Bali Travel Guide - Essential Tips for Traveling from India - 2024

If there's one vacation spot that brings active and slow travellers together in one happy union, it's the sun-soaked tropical paradise of Bali. Hike up Mount Batur early morning and jump into a spectacular waterfall by day or just sleep in late and lounge around all afternoon in a day club by the ocean, no matter what you choose, every day in Bali is a day well spent!

Bali Travel Guide

Before you state planning your trip, here are a few things to know and prepare for especially if you're travelling from India. Read on for the ultimate Bali travel guide to Bali currency, Bali visa for Indians, Bali e visa and more!

#1 Skip the airport queues with Bali eVisa for Indians

Indonesia offers visa on arrival for Indian travellers but I highly recommend getting a Bali e-visa before you go to skip the queues and make more time for the beaches and cafes. I applied for a B1 tourist visa which allows single entry for a stay of upto 30 days through the official Indonesian immigration website here. Bali visa requirements for Indians are fairly simple and do not require too many additional documents - attach a copy of your passport and a visa picture based on the specifications provided, submit basic information about your trip like copy of your return tickets, duration of your stay in Bali, details of hotel bookings etc followed by online payment of IDR 500,000 through the website.

I received my Bali visa on email within 10 minutes and the whole application process did not take more than 30 minutes. We had no problems during immigration at Bali and had a very smooth experience at the airport.

#2 Bali Currency - Indonesian Rupiah (IDR)

 The official currency of Indonesia is the Indonesian Rupiah and it is valued at around 0.0050 Rs against 1 Indian Rupee. What this effectively means is that even when you're converting 30,000 Indian Rupees you end up with 56 lakhs worth of Indonesian Rupiah. Calculations are not for the faint-hearted as you end up paying IDR 50,000 (INR 250) for cab rides or IDR 200,000 for a meal (INR 1,000). While you may surmise that your wallet is getting lighter with every meal, this may not actually be the case as most bars, restaurants and cafes are affordable with prices at par with India.

After checking with several prepaid travel forex cards and travel agents, I realised that loading IDR on my forex card is not an option. Your best alternative is to carry a thick wad of good old-fashioned cash and guard it closely throughout your trip.

#3: The best place to get your Bali SIM card is the airport

Prepaid SIM cards are cheap, easy to find and reliable in Bali so there is no need to activate an expensive roaming pack from India. I found several kiosks near the airport exit and was able to buy and activate a local SIM while I was waiting for my coffee. I got a Telkomsel SIM card with good plans for trips ranging from a few days and upto several months.

Once I paid for the new SIM, a team of women who looked like they would win an Olympic gold in SIM card activation, if it were a sport, clattered quickly and efficiently on several phones simultaneously and had mine ready to go in about 15 minutes. I would highly recommend buying your SIM card at the airport directly and booking your Grab and Gojek as first order of business with your shiny, newly activated network.

#4 Getting around is convenient if not quick – Grab, Gojek, Bikes

All roads in Bali lead to – traffic jams! The ugly truth that no one talks about is that before you get to the dreamy beaches and cafes, be prepared to battle through long hours of traffic jams thanks to the abundance of cars, bikes and tourists on its roads which were never designed to match this unexpected influx of tourists. 

On the flipside, it is always easy to find a cab or bike so getting around is convenient, if not quick. Regrettably, I never learnt how to ride a bike so getting around by cabs was my only option. However, I found most cab drivers to be friendly, chatty and more than happy to share recommendations about their cities. I also realised that almost all cab drivers are happy to take tourists around for a private tour as a side hustle so be prepared to hear about tours and packages during your ride, should you show some interest. I will admit though that none of them were pushy or bothersome, infact we ended up going for our half-day waterfalls tour with a cab driver we met on one of our drops.

It’s worth mentioning that cab drivers in Bali are very friendly – they will surely greet you, ask you if you’re ready to go and even dismiss change with its clumsy currency.

Bonus tip: Walk straight pas the flurry of local cabs and taxi drivers to the Gojek and Grab lounges at the exit for an app based taxi to your hotel. In my opinion, explaining your drop location and negotiating on price and wondering if you could have found something better is not the best way to start off your vacation. Gojek and Grab offer good rates plus a first-time discount to balance out the airport charges. Feel free to compare and evaluate app-based taxi prices and local cabs later as you ease into Bali.

#5 Vegetarian and vegan food

Thank god its tempeh! Indonesia is credited with invented the chewy, flavourful fermented soyabean based plant protein, tempeh, which pairs well with most of the local food. You can find tempeh satay, fries and chunks replacing animal protein making it possible for vegetarians and vegans to try some regional food. It’s hard to find places that don’t have something with tempeh, tofu or the usual suspects like vegetarian and vegan sandwiches, pizzas, salads.  Bali is definitely vegetarian and vegan approved! Read more about my top picks for food here.

#6 Pick an Airbnb with a private pool over booking a hotel

Personally, I’m an Airbnb girl! I love booking a place done up lovingly by a host, admiring their curious, trying the local shampoo and coffee they stock up on and just the general character of each unique stay over drab hotel rooms. In Bali, almost every second stay is an Airbnb and apart from generating employment for locals, they’re also pretty immaculately done up in rattan and cane with plenty of open areas and sunshine. It is also not uncommon to find villas with a private pool - a fixture I absolutely lived! In Bali, it is possible to get a place with a proper dive pool (not just a plunge pool) for a reasonable price and given its sultry weather, you’ll find any excuse to jump right in.

Keep all these tips in mind to experience for yourself why Bali is one of the most popular vacation spots for Indians.