How to Spend a Week in Bali: Volcanoes, Diving, Temples, Cooking

Tanah Lot - Bali, Indonesia

For a relatively small island, Bali can pack in a lot of activities in just a week: volcano-climbing at dawn, scuba diving in coral reefs, cooking traditional Balinese cuisine, visiting Balinese Hindu temples, taking in a traditional Kecak performance, hanging with monkeys, enjoying a few Balinese massages, relaxing at the beach, and much more. If you only have one week to travel in Bali, here are our suggestions for putting together an itinerary filled with a bit of adventure, outdoor activities, culture, food, and relaxation.

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Travel Snobbery and a Tour to Bali

Apparently, it’s easy to be a travel snob.

Independent travelers can look down on tour groups as not being “hard core” or “authentic” enough. Luxury travelers can look down on backpackers as cheapskates one notch above street riffraff. Holiday-makers looking to relax with a cocktail on the beach are not “real” travelers while those who are trying to live on $5 a day are “escapists.”

I could go on and on with the stereotypes and slurs that I’ve heard fly in all directions, but that’s not the point. One thing travel can teach you – if you allow it to – is that the world is made up of people whose goals and preferences differ. And those differences — they also apply to travel.

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Travel Health Tips from 10+ Years Traveling the World

A travel health guide to the basic sicknesses and ailments that travelers often face on the road — diarrhea, malaria, altitude sickness, motion sickness, headaches, birth control, eggy burps, cuts, scrapes, green snot, blisters, and more. Plus how to research the travel vaccinations you need for your next trip and where to find other travel health resources.

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Our Jordan Itinerary: The Details

Perhaps you've seen all of our photos and stories from our travels in Jordan but what exactly was your two-week itinerary? Where did you go, stay, eat? What did you do in Petra or Wadi Rum?

We've been answering a bunch of “I'm thinking of going to Jordan” emails and need a place to put all of our answers. So here it is: the details of where we stayed, where and what we ate, what we saw and experienced. The whole scoop for one final go-round.

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Life Lessons We Learned from Jordan’s Bedouins

Bedouins. Before our visit to Jordan, the term conjured an image of mysterious desert-bound, tunic-wearing nomads.

While in Jordan, we met our share of Bedouins — some camel collectors and shepherds, others guides and businessmen. Upwards of 40% of the Jordanian population is of Bedouin heritage. As a result, Jordanian hospitality, wisdom and culture are all very much a product of their Bedouin roots.

As our Bedouin hosts shared some of their protocols, their wisdom, and their clever ways of looking at the world, we took note. Here's what we learned.

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Traveling in Jordan: Zikra Initiative Social Enterprise Working with Women

On occasion, we are fortunate enough to have an experience or conversation that sends chills for its human quality. Our time with Zikra Initiative and the women of Ghor al Mazra’a in Jordan was one such experience.

From the moment I passed into the courtyard, Um Atallah took control and led me to a seat on the ground near her. Two other women swapped their attention between their work and us, offering encouraging smiles. These were the women of Ghor al Mazra’a near Jordan's Dead Sea. And for a few hours, they shared a bit of their lives with us.

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