high season hotel booking

is it necessary to book an hotel in advance in high season?
we have a flight only to bali in july and we want to look for a place to stay when we are there (couple + 3 year old) because we dont want to stay in one place.
now we are getting second toughts about having not booked a hotel in advance. maybe we wont find anything to sleep when we are there.

PS we want to try to find something around 30 euro / night and if we spend a night somewhere at 15 euro , the next day may be at 45 euro :-)

we dont wanna stay in kuta, nor in nusa dua region.

[Thorsten]

From your question I assume you are coming from Europe.
This will mean, your trip to Bali will take you at least 18 hours, maybe 24 or even more.
The first thing I’m longing for after such a long flight will be a shower, some fresh clothes, a place to relax, a drink and maybe a pool, but certainly not to look around for a accommodation, when I don’t know where to put my luggage in the meantime, I would not have any nerve for exhausting negotiations, thousands of questions, especially not, when there will be a nagging, tired, 3 year old child on my side.
All this means only stress, maybe a quarrel and not a good start for a vacation.

After such a long trip it’s good to have a shower, a bed, something like a home, after recovering from the trip and from the jetlag after a relaxing massage, go and enjoy the island of the Gods, travel around, stay some days here some days there and adapt the rhythm of the Balinese.
There are plenty of things to do and to discover, for smaller and for bigger wallets.

I would have a room for maybe three days or so, before I enter the plane, you have enough time and heaps of possibilities to get one until July, there are lots of people keen to help you with this and you are able to start your holidays without this pressure.
I would look for something not to far from the airport, after sitting 16 hours or more in a plane, usually I don’t want to spend some further hours in a car, maybe Legian, Seminjak or Sanur.

Best regards
Thorsten

thanks for your tips, you are very right ! and yes we are from belgium, europe.
our idea was indeed to book for the first 3 days.
what is the best way to arrange a booking for the first days?
ask someone in a forum who is living there (we are contacting a driver now who can maybe arrange a room), by travel agency, by website (but only the expensive hotels have websites) or what else?

but after we recovered (like you said: after a day or 3) and going to explore the island: will it easy for us to find a room in july?

we're also still not clear about what place to go for at arrival day:
it can not be too many hours by car, that's a fact
so we are thinking sanur, padang bai, candi dasa ... it needs some good and quiet beach. any tips? is sanur not too crowded? and i hear the candi dasa beach is destroyed?

[Richard Kalibukbuk]

You should have no problem finding accommodation even in high season while traveling around Bali. I live and run a place in Lovina, which is the north of Bali and you would need to go back to pre 1997 days when the whole of central Lovina would get full every night for about six weeks in July August. Even then you could always find places to stay out of the central area. Most other tourist places are like this, so don't be put off from traveling this lovely Island because that is what makes it so great, as going from one place to the other you travel thro stunning scenery. The only problem you might come across is if you arrive in a new destination late, you might not be able to find the place that suites you but the next morning you will have no problem. All out laying tourist areas in Bali lives off the trade that comes off the road and does not rely totally on bookings like the package places in the south.

Have a great time traveling the island and don’t be afraid to go further afield like Lombok, or Java, where you will find great places and beautiful people as well.