Bali: what to see and whether to move there

What drives Bali and who it suits

Bali's economy is tourism and everything attached to it: hotels, villas, scooter rentals, restaurants, yoga, surf and construction. International arrivals have held above seven million a year, and the island has been running past the limits of its infrastructure for a while. A second layer is the expat economy itself - coworking spaces, agencies, schools, production crews and marketing teams largely servicing each other.

People come for the climate and the speed of setting up: a week is enough to find housing, a bike, a gym and a social circle. The crowd splits into nomads in Canggu, families and retirees in Sanur, surfers on the Bukit and the wellness world in Ubud. It works for people billing foreign clients who value community, and poorly for anyone needing career progression, serious healthcare nearby or predictable rules.

Honestly, the island has changed. Rents in popular areas have climbed 10-25 percent a year, roads have not kept up, dry-season water is scarce, and immigration is increasingly active against people working on tourist status. The convenience is still here; the bargain is not.

Neighbourhoods: where newcomers settle

Canggu with Berawa and Pererenan is the nomad core: coworking, cafes, gyms, the highest rents and traffic so bad that three kilometres can take twenty minutes at peak. Seminyak and Umalas are the same thing, glossier and pricier. Ubud offers greenery, rice fields and wellness at noticeably higher humidity and no beach. