How much does it cost in Bali? What expenses should you expect? We’ll tell you! It’s crazy. It’s crazy how quickly time flies. It’s funny to hear that sentence; it annoyed me back then. Now I’m saying it myself. It’s simply unbelievable. We’ve lived on the island of the gods for seven weeks now, and two months ago we embarked on our new life (Note: This post is from 2015). During this time, we’ve experienced a lot, enjoyed many moments, and gained diverse impressions.
But how much did all this fun actually cost us? For a better comparison with monthly expenses in Germany, we’ve divided our figures into two periods (weeks 1 to 4 and 5 to 7). This quickly shows how much the monthly expenses are approximately. The expenses listed below are always calculated for two people. The cost overview includes expenses for daily living. We only included flights and visa costs at the end of this post.
- 1. Accommodation in Bali
- 2. Food in Bali
- 3. Transport
- 4. Sightseeing in Bali
- 5. Extras/Miscellaneous
- 6. Shopping on the island
- 7. Internet & Co-working
- 8. Total expenses for 4 weeks
- 9. Cost overview for month 2
1. Accommodation in Bali
With the exception of the first 4 nights, we stayed exclusively in Airbnb accommodations. We included the first few nights in the hotels in our daily budget, even though I had received them as a birthday present from Bolle. We used voucher codes for the Airbnb bookings; without them, we would have paid about €200 more.
- Bliss Surf Hotel; Legian ~ €46 / night
- B Hotel Bali Spa; Kuta ~ €20/night
- Gunung Merta Bungalow; Ubud ~ €12/night
- Villa Surya Abadi; Canggu ~ €14/night
- Villa Santai; Jimbaran ~ €16/night
- Villa Just Breath; Canggu ~ €16/night
2. Food in Bali
Here are all our food expenses listed, both our purchases at the supermarket and those when we ate out. Restaurant visits and cooking were roughly balanced. We usually had two larger shopping trips per week – on these days, we exceeded our daily budget. Logically, however, we then had days when we didn’t have to shop at all and thus managed within the daily budget.
We also noted a few prices from the supermarket. The supermarket (Pepito) is one of the more expensive markets on the island, partly because it stocks a large number of Western products. We highly recommend shopping at smaller (local) supermarkets and comparing prices. In a local supermarket, we paid only 12,000 IDR for 10 eggs (€0.84) and about 30% less for fruit. So, it’s worth comparing!
3. Transportation
On the Island of the Gods, the absolute number one means of transportation is the scooter! We rented it for 40,000 IDR (€2.60) per day for 6 weeks. According to various sources, it can be even cheaper, but after trying dozens of different providers, we were tired of haggling and paid the 40,000 IDR per day.
Added to this were the gasoline costs (approx. 7,500 IDR/€0.50/liter), parking fees at some beaches (2,000-5,000 IDR/€0.13-€0.34/parking space), and a few taxi rides. We had very good experiences with Uber, by the way. Instead of 150,000-200,000 IDR for a taxi ride, we only paid 45,000 IDR via Uber. We highly recommend this app!
4. Sightseeing in Bali
I would classify both of us as “sightseeing haters,” so our expenses were correspondingly low. The occasional temple, entry to the Monkey Forest in Ubud, etc. Overall, it was pretty manageable.
5. Extras/Miscellaneous
Under “Extras” are all costs that occasionally arise but don’t fit into a specific category. These include, for example, two rented beach chairs (100,000 IDR/7€/day), laundry service (20€/4 full loads), rented surfboards (50,000 IDR/3.30€/2h), thermometers (12€), and so on.
6. Shopping on the Island
In this category, we include all purchases that don’t involve food. We’ve both pretty much stopped shopping; after all, you end up carrying every new piece of clothing around on your back at some point.
We’re also asking ourselves very hard whether you REALLY need that T-shirt (or whatever it is). Because: minimalist living is awesome! The 26€ only came up because I had to buy new shoes in Bali thanks to the stolen shoes (Sri Lanka); otherwise, we wouldn’t have had any expenses here. Nice!
7. Internet & Co-Working
Very interesting topic, especially for digital nomads. When booking our accommodations, we paid attention to the internet speed, at least as far as previous guests’ reviews indicated. Fortunately, we only had bad luck with one accommodation and had to go to the “Dojo” co-working space in Canggu. Here, you get a great place to work as well as fast and secure internet. The membership currently costs per person:
- 1 hour = 50,000 IDR (3.30€)
- 1 day = 150.00 IDR (10€)
- 1 week = 700.00 IDR (47€)
- 2 weeks = 1,200,000 IDR (80€)
- 1 month = 2,000.00 IDR (133€)
These prices only apply during the renovation period that is currently taking place. Bolle and I received a small discount, so we paid a little less than the prices mentioned above.
8. Total expenses for 4 weeks
Wow, we only spent €1,252 together for four amazing weeks on the island of the gods! We stayed exclusively in cool accommodations, rarely went without anything, and had the coolest lifestyle imaginable (going out for breakfast, then getting on the surfboard, living in a beautiful villa, etc.).
€626 per person for a month and for such a lifestyle! That’s really crazy! What could we have gotten for that money in Germany? What kind of lifestyle is possible with €652 in Germany? Back then, I had more than three times as much money for myself, drove a pretty cool car, had a large apartment all to myself, and a huge TV hanging on the wall. But was I happier during that time? Fuck that shit! Today I live out of a small backpack, only need €652 a month, and am happier than ever!
9. Cost Overview Month 2
So this is our cost overview for one month in Bali. In total, we were there for 7 weeks. In the following 3 weeks, we spent even less on average. There are several reasons for this: We no longer had expensive hotels that messed up our budget, optimized our shopping, no taxi rides (if we did, we used Uber), and no expenses for other purchases and sightseeing.
The “Extras” category also summarizes the expenses for the trip to Nusa Lembongan (travel, snorkeling, etc.). We also introduced a new category: Restaurant Visits. This allows us to analyze how often we ate out and how much it cost us. This also allows us to compare it with cooking at home later.
→Total expenses for three weeks and two people: €887 (€40.32 per day or €443.50 per person for 3 weeks). Extrapolating this over four weeks, we would have ended up with €1,210, which would have been €101 less than the first four weeks. Only €443 for three weeks? If you add in a return flight, you could easily spend three weeks there for €1,000.
I’d rather have that than a 14-day all-inclusive holiday in Turkey, which would probably cost €700. So, we spent a total of €2,198 on daily expenses in seven weeks. The flights (Prague–Dubai–Sri Lanka–Bali) cost €894 one-way for both of us. Visa fees so far total €90.