Bali travel guide 2022

Bali. A tropical paradise famous for beautiful rice paddies, amazing surf, sensational beaches and some of the friendliest and most genuine locals in the world. My name is Matt and I have been lucky enough to call this island home for the last two years. This video is for people who are coming to Bali for a holiday and want to know the best things to see and do. Or for those who are planning to move to Bali as an expat and want to learn about the island first.

Facts about Bali

Let’s start with some facts about Bali. Bali is one of 18,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago. Just to the right of Java, the largest island and to the left of Lombok and the Gili islands. Bali is home to over 4.3 million residents and is visited by a staggering 10m tourists each year which means that Bali is one of the busiest islands in Indonesia. The local currency here is Indonesian rupiah, which has an insane number of 0s on it. 1,000,000 IDR is equivalent to $67 so when you come here you’re likely to become an overnight millionaire, lucky you!

Travelling to Bali

When travelling to Bali you will most likely fly into Ngurah Rai International Airport
Denpasar airport. Despite its name the airport isn’t actually located in Denpasar it is located further south, in kuta. There are now 72? Countries which qualify for the VOA to Bali which means if you plan to stay for less than 60 days you can simply just arrive into the country without any need for pre visas or prior planning. If you are not on this list or you are wanting to travel for longer than this period you can apply for an offshore b211 visa. This visa is valid for an initial 60 days but can be extended when you’re here in Indonesia. Once you arrive into the airport you’ll be greeted by many taxi drivers competing for your business and offering to take you where you need to know. You can save some money by pre installing the Gojek or Grab apps (we’ll talk about these more later) but know that the other taxis who are already there waiting have to pay a huge fee to be allowed in the airport so paying an extra few dollars to use them is favoured by the regular Bali travelers.

Trips to take
One of the best things to do here in Bali is pack your camera and sunscreen, grab a few mates and head out on a day trip. So in no particular order I’m going to list the day trips that I would consider a must do when you’re here in Bali
Starting with

The gates of heaven… Known locally as Pura Luhur Lempuyang, the Bali “gates of heaven” are an iconic tourist hot spot located in East Bali. Famous for its “reflection”, and it’s view of Mount Agung, tourists flock and queue every single day to get a picture at this famous spot. But that’s not why you should come here, this can be very touristy and you can q for this photo for hours. But what is around it is something far more hidden and in my opinion, even cooler… if you drive 10 mins into the mountains you’ll find Lahangan Sweet on Bali

This iconic photo opportunity gives you one of the best views of Agung without the mass crowds and queues.

Next trip to take is the dolphin exploration up in Lovina in the north of Bali. This once in a lifetime experience costs as little as $5 and consists of a 3 hour boat trip at sunrise. You’ll head out into the ocean and with the help of a skilled boat driver you’ll look for dolphins in their natural environment. This can take hours sometimes but is well worth the wait. Once you find them you can jump into the ocean and swim around with them. You get a true sense that the dolphins are just as happy to see you as they swim around you and the boat, jumping out of the water and singing to you. Its truly breath-taking.

Another must do is to visit some of the ancient temples here In Bali. Bali is home to some of the worlds most amazing Hindu temples. Two of my favourites were Uluwatu temple, a stunning temple of the cliffs of Uluwatu. Here you can get blessed by a monk and enjoy the local monkeys playing around with you whilst viewing the breathtaking Uluwatu cliffs up close and personal. Tanah lot near Canggu is a second favourite. This incredible temple is on a rock which spends half of its life out at sea and then when the tide goes out can be accessed by tourists and locals alike. This amazing experience of accessing the temple feels magical as you literally walk across the ocean bed to get there. Both of these temples also have amazing walking routes you can take around the edge of the island to get better views of them and to get lost in nature.

00:00 Intro
00:25 Bali facts
00:59 Arriving into Bali
02:00 Where to stay in Bali
04:10 Getting around
06:06 Trips to take
10:14 Best beaches
11:52 Apps to download
12:13 Prices
13:06 Extra info!