Bali is a super budget-friendly destination, so it’s pretty easy to visit the island and not have to worry about breaking the bank. Though often busy with tourists, Bali is still surprisingly affordable if you know where to look. Depending on your accommodation style, I would estimate $50 a day is a good estimation of a budget to travel very comfortably around Bali.
Here are my tips for traveling Bali on a budget!
Accommodation
There are tons of great hostel options in Bali if you prefer the social scene! My go-to are private villas on sites like Airbnb, and I’ve even found some for as low as 350,000 IDR ($25 USD) a night. Look for jungle vibes, pretty pools, and breathtaking cliff-side views; there’s no shortage of these on the island.
Check out my Bali Travel Guide and Canggu Travel Guide for more recommendations!
Transportation
Taxis are the most expensive transport around here. Renting a motorbike is the “way” of Bali and very cheap. You can hire one for 30,000-50,000 IDR ($3-$5 USD) a day! If you don’t feel comfortable driving yourself, you can use the GO-JEK app for an Uber-type service but on the back of a motorbike.
Read More: 10 Tips for Your First Trip to Bali
Meals
Even if the hotels were insanely expensive in Bali, the cuisine alone would make it worth the visit. Mouthwatering dishes like nasi goreng (fried rice), mie goreng (noodles), satays, martabak pancakes, and noodle soups are abounding.
Local food and street food can be as cheap as $1 USD—a plateful of chicken, rice, and veggies might only set you back about $1.30 USD. Warungs are local restaurants with cheap prices featuring food from all over Indonesia.
As a plus, food found at warungs is generally really fresh!
But even restaurants owned by westerners can be quite inexpensive—look for brunch cafés and vegan delis all over the island. You can budget between 200,000 and 250,000 IDR ($15 and $18 USD) a day on food and drink and eat quite well.
Read More: Where to Find the Best Vegan Food in Bali
Spa Services
One of the biggest attractions of Bali is the affordable spa services. Massage houses can be found on nearly every corner offering one-hour massages for around 80,000 IDR ($6 USD).
If you ever feel like splurging, try a spa at one of the many luxury hotels.
Activities
There’s so much to see and do in Bali. For tours around the island, hire a local driver and split the cost with a fellow traveler to save money.
You can hire a driver for less than 300,000 IDR ($23 USD) for the day and visit sites like Mt. Batur and the Pura Gunung Kawi Temple. Be sure to use your haggling skills to book some beach activities like parasailing for around 150,000 IDR ($11 USD)
Read More: Top Things to See and Do in Ubud, Bali
Shopping
Bali is also an amazing place to buy from local artisans. The Ubud market is one of the best locations for shopping.
You’ll find that you can haggle to less than half the initial price most vendors ask. As a benchmark, the typical, vibrant and loose fitting pants for sale at nearly every vendor can usually be brought down to about 50,000 IDR (less than $4 USD).
Don’t miss my Ultimate Bali Travel Guide for more tips and recommendations!
Where to find private villas at 11$ a night ? .please suggest villas and location .
Hey babe! Your best bet is to look at accommodation sites like Hotels Combined. You can filter by price and find one you like 🙂
Hi. Great site by the way! My wife and I are from the philippines. It will be our first time to visit Bali tgis april 2019. May we ask for your advise regarding accommodations? We will be arriving on the 23rd and well be leaving night time on the 26th. We prefer budget trip but not on food. Are there places where we can just bask under the sand on the beach? Have wine or coffee while enjoying the sunset. Or a place where we can loungr around. You might think we just want a quite alone tine, buy we would also want to visit the tourity areas. I hope you can avcommodate my request. Thank you and more power to you.
Hey! You can see my accommodation recommendations over here?: https://theblondeabroad.com/ultimate-bali-travel-guide/