When to go
Bali has summer all year round, but it varies. Each season has its pros and cons – you have to compromise.
December through March is the rainy season in Bali. Many people think that during this time it rains all day and night, but this is not the case. Sometimes it’s just cloudy. Occasionally it drizzles all day or there are showers that last for an hour. The temperature is around +30 °C during the day and +28…29 °C at night. When the sun peeks out, it is very hot. The water is steamy milk, +30 °C.
From June to September is the dry season. At this time Bali is noticeably cooler: +26…27 °C. In conditions of high humidity, a difference of three degrees feels like seven degrees in the middle latitudes. Water also becomes colder – +25…26 °C. Swimming is pleasant, but just sitting in the water is not very pleasant. Surfers at this time are wearing 1-2 mm thick wetsuits.
In Bali, it’s worth checking the tide schedule. The same beach looks different during the day. At high tide, the water level reaches one and a half to two meters, and the waves splash against the sandy shore. At low tide, the water level is less than a meter and the reef is bare, as in this photo
November is very hot. The sun bakes all day long – you can get burned in 15 minutes. Even expats who are used to the climate start complaining and sit in air-conditioned rooms during the day. So it’s comfortable to be outdoors before nine in the morning and after five in the evening.
In May, September and October is the best weather for a vacation, in my opinion. It is not so hot anymore, +27…28 °C, and sunny. The water is still at a pleasant temperature, around +28 °C.
Sometimes nature makes adjustments. For example, in 2016, there was almost no rain in January, but in July it rained for an hour every day. But this is more of an exception: I’ve seen it once in all my years of living in Bali.
During the new moon in March, the Balinese celebrate their New Year – Nyepi. It is believed that evil spirits fly over the island at this time. Balinese pretend that the island is uninhabited: they stay at home, turn off the lights and do not cook food. Tourists are also not allowed to go outside the hotel or villa. Bali airport is the only one in the world that does not work for a whole day because of a religious holiday.
Resorts
Bali has several tourist areas with their own peculiarities. When choosing them, I recommend considering the time of year. During the rainy season, full-flowing rivers carry trash, logs and sewage into the ocean on the west side of the island, making the beaches of Kuta, Seminyak and Changgu dirty.
Nusa Dua is located on the Bukit Peninsula in the south of Bali. It is the territory of all-inclusive hotels. There are good sandy beaches with calm water, but it is far from the interesting places of the island. People come here for package vacations to lie on the beach and do nothing. In my opinion, this is pointless: it is cheaper to fly to Turkey or Egypt.
The Nusa Dua area takes up a small part of Bukit. The other beaches have high cliffs and good waves, but not for beginners. Experienced surfers settle here.
Kuta and Seminyak are classic Asian resort areas. Along the roads there are tents with typical souvenirs, and people offering tours and invitations to spas. The stalls are overpriced and even the stores are overcharged.
Kuta and Seminyak have a vibrant nightlife with plenty of bars and restaurants. It’s worth staying in these areas to lie on the beach during the day and walk around at night. There are also many surfing schools and equipment rentals in Kuta. Therefore, the area is suitable for beginners who want to take lessons from professionals and train on their own at the same time. The sand on the beaches is gray, and the ocean with waves, so it is better to swim carefully and not far from the shore.
Sanur is a neighborhood on the east coast. It is also touristy, but much quieter than Kuta. Sanur has beautiful beaches with yellow sand. It is convenient to live in this area if you want to combine a quiet beach vacation with trips around the island.
Minus Sanur is that the sunset is on the other side: you can’t see the sun into the ocean. But there are beautiful sunrises at 05:30.
Changu and Umalas are the trendiest neighborhoods. There are still rice fields there, lined with stylish European cafes. But since the beginning of 2023, these two areas have become too popular: rental prices have risen dramatically, there is a lot of noise due to the construction of new hotels and villas, and there are constant traffic jams on the roads.
A big plus of these neighborhoods is that it’s convenient to drive around the island from them. There are bars and parties too. For surfers with little experience, the conditions are good: gentle waves where you can practice on a large training board.
