Bali Highlights (in and around Ubud)

Travel Tips

Visas

Note: This is information based on our trip in 2024 as Americans, you should always confirm this information is still accurate and if it is different for your home country before traveling.

A Visa is required to visit Bali, but they do offer Visas on Arrival at the airport if you plan to stay less than 30 days. If you plan to stay between 30 and 60 days like us we HIGHLY recommend that you book your Visa on Arrival online ahead of time and then you will be able to extend it once online for an additional 30 days. If you don't book online you will have to go into the offices multiple times to complete the paperwork for the extension, making it way more difficult and time-consuming (trust us, that's what we did and we regretted it).

If you're applying for a longer-term visa, we highly recommend utilizing an agency to assist with this process rather than doing the application on your own. Although it is more expensive it will be much less of a headache, and the online portal is very unreliable, so you're better off working with a local who knows the ins and outs of the system to be sure you have all of the necessary paperwork on time for your trip. 

Transportation

The primary form of transportation in Bali is scooters, and you can rent them for super cheap! You can discuss rental options with your accommodation ahead of time and they will likely have a recommendation. Be sure to get travel insurance, because although we didn't witness many accidents, the roads can be dangerous and you're better safe than sorry.

If you're not comfortable driving a scooter or are planning to go on a longer trip you can hire a driver for the entire day for very inexpensive rates. Again your accommodation may have a recommendation, but during our first week we booked a private full-day customizable tour (linked below) and then our driver from that day was able to help us secure inexpensive rides for the rest of the trip which was great!