Bali Tourist Trap Tips by Wild_Orchid

Time Share Heaven/Scam?

At street corners and at shopping malls, you might be stopped by someone asking you to participate in a survey, or trying to hand you a scratch & match coupon. You will probably win a t-shirt or a free tour, and you will then be asked to collect your gift from another place, with a free taxi ride and snacks included.

No obligations, simply hear them out for 45 mins, collect your free t-shirt and off you go!

Welcome to Bali folks-it's TIME SHARE HEAVEN.

Unique Suggestions: If you do have 2-3 hours to spare, you may want to have a look around at the resort that is on offer. Your tour will usually come with a free return taxi trip to and from your hotel or shopping mall or where ever it was that they first found you. Snacks or drinks may also be on offer.

Fun Alternatives: We DID have some time and had NOT visited Nusa Dua, so took this as a side-trip or sight-seeing tour. The resort we visited cannot be named here, because they may be upset that I've listed them as a "tourist trap".

To be fair, the time-share resort & apartments were lovely, with a very inviting pool, gardens and a fantastic beach-front. The staff were professional and friendly. They did ask us to join the time-share, but there was no real high-pressure sales pitch. Yes, we did collect our t-shirts and won some discount vouchers as well.

A very interesting experience, and a tempting offer, but sorry, we already belong to another time share scheme.

Bali Zoo Park

Not sure that this strictly qualifies as a Tourist Trap because to be fair, it was a nice zoo, with a good easy-to-walk-on path (a bit slippery in parts due to recent rainfall-so be careful, my mother slipped and twisted her ankle slightly), with healthy animals in natural settings and beautiful landscaping and colourful flowers everywhere. I do think that it as a place that you might like to bring the kids to, if you have two to three hours to spare.

It's just that I felt that it was a bit expensive.
US$10 per adult (9,000 rupiahs)
US$5 per kid (4,500 rupiahs)
under 3 years old-free.
Citibank Gold & Platinum Card Holders get 15% off, (but for any use of a card to pay, they will add on 3%)
Apparently locals pay only US$5 per adult and half that for kids (so I'm told).

Unique Suggestions: Not sure if you can persuade them to charge you less, or pass off as a local. Anyway, if you are already there with the kids, why not have your photo taken with the animals.

Fun Alternatives: You might try to visit Uluwatu Temple where there are lots of monkeys too!

In Bali, there is also an elephant sanctuary, a butterfly park and a Bali Bird Park (at Singpadu Village) and also a water theme park with the unfortunate name of Waterbom. I did not manage to visit any of them.