There are so many day tours to do, and whilst most are easiest if you’re staying in a certain place, all are definitely manageable from anywhere. Here are some of my tried and tested.

Bali Sky Tours has a HUGE selection of tours available and they’re some of the most reasonably priced.  They’re super easy to deal with via WhatsApp and I’ve booked very last minute and been able to get the tours I want when I wanted them.

I highly recommend their VW tours as the best way to travel.  The cars are super cute - who doesn’t love a retro soft top VW, they’re also way more comfortable than they look and the fresh air and amazing scenery is much more enjoyable in the open air than the confines of a people carrier.

We did the Jatiluwih rice terraces and it was a great day out visiting temples (In the early morning they were pretty quiet) followed by lunch at Jatiluwih and then a few more temples. We spend about two hours at Jatiluwih and did the walk through the rice terraces. Tip - ask to skip the buffet lunch and grab Babi Guiling at Warung Makan Ada - the best Babi Guiling I’ve ever had.

I also booked a tracking and canoeing day with them which was good, but this is definitely one you can do without a tour operator. Book a car for the day which should be around IDR 500k - IDR 600k, head to Twin lakes, pancake pass which is the top of a ridge running along the east side of the lakes. Here there are loads of tour operators and you can hire a tracking guide for two hours who will take you down through the jungle and round to the lake. Then you pick up your boat which will take you across the lake where you can meet up with your driver. There are stacks of places around here where you can grab lunch and even explore lake Tamblingan area too. For two of us the price was IDR 1.4million but if you book it independently I’d say you can do it for IDR 1 million and do a little bit more. If you want a tracking guide recommendation mail me and I’ll send you the contact information for Edi our guide.

Mount Batur trekking is a really popular activity also easy to do independently.

I booked via Airbnb experiences and paid about IDR 3 million for two of us which included tea en route, the trekking guide, transportation and breakfast. We got picked up from Ubud and it was about a 2 hour journey which is broken up for a random tea and cake stop, at about 3 in the morning…

After arriving at the base car park we met our guide and he then lead us up the track. It’s dark, and you are advised to bring a torch which you definitely need especially on the steeper scrambly bits. The footpath is heavily eroded, and it’s easy to see why as there are hundreds of people walking up, you can see the procession of torches winding up the mountain. It’s about a 3 hour hike, it is steep but the major difficulty is the ashy sandy party as it’s really slippery.

Once you arrive at the top (There are two, we went on to the higher one.). You sit and wait for the sunrise. It’s pretty chilly at the top, especially on a windy misty morning, there is however a small hut which sells hot chocolate and tea and snacks.

Once the sun starts to rise it’s a race for everyone to take pictures and videos/timelapses, and once the sun is fully up you notice how badly polluted the mountain is.  A combination of severe footpath erosion and trash left everywhere and it’s not a pretty sight.

The walk down is a little trickier than the hike up, especially if you have bad knees as I do and can be quite slippery in places, so either you slip or there is occasional falling sand/ash/rocks from people slipping above you.

I would recommend using a driver to get to the park and booking a guide independently - mail me if you are interested and I can put you in touch with a guide.

Nusa Penida is pretty accessible from Bali and so I booked a day trip there with Four Elements adventures. They have a pretty good following on Instagram and the tours look like they’re well organised and worth a little extra money. A full day tour including lunch and all transport was IDR 1.5 million. The actual flow of the tour was seamless, we were guided through everything. We snorkelled with Mantas and there were loads of them. It was pretty choppy and the visibility wasn’t the best but it was a great experience. After that it was just a long car journey with a few stops to take photos. If that’s your thing then great, for me I’d rather just visit one or two places and spend longer there. It is really pretty though and some stunning scenery. I know that they recently added another Nusa Pennida day trip which might be slightly different and worth a shot. 

Four Elements also have a Mount Batur treck with trash pick up which I can get behind 100%.

Lastly for some reason Waterfall tours in Bali seem super popular, I grew up not far from the Lake District in England and so I have experienced swimming in some pretty nice waterfalls and thus am a little spoilt. The waterfalls in Bali are nice, as with everywhere else not the cleanest but very accessible. Hire a driver and ask them to take you to a few. Ubud is the best starting place for this and there are loads close by. Once you reach the parking you pay a small entrance fee and then your driver will hand you off to a “guide”. You pay them whatever you feel - I usually give IDR 50,000 to IDR 100,000. They will take you to the best photo spots and will take as many photos as your heart desires - they seem pretty practiced and it’s quite entertaining to be directed as though you’re on a real shoot. Again if you need a driver just drop me a mail and I’ll share some details.