What's a good 3-day itinerary for Bali?

Bali is not a walking destination. That is the first thing to accept. The island runs on motorbikes and hired drivers, and distances between anything worth seeing tend to be thirty to fifty kilometres of winding two-lane road. Day 1 stays in southern Bali to keep the driving short. Start the morning at Revolver Coffee in Seminyak — down a narrow laneway off Jalan Kayu Aya, the espresso is strong and the courtyard smells like roasting beans and damp stone. Walk north along Batu Belig beach by mid-morning: the sand here is volcanic black and warm under bare feet, the surf is rough, and the hawkers mostly leave you alone if you're moving. Lunch is babi guling at Pak Malen on Jalan Sunset — spit-roasted suckling pig with skin that crackles between your teeth, sambal matah sharp with raw shallot, a mound of lawar green with shredded coconut — for about 45,000 IDR ($2.60). By 4 PM, drive twenty minutes west to Tanah Lot. The temple sits on a tidal rock shelf, and the light around 5:30 PM turns wet basalt almost copper against the Indian Ocean. It draws crowds. They're right to come. Dinner back in Seminyak at Biku.

Day 2 earns its early start. Leave south Bali by 7:30 AM — traffic thins before eight — and drive ninety minutes north to Tirta Empul, the spring temple at Tampaksiring. Balinese families line up waist-deep in cold spring pools, moving fountain to fountain in a purification ritual you can join if you wear a sarong and stay quiet. The water runs around 22°C — startlingly cold after the heat outside — and the carved stone spouts are slick with green moss. From there, ten minutes south to the Tegallalang rice terraces. Worth noting: the Instagram swing and the cafés along the ridge are a sideshow. Walk down into the terraces themselves, where the air sits heavy and smells like wet earth and cut grass. The green is so saturated it looks artificial. Lunch at Sari Organik, a farm restaurant above the Subak Juwuk Manis valley — you walk fifteen minutes through rice fields to reach it, there is no road, and the nasi campur costs 65,000 IDR ($3.80). Afternoon at the Sacred Monkey Forest on Ubud's south end. The long-tailed macaques will take your sunglasses right off your face. Tuck everything away.

Dinner in Ubud that night at Locavore — if you booked two weeks ahead — or Hujan Locale if you didn't. Both sit on Jalan Dewi Sita within a hundred metres of each other. Locavore runs a tasting menu built from Balinese produce; Hujan Locale does a shorter à la carte that still lands. Ubud after dark is quiet. Frogs. Gamelan practice drifting from a banjar hall somewhere down the road. A warm breeze carrying frangipani and the sweet burn of clove cigarettes. Day 3 swings south to the Bukit Peninsula, about ninety minutes from Ubud. Spend the morning at Padang Padang beach — a small cove you reach through a narrow crack in the limestone cliff, the sand coarse and warm, the water clear enough to see your feet. By noon, lunch at a cliff-road warung above Suluban, then south along the coast. At 5 PM, take a seat at Pura Luhur Uluwatu temple for the Kecak fire dance at six. Tickets cost 150,000 IDR ($8.80). Fifty men in concentric circles, no instruments, just layered voice and the crash of surf seventy metres below. After the dance, sunset drinks at Single Fin, perched above the reef break.

A note on getting around. Bali's roads are two-lane, winding, and regularly blocked by ceremonial processions that hold traffic for twenty minutes without warning. Budget ninety minutes for any drive over thirty kilometres. A hired driver for the full day runs about 700,000 to 800,000 IDR ($41–47) — cheaper than three Grab rides and far less stressful than navigating roads with no lane markings and oncoming trucks. Base night one in Seminyak, night two in Ubud — pack light enough to move hotels without friction. Carry cash; warungs and smaller temples don't take cards. ATMs at Circle K and Indomaret stores dispense reliably. The weather right now sits around 30°C with 67% humidity — you'll sweat through two shirts a day, and afternoon rain can arrive fast and hard. Pack a light rain shell that stuffs into a daypack. One more thing: every temple requires a sarong. Some provide loaners. Buy your own from any market stall for about 50,000 IDR ($2.90) — it saves you from sharing one that hundreds of other visitors wore that morning. Total movement across the three days: roughly 165 km, most of it by car, with about 12 km on foot.