Beach hopper: a beach lover’s ideal 10-day Balinese holiday

If you’ve done the regular Seminyak-Ubud Bali beach route and you’re after something still beach-based but different, then look no further. We’ve mapped out your ideal 10-day beach hop itinerary.

Ah, good ol’ Bali. A province comprising one big island and a handful of smaller islands, Bali has long drawn travellers seeking a beach holiday, and there’s no doubt it delivers. From palm-fringed, white-sand coasts and cliff-guarded coves to shimmering, black-sand volcanic beaches and wave-buffeted shores, there’s a beach to suit any traveller. Here’s a new take on a Bali beach holiday.

Day one – Check in to Wyndham Dreamland

From the airport, hail a taxi or book a Go-Jek (the Indonesian equivalent of Uber) and head south to Wyndham Dreamland on the Bukit Peninsula. Steps from Uluwatu’s hotspots, the newly-opened resort will serve as a base for the start of your trip.

After checking in, cool off in the resort’s lagoon pool or catch a wave at one of Bali’s world-famous surf breaks. Dreamland Beach, Bingin Beach and Padang Padang are all within easy reach and promise a thrilling ride regardless of your skill level. For a more relaxed start, stroll on over to one of the many warungs (eateries) for a snack and watch the pros carve waves in front of the setting sun.

Wyndham Dreamland Resort Bali — Cool off in Wyndham Dreamland Resort’s lagoon pool.

For dinner, look no further than Rayunan Restaurant at your resort to sample some truly traditional ‘nusantara’ (meaning archipelago in Old Javanese) fare. Try the Indonesian classic Oxtail soup, Sop Buntut, or the Balinese take on crème brûlée, Nusantara Srikaya.

Day two – Explore the Bukit

After a yoga class and a hearty breakfast at the resort, start your day of exploring the Bukit. If you’re confident on a scooter (and have insurance and an international scooter license), make your way around that way. If you don’t, ask reception to arrange a private driver for the day.

Beach-wise, check out Suluban for its natural formations and rocky enclaves but, for a truly hidden gem, don’t go past Thomas Beach. Located halfway between Padang Padang and Uluwatu, you’ll find it off the main road, down a nondescript gravel driveway.

Suluban Beach, Bali — Check out the natural formations and rocky enclaves at Suluban Beach.

For lunch with a side of cocktails, visit cliff-side El Kabron or chilled-out Single Fin. Cashew Tree in Bingin is another great pitstop for a healthy veggie lunch. For dinner, you can’t go past a seafood barbecue on the beach at Jimbaran Bay.

Day three – Day trip to Seminyak or Canggu

Pencil in time today to explore Seminyak or, slightly further north, Canggu. It takes roughly one hour to get to Seminyak and 90 minutes to Canggu – but plan ahead for traffic on the day, which could make the trip a little longer.

In Seminyak, drop by Motel Mexicola, Potato Head Beach Club and some of the cute town centre boutiques. In Canggu, café-hop around Crate, GIVE and Deus.

Day four – Unwind at Wyndham Tamansari Jivva Resort

Now it’s time to relax in another part of the island. Take a Go-Jek or hire a driver and travel 90 minutes to Klungklung on the south-east coast. Here, your base will be Wyndham Tamansari Jivva Resort, a luxury accommodation right on black sand Lepang Beach. Choose from suites with plunge pools or villas overlooking rice paddies.

This slice of paradise is known for its much slower pace. After checking in, make a beeline for the ocean-facing pool and order from Jivva Beach Club. Afterwards, trot over to the onsite Tirta Spa for a massage.

In the evening, book a yoga class in the resort’s open-air bamboo yoga room or sweat out all your stresses in the sauna. You’re on holiday, after all.

Wyndham Tamansari Jivva Resort Bali — Slow it down at Wyndham Tamansari Jivva Resort in Klungklung on the south-east coast.

Day five – Tour Klungklung

Start your day exploring Klungklung’s market. Here, brightly-coloured textiles hanging from shopfronts and locals going about their daily shopping set the scene, while vendors spruiking everything from tropical Bali fruits to silver and homewares, the soundtrack.

When you’re all shopped out, walk mere steps from the market to Klungklung Palace. Dating back to the 17th century, the monuments and landscaped grounds offer a peek into Bali’s fascinating past. While most of it was destroyed during the Dutch colonial conquest in 1908, many structures still remain, including the ‘hall of justice’ complex, Kertha Gosa.

Cap the day off with dinner at open-air resort restaurant Bumbu.

Day six – Ferry to Lombok

Make your way to Padangbai Harbour on mainland Bali, a 30-minute drive from the resort, and catch the 90-minute fast boat to Lombok. One of the many neighbouring islands off the mainland, it’s still relatively untouched and often described as Bali before the crowds. If ferries aren’t your thing, drive to Denpasar Airport and take the 45-minute flight instead.

In Lombok, check into Wyndham Sundancer Resort. Here, you can don your bathers, snag a seat at the resort’s Sundancer Beach Club and spend your afternoon soaking up the Bali beach sun.

Wyndham Sundancer Resort Bali — Snag a seat at the resort’s Sundancer Beach Club.

Day seven – Dive or snorkel in Lombok

Lombok has some of the most spectacular, not to mention easily accessible, underwater life in the world, so take full advantage with a day of diving or snorkelling.

You won’t need to travel far, with a Dive Centre soon opening right at the resort. Get fitted with your equipment, then learn to dive in the resort pool before letting the team take you out for the real thing. Popular dive sites include Meno Wall, Nipah Slope and The Cathedral, as well as a sunken ship at Wreck Point off Gili Trawangan.

A sea turtle at Wreck Point off Gili Trawangan.

After a day on the water, spruce up for dinner at resort restaurant Bukit. On the second floor, the formal eatery is afforded gorgeous views over the ocean.

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Day eight – Day trip to Gili Islands

Organise a day trip to the charming Gili Islands, Meno, Trawangan and Air, a 20-minute boat ride off Lombok. Gili Trawangan is by far the busiest, with the most resorts and nightlife. As you’re just here for the day, rent a bike and roam around its car-free terrain, grab a snorkel and swim with turtles, or hire a see-through kayak and paddle around the island. Or simply flop yourself on a beach lounge chair.

Gili Meno and Gili Air are both known for being honeymoon destinations and are, of course, much quieter. Stroll the beach, relax in a hammock or, on Gili Meno, walk to the saltwater lake and mangrove forest.

Day nine – Drive around Lombok

Use today to explore the countless mountains, waterfalls and beaches around Lombok. The island is surprisingly big, so plan ahead to get the most out of your day.

If you can manage the early start, take a taxi to Selong Belanak Beach, 90 minutes south of the resort but well worth the drive. Otherwise taxi straight to Benang Kelambu Waterfall, two hours inland. Six falls running through trees make the enchanting curtain of water truly a sight to behold. Also worth visiting is Rinjani Mountain, a massive volcano that towers off the island and is the second highest in the country.

Air Terjun Tiu Kelep waterfall, Senaru, Lombok — Explore the countless waterfalls around Lombok.

Just before sunset, hit busy Senggigi Beach or pink-sand beach Mawun to see the sun sink into the sea.

Day 10 – Head back home

It’s the last day of your trip, and time to head home and back to reality. From Lombok, hop on a fast boat back to mainland Bali where you’ll catch a cab to the airport.

Speeding past rice paddies, greenery all around you and a sense of calm within, you’ll be basking in your new-found Bali glow and hoping it stays with you long enough until your next visit.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

How to spend 10 days in Bali, beach-style