In Reply to: where to stay on Bali? Please advise posted by 77Joanna on Monday, 16. January 2006 at 23:05 Bali Time:
of what I posted on January 10th in response to your similar querry:
"Sanur probably has what you want except for the snorkeling. Sanur beach is long, sandy and clean with no surf breaking on the beach because of the offshore reef. The top end of Seminyak is pleasant too, but beach swimming is often difficult unless you can handle medium to big surf.
Good snorkeling is available right off the beach, with live coral and plenty of fish, at various places in the Amed area. Right in front of the Vienna Beach Hotel in Lipah village is good and this village also has a good choice of hotels and warungs at a wide range of prices.
Candi Dasa is a good place from which to explore East Bali. Not much beach in the town itself, but a nice white sand beach with easy low key snorkeling in front of Resor Prima about ten minutes walk from the North end of the main street.
Nice snorkeling at Blue Lagoon at Padang Bai.
If you check out the map of East Bali, you will see that Amed, Candi Dasa and Padang Bai are all in the same general area, but an hour or two drive apart. Also in that area is some spectacular coastal, mountain and rice terrace scenery, also the traditional Bali Aga village of Tenganan.
The snorkeling can vary with time of year, time of day and state of tide, so if you travel in just for the day, you may be disappointed when you get there. If your holiday is long enough, better to spend a day checking places out and then decide where you'd like to stay for a few days."
We stayed in Sanur in October. We got a very pleasant double room with aircon, fridge and en-suite at the Respati Hotel for US$30 per night including cooked breakfast. We negotiated this price, it was well below the asking price, but the hotel people were happy with it. And Sanur was not busy, plenty of quiet beach if you don't mind walking for a few minutes on a good paved pathway.
Anything else, just ask.