Photo: Niklas Weiss · Unsplash Bali in two bases, Ubud first and then the coast
Where to stay when you want two areas of Bali, how to split the nights, and what changes if you go over Christmas and New Year.
Do Bali in two halves: four or five nights in Ubud, then the rest by the sea. Ubud gives you the rice terraces, temples and mornings that make the trip. The coast is where you slow down, and which beach you pick should come down to one question: what do you want your evenings to look like?
Ubud first, the beach second
Order matters more than people expect. Ubud is a place you get up early for. The terraces are empty at 07:00, the heat is gentle and the light is soft. Do it while you’re fresh and still on home time. By the second half of a trip you want a sunbed and a swim, not a 06:00 alarm.
Ending on the coast also puts you closer to the airport. Sanur and Seminyak are 30 to 45 minutes from Ngurah Rai on a good run, and Ubud is closer to 90. Nobody wants that drive with a 07:00 flight.
Pick your second base by your evenings
The south coast is three or four different holidays, and choosing the wrong one is the most common Bali regret. They’re all an easy drive from each other on paper and slow in practice, so pick one and stay put.
Sanur is the calm one. It has a 5 km beachfront path lined with warungs and small bars, gentle water inside the reef, and an older, unhurried crowd. It faces east, so you get the sunrise. It’s also where the fast boats leave for the Nusa islands. This is the pick for anyone travelling solo who wants to walk to dinner, chat at the bar and sleep well.
Seminyak is restaurants, beach clubs and sunset drinks. It’s busier, pricier and great fun if you want New Year’s Eve to be a party. Uluwatu is cliffs, surf breaks and the Kecak fire dance at the temple at sunset. Stay there if surfing is the point. Amed and Sidemen in the east are quiet, with snorkelling off the beach at Amed and rice valleys at Sidemen. Go there if you want neither crowds nor nightlife.
If you can’t decide, Sanur is the safe answer. It’s the easiest base for day trips, the hardest place to have a bad night, and close enough to Seminyak for one evening out.
Tell me your dates and what you want your evenings to feel like, and I’ll split the nights between Ubud and the coast for you. I’ll also keep each day’s driving short, so you aren’t sitting in traffic to Uluwatu from the wrong side of the island.
Ubud, done properly
Stay just outside the centre. Penestanan, Sayan and Nyuh Kuning are quiet and green, ten to twenty minutes on foot from town, and you wake up to roosters instead of scooters. Sayan sits above the Ayung river valley and has the best views. Central Ubud is convenient but loud, and the traffic on Jalan Raya Ubud is bumper to bumper by mid-morning.
Four full days is enough. Spend one on foot in and around town, one on temples and water, one up at the terraces, and keep one loose for a cooking class, a massage or a day doing nothing by the pool.
Out early before the heat and the rain, back for a long lunch, then a slow afternoon before the palace dance.
Notice the shape. The outdoor things happen before 11:00, the drive goes out and back once, and the afternoon is left empty on purpose. In December that empty afternoon is usually when it pours.
For the terraces, Tegallalang is closest and gets busy by 10:00, so go at sunrise. Jatiluwih is a 90-minute drive west, much bigger and much quieter, and worth the day if you like walking. At the Sacred Monkey Forest in town, keep sunglasses, water bottles and anything shiny in a zipped bag. The monkeys know exactly what a bag is.
Christmas and New Year in Bali
The last two weeks of December are some of the busiest of the year. Australians, Europeans and Indonesians on their own holidays all arrive at once. Rooms cost noticeably more and the good ones go early, so book by October if you can.
It’s also the wet season. A typical December day is clear in the morning, humid by lunch and bucketing down for an hour or two in the afternoon or evening. It rarely rains all day, and the island is at its greenest. Plan outdoor things early and keep afternoons flexible.
Many resorts add a compulsory gala dinner on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, charged per person whether you go or not. It can add a lot to a room rate that looked reasonable. Check the booking terms for “gala dinner” or “compulsory supplement” before you pay.
