Seminyak and Nusa Penida with plenty of luxury spas and hotels

Seminyak is closely connected to Denpasar, Bali’s capital, and Nusa Penida, an easily accessible island just outside. On the map, it is not easy to see where Denpasar ends and Seminyak starts, but as a tourist, it is not so important. Denpasar is quite boring inland, but Seminyak has the beaches, hotels, and restaurants. On the other hand, it is much easier to distinguish Nusa Penida, since it is an island. I visited all three, and this is my opinion.

Bus ride from Ubud

After a few days in Ubud, it was time to reach the coast and actually get the first sight of real beaches on this trip. It was just about an hour bus ride from Ubud to reach one of the boats for Nusa Penida. As many of you know, beaches do not occupy me much on my travels. However, I did swim at my last destination on the trip, which will be featured in the next post. I also swam in some of the hotel pools during my journey across Indonesia.

When travelling by boat to Nusa Penida, it is essential to know which port you will be arriving at, as there are several options available. On both my journeys, I made a mistake, so I ended up at the furthest ports from where I was staying, but it was not a big deal. Scooters on the island, and Grab on the mainland do the trick. I definitely arrived at the more upscale port, with numerous large private boats and luxurious hotels. And, I was staying in a thirty-minute ride from here.

Fantastic beaches

Nusa Penida is absolutely a place to go if you like white sandy beaches, jaw-dropping viewpoints, and unreal landscapes. So, even though it can get ultra-touristy, annoyingly trafficky, and overloaded with people taking selfies, it is absolutely worth spending at least a few days on this magical Balinese island. As I always feel I have limited time to visit, especially the tourist traps, I only spent two nights here.

Kelingking Beach

This beach and rock formation out in the sea was what drew me to this side of the island. It was about half an hour by car to cross the island and see this spot. It was a fantastic view from the top, and then I climbed down the stairs and walked on the edge to the other side. I did not walk all the way down to the beach. After reading one article today, I was perhaps fortunate to experience it like I did, because a Chinese company is about to build a glass elevator that will descend to the beach. I think that will ruin the entire magical experience, and the beach will become overcrowded.

Back to the mother island

It was time to return to Bali, and my accommodation was in Seminyak. This is a very popular spot for beach tourism, and here you find plenty of expensive and fancy restaurants. In retrospect, I am surprised by how few pictures I took during my days there. This was one of the few I took, and still, the beach did not tempt me to take a swim. But I did take some long walks along it.

Denpasar

As I said earlier, Denpasar is the capital of Bali, and Semyniak borders it. I travelled to its centre on a Monday, and that meant that several museums were closed, but the Bali Museum was open. The museum was built in 1931, near the location of the former royal palace of Denpasar, which had been burnt to the ground during the Dutch intervention in Bali (1906), and used it as a model for its outside walls and courtyards. It is not a large complex, but the buildings display the style of the old palace’s construction. So, even if the museum was small, it was a quiet and peaceful place.

Seminyak

When I got home, I realised that I did not have many pictures from Seminyak. It was obviously not much that caught my attention. However, I got a Grab scooter to drive me to Tanah Lot. Tanah Lot is a Balinese ” sea temple”  located along the southwestern coast of the island. It is a 16th-century Hindu temple. It was rescued from crumbling by loans from the Japanese government in the 1980s. One can not enter the temple, but you can reach the rock formations at low tides during the day. This concluded my days in Bali, and now I have only two more destinations on my journey across Indonesia.