Legian and Lovina, Indonesia
Legian
According to wholevehicles.com, Legian resort is part of the Kuta region and in Balinese means pleasant, delightful. The excellent climate, picturesque landscapes and, of course, natural sandy beaches and steep waves have long attracted tourists and surfers from all over the world. Despite the popularity, rest here is calm and measured, unlike Kuta. However, even here you can find luxurious hotels and restaurants, cafes, bars, chic designer shops and nightclubs that will not let anyone get bored.
How to get there
Not far from the resort is Denpasar Airport. With maximum comfort, the hotel can be reached by taxi for 60,000 IDR, the journey time is only 20 minutes. In Legian, you can freely move around on a bicycle or motorcycle, the rental of which will cost 150,000 IDR – 300,000 IDR per day.
Legian beaches
The resort has excellent conditions for beach holidays and surfing. Picturesque, bright beaches covered with gray sand, the absence of dangerous coral reefs and rocks will pleasantly surprise you, and excellent service will be a great addition to a good holiday.
On the beach you can rent a surfboard – it will cost about 100,000 IDR per hour or several lessons for 700,000 IDR. On weekends, the beach is usually crowded with both tourists and locals, and various performances, including musical ones, take place here. You should definitely wait for the evening and watch the most amazing and beautiful sunset in the world.
Legian cuisine and restaurants
Restaurants located in the resort will satisfy the most sophisticated taste of visitors. Guests are offered excellent Indonesian cuisine, Thai, Chinese, French and Italian dishes are served in many restaurants.
It is most pleasant to have lunch or dinner in summer cafes located on the beach. There is not only a pleasant atmosphere, but also a delightful view of the ocean. In such places, you can dine bakso – soup with meatballs or mi goreng – fried noodles and nasi goreng – fried rice.
Tasty breakfast can be enjoyed at Tekor Bali Restaurant, whose rich menu offers a wide selection of Indonesian dishes. 66 Corner Restaurant & Cafe is a great place with a menu that covers cuisines from all over the world. From 16:00 to 19:00 pm all drinks are sold with a 30% discount. Free Wi-Fi is also a pleasant surprise.
Shopping
Legian is a great place for shopping. There are many shops, supermarkets, department stores and markets. All goods are of the highest quality.
There are several markets on Jalan Melasti Street where various souvenirs are sold: figurines made of red, sandalwood or ebony trees are popular. In addition, here you can buy items made of silver, gold, white and black pearls, decorated with diamonds or even mother-of-pearl. All decorations are made in accordance with European fashion and will satisfy the most demanding customers.
Jalan Sri Wijaya Street is famous for its food market, where you can buy fresh fruits and vegetables as early as 5 am. And on Jalan Legian Street in souvenir shops you can buy traditional Balinese products made of beads, shells, and many shops with beautiful fabrics. There are also specialized shops for surfers selling sporting goods.
Entertainment and attractions of Legian
Legian Resort is not a place for a sightseeing holiday. Here you can perfectly relax your body and soul in the numerous spa centers. Tourists are offered a variety of wellness treatments to improve blood circulation, masks and, of course, massage, which will allow you to relax and relieve stress.
Surfing is still considered the main entertainment. Excellent natural conditions and excellent service are ideal for skiing. In addition, amateur and professional competitions are held here.
The central Jalan Legian street, where all entertainment centers, restaurants and cafes are concentrated, offers to have fun and feel the fabulous atmosphere of Bali.
Lovina
Lovina is a quiet resort town in the northwest of Bali, 11 km west of the city of Singaraja. The center of the resort, where the bulk of hotels, restaurants and other entertainment is concentrated, is the village of Kalibukbuk. There are long beaches with a kind of black sand. For surfers, the area is uninteresting – there are no big waves. But snorkeling and diving on the beaches are developed, there are several bars with billiards and live music, and some restaurants host evenings with performances by Balinese dancers.
How to get there
From the main tourist resorts of the island, Lovina can be reached by the Perama intercity bus or the Bemo minibus. Another option is to arrive by taxi directly from the airport. Such a trip will cost approximately 600,000 IDR (approximately 55-60 USD) and take about 3 hours.
Transportation
Bicycle rental is quite popular among tourists here – the distances are quite small and nothing prevents you from breathing fresh air. However, be careful, there are quite a few steep hills here.
To visit the surroundings of Lovina, it is best to rent a motorcycle – it will cost you about 70,000-75,000 IDR per day. There are also motorcycles with drivers, which, of course, are somewhat more expensive.
If the idea of riding a motorcycle doesn’t appeal to you, you can take the bemo minibus – only they don’t run very often, and there are usually quite a lot of passengers in them.
Springs and spa
Banjar hot springs are located about 10 kilometers west of Lovina. They look more like a lush garden than springs, and besides, the natural temperature of the water is extremely comfortable, so swimming there is doubly pleasant. The water here contains a lot of sulfur, but the specific smell actually stops bothering you quite quickly. The springs are open from 7 am to 6 pm, and the entrance to them costs only 6000-7000 IDR.
Attractions and attractions of Lovina
Lovina is a good base for diving tours: the resort is well located between the main diving centers on the northern coast of Bali – Menjangan Island, Tulamben and Amed. Even morning excursions start from here to places where flocks of dolphins frolic. The first boats leave already at dawn, and the cost of such an excursion is 65,000 IDR.
There is another rather unusual entertainment here – cockfights. The locals are seriously addicted to them, and you will certainly see older men training roosters on the roadsides more than once. Gambling is prohibited in Indonesia, but this does not prevent the inhabitants of Lovina from betting on very large sums. If you want to watch such a fight, you can try to find out about them at your hotel – or even better, ask one of the local men to take you with them.
If you like Bali cuisine, you can easily cook the same dishes at home by enrolling in one-day courses at the Ajani Cooking School, located near the post office. In the classroom, you will be told about local herbs, they will show you the garden where they are grown, and they will teach you how to cook 5-6 dishes of Balinese cuisine.