Ubud is located in the center of the island among rice terraces and jungle. It’s a long drive to the coast, which can take up to two hours during the day. It is the place to go for yoga, meditation and contemplation of nature.
Ubud has many hippie style cafes and stores, vegetarian places and yoga studios. There are many temples in the neighborhood, the Batur volcano and several small waterfalls nearby.
Housing
Hotels are usually used by those who are traveling alone or as a couple and want a cheaper price, but with a swimming pool. A hotel can also be safer: there are guards there. For $40 a night you can find a good room five minutes walk from the beach.
In Bali you can find very cheap accommodation for up to 200$ a month. But it will be a small room, a bed with a sold mattress, a fan and only cold water. If you do not need to meet the minimum budget, hotels cheaper than $30 per night I do not advise you to consider: it can be uncomfortable there.
It is better to look for houses and villas locally – rent a hotel room for a couple of days and go to addresses on Google Maps with high ratings. It is more pleasant to live in a small house than in a hotel. The house has more privacy, a kitchen, a garden where you can barbecue and sunbathe in any way you want. If a company is traveling, a house or villa in a fold will get even cheaper than several rooms in a hotel. Even on the spot the host can ask for a discount.
Beautiful spacious villas with two or three bedrooms cost from $100 per night. It is better to look for and book them in advance, especially if you are planning a trip in high season. For example, it is advisable to look for accommodation for New Year holidays in summer. If you need a villa with five or six bedrooms, even more so. There is no upper price bar: there are even luxury mansions in Bali.
Houses costing $700-800 per month may look nice in pictures, but in reality there is mold on the walls. If you are going to Bali for a month or longer, I advise you to inspect the house before booking. But in high season this option may not work: good houses are quickly sold out.
Transportation
Bali is a big island without public transportation. To get around Bali, you have to take a cab, rent a car or a bike. There are long-distance buses that run between neighborhoods, but I have never heard of any tourists using them. They run along the highways and don’t go into the narrow streets of the tourist areas.
Cabs are expensive and not always convenient. In tourist areas, streets are narrow, cars are often stuck in traffic, and cab drivers are slow. Often they don’t turn on the meter and charge high prices. If you do decide to take a cab, I recommend insisting on paying by meter. In Balinese it is Meter. The minimum fare in February 2024 is IDR 15,000.
Cabs are booked using Gojek or Grab mobile apps. The former is more popular, as its prices are slightly lower. But you need to have an Indonesian phone number to use Gojek.
When ordering a cab, you can choose the method of payment – cash or card.
Motorcycle cabs are a convenient and inexpensive way of transportation within the nearest neighborhoods. The apps have a separate option to call a scooter with a driver. There are plenty of drivers in Changgu, Seminyak, Kuta and Ubud, but almost none in Bukit. Orders for long-distance trips, for example from Changgu to Nusa Dua, are reluctant. You can waste a lot of time and end up without a driver. The cost of the trip is difficult to calculate as it depends on demand, traffic jams and other parameters. A trip by motorcycle cab is usually several times cheaper than by car. But there are rare exceptions when the prices are almost the same.
In the Gojek app, a ride on the simplest, uncomfortable motorcycle cab from Changgu to Bali airport on February 7, 2024 cost IDR 35,000, on a more comfortable one – IDR 43,000, by car – from IDR 86,000. If you choose a motorcycle cab, I recommend taking the “comfort” option: the cost is usually not much higher, and they take you on a spacious scooter such as the N-Max
To get to a restaurant in Changgu, 3 kilometers away from home, a regular bike was offered for 8,000 IDR and a comfortable bike for 12,500 IDR. Sometimes Gojek offers a discount on the ride: the old price is crossed out and the new price is slightly lower
A bike is the most convenient and cheapest way to get around the island. You can Google rental agencies and book a bike on the website, but it will cost half as much to book a private bike.
Changgu has a consistently high demand for bikes due to the large number of tourists, so prices are high. For example, in February 2024, the N-Max rented for IDR 210,000 per day. It seats two people comfortably, and the fit and cushioning are such that you can ride 150 kilometers in a day without getting tired. In other parts of Bali, scooter prices are usually cheaper.
