Touring Bali: Nuansa Bali Tours

Bali is a magical island, complete with 21st Century amenities and old world customs. Accessing the new stuff is easy, its all around you as soon as you arrive. In fact some people head straight for Nusa Dua, where they can lock out the real world and all those pesky locals.

Accessing the old world Bali takes a little more effort than just whipping out your Amex and saying “Bill me.” I always recommend you get your transport, take your time, be adventurous and don’t worry about getting lost.

Most hotels in southern Bali have ‘tour desk’ hawking the services of some local with a van. You will pay $40 each for a drive up to Kintamani (6 hours in the van, 1 hour at Kintamani and 1 hour in the silver jewelry shop). A much better way to do a Bali tour is to book an overnight trip. A company that specializes in these is Nuansa Bali Tours. Nuansa does 3-7 night tours and by staying all over the island you will get a much better feeling for the place.

Looking at their schedule I reckon they try to hit too many places in 1 day. For me I don’t want to be driving for more than 2 hours a day. If I end up doing a tour it won’t be 6 hours in a van each day that’s for sure. In the mean time you might browse Nuansa’s site and see if they have anything that appeals. Someone ought to tell them to fix their compass.