Living in Bali, what daily life is like once the holiday ends

Where foreigners live

Bali is bigger than it looks, and almost all long stay foreigners live in a small part of it, in the south and around Ubud.

• Canggu, Berawa and Pererenan are the centre of the remote work crowd. Cafes, gyms, coworking spaces, surf, and the worst traffic on the island.
• Ubud is inland, green and quieter, with yoga, artists and lower rents.
• Sanur has a calm beach and a flat seaside path. Families and retirees like it.
• Uluwatu and the Bukit peninsula are for surfers and people who want cliffs and space.
• Umalas and Kerobokan are residential and central, with large family villas.

The guide on where to live in Bali compares the areas one by one.

What it costs

The median asking rent in our listings is Rp 30M a month, about $1,680, and most of those listings are villas with a pool. A room costs a quarter of that.

A single person lives well on $2,000 to $2,500 a month, villa included. A frugal one manages under $1,000 in a room. The cost of living in Bali guide gives the full budget, line by line.

Housing

Nobody finds a home in Bali on a property portal. Owners and agents post in Facebook groups, with photos and a WhatsApp number, and the same villa shows up in five groups at three different prices. This site collects those posts and removes the duplicates.

There are three ways to rent.

1. By the month, furnished, with wifi and cleaning often included. This is what newcomers do. See the monthly rentals in Bali.
2. By the year, paid in advance, for a much lower price per month. See the long term rentals in Bali.
3. On a leasehold of 10 to 30 years, which is how foreigners “buy”. The guide on leasehold vs freehold explains it.

The usual path is a guesthouse for a week, a monthly rental for a few months, then a yearly contract once you know the area. Do not sign for a year from abroad.

Visas

You cannot just stay. Indonesia has no visa that lets a foreigner settle with no conditions, and working for an Indonesian client without a work permit gets people deported every month.

The common options are a visit visa extended up to 180 days, the remote worker stay permit for people employed abroad, the retirement permit from age 55 or 60, and an investor permit through a company. Each has its own cost and its own paperwork. See the long stay visas for Bali.

Daily life

Getting around. There is almost no public transport and few pavements. You ride a scooter or you take Gojek and Grab. Riding is the main risk of living here, more than illness or crime. Wear a real helmet and get a licence.

Food. You can eat in a warung for $2 or in a restaurant that would not look out of place in Melbourne. Fruit is everywhere. Tap water is not drinkable, and everyone uses gallons.

Help at home. Cleaning, laundry, pool and garden staff are affordable and often included in the rent. For many people this is the biggest change in quality of life.

Religion and ceremonies. Bali is Hindu, and village life comes first. Roads close for ceremonies. On Nyepi, the day of silence in March, the whole island shuts down, the airport included, and you stay home with the lights low. Your landlord may give offerings at your gate every morning. Step around them.

Community. Making friends is easy and keeping them is harder, because people leave. Gyms, surf, padel, run clubs and coworking spaces are where it happens.

Weather. The dry season runs from about April to October. From November to March it rains most days, often hard and for an hour or two, and everything is green and damp.

Health and safety

Private clinics handle everyday problems well and are cheap by western standards. For anything serious, people go to a private hospital in Denpasar or fly to Singapore, which is why health insurance with evacuation cover is not optional.

Violent crime against foreigners is rare. The real risks are scooter accidents, phone snatching from bikes, dengue in the rainy season, stomach bugs in the first weeks, and counterfeit alcohol in cheap bars. Rabies exists on the island, so a dog bite means a clinic the same day.

Work and money

Most foreigners here earn abroad. They are remote employees, freelancers with foreign clients, or business owners. Local salaries are low and local jobs for foreigners are limited to roles a company can justify with a work permit.

Internet is good enough for video calls in most of the south, with fibre in villas and backup from mobile data. Power cuts happen, more often in the rainy season.

For money, people keep their bank at home, pay with a multi-currency card, and withdraw rupiah from ATMs. Once you spend more than 183 days in Indonesia in a year you become a tax resident, with rules that changed in 2025. Talk to a tax adviser before your first full year.

Problems with living in Bali

Here is the list that people who left give when you ask them why.

• Traffic. Canggu and Seminyak are jammed for much of the day, and it gets worse every year.
• Construction. The rice field in the listing photo may be a building site by the time you move in. Ask what is planned next door.
• Visa uncertainty. Rules change with little notice, and your life depends on a stamp.
• Waste and water. Rubbish washes up on the west coast beaches in the rainy season, and the south has a groundwater problem.
• Humidity. Mould on clothes, leather and walls. Electronics die young.
• Healthcare. Fine until it is serious.
• Rising prices. Rents in the popular areas are far above what they were five years ago.
• The bubble. It is easy to spend a year in Canggu and meet almost no Balinese people outside of service jobs. Some find that uncomfortable, and they are right to.

None of this is hidden. It just does not make it into the videos.

Pros and cons

Is it worth it?

For people who earn in dollars, euros or pounds and can work from anywhere, a year or two in Bali is hard to beat on quality of life per dollar. For people who need a local income, a stable legal status or top hospitals nearby, it is a harder case.

The cheap way to find out is to come for one to three months on a monthly rental before you ship anything. The guide on moving to Bali covers the steps if you decide to stay.