Please excuse this "newbie" for treading on territory I'm sure you've covered a thousand times already. My wife and I are planning a ten-day honeymoon in early January and we were hoping someone could suggest some great hotels for us. This is our first trip to Bali.
Since this is our honeymoon, we're willing to spend a little more than usual on accommodations. In fact, some of our NYC friends are suggesting we splurge for the Amankila or Four Seasons. Is that totally ridiculous?
Here's what we're looking for: a private beach area, easy access to good beginner surfing/swimming/snorkeling, friendly staff that makes us feel comfortable, close proximity to good cheap "authentic" food, an experience that is authentic Bali without the negative "tourist" aspects, and an overall experience that is the Bali that you all love without the trappings of a resort that's cut off from the rest of the island. Romantic is good, too
We don't need satellite TV or anything like that. When we travel we love staying in your standard no-hot-water-ecolodges, but since this is our honeymoon we're allowing ourselves to be pampered a little bit more. But we don't want to throw away our money either.
Ideally we'd like to only stay at two hotels, perhaps on two different sides of the island (a south location and maybe a northern Lovina location, perhaps?), this way we're not moving our things around too often, and we'd like to use both hotels as a satellite point to explore the island - temples, forests, rice field walks, markets, elephants, monkeys, food, cooking classes, beach-bumming a bit, etc. (we already got a lot of these particulars from you all already, so thank you).
Any and all advice is awesome.
Thank you in advance,
david and toni