In Reply to: itinerary- family of 4 posted by sylvia on Friday, 18. March 2005 at 15:58 Bali Time:
That you definately include the Elephant Park and white water rafting through adventure tours. The river from memory was the ayung river and we found it great. Given you are taking kids and these activities are at a distance from the traditional kuta area - I really recommend that you stay in Ubud overnight at least otherwise its really tiring (all the travel with kids) I notice you are already doing a side to Candi Dasa.... but I think you would enjoy your activties better if based there for a short while (even just overnight) please note there is another elephant park and many other rafting companies..... You may be able to get cheaper deals elsewhere but the Adventure Tours is an aussie run company (as I understand it) and the safety etc seem top notch.
I always go to Ubud first and stay a few nights. This way you can do all the elephant/rafting/ubud tour bits as well as having the best spa treatments in Bali - before heading off to take on the rest of your holiday. That way if you want to do extra site seeing in the area - the kids can always stay at the hotel or get a massage while you are gone (Try Verona Spa or Zen Spa) you will be pleased.
Accomodation can be really really cheap - you can book the graha (opposite the Verona Spa) as a cheap overnighter and many others along that stretch too.
Waterbom as you probably know is a must - especially for kids and if they like it a 2 day pass is a great value idea. (2nd day bought inside)I also find the stairs a great work out for my backside!!!!
Seeing you are taking kids I might mention a couple of ideas we had on our trip..... bought cheap basketball from mataharri's which gave them great entertainment, hired DVD player - kids liked watching a movie b4 bed, following a couple of mandated site seeing days where the kids were a bit bored we planned a kids day where we did whatever they wanted (kids loved it), brought a bag of snacks with us from Oz and supplemented it from local supermarkets (as kids graze all day!!!)
Have a great trip!!!