We have been hard at work for several weeks, making renovations to our beautiful Bali villa. We want our guests to have the best possible experience, and we pay close attention to their comments and suggestions.

Entering our Bali luxury villa is like retreating to another world – here is the driveway leading up from the main road.

Per suggestions from a guest, we added air conditioners to each bedroom:

We also added a dining table on the outside veranda, additional hooks for hanging cloths or towels in each bathroom, and replaced a fan that had some noise when running at a high speed with a quieter version, all requests from a guest.

The grounds and exterior of our Bali luxury villa also received some renovations. We refinished the garage gate:

And the window of the temple suite:

The garden greenhouse now has a non-glare cover:

And of course, there is our gorgeous new pool, the perfect way to get some relief from the heat:

In addition to all the work, we also celebrated Galungan! We decorated the entry to the villa, as well as the family temple.

The word “Kuningan” means yellow in Balinese, and that is the color we use for the sashes and umbrellas that adorn important buildings on Kuningan Day at the end of Galungan. The decorative cloth is white throughout the Galungan celebration until Kuningan, when we replace the white cloth with yellow, as a symbol of prosperity.

Galungan, which refers to the ancient Javanese word for “victory” or “battle”, is the most important of the Bali holidays. It happens every 210 days, and this year it begins on March 27. The celebration of Galungan, which is actually a series of celebrations that lasts for almost a week, serves as a reminder to fight against evil and bad behavior.

The Balinese begin Galungan by making offerings to purify their surroundings and themselves. This prepares them for meditation and moving their minds away from evil. A pig slaughter represents victory over laziness and bad habits.  The last day of Galungan is quite celebratory, usually spent with relatives. During Galungan, the Balinese welcome the spirits of their dead relatives back to earth with prayers and offerings.

If you are staying at our Bali villa during Galungan, you might notice large, decorative “Penjors” raised outside of Balinese homes. Penjors are curved bamboo poles weighed down by offerings of fruits, coconuts, seeds, and other offerings, and decorated with coconut leaves and white and yellow material to represent their holiness. Erected to offering thanks for everything that nature provides, they also symbolize the victory of dharma (good) over adharma (evil).

The next Galungan celebration starts on October 23, and in 2014 Galungan will begin on May 21. Book our Bali luxury villa well in advance if you’d like to stay during those dates – this celebration is a very popular time to visit Bali.

Anyone looking for things to do in Bali will want to add the BaliSpirit festival to their list. The 6^th Annual BaliSpirit Festival will take place in Ubud March 20-24 this year, but pre and post events start in February and go through April 6. The BaliSpirit Festival bills itself as “a spiritually charged event that celebrates the synergy of global cultural collaboration through wellness and the arts”, and the span of its cultural offerings is impressive.

Top yoga and dance instructors, healers, musicians and several thousand guests attend the BaliSpirit Festival, which hosts workshops, world music concerts, and holistic healing sessions from around the world. Including local culture in the global offerings is a priority for the festival organizers.  Local musicians perform alongside musicians from as far away as Finland and China. There are more than 30 yoga workshops, and movement classes range from Indian Masala Bhangra to Brazilian Capoeira, and everything in between.

The festival also raises money for Balinese environmental, educational, cultural, and community health programs. One of the organizations that BaliSpirit will benefit this year, BasaBali, is dedicated to encouraging the use of spoken Balinese language and the written Balinese script.

Ubud’s population swells during the festival. Our Bali villa, located just 10 minutes away, is a perfect retreat from the fray. Be sure to book well in advance for next year’s BaliSpirit festival, as this is one of the most popular times to rent our Bali luxury villa.

Balinese culture places great importance on religious holidays, and Nyepi is one of the most important holidays of the year. If your Bali vacation brings you to the island on March 13 (in 2014 it will take place on March 31), you will witness the “Day of Silence” as Nyepi is called in English, and Balinese New Year, which occurs the day after Nyepi.

