As a TL;DR summary/recommendation:

Again in 2018, I had the chance to bounce a bit around Indonesia, specifically Bali, Gili Meno, and the Komodo Islands. I wrote the following as a recommendation guide for my friends who were considering taking their honeymoon there!

Bali

In Bali, we stayed 5 nights in Ubud and one night in Kuta just as a stop before our flights. 

Ubud

The city was amazing! It’s a walkable town if you stay nearby and there are a variety of spas, food, waterfalls, day trips, and more. It’s pretty hip.

Hotel – Sthala – The hotel is a bit outside the Ubud downtown, but they were really cheap and an SPG property, so we stayed there as we chased platinum status. I was surprised of how NICE the hotel was for the price, and they have a regular shuttle to take you in to town. I enjoyed it and would stay again. I think there might be a 4seasons or something closer to Ubud you can look into because I know you’re ballin’

Activities

OKAY so for most things in Bali (and asia) you can organize all your activities with local tour agencies, your hotel, or with taxi drivers in the street who can just drive you to the destinations you want. 

For one day, we negotiated with a driver to take us to … 

Tegelalang Rice Patties – Pretty cool rice patty that you can walk through. You do have to pay a small fee to enter as well as fees at checkpoints along the hike. They also have random swings and stuff, but it was a pretty nice walk through.

Pura Tirta Empul – at this water temple women need to wear a wrap you can get on site and for a small fee you can rent a swim robe and bathe yourself in the holy waters of the temple. 

For the next day, we organized a sunrise hike with a local agency on the street who provided transport, “breakfast”, and “lunch”

Mt Batur Sunrise Hike – Hit up my man Ketut. He dragged us up the mountain. You leave at like 3am and then hike a couple hours in the dark to make it to the top for sunrise. We did it in runners, though hiking shoes might have been nice. Either way, it was totally worth it! I can give you Ketut’s number so you can see if you can negotiate a good price or at least make sure he’s your guide.

Pura Penataran Agung Lempuyang – Sky Temple. It’s far as hell and we didn’t get a chance to go while we were there, but it makes for a damn good instagram picture

Nusa Penida

This can be done as a day trip where get a boat ticket and you hire a car to take you to all the main sites. We only did the day trip that took us to 3 locations on the island. I felt it was a bit quick, but I don’t know much about the accommodations on/around the island. I could have seen staying a night here just so I could have spent more time at … 

Kelingking Beach – This is THE site on this island. There are these other beaches you hang out at, but this is THE spot to come and take a picture.

Kuta and other areas that aren’t Ubud

North Kuta – We stayed in a marriott hotel or something in Kuta and didnt really get a chance to explore fully. It was reminiscent of a typical asian city. Lots of bars and restaurants and also a beach to visit. The beach is not as nice as the others listed in my recommendations below.

South Kuta – This area has a bunch of beautiful beaches and a lot of high end resorts. It’s pretty touristy IMO, but I have to admit, it’s still nice/ balling. One of the ballin’ ass hotel’s we visited that you might consider is…

Ayana – If it’s your honeymoon, you might want to splurge on the luxury here. If you don’t get a room here, then you should at least visit the Rock Bar

Rock Bar – The bar in Ayana. Get there for sunset, it’s freaking beautiful. We showed up about an hour before sunset and they were packed and not accepting people until there was space. We waited in another bar and caught most of the sunset before being let in to catch the last 15 minutes. You can have a driver take you here and he’ll drop you off while you explore and grab a drink. There are a TON of people who come to Ayana to see the hotel and the bar. It’s ballin… worthy of a honeymoon. But it’s also very busy so you might not get the alone relaxation here… which you can get in Ubud!

Jimbaran Bay – Once you’re done with the rock bar, head to this area and have dinner on the beach. There are a ton of restaurants serving seafood on chairs set up around the bay and if you just walk and find a spot that is crowded, it’s pretty good bet

Gili Islands

There are 3 Gili’s to visit and each one is known for their own vibe. We only did 2 nights in Gili Meno, but could have totally chilled there for another night or two. 

Gili Meno – Relaxation ( this is where we visited and we loved it) – There are no cars on the island. They transport stuff with horse drawn carriages.  You can literally walk around the whole island in an hour. It’s a place to really slow down and chill out. The water is freaking beautiful and you can snorkel right off the island without needing a boat to take you out. You COULD also get a boat to snorkel some other areas around the Gili’s but we literally just launched off the beach and it was great. They even have this sweet underground statue thing to snorkel at. I literally have a million pictures that cant even describe how beautiful it was. 

