In Reply to: northern bali posted by occy on Sunday, 18. March 2007 at 20:08 Bali Time:
the beauty of Bali is that everything is fairly close, so it depends upon how long is too long for you & your family to be on the road and what you want to do at your destination.
It takes about 3 hours to get to Singaraja/Lovina from Kuta, or just 2 hours from Ubud. It is not a boring drive either. If you go inland, you will pass lots of villages, the temple on the lake at Lake Bedugal, monkeys on the the side of the road in the mountains & more. Once you get there you can snorkel, go on a dolphin watch boat at dawn, etc.
Personally, I would stay in Ubud, and use this as your base as it is close to many attractions & half way to alot of places. Plus it is nice play to stay on its own merit. Candi Desa is an easy day trip from there too.