Christmas itself is low-key. Bali is mostly Hindu, but hotels and tourist areas put on Christmas lunches and decorations, and churches in Kuta and Sanur hold services. New Year’s Eve is big everywhere. Fireworks go off along every beach at midnight. Seminyak and Kuta have the crowds and the parties, and Sanur and Jimbaran have the same fireworks with room to sit down.
If your trip runs into mid-January, you’ll catch Galungan on 13 Jan 2027, one of the biggest Balinese ceremonies. Tall bamboo poles called penjor curve over every village street, and families walk to temple in white and gold with offerings stacked on their heads. Be respectful at temples and give processions room. Some smaller businesses close for the day.
Getting between them
Use a car, not a scooter. Grab and Gojek both work across the south and in Ubud, and the Ubud to Sanur run usually costs a few hundred thousand rupiah. In some spots local drivers’ cooperatives don’t allow app pickups, and you’ll see signs saying so. Walk a block or two and it’s fine.
For sightseeing days, hire a driver for the whole day. Roughly IDR 600k to 800k gets you a car with air conditioning, fuel and someone who knows where to park for 8 to 10 hours. You can also use the transfer between bases as a day out, stopping at a temple or a coffee plantation on the way down.
The Nusa islands are a fast boat from Sanur harbour: about 30 minutes to Nusa Lembongan and 45 to Nusa Penida. Penida’s cliff viewpoints are a long, bumpy day by road once you land. Stay a night on Lembongan instead, and do Penida from there or skip it.
Scooters look easy and aren’t. Bali’s traffic is dense, the roads are steep and wet in December, and most travel insurance won’t cover you without a motorbike licence from home. Police checks for tourists are common.
Before you fly
You need a visa on arrival. Most visitors, including Australians, get the e-VOA online before they fly. It costs IDR 500,000, covers 30 days and can be extended once. In August 2026 the immigration office announced plans to raise the online fee to IDR 750,000 and the airport fee to IDR 1,000,000, with no start date yet, so check the official site when you apply. Separately, pay the IDR 150,000 tourist levy through the Love Bali site. It’s once per trip, cashless, and can be paid at the airport if you forget.
Day to day, Bali is good value once the room is paid for. Eat at warungs at lunch and you’ll spend very little. Save the money for one or two long dinners and a driver for the big days.
Drink bottled or refilled filtered water, not tap water, and go easy on ice from street stalls for the first few days. Most hotels and many cafés have refill stations.
The mistakes people make
The first is treating Bali as small. Ubud to Uluwatu for the sunset Kecak dance looks like an evening out on a map and is two hours each way in traffic. Do Uluwatu from a coast base, or not at all.
The second is doing Nusa Penida as a day trip from Ubud. It means a 06:00 pickup, a boat, hours on rough roads and the same again in reverse. You see the famous cliff from behind thirty other people and you’re back after dark.
The third, at this time of year, is booking Ubud early and leaving the coast until later. The beach hotels sell out first over New Year, so book the second base first.
Trips others shared
Questions people ask
Is Bali good over Christmas and New Year?
Yes, if you plan for the weather and the crowds. Mornings are usually clear and afternoons often wet, the island is at its greenest, and New Year’s Eve has fireworks on every beach. Book early and check for compulsory gala dinners.
How many days do I need for two areas of Bali?
Ten nights is ideal, split four in Ubud and six on the coast. With seven, do three and four. Any shorter and pick one base.
Should I stay in Ubud or Seminyak first?
Ubud first. It’s the part of the trip that needs early starts and energy, and ending on the coast puts you near the airport for the flight home.
Is Bali a good place to travel solo?
Very. Ubud is easy for meeting people on walks, cooking classes and day tours, and Sanur is walkable, calm and friendly at the bar. Use registered drivers or Grab rather than scooters and you’ll have a relaxed trip.
Ten days in Bali, Ubud then the coast, drafted in about a minute.
Lez takes this guide, your dates and how you like to travel, and splits the nights so each day's driving stays short.
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