Gili T – Party Island – we could hear and see all the nightlife on Gili T from the shore of Gili M which is where we stayed. 

Gili Air – Mix of relax and party – We took the boat from Gili A to go back to Bali. 

Hotel on Gili M – Kura Kura Beach Resort – This was a budget friendly hotel that was actually pretty nice. Room was clean and updated, and again surprisingly good for the money. There are only a few hotels around the island, and we walked past a couple of the honeymoon level resorts that looked balling. 

How to get to Gilis

Fast boat from Padang Bai. It has like 2 or 3 stops. Pretty easy to do and research.

Komodo Islands

Komodo islands are beautiful and exciting. It has beautiful islands and is a DIVING paradise. Even if you don’t dive exploring the islands and snorkeling is great! There are two ways that you can explore the island – 1. Stay at a hotel then take 1 day boat trips to see the islands and snorkel 2. Do a live aboard boat and spend 1 or 2 nights out on the water while exploring the islands. Option 2 is more expensive but you get to maximize your time exploring. There are so many varieties of liveaboards so if you do this, make sure to do your research. We did option 1 where we stayed for 3 nights and did 2 day trip excursions plus a bonus private boat. 

Hotel – We stayed at the Golo Hilltop Hotel. The place could have been nicer, but reasonable for the price. It’s at the top of a hill so it was a walk to get there and back, but they’ve got a great view though!

Labujan Bajo (LBJ) – this is the port town that  you’d stay in and that the boats launch out of. The town is not very developed and only has a couple restaurants to eat at. You don’t really spend your time here in the port as you just hop on boats to see the surrounding islands.

At LBJ you can walk around and find/negotiate prices for your day trips. We took 2 day trips that fortunately did not overlap locations but one was focused around Komodo Island, while the other was focused around Rinca Island. 

Komodo Island – The tour that day probably had something like 4 stops. It involved snorkeling, nice beaches and of course… seeing a Komodo dragon. While it was cool to see the dragons, the experience overall was not so exciting. They were these giant lizards that COULD kill you if you pissed them off, but they just laid there and sometimes fought with each other. You have to pay IN CASH the entrance fee so if you do this, don’t forget. We had to spot some Canadians who forgot their cash.

Padar Island – Hiking up Padar island gave me one of the BEST pictures i’ve ever taken.

Rinca Island – Along the Rinca Island tour we stopped at Pink beach which is a tiny island that comes and goes with the tide. its beautiful but as with most tours, you are on a schedule so we couldn’t spend as long as we wanted there.

Private Boat Rental – Since we had one extra day with nothing planned, we rented a private boat for ourselves. It was just one guy in his rinky dink boat but he took us to our own private beach. It was pretty cheap (negotiated of course) to rent the guy for the whole day and it was a pretty cool experience to have him just take us to the private beaches for us to just lay at, snorkel, drink, and chill. I think it ended up being something like $50 to rent the guy for the whole day. 

In 2018, I travelled 2 weeks in Vietnam and absolutely loved it. I have to admit though I’m not really into temples or pagodas so sorry if this is more food-based than you’d hoped!

HANOI

We used Hanoi as our base for visiting Sapa and Halong Bay.  We flew into Vietnam pretty late on our first night and stayed in Hanoi.  We woke up early the next morning to head to Sapa (spent two nights there) and then returned to Hanoi for three nights.  We had about 1.5 days for Hanoi itself though looking back, I wish I had a little more time to not feel so rushed. Our

Where to visit: we went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and the one-pillar pagoda – worth visiting once. The highlight of Hanoi is the beer corner (it is absolutely insane on this stretch, especially on a Friday or Saturday night).

Where to stay: we stayed at the Oriental Central Hotel and it was great – pho for breakfast, fantastic location, and excellent customer service.  The room was on the smaller side but this is standard for anything in the Old Quarter.

Where to eat: Hanoi was a foodie heaven ! The best Northern Vietnamese dishes are bun cha, banh cuon, and egg coffee

⁃ Bun cha Huong Lien (24 Le Van Huu) – this place was made famous by Obama and Bourdain, come here and order the bun cha

⁃ Banh cuon nong (71 Ho Hoan Kiem- open from about 5 pm) – really good banh cuon here

⁃ Banh Mi no. 14 (in front of a yogurt place – 14 Hang Buom Street) – this is easily the best Banh Mi we had the entire time we were in Vietnam

⁃ Cafe Giang (39 Nguyen Huu Huan) – this is the birthplace of egg coffee, but egg coffees are pretty good from other cafes. By the way… I now love egg coffees

⁃ Bun Bo Nam Bo (89 Hang Dieu) – gotta try the bun bo from here!