A manual car costs from IDR 300,000 per day or IDR 3,000,000 per month in February 2024. An automatic car is one and a half to two times more expensive. A car is more convenient, but you will have to stand in traffic jams: the roads are narrow and traffic is heavy.
The rental cars in Bali are not fresh: often the clutch is worn out, sometimes the brakes are weak. Before you take the keys and hand over the money, it’s best to take a short drive.
I recommend renting a car by the day for long trips with overnight stays, and find a bike for the whole time of your vacation. It is better to book a car in advance, at least a couple of days in advance.
Insurance. Private owners don’t usually insure bikes or cars. If you break something, you have to pay. Once an acquaintance drove her bike into a pole and bent the front fork badly. They charged about $150 for the repair. They charge less than $100 for a scratched car fender, if they even notice the scratch.
If you are afraid that a private person will overestimate the price of repair, you can check the cost of services at a roadside workshop or go to an official salon and repair the breakdown yourself. But in general, if the renter was recommended as adequate, the probability of such deception is low.
In large agencies, bikes and cars are insured, but the conditions for the client vary. It is advisable to discuss insurance and payment for repairs in detail before renting.
Sometimes on big roads, police officers will pull over and ask to see your license. This rarely happens in tourist areas. Those who ride a scooter without a helmet are stopped, their license is checked and they are fined.
If you don’t feel like driving a scooter or car, you can rent a bicycle. You will have to ride on roads: sidewalks are rare in Bali. If there are, they are often blocked by obstacles to keep scooters away.
Traffic in Bali is peculiar: no one follows the rules, but the speed limit is low. You can reach a speed of 80 km/h only on the highway between districts. In populated areas, everyone drives 35-50 km/h.
The roads are narrow and winding, but of good quality: the asphalt is regularly replaced. Local drivers like to jump onto the road from the side of the road without looking at the sides, so you need to be vigilant when driving. Twice a day there are serious traffic jams on the roads: from 09:00 to 11:00 and from 17:00 to 19:00.
Food
When vacationing in Bali, you can spend a lot on food: everything is very tasty and varied. Of all the districts of the island, gourmets prefer Changgu. Here cafes and restaurants compete with each other, who has tastier, more unusual and cozy. There are restaurants of Indian, Mexican, Italian, Japanese cuisine. In other tourist areas there are no problems with cafes either – just the assortment of dishes is not so diverse.
Lunch will cost IDR 120,000-170,000. For this money you can eat a burger with salad and fries or a large portion of Mexican burrito. A universal dish that is available in almost any cafe is grilled tuna steak with vegetables and rice for 70,000-80,000 IDR.
It is possible to eat cheaply, but it is not so tasty and not healthy. In cafes for locals, everything is overcooked, often with rancid oil. In roadside cafes, the food is already cooked behind glass on the counter. A portion of rice with chicken and vegetables costs IDR 20,000-30,000.
Cafes for locals usually don’t have extra fees, while touristy places are more likely to pay an additional 15-16% on each check. Of this, 10% is a government fee and 5-6% is a service charge. The fees are written in small print at the bottom of the menu.
It is advantageous to cook seafood barbecue or a lot of food at home. If you buy groceries and cook for one time, more often than not, the sum in the end will be almost the same as in a cafe, but it will take more time and effort.
In tourist areas, there are large grocery supermarkets with local and imported products. In them you can buy meat, milk, bread, cheese and other common products. The largest chain of stores is “Pepito”.
A dozen eggs in Pepito in February 2024 costs from IDR 40,000, a liter of milk from IDR 33,000, imported Parmesan from IDR 100,000 for 200 grams. Sour milk products are not popular. There are sweet yogurts and ricotta cheese, no cottage cheese and mediocre sour cream.
It is cheaper to buy vegetables and fruit at markets. Each neighborhood has at least one large market and several smaller ones. They are not always visible from the road, so it is better to ask locals for their location. There are many fruit shops along the roads.
