Honeymoon Venue: The Palm Grove Villas, Nusa Lembongan, Bali
When considering an overseas honeymoon (or even a destination wedding), the venue selection can be rather harrowing with an entire world to consider. As part of our #honeymoonhumpday series, we're going to be bringing you a variety of venue profiles, honeymoon styles and tips every Wednesday to help you narrow your options down to somewhere truly amazing.
Today's venue is the Palm Grove Villas on the island of Nusa Lembongan, Bali.
A supremely speedy speed-boat ride from Sanur on one of the many commercial speed boats available will bring you to Lembongan Harbour on the island of Nusa Lembongan.
The island is one of a cluster that form Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Ceningan islands.
As part of your boat fare, you'll be transported directly to your accommodations so there's no need to panic about how to find your way once you're there.
We were lucky enough to visit this hotel a couple of weeks ago and as we drove through the streets dropping off guests, noting how each little place looked wonderful, I recall saying 'Oh I hope this is our place' just as the truck stopped to let us out.
Situated 100 m from Lembongan Beach, The Palm Grove Villas features private villas with private entrances and traditional Balinese thatched roofs. The resort offers an outdoor pool and garden.
The villas themselves are so cool thanks to the new air conditioning units and provide outdoor bathrooms which are incredible - standing in the sun (with adequate privacy, don't worry) in your outdoor shower is rather liberating!
The hotel is one of few villas meaning the level of customer service is extremely high. The villas are all situated around the main pool area making the pool and poolside restraurant the place to congregate when you're not off exploring the island.
If you do head off on foot, there are a number of great walks to be made. Take a saunter down to the beach, have lunch at the Sadeg Lembongan resort or join up with one of the many snorkelling boats, paddle boarding operators and scuba dive boats on offer.
It doesn't matter which one you choose, they all go to exactly the same spots and tie up together so you're not losing anything by choosing a local, less fancypants provider and you're actually likely to have more fun in the experience as you speak in smiles, laughs and body language rather than much resembling English. (This is not a barrier, just go and have fun).
While there's a great restaurant at the resort, we definitely recommend venturing out a bit and heading to Sandy Bay Beach Club for sunset cocktails or dinner - it has the best vantage point for sunset viewing on the island. Follow the directions Google Maps sends you, even if it doesn't actually look like a path because on our walk there, we took the 'local route' as advised by Google Maps and it was actually a far more fun way to go.
For dinners and lunches, we recommend Hai Bar and Grill, situated right on the beach, with incerdible food and at night some dancing to entertain you, the restaurant is owned by an American man who dines with the diners and makes an effort to speak to each and every one of them. He even recognised us the next day and made a point of coming up to say 'hi'.
The Palm Grove Villas is a wonderfully inexpensive option on Nusa Lembongan, the island where you won't encounter bothersome hawkers or loads of tourists, don't need to worry so much about security and where everyone is supremely delightful.