Have been back a week and as my friend Vickilee and I benefited so much from the information on Bali Forum I wanted to add some advice of my own.
Stocking up. We usually go to Alpha to stock up on water, coke, toiletries etc. It was just as good as always, but it's so big I think we probably wasted a bit of time there. If you'd prefer just go to Carrefore (On Sunset Rd,just out of Kuta) It's a big shopping centre and the whole top floor is like a big supermarket with everything from Fridges to bananna's. It may be a little more pricey but not much. It's a good place to stock up on some skin care too, if they stock your brand.
If you're hungry I can really recommend the coffe shop which is in the book shop (Periplus) on the ground floor. I think it's called Bali Coffee, but we had the best coffe and also a croissant which they make infront of you and zap in the microwave, but it was sooo good.
One of my favorite things I did was our visit to the Bali Safari & Marine Park. Especially having the opportunity to play with the lion & tiger cubs. We got some really cute photo's but the actual experience of playing with them was just the best.
Hint: take your bathers and a towel (from the hotel) as the pool area is great, especially for the kids. (I wouldn't recommend eating by the pool Yuk)
Usually the shops at these type of places are extremely expensive but in this case not so.
All important for us was food.
We took the advice from Bali Forum and tried The Bamboo Corner in Poppies 1 If you've been over spending this is the place for you. the food was sooo cheap and the drinks too. The ambience leaves a little to be desired but for price you can't go past it. (I often judge a place by the toilets and at the time they were unusable)
Next cheapest was just up the lane a bit towards the beach
Bali Agung - great atmosphere, fabulous food, and yes you can use the toilets.
Green Garden Cafe Jl Wana Segara (we go every time and its really nice & clean and once a gain fairly cheap.) They also provide a pick up service from your hotel.
If your sick of rice you can try Il Ceilo (opp Bali Dynasty) great wood fired pizza.
If you want real Indonesian atmosphere try Ketupat Restaurant
Jl Legian. Try the mango and coconut icecream served in a coconut. I loved it
Not cheap but still very reasonable and a favourite of mine is
Ma Joly, go for sunset, the cocktails are a little pricey but the food was great (French & Italian)
The last night we went to La Lucciola which I had heard wasn't that great any more, but I have to disagree. Make sure you go before sunset, as it's in a lovely spot. The food was great, we had a group of 11 adults and 3 children and we were all very happy. If you have kids sit on the groud floor so they can play on the grass. Once the sun sets you won't be disappointed, expecially if you have a night setting on your camera, it's very pretty. And you now know how I feel about toilet, these are the best.
We stayed at the Grand Istana Rama in a deluxe room (more like a garden villa) which was great. The room was very roomy and the bathroom newly renovated. The pool area was quite but I liked it and the so did the kids. I read that there was never anyone in the pool bar, but this wasn't a problem, just get out of the pool for two seconds and ask at the resturant (right next to the pool) and they will send some one. My only complaint was the stair from the garden heading towards the pool and resturant. Each step is very narrow, and once wet slippery. My husband was warning me to be careful and stepped very carefully but still ended up with his feet out from under him and had a very bad fall. He ended up in hosptial for a day and halve and after that could hardly do anything. They didn't have a rail you could hold onto.
This is a good time to stress the need for travel insurance. We had it just as well as the hospital bill was $900.00 AUD and he had to be upgraded to business class for the trip home. Just him, I still had to come cattle class. Just be warned without insurance it would have ended up a very expensive holiday instead of a cheap one.
Can't wait to go back.