Almost all fruits are available all year round. The cost varies according to the season: if something does not grow, the fruit is brought from other islands and it becomes more expensive. A kilogram of mango costs IDR 15,000-20,000 in January and July, and about IDR 60,000 in April and October. Papaya is cheap all year round: from IDR 9,000 per kilogram. Local pineapples cost IDR 5,000 per piece, but you should look for yellow and fragrant ones. In general, fruit can be considered expensive if it costs more than 50,000 IDR per kilogram.
Tourists may be overcharged at the markets, but not by much. To check, I recommend looking at the price of the same goods in a supermarket. It should be at least one and a half times cheaper in a shop. If you are in the mood, you can bargain.
There is a fish market in Jimbaran. There is a large selection of fresh fish, seafood and haggling. Fish is weighed and cut according to the buyer’s wish.
Next to the market there is a long beach with restaurants and tables on the sand overlooking the sunset. You can order fish from them or bring your own and ask them to cook it. This way dinner will be one and a half to two times cheaper.
Attractions
Every neighborhood in Bali has something interesting to offer. Changgu has rice paddies, Ubud has tiered terraces and jungle. The Bukit Peninsula in the south of Bali has high rocky shores and the most beautiful beaches.
When making a plan, I advise you not to try to have time for everything. It is impossible and will only make you nervous. In my opinion, you should alternate day trips with two-day trips to another part of the island. Between them you should definitely arrange days of quiet beach vacation. You can also just take the transportation and go wherever you want: Bali is beautiful and interesting everywhere. Here are the places I like the most.
Amed is a neighborhood in the north of the island. There is calm water and a gorgeous view of the Agung volcano. Activities include snorkeling or diving, paddle boarding. You can rent a mask and fins for 50,000 IDR for a couple hours. The equipment is good, so there is no point in bringing your own – only if you are not going to swim every day. A board and paddleboard will cost IDR 70,000 per hour.
Half an hour drive from Amed is one of Bali’s most beautiful temples, Pura Lempuyang. Entrance is by donation, IDR 20,000 is enough. It’s best to go at dawn to see the volcano before it’s covered by clouds.
From Nusa Dua, Kuta, Seminyak or Changgu, it takes three hours to get to Amed. From Ubud or Sanur, it takes one and a half to two hours. It’s a long drive, so it’s best to stay overnight in Amed. A room in a beachfront hotel costs about IDR 350,000 per night.
The Botanical Garden is a large park in the center of the island. Nearby are lakes and strawberry farms. You can go to the botanical garden for one day, walk along the cool shady alleys, have a picnic in the glade, buy large sweet strawberries at the nearby market.
I advise you to bargain. The price depends on the season. If you see a lot of strawberries in all the stalls, it’s high season, and if only a couple of packs, it’s low season. A large packet in high season costs a maximum of IDR 40,000, or better yet ask for three for IDR 100,000. In low season, one packet sells for IDR 100,000 and you can bargain down to a maximum of IDR 70,000. In January 2024, my friends bought a pack of strawberries in low season for 50,000 IDR, but the money was negotiated and handed over by a local resident – the driver of the car they rented for a day of driving around the island.
From Seminyak, Kuta, Changu and Sanur, it takes one and a half hours to drive, from Nusa Dua two hours, and from Ubud less than an hour.
Sekumpul is the highest and most powerful waterfall in Bali. It is located in the north of the island. From Ubud, you can get there in 2-2.5 hours. From other areas, it takes 3-3.5 hours.
A scenic jungle road leads from the parking lot to the waterfall. You can walk it on your own or hire a guide from local villagers for IDR 100,000. The guides sit in the parking lot and wait for tourists themselves to give a mini tour.
Parking and entrance fees are charged. As it is a long drive, you can stop overnight in Ubud on the way back.
Batur is the second highest volcano on the island and is easy to climb for a tourist of average athletic ability. The two-hour climb starts at night to meet the sunrise at the summit.
