I made Kuta and Ubud my 2 base camps, reaching other spots on the many daytours or options like that. Nusa Dua is nice if a bit cloistered...people complain about all the aggressive hawkers in Kuta (too many people trying to eke out a living from tourism), so I can't find huge fault there for retreating from that a bit. Bali is such an excpetional deal at all levels that I'd hesitate to burn points there as opposed to, say, Tahiti or Europe or someplace with much higher costs and fewer options. I remember staying in Ubud at $5 a night in a cottage with a pancake breakfast delivered to the porch every morning. Ubud is really about going around temple festivals, Besakih, monkey forest or any other place of interest by day and then seeing a different cultural performance every night. Bali is very rich in things to see/buy/do/eat, etc., quite unlike a place with a beach but not too much else.