Bali with an 18 month old

Hi
We're thinking about heading to Bali for two weeks this year with our 18 month old (he'll be around 21 months when we plan to go). We've travelled quite a bit in Asia but have done no travel with our son. Has anybody been to Bali with such a small child? Was it worth it? Am interested to hear about places to say, things to do and whether people had any problems with their child eating dodgy food. The latter is my main concern.
He's a pretty easy going toddler but he's still a toddler so I guess we'll mostly just be taking it easy but we would like to have some sort of cultural experience too! Any tips, concerns, stories would be hugely appreciated.

Cheers

rikki

Hi. We took our 2 boys to Bali when they were 8 months and 3.5 years. It was a fantastic experience and as much as we've traveled with them since it probably remains our favorite family trip.

The Balinese people love kids. I mean LOVE THEM. Be prepared for a lot of attention. My kids enjoyed all the attention, but it might be a little too much for others. No problem with food. We ate (and loved) a wide variety of food and didn't get sick at all.

The only bad thing was a dog bite my oldest son received. We had to go the Australian hospital in Kuta and he received a dozen or so shots over the course of the next 2 weeks. The worst part was he couldn't swim (or get the wound wet) for 3 or 4 days. That said it wasn't that bad and he handled it pretty well. The doctors and nurses at the hospital were great.

Ubud was our favorite town and Jimbaran was our favorite beach.

I hope that helps a little. Good luck.

David Robert Hogg,
Publisher of My Little Nomads - the travel with kids website

Hi there. We took our 3yo a few years ago and it was great. Actually Bali is one of those places that is even better with kids than without as everyone seems to make an extra fuss of children there. Re the food, I think you would be pretty safe with things like rice and anything else cooked and/or more plain food in a big hotel. I remember we took a few bits and pieces along with us in case we couldn't always find suitable food for our daughter, eg, cans of tuna to have with rice etc but I don't think we ended up needing it. No harm in taking it though as it doesn't take up much space in your bag and you can use that space for something else when you are travelling home.

One thing to consider with a young child is the lack of child car restraints and/or suitable fittings for them in cars/taxis. Also pools aren't generally fenced so you need to take a bit more care with things like that than you would at home (depending where home is). Another thing to think about is how to transport your son when walking around, ie, footpaths not all that stroller friendly but 18mo might be a bit big for one of those backpack carrier things. We ended up making our 3yo walk a fair bit which I think the Balinese thought was a bit mean (kept having people offer to carry her for us). Also took a cheap umbrella stroller with us for use in places like airports and shopping centres (was good as it could fit into overhead lockers on the plane which was great when landed really late at night.

In terms of places to stay, my recommendations are probably a bit old and may not be consistent with your budget but we stayed at Udayana Eco Lodge up in the hills behind Jimbaran Bay and Kubu Bali at Candidasa and both were great (although you need to be prepared to hike up a lot of stairs at Kubu Bali). We also stayed somewhere in Ubud which I probably wouldn't recommend as it was right on Jalan Monkey Forest which is really busy these days. Would probably go for a quieter village around there if going again. (Ubudian who posts on the SE Asia branch here can probably recommend somewhere really good).

All the best.

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