Bali the way it’s
meant to be done.
Ten days. Five on the coast. Five in the jungle. We’ve done the research and lived the trip — so you get the experience you dreamed of, not the one you had to troubleshoot.
After booking, you’ll receive a custom questionnaire to capture your vision — then a Calendly link to schedule your private session with Derrek & Kayla. We come prepared. You show up excited.
You shouldn’t have to
learn Bali
the hard way.
The travel forum rabbit holes. The “I wish someone had told me” blog posts. The booking mistakes that cost you a day of your trip. The overwhelming number of options with no way to know which ones are actually worth it.
We’ve navigated all of it — so you don’t have to. Our approach is simple: we combine genuine on-the-ground experience with deep destination research to remove the obstacles that turn a dream trip into a frustrating one before it even starts.
You’re an adventure traveler. You want the real Bali — not a sanitized resort version, not a chaotic DIY experiment. We build the middle ground: expertly structured, deeply informed, and completely yours to experience.
Adventure
Two worlds.
One island.
This trip is structured in two distinct acts. Each one completely different. Each one unforgettable.
Days 1–5
Beach. Ocean. Unwind.
Kuta & Jerman Beach
Your first five days unfold on Bali’s stunning southern coast. Boutique accommodation steps from the water, dramatic sunsets, and zero obligation to do anything but arrive and breathe.
Days 6–10
Jungle. Waterfalls. Culture.
Ubud & The Sacred Valley
Then everything shifts. You move into the mountains, into the jungle, into the part of Bali that gets under your skin. Ubud is where the island reveals what makes it unlike anywhere else.
What we handle — and what stays yours to discover
Transparency is how we build trust. Here’s what every Bali trip we build includes — and what stays beautifully yours to explore, with our expert guidance in hand.
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✈️
Round-Trip International Flights Booked and confirmed from your departure city. No comparison shopping required.
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🏨
10 Nights Accommodation Boutique hotel on the coast (5 nights) + jungle retreat in Ubud (5 nights). Curated to your style.
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🚌
Airport Transfers Arrival and departure — a trusted driver picks you up and drops you off. You won’t scramble at the airport.
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📋
Full Pre-Trip Itinerary Day-by-day guide, packing list, local tips, accommodation details, and a pre-departure call with us.
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📞
Concierge Support We’re reachable throughout your trip. Questions, recommendations, anything that comes up — we’ve got you.
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🛵
Daily Ground Transport Getting around Bali day-to-day is easy and affordable — we just aren’t booking it for you. See our recommendations.
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🍜
Meals Bali has incredible food at every price point. We’ll give you our personal restaurant list for both regions.
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🌊
Excursions & Activities Waterfall tours, temple experiences, surf lessons — you book these à la carte through local guides we’ve vetted.
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🛍️
Personal Spending Shopping, drinks, upgrades, anything extra. Bali is genuinely affordable — we’ll share what to realistically budget.
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📱
GoJek & Grab Southeast Asia’s rideshare apps. Cheap, reliable, safe — you’ll use these constantly in Kuta. Download before you land.
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🛵
Scooter Rental in Ubud The best way to explore the jungle and rice fields. We’ll share our safety briefing and trusted rental spots.
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🗺️
Vetted Local Guides For waterfalls, cooking classes, temple tours — we’ll connect you with guides we’ve personally used and trust.
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🏄
Curated Activity List You’ll receive our full “Bali Edit” — everything worth doing, priced and ranked, so you’re never guessing.
Your actual accommodation
Boutique · Not Generic
A word on getting around — because everyone asks
Bali’s daily transport isn’t something that needs to be pre-arranged or stressful. In Kuta, GoJek and Grab get you anywhere for a few dollars. In Ubud, a scooter rental unlocks the entire island and genuinely becomes the highlight of the trip for most people. We’ll give you a complete briefing on both — what to download, what to pay, what to watch out for, and how to stay safe.
Your dream trip,
built around you.
You don’t need to know every detail. You just need a direction — a destination you’ve been drawn to, a type of experience you’re chasing. We take it from there. Your $200 planning session is a private, focused deep-dive where we build your custom trip from the ground up — matched to your vision, your travel style, and your budget.
Your $200 is applied toward your total trip cost.
After you book, we’ll send a short questionnaire to capture your vision — then a Calendly link to schedule your private session. We come prepared. You show up ready to say yes to the trip you’ve been putting off.
What happens after you book
Here’s exactly what to expect from the moment you pay your deposit to the moment your bags are packed.
🗺️ Reserve My Planning Session →Prefer to talk first? Call us at (208) 614-0590 — Derrek or Kayla picks up.
What our travelers say
These aren’t paid reviews. They’re people who actually went.
I’ve planned my own travel for years and always thought I didn’t need help. Traveling Turtle showed me what I’d been missing — having flights and accommodation sorted meant I arrived actually ready to enjoy the trip instead of managing it.
