The countdown to my next adventure has began! In two months time I will be doing what I love most; exploring new places and creating unforgettable memories. My next adventure sees me embark on a two week trip to Bali, Indonesia, a place I am yet to unearth. 

During my two weeks there I will be exploring the likes of Seminyak, Ubud, and the Gili Islands. 

One of the most important aspects of travelling is having some idea of where you’re going to stay and base yourself during your time away. Although I’ll be travelling Bali with Jordan, who has been three times previously, I’m sure there are many of you who will be travelling places for the first time with no prior knowledge or someone to share that with you, so I thought I’d give you a little insight into how we found our accomodation. 

Step 1:

The first thing you need to plan prior to booking or looking for accomodation is to work out your budget. How long are you away for overall? What is your ideal budget for accomodation per night? From here you can then be realistic about what sort of accomodation is going to suit your budget best. For example, if you’re wanting to only spend $50 a night on accomodation, it’s unlikely you will find a penthouse suite for such a price. 

Step 2:

Now that you have a rough idea of how much you’re going to put towards accomodation, you’ll need to have a think about the geographical elements. Are you going to stay in the one location the entire time? A good way to figure out where to stay is to prep a to do/visit/see list and work from there. If you plan on staying in one place, find some where that is central and easy to do everything you want to. Or perhaps consider staying in various places throughout your trip if your prep list contains things all over the place. 

Step 3:

Now we’ve worked out budget and location, test the waters and see what is on offer.  During previous travels I have used the likes of Booking.com all the way to booking directly through hotels, and even going by word of mouth suggestions occasionally. Chat to your friends and family about where they stayed (if they’ve been to the place you are going to), grab a travel brochure from your local travel agent. Use review sites like Trip Advisor to suss out what other people have thought and what their experience was. 

Step 4:

Make a shortlist of places you like and keep them on hand. If you find yourself with a ridiculously long shortlist, start to be picky about things whether it’s that the bathtub is too small or the decor isn’t to your taste. 

Step 5:

Once you’ve found the perfect place that meets all your needs, there is only one thing left to do… BOOK IT! 

My tips for Bali:

↠ During my search for accomodation I came across some great websites that have package deals and are in Australian dollars, meaning we didn’t have to pay conversion rates! If you find yourself heading to Bali anytime soon, check out http://www.seminyak.com.au (this is where we found one of our Seminyak accommodations). Note: although it is called ‘Seminyak’.com.au they provide deals on accomodation throughout Bali including Ubud, Kuta, etc. 

↠ Be realistic. If it’s just two of you travelling and you want to stay in a villa, don’t go overboard. Opt for a one bedroom rather than splashing the cash on a bigger place, and instead put what you’ve saved to adventures. 

↠ There are so many options for booking accomodation that I would suggest putting the feelers out there and seeing what is available first before booking the first place you come across. 

↠ Accomodation searching sites I would recommend include; Air BnB, Booking.com, Seminyak.com.au, as well as directly through the hotel website. 

↠ Don’t feel like you have to book everything straight away. At this stage we only have two out of four of our accommodations booked, and there’s still plenty of time to arrange the last two between now and when we leave, but also when we arrive in Bali.