In Reply to: why not go straight to Ubud? posted by topenders on Saturday, 15. October 2005 at 10:03 Bali Time:
my plane landed at 10pm and I did the same thing - only one night though. Mind you it took 50 mins to get to the hotel in Kuta due to Sat. night traffic! It would have been just as quick to go to Ubud. If you don't want to stay 4 nights you could do the monkey forest and markets the day you go up there. Also Barong Bird park is worth a look - its halfway to Ubud, if you are interested.
I think there are 3 elephant parks but I haven't visited any. Plenty of others have posted about them in the past, just do a search in the archives.
I thoroughly recommend the Bali Budaya Cycling tour for volcanoe views. Penelokan was fairly quiet @ 0830 in the morning. Its all downhill on very quiet roads, through villages and rice paddies. They even provide child carriers if requested. Kintamani is also beautiful but the hawkers can be overbearing.
Git Git waterfalls are the go. One place is the common place to stop - more spectacular than the other and more crowded. Its been 15 yrs since I've been there so my memory is too rusty to be of any use. Any driver will know where to stop though.
Bali International Rafting does a really fun day down the Telaga Waja river too. Its suits 9 - 65 yr olds. The only thing against it is the 300 steps back up the hill. My knees have never been the same since our trip in June!
There are some pretty walks around Ubud and lots of places with beautiful views. We 3 sisters spent 7 days there in Sept and it was not long enough. But then we were quite happy with our own company, so didn't need to party.