No trekking is allowed without guides. One guide for a group of up to four people costs about 600,000 IDR. You don’t have to look for one: guides are waiting for tourists in the parking lot. Tea or coffee at the top of the volcano costs IDR 30,000.
Safety
Bali is not safe. Locals cheat at money changers, snatch your bags while you’re on a bike, steal money on beaches and install skimming machines on ATMs. I talked about this in in another T-J article.detail If you take precautions, you can minimize the likelihood of unpleasant incidents.
Insurance. Medicine in good international clinics is very expensive. If you get poisoned, an appointment with a gastroenterologist will cost $200-300. And if you get into an accident, first aid in a hospital with wound treatment and X-rays will cost IDR 1,000,000. An acquaintance of mine injured his shoulder in January 2024 and paid IDR 26,000,000 for surgery.
There are virtually no dangerous animals or insects in Bali. Non-poisonous snakes are found, but rarely and near rice paddies. Venomous species live in the jungle. There are none in the tourist areas.
Dengue fever cases become more frequent during the rainy season. It is not fatal, but it is unpleasant: you have to lie down with a high fever for a week. I have had dengue once in all my years in Bali. There was only one case among the tourists I knew.
The fever is spread by mosquitoes with striped abdomens, but it is difficult to distinguish them from ordinary mosquitoes. There is no vaccination against dengue, and the only precautionary measures are the usual repellent to repel mosquitoes. There are no other specific viruses in Bali, so there is no need to vaccinate before traveling.
Instructors can tell you about safety precautions when surfing or diving. Extreme sports should be learned under the supervision of an experienced coach, not on your own. The ocean is a powerful element. If you do not know how to behave on the water, you can return to shore with serious injuries or not return at all. For example, a back current can carry even an experienced swimmer into the ocean.
People
The Balinese practice Hinduism or Catholicism. There are no restrictions on appearance: you can walk around bare-chested, in short skirts and shorts. However, sometimes you should still cover up, but not because of stares, but from the active sun.
Men and women are only allowed to enter the local temple wearing a sarong. It is a shawl tied around the waist like a long skirt that covers the legs.
In general, the locals are friendly and happy to take pictures with tourists. They may approach you on the beach, offer massages, souvenirs or just a chat. Sometimes such sociability can seem intrusive. Do not be rude – it is enough to refuse with a smile or pretend that you do not know English. Balinese mirror behavior: if you are rude and aggressive with them, they will behave the same way.
Despite the friendliness, the locals will not miss a chance to cheat a tourist. The level of corruption is very high. Only tourists are stopped on the roads by the police: with them the conflict is settled on the spot with money.
Communication
Most hotels, cafes and some stores have free wifi. Speed is average: no problems with social networks and messengers, most often you can watch streaming video in high quality.
Even if the hotel has good wifi and your phone has a downloaded map, I recommend buying a sim card. It often happens that you need to call your guide or landlord. It is also insurance in case of unforeseen circumstances, for example, if you need to call the insurance company urgently.
A SIM card, if you buy it directly at the airport, costs IDR 250,000 in February 2024. The price will be lower in local stores. The number of gigabytes is difficult to calculate, as several different traffic packages are available at once. Internet is enough for two months of active use, including if you distribute it from your phone to your laptop. XL and Telkomsel operators have good coverage: they have coverage in all areas of the island. While I lived in Bali, I used XL. You could top up your account in any store and buy a traffic package through the app.
Small stores selling phones, wires and SIM cards are plentiful along the roads. The sellers will set up and activate the SIM card for free. The prices are prescribed, and I have not heard of any fraud in such stores.
Memorize
- The most pleasant weather is in May, September and October.
- If you fly as a company, it is more profitable to rent a house or villa.
- Be sure to take out insurance. Treatment in local clinics can be expensive.
- There are open wifi hotspots in Bali, but it is better to buy a sim card locally. You may need a phone to contact locals.
- There is practically no public transportation – you will have to rent a bike or a car. It is better to take an international license. Don’t be afraid to drive a scooter: it’s easy.
- Don’t try to do everything: it’s impossible. It is better to choose a few main points to visit.
