My wife and I are going to Bali for our 1st anniversary. We are flying From SEA to SIN on UA and then Air Indonesia to DPS. We are thinking 2 nights at the Courtyard Nusa Dua, I have 2 cat 4 certificates and we want to unwind for 2 days on the beach. Move to Ubud for 2 nights, thinking Purist Villas. Move to Legian for 2 nights at The Marriott Stone, I have 2 cat 5 certificates. The final night we were going to do the Ayana through the AMEX platinum FHR program for the massage, late checkout, and rock bar. So any thoughts? Is moving that often crazy? We want to experience as much as we can. We could potentially add another night to the trip or eliminate the Ayana so maybe 2 nts Nusa Dua, 3 nts Ubud, 3 nts Legian/Ayana. Any help is appreciated.

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.

I would agree with the above. Bali is good value. I would not rate those hotels either. In kuta your hotel won't be right on the beach.

If your flying all that way splash some cash. Take a look at some of the Asian sale sites.

Latestays.com is a good place to look

I would only move once at the very most.

Ubud is dramatic and an incredible place.

Enjoy it

Thank you both for your feedback. I should clarify, the free nights are Marriott credit card and MegaBonus certificates. They expire in June, so we thought this would be a decent way to use them. But I am leaning towards just Ubud and Kuta....although the wife wants the nicer beach of Nusa Dua.

I split it half and half between Ubud and the beach without so much moving,

and....

Dude, it's your anniversary. If your wife wants the nicer beach go with the nicer beach.

The rap on Nusa Dua is that it's manicured, sanitized, etc., a bit like a corporate campus (with a beach). This ropes it off from most of the hawkers as seen in Kuta or Sanur (but especially Kuta), and in many respects the place could as well be on Maui or Guam. OTOH, it's still nice in its own right and not that far from Kuta or Sanur, anyway.

Would you say that Bali is to Indonesia as Phuket is to Thailand?

Having spent time in both (a lot more in Bali) I would say yes, in a way. You will find much less of the open sexual thing of Phuket, and a lot more Australians, in Bali.

Ubud-not many other places you can compare
Kuta-Interesting in it's own way, but definitely will know you're in a third world county
Seminyak - Less of the Kuta vibe, but still Indonesia
Nusa Dua - Sanitized "anybeach, anytropicalplace"

Hope that helps.

If you make any kids on your honeymoon, and want to go back to Bali with them, hit me up, I know lots of fun things to do with kids, since that's how I roll in Bali

I don't believe there is currently an airline called Air Indonesia. Perhaps you meant Garuda Indonesia, or Air Asia Indonesia?

I think moving around a lot in Bali is a bit of a waste. I personally don't think that Nusa Dua is very representative of Bali. For all intents and purposes you could be in Hawaii, or Jamaica.

Ubud is a pretty good choice, if you select the right place. I'd change, and at the most, I'd just select two places.

Agree with the comments on Nusa Dua. I'd look at other beaches there.