Looking for Bali resort with some diving

[boletus1973]

The more we look into this the more inclined we are to not dive in between liveaboards and just stay at a nice resort. Any suggestions for the middle of the island?

One of my favorite inside the island is the area 5-10km north ubud… outside the ubud center traffic jam… it can be a beautiful area for exploring by yourself with scooters .. I love the area between bedugul and munduk.. lakes and mountains.. the other area I like is near tirta gangga..
Usually we prefer not super luxury but small resorts inside the nature.. i don’t know if you like it… last summer north ubud we stayed at the suite villa at “Devi Tara haven”…great place with great food(the best indo food ever)
two years ago we stayed at a small isolated resort near tirta gangga.. the palmterrace… in the bedugul munduk area we stayed 3 times some years ago… I saw there are a lot of new beautiful resorts.. definitely open booking or Airbnb and look on the map..

We've also received some recommendations for the Sanur area, which is on the SW coast. Anyone been there?

For my taste I don’t like Sanur and the other places with to much tourist and traffic like kuta/semyniak.. but some people love the “movida” in those places

 

[boletus1973]

Not me, if I want to do the tourist thing I hire a local driver driver , I can ride a scooter no problem , but you have to 'grow an extra radar' for the 'so called' road rules.
Wait a sec, your from Italy where mayhem is the order of the day on the road , when I went to hire a scooter in Florence [Italy] , the guy said " be careful, they can smell your fear". Mad,

Ahah wait wait… I’m from Italy but from Milan… not so dangerous
But last time I own a motorbike was at 16yo.. now I’m 52yo.. i drive motorbikes only in Indonesia avoiding traffic jams..

 

[boletus1973]

If you want a feel of real Bali with less tourists then Sidemen would me my suggestion,although it's a bit low key, nothing like the boutique resorts around Ubud.

Last summer I was in Tampak siring.. “close” to sidemen.. what a beautiful place!!!!
I promise myself this is my last time in bali… but if in the future I come back few days before diving elsewhere I will go there, far from the crowds..

 

[Bookworm11]

I just spent 5 nights in Ubud and 4 nights in Sanur. If you want to be on the beach, I think Sanur is wonderful. I stayed at a lovely hotel (Parigata Villas) where I was 5 minutes from the beach, and had my own private pool. I hooked up with a local dive shop and had my own DM for a day at Padang Bai, where I had 3 AMAZING dives-far, far better than I expected-one fantastic muck dive where I saw all sorts of stuff I had never seen!

But I'd go stay in Ubud. I stayed at Dewangga Ubud-I can't say enough great things about this hotel! It is an island of calm in the craziness of Ubud. It has wonderful rooms all in a garden area spread throughout the grounds. There is a lovely pool, a super spa, and a wonderful, cheap restaurant. You are in a great section of Ubud. There is a free activity every day-hiking, yoga, painting, etc. They can arrange private tours for you. You are within walking distance of shops, restaurants, the Monkey Forest, other spas, etc. Rice terraces and temples aren't too far. There was a special Chinese New Year's dinner with dancing at the hotel when I was there. The breakfast is extra-but so worth it!!!! I can't imagine anyone not falling in love with this hotel! And the hotel spa is reasonable and superb!!!