GETTING THERE: We hired a driver for half a day & paid RP 400,000. We stopped off at Carrefour on the way so we could stock up on fresh milk, cereal, snacks etc & then headed off on the 2 ½ hour trip. The road to Balian is a busy one, a constant stream of cars, trucks & the odd bus or two all heading to Gilimanuk for the ferry to Java.
ACCOMMODATION: Balian Breezes, upstairs unit
We LOVED Breezes and would go back again in a heartbeat! The photos on their website do not lie & we were impressed from the minute we walked through the gate into the beautiful garden beyond. The accommodation consists of two 1BR apartments, an open-air kitchen & dining area, the pool & garden. We had booked the upstairs unit for 5 nights and the first night there was a young Kiwi couple downstairs but the remaining time we had the place to ourselves.
The units themselves comprise a bedroom, HUGE bathroom, a sitting/lounge area with TV & DVD, bar fridge and a balcony with views over the countryside to the surf break. There are A/Cs in both the bedroom & sitting area (the majority of accomm in Balian has no A/C). You could also see the ocean from the lounge window (but the property is not beachfront). The walk to the beach is an easy stroll which takes less than 10 mins (coming back uphill makes it a 10 min return walk!)
Breezes is looked after by a couple from the local village, husband & wife team Ketut & Ketut (this confused my 3yo no end LOL). They are lovely, warm & welcoming people and were part of what made our stay at Breezes so enjoyable. They are able to arrange for in-room massages or a driver and to do laundry or to prepare an evening meal for you in-house.
OTHER ACCOMMODATION: We decided to check out a few other accommodation options for future reference so here's a quick rundown on the 3 places we looked at:
Gajah Mina Resort - beautiful property with vast amount of space, offering heaps of privacy as the rooms are miles apart! Lovely grounds, the bungalows have a kind of rustic feel to them, Balinese antique furniture. Large restaurant. Most expensive accommodation in Balian that we saw.
Pondok Pitaya Surfer Hotel - best located accommodation in Balian in our opinion. Direct access out the front to the surf break. Rooms are spacious & clean but quite basic. No airconditioning, TV or fridge. The family room was huge, had 2 bathrooms & it slept at least 6 (maybe 8 I can't quite remember). There is a beachfront pool & restaurant.
Istana Balian - right next door to Balian Breezes is this new accommodation (brand new, they were finishing the final building work during our stay). Owned by a friendly Aussie guy from Perth & his Balinese wife. The rooms were really really nice, had quality furniture & fittings & 1 room had a luxe bathroom with a great big to-die-for bath. Airconditioned. We would definitely stay here if our No. 1 choice Breezes was unavailable. They have no website up & running yet but you can get contact details from their Facebook page.
RESTAURANTS: Our young Kiwi neighbour gave us the heads up when we arrived - so night 1 saw us head straight to Pondok Pitaya for dinner. On the walk to the beach we passed a blackboard with the day's specials from the Naga restaurant at Gajah Mina - a fellow Aussie saw us reading it & highly recommend the apple pie so we earmarked the Naga for a future visit.
The restaurant at Pondok Pitaya was awesome - fantastic views, good food & a very relaxed laid-back vibe with friendly, helpful staff. As a bonus you could also use the pool if you were eating at the restaurant so we ended up eating most meals here. My hubby could surf & I would just hang at the pool with my little one until he headed in. We stuck mainly to the Indonesian dishes but the pizza was good, as were the wraps.
Night 2 we tried the Naga for dinner & it was a bit disappointing. The menu is very enticing but it really doesn't deliver on the Western dishes it offers. The Indonesian food which you would expect to be very good was only average at best. We returned here for Christmas lunch & once again it was not really up to scratch. One of the worst meals I've ever eaten in Bali and it wasn't cheap either. The much lauded apple pie, well let's not go there LOL.
There are a couple of other restaurants along the beachfront - Pondok Pisces Garden Cafe, Ayu's Warung - but we would bypass these & just head straight to the bottom of the hill to the Pondok Pitaya.
On 2 of our 5 nights we had dinner prepared for us at Breezes by the Ketuts - the BEST chicken satays I have ever tasted and chicken lillet which I had never tried before & which was also very yummy. The meals are charged per head - RP40,000 each - and include rice, soup & veges.
SHOPPING: None, nada, zilch! Do not come to Balian expecting to come back with anything except a tan LOL. Or maybe a pot belly from all the eating & drinking :o)