Look further down the page - 2008 holiday in Bali - some good tips on there. Just had a look at Hayes & Jarvis for April, looks good.

I have been twice as a package- I couldn't beat the prices by going DIY. Second time though I had combined it with KL which I thought was too complicated to try as DIY. I have to admit though that I did have in mind the past bombings and felt more secure in a package if things went wrong.

Hi,

Bali has had several good class hotels / resorts for many years. There are some good package deals and some great ways to ge independently.

We first went to Bali with a 'tailor made' package through Premier holidays. This worked very well. We have booked totally independent deals - using special deals on flights from SIA and now we are going totally independently (although we booked much through an agent, rather than on the web).

A good way, especially if you have not headed to Bali before, is to use Singapore or KL as a 'gateway'. This year Singapore airlines had an offer (it may well still be running) - book to Singapore and take another Far East destination from Singapore (return trip) free. We booked this deal when they were also offering low cost flights (agent slightly cheaper than web) and took advantage of Singapore Airlines 'stopover deal'. This provides reduced cost hotels in S'pore, free transfers and a host of other 'freebies' such as free hop-on hop-off transport in the centre of Singapore. (Oh yes and your SIA boarding pass gets you discounts on food / spas etc in Bali!)

Hotels are relatively inexpensive in Bali (possibly slightly higher than Goa - but probably a better standard). Transfers from the airport are relatively easy (the hotel may bundle in a free or low cost transfer - it is very cheap anyway).

A word based on my personal preference. Many packaged hotels are in Nusa Dua / Benoa. This is a very sanitised resort, unlike the real Bali. If you book a package to there, you will find it too easy to remain in the local area (other than perhaps day-trips) and miss the real Bali.

Go for it - there's a wealth of advice and opinion on this forum and great reports of peoples experiences.

Good luck

Peter

Peter

We booked with Travelbag this year and were able to specify a hotel they did not have in their brochure.

We are the same Fiona- booked with TarvelBag and chose our own hotels which they booked for us

We booked our package with Hayes and Jarvis.(We go Sept 27th.) They do tailor made hols and seem fairly flexible about choosing flights/length of stay etc. Not sure if they'd book a different hotel from those in the brochure as we chose one of theirs. This is our first time with H&J so I'll let you know what I think. We've done tailor made with Kuoni to other places and had no complaints. We chose H&J this time because the price was better.