Be prepared to go native — although Nyepi is a Hindu celebration, this Bali holiday is observed by everyone on the island, and the Balinese take their silence very seriously. Anything that might interfere with silence, meditation, and self reflection is restricted for the entire day, and there is actually a security force that patrols the roads to make sure everyone is observing the restrictions. There is no working, no entertainment, no traveling, no talking, and no eating. Even fires are prohibited. This could pose a problem for tourists if you want to spend your Bali vacation shopping, going out to eat, relaxing at a spa, or even going to the beach. Everything is closed, even the airport.

However, the day after Nyepi is Balinese New Year (Ngembak Geni), and life returns to normal, with a few rituals to welcome the new year, the most important of which is to gather with friends and ask for forgiveness. It’s an interesting time to be in Bali – just be prepared to stay home and relax or enjoy your own time of reflection in our Bali villa.

Spirituality is a very important part of Balinese culture. Many Westerners are also attracted to Bali’s spiritual side – most famously in Elizabeth Gilbert’s novel Eat, Pray, Love and the movie that followed it. Most spiritual seekers looking for things to do in Bali will find something of interest in the island’s diverse offering of spiritual wellness retreats, with themes ranging from Reiki to Holistic Healing. You can find almost anything combined with yoga – from surfing to raw food culinary certification. And Bali is an epicenter for Yoga teacher training of all types.

The Bali Spirit website is a great place to start if you want to make some form of spirituality and wellness part of your Bali vacation. BaliSpirit provides a centralized registry of Indonesia’s holistic living venues, services and activities that are focused on environment, culture and spirituality.

If you’d really like to get away from it all, The Bali Retreat Center will help you find “inner peace for your body and your mind” in a silent meditation retreat on the shores of Lake Batur. The retreats range in length from 2 to 9 days.

Of course, if you’d like something a little more luxurious for your Bali vacation, you can create your own private retreat center at our Bali luxury villa. You can feel the strong spiritual pull of Bali no matter where you are on the island.

Bali is known for the healing properties of its waters, and no Bali vacation would be complete without a cleansing dip in these waters. There are two lakes that are a short distance from our Bali villa: Lake Batur, and Beratan Lake. Lake Batur, located at the foot of Mount Batur, is the largest lake in Bali, and serves as the main source of irrigation for the surrounding fields.

If water sports are your thing, Beratan Lake has lots to offer. You can rent paddle boats or traditional Balinese boats, water ski, fish, and admire the lovely surrounding views, or pay a visit to the nearby Ulun Danu Temple.

Or, if you would rather immerse yourself in the privacy of your Bali luxury villa, you can take advantage of Villa Tirta’s brand-new swimming pool. The pool is adorned by beautiful local stone carvings – one hand-made carving depicts a woman as a symbol of beauty; another represents a lotus flower, the symbol the spirit of peace, tranquility, positive energy and Enlightenment. The stunning white stone comes from Jogjakarta. The pool itself is made of natural black stone and Indonesian marble. However you choose to take the sacred waters, the beauty and tranquility of this special island will help you feel at peace.

Bali holidays are a spectacular treat for all the senses, and January 12 of this year will be no exception. A very special celebration will take place on the 12th to honor Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. Because the Balinese place a high value on knowledge and education, Hari Raya Saraswati is an important celebration that affects all of Bali.

Saraswati also represents many of the topics that Balinese children learn about in school:  science, literature, and the arts. Saraswati Day happens every 210 days (the last celebration was in June of 2012), and students look forward to it. From your Bali Villa, you might see processions of schoolchildren making their way to school in colorful costumes instead of their regular school uniforms. On Saraswati Day, they pray for continued success in their studies, and make offerings of fruit, flowers, and cakes to Saraswati at the school temples.

Libraries and schools host special ceremonies to honor this goddess of the intellectual and creative realms. In addition to prayers in local temples, manuscripts and sacred palm leaf books called lontar are blessed with holy water, flowers, and fruit. All books are closed for the day, as people are not allowed to read or write on this holiday in Bali.

