How to choose a flight to Bali

When the decision was made to visit Bali I didn’t realize that the most important (and difficult) thing would be to strategically pick the flight. Plenty of time was spent reviewing airlines, which I don’t regret at all. When I say we “reviewed” I mean we looked at the websites, compared pricing, went to third party websites (highly suggest trip advisor for research), looked through random blogs and read almost all of the reviews out there. Another thing that was important was to look into layover locations and the length of layovers. I’m pretty sure we read every review for each airline, which was time consuming but totally worth it.

Out of everything that was posted online I believe the most important thing to do is to take everything with a grain of salt.

All of the airlines that flew to Bali were rated as ‘above average’. They were all deemed safe and each one had relatively good customer experience, which is #1 and #2 in my book. We started to look at the layover locations and the length of time for layovers as there is no direct flight to Bali from California. After much thought, we chose Hong Kong Airlines and decided to stop in Hong Kong, which is ranked as one of the top 5 airports in the world.

The other thing we still needed to decide on was the layover time.

Most of the layovers were a minimum of 3 hours which didn’t seem that awful, however, we went to the other side of the spectrum (I like options!). The whole time we were planning I had to keep in mind that the drive from our house to LAX is on average 2 hours. We needed to be to the airport at least 2 hours early, and with my husband that means 3 hours early. The flight from LAX to Hong Kong was a little over 15 hours. With all that being said I started to look into a longer layover and started to ponder if we should get a hotel and sleep after the longest flight and travel of our lives. The path we ultimately choose was a 17.5 hour layover, the longest we could find. We chose this long layover so that we could get a hotel room in Hong Kong and sleep with our legs extended (economy seats are tiny you guys!).

The big day came and we arrived 3 hours early (I guess being early is better than being late, right?). When checking our bags in at the counter we made sure to ask for them to go directly to Bali so that we didn't have to drag the surfboard bag around. Our plan was to keep it simple and bring a change of clothes plus a toothbrush in our carryon bags. Neither of us had been to Hong Kong so we also saw this as a great opportunity to eat, sleep and do a mini exploration of Hong Kong.

Our 15-hour flight was so pleasant!

We did have an entire row to ourselves, which made a HUGE difference (the return flight was different) and they fed us 3 meals and snacks. We both brought our Healthy Human Water bottles and the flight attendants were very generous to fill them up completely. You do need to request cold water or they will automatically fill it with hot water, I learned from experience on this one.

The Hong Kong airport was huge and has just 2 terminals which made it easy to navigate.

Both terminals are connected by a tram that takes off every couple of minutes. Every sign I saw had an English translation on it and most people spoke very good English. We didn’t spend much time in the airport but before we went through immigration I needed to make a stop at the drug store. Little did I know how popular (and exciting!) it would be. First of all, they have everything! I was tempted to buy some Chinese herbs and elixirs but I just stuck with the necessities, water and tiger balm (there are 25 different types to choose from BTW). When I was finished, I noticed a huge line of locals, which I didn't expect. They were stocking up on all sorts of items, like the world was about to end. I wondered if I hadn't gotten the memo since I had just gotten off a 15 hour flight. I realized that there is a high sense of urgency everywhere in Hong Kong including the lines at the stores. When the change for my purchase was put in my hand the next person set their items down and gave me a little push letting me know that my turn was over. I didn't take offense, it seems that it is just the culture so I giggled.

Immigration was just slightly different from what I was use to, no hats at all! Also, if you are a couple or traveling with family you do not go together. It is one at a a time (this was also true in the Indonesian airport as well). We got through immigration with no problem and found the taxi line. The taxis’ are all color coded and to make it even more fun they drive on the other side, which I find thrilling!

We stayed at a close hotel called Novotel, just a few miles away from the airport. It was actually attached to an outlet mall which gave us the opportunity to look for different local restaurants other than what the hotel offered. We found a Vietnamese restaurant with very little wait and great service. I was amused at how to put your name in while you are waiting (see the picture!). The menu had a large selection of items with pictures and even descriptions in English. One of my favorite things about the Asian culture is sharing. Everybody shares food! I’ve come to know this because of the years I lived in Hawaii and to see it come to life again was really comforting to me. I feel like in America we don't share. We might get an appetizer to share but ultimately, we get our own dish. That’s not how it is in other countries and I love it! By the time we were done with dinner it was 9pm and we were ready for bed.

When my head hit the pillow I knew this layover idea was a good one. The bed was super comfy and I ended up sleeping for 5 hours straight on a whole different time zone. I woke up a few times and then got back to sleep for a few more hours. I set the alarm for 6am because we wanted to get some exploring in. After we sprung out of bed we were walking around the city by 6:15am. We found out that all of the coffee shops don’t open until 7:30am so we decided to stroll the area further. We got to witness the clean and beautiful city come to life at this hour. People were coming out of their skyscraper homes and leaving for work.

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Seeing people in another country living their daily lives is one of my favorite things to witness when I travel.

It makes it feel real when you are there to experience how the world unfolds. This particular area we were in seemed very safe, there were kids walking to school with their uniforms on all by themselves. Another thing that I noticed was how much greenery there was. There were plants and trees everywhere and everything seemed lush and thriving, even the mountains which made me feel like I was back home in Hawaii. After walking the streets for about an hour we didn't have much time before we had to be back at the airport so we grabbed a quick bite at the hotel, which was surprisingly delicious and had tons of variety. The hotel we stayed at offered a free airport shuttle that took us back to the airport.

We got there with plenty of time to do a little shopping, find our gate and do some acro yoga.

Even though it was a short amount of time in Hong Kong it was incredible! We landed at night and left in the morning but if the timing would have lined up I would have loved to visit the Big Buddha. You can take the cable car which is about a 25 minute experience where you get to see Hong Kong from up above!

I would highly suggest a long layover with a hotel stay if you can make it happen.

Instead of being sleep deprived and miserable I was refreshed and felt like I was on the right time zone ready for the next part of our adventure. I also feel incredible grateful that I got to soak in some culture from a country I never knew I’d have the opportunity to see with my own eyes.

xoxo,