In Reply to: first time to Bali please help posted by suki37 on Monday, 25. April 2005 at 19:53 Bali Time:
Glad to see you made it to the forum! Coming from NZ probably your cheapest options are package deals that are advertised, using Garuda airlines. (Your daughter is a good age for the child fare) Look at the hotels in the packages and then check them out by searching the archives here for references to them, or just ask people on here. I don't know if this site url will post here, but this woman has a site that had collected data on many of the hotels on Bali. http://micbali.proboards21.com/index.cgi
We saw an advert in the paper here in Wgtn at the weekend for some Bali package deals through www.travelsmart.co.nz You may want to check out their website, if only to get some prices for comparisons. Don't forget to allow for travel insurance and the departure tax from NZ and Bali. These are not usually added to the advertised prices, and sometimes they also leave out the fuel surcharge tax to make the deals look cheaper. You will also have to consider the cost of internal flights.
One way to save a bit of money is to tell your travel agent you do not want transfers to and from the hotel from the airport. We were quoted 120,000 rupiah each way, when a taxi from the booth at the airport is only about 30,000 or 35,000 one way (not sure if that is still accurate) and you can arrange your own transport back to the airport as you will have got to know some drivers by the end of your stay.
Travel agents in NZ are not as accustomed as those in Australia to people booking a 5/6/7 airline/hotel package and then staying longer by booking their own accomodation after specifying a later return date. If you want to do that you may have to shop around for the right agent for you.