Bali voted World's Best Island

Bali voted World's Best Island

For the sixth consecutive year, Travel + Leisure magazine readership voted Bali 'the world's best island 2007'. The Hawaiian islands, Phuket, Tasmania and even Galapagos were all beaten by the attractions of Bali.

The Lonely Planet

As The Lonely Planet describes it,

"Bali is so picturesque that you could be fooled into thinking it was a painted backdrop: rice paddies trip down hillsides like giant steps, volcanoes soar through the clouds, the forests are lush and tropical, and the beaches are lapped by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean."

The Times says,

"Bali is one of the most incredible and diverse tropical islands in the world. Beaches, of course; top-class resorts, clearly; restaurants and bars, in abundance. But all with so much more: a volcano more, picturesque rice paddies more; culture, shopping, cuisine, monkeys - more, more, more, more."

"Above all, though, on Bali that paradise comes with a unique authenticity. The difference between it and many of the pretenders - Phuket, Ko Samui and the like - is that tourism is nothing new: it's been around since the 1930s and the island has grown up catering to the needs of outsiders. Rather than superseding all around it, tourism has run in parallel, as part of the island's culture rather than a replacement for it."

You can read the full results here