In 2017, our family of seven spent one month traveling through Bali. In this blog, we are sharing our cost to go to Bali for 1 month as well as our travel guide for Bali.
We’ve spent the past decade traveling the world and living in an RV in the US. We travel in search of rock climbing, summiting mountain peaks, and surfing, which is why we traveled to Bali to surf the famous left-hand break in Medewi.
We’ve traveled to surf in Europe, New Zealand, Costa Rica, and more, but what we liked about spending one month in Bali was that it cost us way less than the others.
To be honest, though, we were very mixed about Bali. Parts of it were absolutely wonderful, like Canggu. And parts were way too rural and impoverished for us.
The cost to travel to Bali depends a lot on your standards for creature comforts. This post will give you a good idea of how much Bali will cost for a month and help you adjust your budget to the type of traveler you are.
Our Actual Costs To Visit Bali For 1 Month
Cost of Airfare to Get To & Return from Bali – $670 per person (Our cost = $4,690)
We bought two one-way tickets for this trip at two different times. First, we had bought tickets from New Zealand to Bali, which were only $230 per person since we were spending a month in New Zealand before going to Bali.
However, the cheapest flight I could find from Bali to Los Angeles was $440 per person, and it ended up being a very difficult flight with long layovers and flight changes.
This isn’t too pricey of a flight for a couple or small family, but for our large family of 7, the airfare was a significant expenditure.
Cost of Food in Bali – Average $300 per person (Our cost = $600 – $2000)
When we were in Medewi, our large family of 7 was able to eat at the warung (local restaurant) for about $50 per day, and we ate like kings. A typical lunch of Nasi Goreng (fried rice with a fried egg on top) costs a little over $1 USD. Add an extra egg for only sixty cents, and you’re ready to surf all day. For about $20 USD total, we’d have huge dinners of fried fish and chicken, vegetable soup, rice, and fruit.
We spent very little on tourist activities while here since we were here to surf, and that’s about it. The rest of the money was spent on food.
Once we were in Canggu, we spent a little more eating out than in other places we stayed (Medewi, Ubud, etc). Our three favorite spots were The Garden Pizza House (delicious almost-Italian-quality pizza and they delivered it to our rental house, which was awesome), Front Cafe for coffee, Monsieur Spoon for chocolate croissants after our morning surf session, and Scoops Gelato House.
In Canggu, our food budget easily went up to around $75 USD per day, but we ate absolutely amazing food and a lot of it.
To summarize:
- In Medewi, our food costs were probably $5 per person per day
- In Canggu (as well as the Bukit Peninsula and Ubud), our food costs were $10-15 per person per day
Cost of Accommodation – $40-50 per night for 2, $70-80 per night for large groups (Our cost: $2,300)
Half the time we were in Medewi, and the Airbnb we stayed at cost only $750 for the entire month.
Here is what we spent for the month in Bali. You could easily spend much less than this if you stayed in an Airbnb in a more rural area like Medewi (although not at Bombora, which is the upscale resort that sits on the point of Medewi– highly recommended if you have money to spend and want the best surf in Bali).
To summarize:
- Our original Airbnb in rural Medewi was $750 for 28 days (even though we only stayed for about 14 of those days)
- Airbnbs on our 11-day road trip around Bali, including Canggu, Seminyak, Ubud, and Munduk, cost $880
- And finally, our Airbnb for one week in Canggu in a really nice house was $700
While our Airbnb in Canguu may seem relatively expensive, it was a luxury house. There were three large, clean rooms, our own private swimming pool, a pool table, and someone came to clean every day.
Cost of Transportation – $400
This cost included the $200 to rent an SUV from a local. Renting a car in Bali comes with risks, as there’s no insurance. We trusted a local, paid $200 USD, and got a new SUV. Despite a minor incident (scooter collision costing $15 USD), it was a cheap but not entirely recommended option due to Bali’s chaotic driving conditions.
While at our Airbnb in Canggu, we also rented a scooter for four days, which only cost about $25 USD total. Riding a motorbike around Canggu was much easier than driving an SUV on Bali’s main highway, and I highly recommend it. If you are only 1 or 2 people, renting a motorbike for a whole month would only be around $200.
Our only other transportation cost was getting a shuttle to and from the airport, which ended up costing about $50 USD each way.
To summarize:
- An SUV car rental (from a local) cost us about $15 per day, $200 for 2 weeks. I wouldn’t recommend renting a car in Bali because driving here is crazy, but if you do, rent from a legit car rental bran,d even though it will probably end up costing more like $30 per day
- I highly recommend motorbike rentals. They cost $5-10 per day or around $200 for the month
- Transportation to and from the airport is usually necessary and costs us $100 total. For smaller groups, you can probably find a shuttle closer to $50 round-trip
Other Expenses – $100
The final expense is very small, and it’s really just for any tourist attractions you may be interested in. We didn’t see many attractions just because we weren’t really interested however, I still recommend putting a little money aside for things like visiting temples, the monkey forest, or Bali waterfalls.
Total trip cost for 7 people to visit Bali for 1 month – $8,000
- Airfare – $4,700
- Accommodation – $2,300
- Food – $1,500
- Transportation – $400
- Other expenses – $100
Estimated trip cost for 2 people to visit Bali for 1 month – $3,400
- Airfare – $1,400
- Accommodation – $1,500
- Food -$600
- Transportation – $300
- Other expenses – $100
Travel Guide To Canggu, Bali
Canggu is truly the best place in Bali, and anyone who’s been there would agree that Canggu is simply the perfect combination of locals and tourists. The joie du vivre of Canggu is nearly as cool to be around as it in France itself. The locals, who speak perfect English, are genuine, kind people who were be happy to engage in a conversation.
There’s shopping, but not too much shopping like Seminyak has. It’s not resort life like the Bukit Peninsula. Canggu is comfy and touristy, but not overwhelming like Seminyak or Uluwatu—locals aren’t constantly trying to sell you things.
It’s rural and beautiful while also having structure and comforts, and it has good energy but also chill vibes. It doesn’t lack creature comforts like wifi, grocery stores, and laundry like Medewi. Canggu is simply the best place for travelers and adventurers to visit in Bali.
If we knew how amazing Canggu was, we would’ve spent the whole month there instead of moving around Bali.
Where to eat in Canggu
The restaurants might actually be the single best part about Canggu. After all, some people come to Canggu purely for the food. There aren’t many places in the world where you can eat such good food for so cheap. Compared to USA/AUS/UK prices, you pretty much pay 1/3 of what you would there for food.
There’s a wide diversity of cuisine types, all in very modern, hipster restaurants with amazing quality. The challenge will be deciding which ones to go to and which ones to skip. Also, you won’t eat much Balinese food here, though warungs with cheap local meals are on nearly every block.
Travel Guide to Ubud, Bali
Four Waterfalls We Recommend Visiting In Bali
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Kashlee Kucheran
Sunday 7th of April 2019
Great breakdown for cost of Bali for one month. Especially for large groups it shows that once you GET there, costs are so much more manageable. Getting there is over half the entire cost!