Bali Tourist Map
You’ll find Bali located 3 miles off the west coast of Java with a comparatively small land area of just over 5,000km ; Bali could fit into Australia over 1,200 times. From the top on a Map of Bali in the north to the tip of the island in the south is only 55miles and east to west it is only ninety miles, so getting around the island is fairly straightforward and the longest drive that you’d need to do to get to any resort would be two hours at the most.
The most well liked Bali Hotels are situated in the south of the island with a few others along the east and west coast. Nusa Dua is the most southern resort that’s popular with travellers, although you may find other less known ones a bit further south. The roads round the coast of Bali are typically in good shape, it is when you leave the main stretch that you will find that the roads are very seldom maintained to any standard and are generally just dirt tracks often impassible by two cars and you want to be careful of people and animals that use not only these side roads but the main roads to stroll on.
Heading along the west coast from Nusa Dua you’ll come to Jimbaran another extremely popular and busy visitor resort. Maybe 10 minutes further along you may pass by Ngurah Rai International airport that is used as a gateway for the remainder of Indonesia. Kuta and South Kuta are perhaps another 20 mins drive from here and this is where you will find the most commercialized area of Bali. Not only are the hotels designed to accommodate many tourists, but the leisure facilities and the shopping areas very tourist orientated.
The drive from here to the tip of the west coast will take you past some of the more up market holiday maker destinations of Bali. Legian and Seminyak are situated along the west coast and offer more splendid accommodation including personal beaches, gardens and swimming pools. The rest of the drive up the west coast will take you past many places to remain, but they don’t seem to be the well known or preferred resorts or hotels. For the tourist who favors secluded areas there’ll be masses of places to stay along this western section of Bali without all of the trappings and crowds of the big holiday maker places.
From here you could head inland in an easterly direction and you will come to Ubud which is situated in the mountainous area of Bali. The landscape is worlds apart compared to the seaside resorts. Here you’ll be surrounded by lush tropical rain forests with stunning views of the mountains and volcanoes. Driving further east you will shortly come to the eastern shore, where there are some popular resorts. As with the resorts further up the west coast you’ll find these are far more expensive than the southern areas because of the wonderful diving locations around this area. The widely recognized resorts on the east coast are Candi Dasa and Sanur. After you get to Sanur you can take a detour inland and come to Denspanar, the capital of Bali. Although this isn’t actually a popular traveller destination due to its lack of beaches, night life and shopping malls, it’s still worth taking time out to explore.
From Denspanar you would drive south again and before you get to Nusa Dua where you started from, you’ll pass Tanjung Benoa a truly well-liked, but very up market area. Tanjung Benoa is located on the end of the peninsula and has stunning views of the sea.
As far as the most visited and popular places in Bali go, those are the better known ones, but Bali offers so very much more. There are so many more Bali hotels situated all around the island and on some of the smaller islands just round the coast. Bali is certainly an island to be explored and taking one of the Bali Tours to one of the smaller know towns will give you a much better comprehension of the real Balinese way of life.