Weddingbee Blog

I know quite a few of you are interested in how our honeymoon in Bali went, so this is for you. And what I have to say is too long for a single post, so I thought I would start off with a basic recap of our experience, and then follow-up another day with some tips and tricks for those who might be interested in having their own honeymoon in Bali. Sound good? Okay, let’s get started then!

After spending our first night after the wedding in Nelson, we had a simple farewell lunch with friends and family, and then set off to Auckland and spent a (short) night there before departing to Bali, via Brisbane, at the *lovely* hour of 5AM.

Slightly bleary-eyed but smiley in Auckland Airport at dawn

Thirteen hours later (including transit time) we walked into the warm air of Bali. I won’t lie, that trip wasn’t the best one I have had seeing as we were both already exhausted from the past week, but once we got to Bali and realised all we were expected to do was relax, then the exhaustion didn’t seem to matter any more.

We stayed at the Rama Beach Resort & Villas in Kuta. We chose this place because 1) we got a good discount and 2) I had stayed there once before and really liked the peaceful atmosphere and the friendly staff. We weren’t disappointed with our choice either; the entire time we stayed there we felt spoiled.

Our room was prepared with the “honeymooners’ treatment” for our arrival, including towel doves and flowers for our bed, tropical fruit, and a bath filled with more flowers. I think that’s when we finally felt like we were actually on honeymoon, and that the whole thing wasn’t just a pleasant dream! The hotel also threw in a free hour-long massage at their spa, which was definitely a highlight.

Our room

We quickly set about shedding the stress of wedding planning, and slipped into a leisurely daily routine. I have said before that laziness on our honeymoon was exactly what we planned for this time, and honestly the time before the wedding had taken so much of our energy that we were almost too predictable and sedentary in Bali. Not that we cared.

Every morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant.

A sleepy Mr E enjoying his mie goreng and orange juice

I’m pretty sure I had an omelette or some other variation on eggs every single morning. They were just so GOOD! Mr E, on the other hand, piled his plate high with all the Indonesian food he had missed since leaving the country a few years ago. We actually could have probably eaten an entire day’s worth of food just at breakfast, thanks to the spread of pastries, the various cereals and breads, as well as oatmeal, bacon, sausage, and tropical fruit displays.

After that delicious start, we would head back to our room to do some reading, or watch some TV, before catching the 10AM shuttle to the main shopping centre of Kuta. There we would do a bit of browsing (I was scouting for the beautiful silver filigree jewellery that Bali is famous for), and just general wandering. We were always so full from breakfast that lunch was usually a smoothie of some sort.

Now, my favourite type of smoothie ever is a banana smoothie. But for some weird reason bananas were impossible to find for the majority of our trip! After tasting an Indonesian banana no other ones will ever compare, so I was desperate to satiate my craving. Finally, on the last day of the honeymoon I found my coveted banana smoothie and all was right with the world again.

After lunch, if the wind wasn’t too strong, we would walk back to the hotel along the beach. At that time of the year (monsoon season), the beach wasn’t great for swimming, but we aren’t really sea swimmers anyway so the walk was enough for us. And of course we used the opportunity for a few pictures….

Afternoons may have been my favourite time of the day. We stocked up on DVDs and TV series and watched them on our laptop for a couple of hours. In this way we completely overloaded on Castle, Cold Case, and Accidentally on Purpose episodes. By mid-afternoon we dragged ourselves out of our room and flopped on a comfy poolside bed to read, drink cocktails, and occasionally go for a dip.

mmm…mai tai

The gorgeous pool and the handsome hubby

I was so happy to be able to get some reading in during that time. It had been a year (a year!) since I had been able to read just for pleasure, rather than for uni or some other reason. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed and Margaret Atwood’s The Year of Flood kept me happy.

Each night we spruced ourselves up a bit, and caught the shuttle again to head out for dinner.

For some reason I love this pic of us getting ready in our bathroom for tea

We tried to go to a different restaurant every night (with some exceptions for special favourites), and ended up eating food from around the world: Greek, Turkish, Irish, Italian, Balinese, Chinese, German, Indian and more. We are both seafood fans in particular and fish in Bali is so affordable that we didn’t miss taking advantage of that either.

At my favourite restaurant, Daddy’s Cafe, which serves Greek-inspired food. I got the snapper kebab every time we went there.

There is always room for dessert! At first we mixed it up a bit—cheesecake one night, sticky toffee pudding the next…

Pudding at an Irish pub…sooooo good!

…but then we found our ultimate flavour combination at Coldstone. I had never heard of this chain before, and, for those of you aren’t American either or who don’t know what it is, it is an ice cream parlour where you can pick your flavour of ice cream, then pick a few toppings, and then those toppings are mixed into the ice cream. Our favourite combination? Dark chocolate ice cream, peanut butter, and brownie bits.

That’s the look Mr E gets when he isn’t going to share with me…

I think I’m having withdrawal symptoms now that I can’t have that anymore! *sigh*

After dessert we always headed back to our hotel room for a romantic comedy or two to finish up our day. Yup, we didn’t have the most adrenalin pumping honeymoon, but it sure was exactly what we needed at the time!

Relaxed and happy faces right before we left Bali.

Next up: I’ll go into some more detail about good places to eat, stay, and things to love in Bali. So, stay tuned!

What’s your ideal type of honeymoon? An adventurous one or a relaxed one, or one that combines the two?

*All photos in this post taken by either Mr E or I.