SAPA

I really enjoyed our side trip to Sapa. It was a 5 or 6 hour bus trip up the mountains. This area is great for trekking, visiting local Vietnamese villages, and seeing the tiered rice paddies. I just loved the vibe of a sleepy mountain town and it scratched an adventurous itch.

We took Sapa Express (the soft seats, not the sleeper… definitely liked the soft seats over the sleeper… just something weird about a bus sleeper) which was super comfortable. 

Where to visit: you can do Cat Cat village on your own.  Hire a guide to take you to Lao Chai and Ta Van.  The scenery is amazing.

Where to stay: we stayed at Freesia Hotel and it’s a bit out of the way.  The room wasn’t as clean as we’d have liked and the WiFi was shoddy, but otherwise great customer service and a good breakfast buffet.

Where to eat: Little Sapa (ate here 3 times…)

HALONG BAY

My ex was not a fan of sleeping on boats.  We looked into overnight cruises but just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.  Everyone recommends doing an overnight cruise because it’s a 4 hour bus ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay one way, but we found a company that does  the drive in just 2 hours!  We went with Estella Cruises and it costs twice as much as any other Halong Bay cruise, but it was worth it just for the time savings alone.

Maybe it was the day, or maybe I have been spoiled by beautiful water areas, but Halong bay was not as exciting as it had been built up to be. The water was dirty and filled with trash from over tourism. If you want beautiful limestone cliffs in pristine waters, you should go to Coron and El Nido in the philippines. I’m sure you’re still going to go to Halong bay because you have to, but I was not all that impressed.

HOI AN

Such a picturesque city!  We stayed here for four nights.  We spent that amount of time in Hoi An mainly to get custom-made clothes, otherwise it can be done in 2-3 nights.  Highly recommend getting custom-made suits, dress shirts and dresses here.  I got 2 suits and 2 dress shirts for $400 USD.  AND THEY FIT LIKE A GLOVE.  If you’re interested, I highly recommend Kimmy’s (70 Tran Hung Dao) – say you’re from Canada and you know me.  We highly recommend Hannah (she knows exactly what she’s doing!).

Where to visit: An Bang beach and the Ancient Town (you can spend hours wandering around here)

Since Hoi An was much less crazy than Hanoi or HCMC, so I was emboldened to rent a scooter which was an awesome experience. I loved zipping around the vietnamese countryside and it was the best way to get to An Bang beach to chill for one of the days.

Where to stay: Pham Gia Homestay – very reasonably priced and the people are great – highly recommend!

Where to eat:

⁃ Pho Xua (35 Phan Chau Trinh) – really enjoyed the mi quang, pho and com ga (chicken rice) from here

⁃ Happy hours – Green Mango and The Hoianian

⁃ Phi Banh Mi (88 Thai Phien) – decent Banh Mi

⁃ White Rose Dumplings (533 Hai Ba Trung) – I’d say come here once just to try the white rose dumplings

⁃ CocoBox (all over the city) – really good Vietnamese coffee and cold pressed juices

⁃ Mi Quang/Cao Lau (272 Hung Vuong) – this spot is out of the city, but has amazing mi quang and cao lau (signature dishes of Hoi An)

⁃ Madame Khanh – The Banh Mi Queen (115 Tran Cao Van) – arguably just as good, if not better, then the Anthony Bourdain Banh Mi spot

⁃ Banh Mi Phuong (2B Phan Chau Trinh) – this is the Anthony Bourdain spot – he says it is a symphony in a sandwich!

HO CHI MINH CITY

This was my least favorite of the cities I visited in Vietnam. It didn’t have the character of Hanoi and just felt like a crowded 3rd world city. I will admit though, this is the place to get Pho which … we did… a lot.

You can google all the spots to eat in HCMC, but I will agree that Phở Hòa Pasteur was the SPOT… we went there for dinner, lunch, then dinner again before we headed to the airport.

I’ve had this site for 3 years and have not posted a single thing. I’ve been lucky to have visited a few places in my life, and even more honored to be asked for itineraries and recommendations for those places. I put in a lot of effort to compile these lists for people, and I stand by every recommendation. I’ve had grand ideas of how I’d format and post these, but it’s time to take that advice and just start putting things out.

So here we go!