There are so many different things to do in Bali: bicycling, horseback riding, art collecting, relaxing at the spa or the beach. But where else can you see how the most expensive coffee in the world is produced? One of Bali’s most unique attractions is a tour of the Kintamani Coffee Plantation, where several varieties of coffee beans, including “Kopi Luwak”, the most expensive coffee beans in the world, are grown and processed.

Kopi luwak or “civet coffee” currently sells for around $300/pound. Why the high price tag? The beans are processed in a unique and surprising way. Before the beans are roasted and made into coffee, they are eaten, digested, and defecated by civets or “luwak” – small, nocturnal mammals. The civet’s stomach acid apparently cuts the bitter taste, and the beans, once they are collected, thoroughly cleaned, and roasted, produce a very palatable (if labor-intensive) cup of coffee. Plantation Kintamani is one of the few locations in the world that produces this type of coffee. The tour is quite educational, and there is a café at the plantation where you can sample different varieties of coffee, including Kopi Luwak.

Kintamani is only a 30-minute drive from our Bali luxury villa, high in the mountains near Lake Batur and Mount Batur. Please make arrangements with our driver and he will be happy to take you there.

Relaxing in your luxuriously appointed Bali villa may be all you want to do on your vacation, but if you are looking for more active things to do in Bali, the rest of the island offers a diverse array of outdoor adventures. Whether you want to ride horses or bicycles, go rafting, or hike through the jungle, there are many excellent tour companies to support your outing.

If you are looking for a unique and active way to learn about Balinese culture, look no further than Bali Budaya Tours (BBT). BBT, or Bali Cultural and Ecological Tours, offers environmental and educational bicycle tours where you can learn about Balinese culture as you get some exercise. Locally known as “Bali Eco”, this company specializes in bicycle tours that showcase the “Real Bali” — a window into typical Balinese daily life, and an ecological, cultural, and culinary learning experience!

If you prefer riding horses to bicycles, check out Bali Island Horse . They offer ocean-side horseback riding and a unique opportunity to “swim with the horses”. Another Bali tour company, Bali Horse Riding, also offers beach rides in addition to rides through lush, green rice fields, and they are specially equipped to accommodate children.

Whitewater rafting is a great way to see the interior of the island, and there are several reputable river guide companies near our Ubud luxury villa. We like to travel with Mega Rafting down the Ayung River through the jungle, rice fields and even through a few waterfalls! And if rapids make you nervous, Mega Rafting offers a variety of other ways to see the island including trekking, cycling, or even riding in an old Volkswagen.

The variety of things to do in Bali is astounding for such a small island. Beautiful beaches, ancient temples, white water rafting, and…, just a short trip from Villa Tirta, the World’s Best Elephant Park! The Elephant Safari Park, opened in the year 2000, is home to the world’s largest captive herd of elephants –30 elephants (including babies) who became homeless after their natural habitat in Sumatra was deforested.

Surrounded by national forest, the park grounds are beautiful, enclosing over five acres of landscaped botanical gardens. The park houses an elephant research laboratory, and a museum with over 1000 exhibits including fossil artifacts dating back 5 million years. The park’s 270-seat restaurant is large enough to accommodate wedding receptions, and there is even a spa!  But the real attraction is the elephants. Visitors can touch, feed, and even ride the elephants at the park. During four fun and informative shows throughout the day, you can watch the elephants paint, play basketball, and even do math.

Don’t skip the gift shop — part of the proceeds from the sale of carved ivory and other artwork helps bring more endangered Sumatran elephants to the park sanctuary. There are currently fewer than 1100 Indonesian elephants left in the wild, and your contributions also support the park’s elephant breeding and development programs. The Elephant Safari Park is a very special place, and it is just one of the things to do in Bali that should not be missed.