My partner and I wanted something more than a resort but didn’t know how to plan it. Derrek and Kayla designed something that felt genuinely personal — and the guide they sent us for getting around Ubud was honestly better than any travel blog we’d found.
The planning session alone was worth it. I came in with a vague idea and left with total clarity about what I was getting, what I’d need to handle myself, and why that was actually totally fine. Zero surprises once I landed.
Tropical Beach Travelers · Free Community
Travel smarter with
insiders in your corner.
Our Facebook community is where real travelers connect — people who’ve made the trip, are planning the trip, or are just starting to dream about it. It’s free to join and full of the kind of intel you can’t get from a travel blog.
Where the real stories live
Join travelers sharing firsthand experiences, candid photos, and advice you can’t find in a travel guide.
We earned this expertise
on the ground.
Traveling Turtle exists for one specific reason: to help adventure travelers get to tropical destinations without the frustration of unforeseen obstacles stealing the trip they imagined.
That’s not marketing language — it’s the gap we kept seeing. People who wanted the real experience but hit friction: the wrong accommodation, the scam tour operator, the transport nightmare, the things nobody writes about until it’s too late. With 14 years of background in psychology and human behavior, and real on-the-ground travel experience, we approach this differently.
We’ve been to Bali. We know the waterfalls, the beach clubs, the transfers, the local operators we trust and the ones to avoid. When we plan it for you, we’re translating lived experience into a friction-free trip — so you spend your time actually in it, not managing it.
Is this trip right for you?
We’ll always be straight with you. Here’s who this trip was built for — and who it probably isn’t.
- You want the real Bali — coast AND jungle, not a resort-only experience
- You’d rather have an expert handle flights and accommodation than spend weeks researching it yourself
- You want someone who’s actually been there and can tell you what to avoid — not just a booking platform
- You’re comfortable managing daily transport with solid guidance (we make this genuinely easy)
- You travel with curiosity — open to local food, new experiences, unexpected moments
- You’re serious about going — not just building a “someday” list
- You need every single detail pre-arranged including daily ground transport
- You want five-star resort accommodation every night
- You prefer a fully guided tour where everything is scheduled for you
- You’re not open to local food or independent daily navigation
- Bali is vaguely on your list but you’re not genuinely excited yet
“We’re not selling you something you’ll regret. We’re building a trip you’ll never stop talking about.”
Ready to stop
planning someday?
Book your Dream Vacation Planning Session and hand this trip to people who’ve already done it. Your $200 reserves your private session with Derrek and Kayla — and gets applied toward your total trip cost.
About the Planning Session
Everything you need to know before you book — so you show up ready.
Within 24 hours, you’ll receive an email from Derrek or Kayla with two things: a short custom questionnaire to capture your vision, and a Calendly link to schedule your session once the questionnaire is complete. The questionnaire takes about 10 minutes and covers your destination interests, travel style, budget range, group size, timing, and must-have experiences. This is how we come to your session already prepared — not starting from zero.
Your session is a 60-minute private call with Derrek and Kayla — not a sales call, a real working session. We’ll have already reviewed your questionnaire and done preliminary research on your destination and timing before we get on the call. We’ll walk through your vision together, fill in the details, answer every question you have, and start shaping your custom itinerary in real time. Most people leave the call knowing exactly what their trip is going to look like.
A fully customized trip plan built around your exact vision. After the session, we take everything we discussed and build out your complete package — this includes destination and accommodation recommendations matched to your style and budget, a day-by-day itinerary framework, activity and dining curation from people who’ve been there, transport guidance, and a full cost breakdown with zero hidden surprises. You review it, ask questions, and only move forward when you love it.
Not at all — that’s exactly what the session is for. You don’t need a destination locked in. You just need a sense of the kind of experience you’re after: beach and decompression, jungle and adventure, culture immersion, a mix of everything. We’ll help you narrow it down and build the right trip around that. Our expertise spans Bali, Hawaii, Cabo, St. Thomas, Japan, and more — if you’re unsure, bring us your instincts and we’ll handle the rest.
The $200 is the fee for your private planning session — it’s how we ensure we’re working with clients who are serious about making their trip happen, and it’s how we guarantee that we show up prepared with real research done. It is applied in full toward your total trip cost when you move forward with booking. If for any reason we build a plan together and it’s not the right fit, we’ll work with you until it is — we’ve never had a client walk away without a trip they were genuinely excited about.
Once you’ve reviewed your custom plan and given us the green light, we handle all the actual bookings — flights, accommodation, transfers, and everything else included in your package. You’ll receive confirmation details and a full pre-trip itinerary package well before your departure date, along with a pre-departure check-in call with us. And we’re reachable throughout your trip — questions, recommendations, anything that comes up. Most clients say the biggest shift is how present they are during the trip because they’re not managing logistics in real time.
