Bali has become on the most popular holiday destinations in recent years, with a tropical climate all year around alongside lively beach clubs, relaxing yoga retreats and fresh acai bowls.

But is Bali the tropical paradise it’s made out to be on social media?

Social media editor at Lifestyle with the Telegraph Ruby Borg said she had also fallen for the country’s beautiful online facade.

“As soon as I got there, I was a little bit underwhelmed,” she told The Pat Kenny Show.

“I was thinking, ‘This isn’t quite what I thought it would be’.

“[My friend and I] kept having these moments of encountering unpleasant things, or bad bad behaviour from other tourists.

“Because we’d spent so much money and saved up for so long and made it into this big thing, I mean, afterwards, we realised that neither of us wanted to tell the other person we weren’t having a good time.”

People Collecting Rubbish at Bali Beach during Monsoon. Image: Krisnu Maruti. Bali, Indonesia

Ms Borg spoke of how she took lots of beautiful pictures in Bali – but behind the scenes, it wasn’t so glamorous.

“I would stand in front of all the unpleasant stuff, and that would be behind the camera,” she said.

“I’d take a picture of a nice sunset and the ocean.

"But what you can’t see if the piles of rubbish behind, the buildings falling down, the overcrowding.

“I mean, that’s the power of photography, you can make something look completely different to what it actually is.”

Similar experiences

According to Ms Borg, a lot of people who visit the country likely have a similar experience to hers.

“But then – and I’ll admit, I did this as well – they go and post the nice pictures that they took of their trip and they try and remember it in a nice, pleasant way,” she said.

“I think when you spend that much money and you don’t want to regret it, you try to romanticise the memory of it.”

Ms Borg said she would encourage more people to speak out about the reality of travelling to Bali.

Main image: Bali, Indonesia, traveler on tree house at Diamond Beach in Nusa Penida Island. Image: R.M. Nunes. 16 June 2019