Bali’s Hindu Temples, Ritual Dances, and Tropical Beaches

Located at the heart of the Indonesian archipelago in the South Pacific, the island of Bali can feel like an alternate universe. Rare animal species make their home here, including the endemic Bali starling—a white bird that looks like it’s wearing blue eye shadow. Bali is also the only place in Indonesia with a Hindu majority, and its countryside is dotted with tiered, pagoda-like temples. During the traditional Barong dance, performers in elaborate golden headdresses perform a battle between the lion spirit Barong and the demon queen Rangda. Traditional art forms such as the Barong dance helped Bali to land the second spot on Travel + Leisure’s list of the World’s Best Islands in both 2011 and 2012.

During a nine-day tour of Bali from Pacific Holidays Inc., you’ll visit a cliff-top temple, artists’ workshops, and bustling marketplaces and travel by bus in the company of an English-speaking guide. Click here for the full itinerary.

Days 1–2: After catching an included overnight flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), you’ll touch down in Denpasar, Bali’s rapidly growing capital city. It's lined with both 14th-century temples and massive shopping malls. Here, you’ll stay at the beachfront Club Bali Mirage Resort, where each room has a private balcony that overlooks 8 acres of tropical gardens.

Days 3–5: When you're not walking along the area’s pristine, white sand beaches, you’ll take a day trip north to Ubud, often considered the island’s artistic mecca. There, you’ll witness a Barong dance performance, which features delicate, ritualized hand gestures; you'll also watch silversmiths and silk-dying batik artists in action.

The next day, the group heads to Pura Luhur Uluwatu, an 11th-century temple perched atop a seaside precipice. The evening concludes with a Balinese dinner that might include traditional feast dishes such as roasted suckling pig, fried noodles with egg, or duck spiced with ginger and chilies.

Days 6–9: The tour returns to Ubud, where you'll stay at Aniniraka Resort & Spa. The beds here feature white canopies, and plate-glass windows overlook rice-paddy fields that seem an unnaturally bright shade of green. In your free time, check out the city market, where you can engage in spirited rounds of haggling with vendors for sarongs, woodcarvings, and batiks with elegant patterns. The reflective lotus ponds surrounding the Water Palace are also well worth a visit. Then it’s back to LA on a trans-Pacific flight.