is recommended by travel experts and U.S. News Travel website users.

According to the survey, Bali, Kauai and the Seychelles take the top awards for “Best Beaches” while Barcelona, Paris and Berlin rank on top for Best European Vacations. Within the U.S., Yellowstone, New York City and Washington, D.C., are the most coveted destinations.

In total, more than 200 destinations were considered in the current rankings, and this marks the first time the publication has ranked the “Best” list on a global scale.

[Flickr image of Kauai by Chuck 55]

In Bali With Baggage

by Jonathan Goldstein on

After a long season of non-stop work, having all but transformed into a half man, half desk centaur-like creature, I am going to Bali to unwind.

And whereas some people in my place would be thinking about bathing suits and beach reads, I am thinking about travel-related illness. Typhoid. Tetanus. All the sicknesses of the rainbow – and spiders, too. According to the Internet, there are lots of poisonous ones in Indonesia. And unlike Peter Parker who was made into a unitarded Uber-Mensch, I see my spider bite as more of a prolonged hospital stay kind of thing, where much to the disgust of the staff, my coward’s death would unfold.

Clutching my Canadian health insurance documentation with one hand and the hem of the nurse’s smock with the other, I’d whisper through tears and mucus, “Please don’t leave me.”

While there might not be much I can do about spider bites, I can do my best to safeguard against sickness, so I go see my childhood friend, Jackie, now a doctor, for shots of everything I can.

“Load me up,” I say, seated on the doctor’s table, my sleeve rolled up.

“Stop flinching,” Dr. Jackie says. She’s having fun, trying to make me squirm by brandishing the hypodermic like Riff in Westside Story with a shiv.

After much stagecraft, she pokes it in and I keep cool. I’m a scaredy-cat, but I’m also proud.

On the way home, I find myself wondering whether there were any other shots I should have gotten. Measles? Lupus? I see myself at the Bali General in the throes of a fever delirium.

“I’m phobic about needles,” I’d say to my nurse, all death bed confessional.

“This isn’t a needle,” she’d say. “It’s a turkey baster. I’m basting you a turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving.”

“Has it been cooked through and through,” I’d ask. “I’m equally phobic about salmonella.”

I make a mental note to pack Valium.

[Flickr image via Ephemeral Scraps]

Tranquil travel hits Bali as the entire island falls silent during Nyepi

by Jessica Festa on

While many cultures around the world celebrate their New Year with fireworks, parades, and loud parties, the island of Bali in Indonesia takes a different approach. In fact, travelers looking to enjoy some peace and quiet in a beautiful setting should consider taking a trip to the island on March 23 to take part in the Balinese New Year, or Nyepi, “Day of Silence”.

During Nyepi, the entire island of Bali falls silent in an effort to cleanse and purify. In fact, shops aren’t allowed to open, vehicles and machinery may not be used, work is forbidden, electricity must remain off, and even the Bali airport closes down.

Just because the island falls silent, however, does not mean you shouldn’t visit. In fact, an array of cultural activities and package deals are offered in honor of Nyepi, making it the perfect time to visit Bali.

AYANA Resort and Spa

For those who would like to experience Nyepi for themselves, the luxury, cliff-top AYANA Resort and Spa allows guests to stay on the property and continue to use the restaurants, spa, and other facilities during the event as long as noise is kept to a minimum. They also take part in the festivities that lead up to the day of silence, including creating a giant paper mache figure called ogoh-ogoh (shown above). On the night before Nyepi, locals from all over the island come out to show off their own ogoh-ogohs, which tend to resemble skeletons and monsters, while live bands play in the background. It is believed that those taking part in this cultural ceremony confront their own negativity and purge it from their souls.

Rates start at $239 per night plus taxes and gratuities. Email reservation@ayanaresort.com or click here to book. The Radiant Hotel and Spa

The Radiant Hotel and Spa is a 5-star boutique hotel that sits on 50-acres of pools, palm trees, tropical gardens, and magnificent fountains. In honor of the Balinese New Year, the hotel is offering a 3 day/2 night Nyepi Package which includes two nights in a Superior room, daily breakfast for two, an evening at the buffet, unlimited soft drinks, a 45-minute foot and shoulder massage, and 10% off beverages. And to help you enjoy the tranquility a little more, you can add-on one of their relaxing spa packages, like a 30-minute Jacuzzi soak followed by a 70-minute full-body natural oil massage, shower, and snack, or a combination that includes a sauna session, massage, body scrub, and facial.

Package rates start at $154 plus taxes and gratuities for the dates of March 22-24. E-mail info@theradianthotel.com or click here to book.

Conrad Bali

This contemporary designed, beachfront property is all about creating unique and worthwhile experiences for their guests, from cooking classes to brunches on the beach to tennis lessons. For Nyepi, the Conrad Bali is helping guests cleanse their souls by hosting an array of holistic and healing activities, like yoga and meditation. They are also keeping their spa open so that guests can enjoy treatments like a tea-infused aromatherapy bath followed by a marine mud and sea salt body wrap, or a full-body massage and natural yogurt body mask.

Rates start at $168 per night plus taxes and gratuities. Click here to book.

Sun Boutique Hotel

The Sun Boutique Hotel is a modern hotel with enjoyable features like spacious rooms, soothing wall art, a delicious bistro, and a beautiful rooftop garden. In honor of Nyepi, they are featuring a Sun Nyepi Package which includes a welcome drink, daily buffet breakfast for two, daily tropical fruit basket, two water bottles each day, coffee and tea, and lunch and dinner for two on March 23.

Package rates start at about $174 for a standard room. E-mail info@sunboutiquehotel.com or click here to book.

Komaneka

If you love being surrounded by nature in a peaceful setting, this is your perfect hotel. From March 22-March 24, Komaneka will be offering a Nyepi Package, which includes two nights in a Bisma Suite room, a 60-minute Balinese massage, two lunches and dinners, welcome drink, daily breakfast and afternoon tea, daily en-suite cookies, fruits, and flowers, daily entrance and return transfer to Neka Art Museum, free mineral water each day, free activities like cultural offerings, dance lessons, and wood carving, and free shuttle service to and from central Ubud.

Package rates vary depending on when you book. E-mail reservation@komaneka.com or click here to book.

Video of the day: Bali, Indonesia

by Elizabeth Seward on

BALI, JE T’AIME! from artisland on Vimeo.

Now seems as good a time as any other to take a trip to Bali. To sprawl out on the sands and relax in the waters under the sun amid such beautiful culture certainly seems like a dream as the intensity and work load that come with every new year continues to pile. Luckily for all of us not currently embarking on a voyage to Bali, Andrew Melikov put this gorgeous ‘Postcard from Bali’ type video up on Vimeo. Complete with images of local artisans, droplets of water on blades of grass, crashing waterfalls, gentles breezes making the vegetation dance, children climbing trees and flying kites, this video effectively captures a vacation destination on film beyond the resorts wherein so many tourists find themselves confined.