By: VS.
Traveling to Bali? Remember these tips to make your travel much more enjoyable!
Traveling abroad can be very frightening, especially if there are too many unknowns. However, with proper planning and preparation, it can be very exciting!
My wife and I went on our honeymoon to Bali, Indonesia. Bali is an amazing place with beautiful jungles, beaches, mountains, and scenery. There are so many activities to do, places to visit, and things to see. We are incredibly glad that we got to go there.
However, if we had known some of these tips ahead of time, our trip could have gone a little smoother.
Here are 7 tips everyone should know before traveling to Bali –
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(1) Pick out which areas you want to be in and plan your routes accordingly
It’ll be impossible to see and experience everything in Bali. You need to know what kind of experience you’re looking for prior to your trip.
My wife wanted to experience a little bit of everything including the culture, nightlife, and resort areas. So, we strategically planned to go from Ubud and make our way down to Jimbaran Bay.
Ubud is about an hour northeast of the airport and is known to be more of the cultural part of Bali with art museums, the rice terrace, various temples, and more. Seminyak, which is about 30 minutes north of the airport, has a lot of the tourist attractions with nice hotels, fancy restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. Jimbaran Bay, which is about 10-15 minutes south of the airport, is what you would think of as a resort area with nice infinity pools and views of the beautiful sunset on top of the ocean.
The type of trip you plan would depend on the type of experience you want as well as the timeframe in which to experience this. If you only have a few days to explore Bali, I would recommend that you stick to one area and make the most of it. If you have 2-3 weeks, then you can pretty much travel all throughout Bali.
Book all of your hotels and have a general idea of your routes. Then, you can figure out the transportation.
(2) Figure out transportation
There are many ways to get around Bali. For a list of different modes of travel, click here. You will have to determine if you want to walk, drive, take a taxi, hire a driver, rent a scooter, or use ride sharing services. This would all depend on how long your travel is, whether or not you’re visiting a lot of places, how far one location is from the next, cost, and etc.
For us, we walked one entire day and hired a driver for one entire day while we were in Ubud. To read about why I hired a driver, click here.
In Seminyak, we rented a scooter since all of the restaurants, bars, and shops were relatively close by. In Jimbaran Bay, we basically just stayed inside our resort so we used Grabcar, a ride sharing app.
As you’re figuring out transportation, you will have to first figure out how to get from the airport to your first desired location.
(3) Ask your resort to send you a driver or use the airport taxi service
Your travel (as well as the struggle) begins right when you land at Ngurah Rai International Airport (AKA. Denpasar International Airport). Right as you exit the airport, there will be a flock of taxi drivers prowling at the exit gate waiting to get your business. There will literally be close to fifty or sixty “taxi drivers” who will surround you as soon as you step outside. This is NOT an exaggeration! It is very difficult to even walk out!
And out of those people, some will try to scam you and some won’t. It is very difficult to tell apart the scam artists from the legit drivers. We have read on other blogs that, apparently, the only reputable taxi service in Bali is one called Blue Bird. However, many will pose as Blue Bird taxi drivers and first-time travelers should not try to distinguish between the fake and the real ones.
My advice is to contact your resort prior to your trip and arrange for a driver to pick you up from the airport. It will, most likely, be comparable to airport taxi services or even cheaper. If you hire a driver beforehand, then he will pick you up from the airport.
Or, follow signs and go straight to the taxi booth where taxi services are offered by the airport. Quite honestly, I don’t remember the exact rate, but I do remember it was fairly cheap and reasonable compared to what typical drivers were charging.
Now, I just want to throw this out there. I was initially able to negotiate a ridiculously low fare with one of the drivers that was desperate for my business. I had no clue if he was legit or not. He flashed an ID that had the Blue Bird symbol on it, but he didn’t have on an uniform and he led us to a minivan instead of a taxi. In the end, I couldn’t get myself to trust him. He could’ve been legit, but the point is, you never know what could happen when getting into a car with an unfamiliar person in an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar country. So, be wise!
(4) Figure out your WiFi and Data
When you’re in Bali, depending on where you are, you’ll notice that WiFi is not readily available. Even at our resort in Ubud, we struggled to find good WiFi service since it was located in a jungle.
Before our trip, we tried to see if AT&T had affordable international data plans. To our disappointment, they didn’t. After some research, we found a mobile data service called Skyroam Solis, which provided unlimited data for $10 USD a day. They send you a router that you can either rent or buy. You turn it on and simply connect to it. The service was relatively reliable. Sometimes, it seemed to get slower if you used it for prolonged periods and in more remote areas, the router would have a difficult time finding connection.
When planning your trip, if WiFi and/or Data is important to you, I would recommend you find hotels, restaurants, and attractions that offer free WiFi and plan your routes accordingly. You should also check with your phone provider to see if they have any affordable international data plans.
(5) Beware of Vertigo
This was sort of an interesting phenomenon in which after about a day after arriving in Bali, I started to feel a little dizzy, lightheaded, and nauseous throughout the day. It was very weird. It wasn’t debilitating or pulsating; however, it did remind me of migraines I used to get or the sea-sickness I would experience when on a boat. It wasn’t strong enough to put me out of commission, but it was very annoying and constantly there.
What’s even weirder is that my wife told me that she was experiencing the same thing. And even weirder than this, we would hear from other tourists that they were experiencing some of the same symptoms. Strange!
Some believed it to be mild altitude-sickness since Ubud is mountainous. Some thought it was the water since it’s very common for tourists to consume smoothies or iced beverages to combat the humid weather. Whatever it was, it was very common in the area and we found that many people blogged about it online as well. In any case, don’t be alarmed if this happens!
Make sure to pack some Meclizine or Dramamine prior to the trip and have them on hand at all times while on trip. Some Ibuprofen will help with the lightheadedness as well. Even better, ask your doctor to prescribe you some Scopolamine Patches in case the condition becomes even more severe. And remember to stay hydrated!
(6) Go to Multiple Currency Exchange Locations
Do NOT.. I repeat.. do NOT.. exchange all of your money at the airport. The exchange rate is horrible! Wait until you get into the city and ask your driver to take you to a local currency exchange.
We exchanged a minimal amount at the airport and asked our driver, Kadek, to take us to the best currency exchange with the best exchange rate.
If you are going to rent a scooter, look up currently exchanges in the area online and visit each one. Then, select the one with the best exchange rate.
(6) Use Local Laundry Services, if necessary
Most hotels offer laundry services but they end up being really expensive. This is because they hire out the job to 3rd party vendors to send your laundry to and get delivered back. It is better to just look up laundry services in the area and go to them directly.
My wife and I rented a scooter in Seminyak and explored our immediate area to see if there were any good laundry shops. Luckily, we found one a block away from our hotel and they charged us about 26,000 Indonesian Rupiahs (~$2 USD) for a load. Super cheap!
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I’ve just listed 6 simple tips to make your trip more enjoyable. I hope you find value from this post and please feel free to share other valuable tips you have for traveling to Bali!
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