Bali Honeymoon — 6 Nights

North into the hills to a villa above a river valley, and nothing scheduled for the rest of the day. Ubud sits in the Campuhan area where two rivers meet, and the sound from the gorge below is the thing everyone remembers about the first evening. The town centre is a short drive but the first night is better spent where you are — the flights into Denpasar are almost all long ones.

The Tegallalang terraces before the coaches, which means before eight: the subak irrigation system that waters them has been run cooperatively by farmers' associations since the ninth century and is UNESCO-listed on that basis rather than for the view. The middle of the day is for the heat and the villa. The Campuhan ridge walk in the cooler evening light is a level two kilometres along a spine between two river gorges, and it is free, unticketed and among the best things on the island.

Tirta Empul in the morning, where spring water has fed the bathing pools since 962 AD and Balinese still come to perform melukat, moving along the line of spouts in a set order. Visitors can take part with a sarong or watch respectfully from the side. The afternoon is a long spa treatment back at the villa, which in the humidity of the Ubud valley is less an indulgence than a sensible use of the hottest part of the day.

South out of the hills to the Bukit peninsula, two to three hours depending on the traffic through Denpasar. The landscape changes completely — the green closes off and limestone cliffs open onto the Indian Ocean, with the surf breaks strung along the western edge. Into a cliff-top villa in the afternoon, and the first evening is for the view, which from this coast is straight out to the horizon with nothing in the way.

Uluwatu temple in the late afternoon, on a promontory a hundred metres above the sea and one of the six great sea temples that Balinese believe protect the island. The macaques there are practised thieves and will take sunglasses and phones, which is not a joke. The kecak performance at sunset follows — around seventy men chanting in interlocking rhythm with no instruments, the Ramayana acted in front of them and the sun going down behind.

The coast, at whatever pace suits. The Bukit's beaches sit at the bottom of the cliffs and are reached by steps rather than roads, which keeps them quieter than anything in the south — Padang Padang, Bingin, Nyang Nyang for the determined. The surf here is serious and these are not swimming beaches in every state of tide, so the local advice on the day is worth taking. Otherwise a spa afternoon and a long dinner.

The transfer to Denpasar, which is about forty-five minutes from the Bukit and considerably less fraught than the run down from Ubud. If your flight is an evening one, the morning stays yours — the cliff path, a last swim, or a beach club along the west-facing shore, which is where the sunset crowd goes and which is at its emptiest in the middle of the day.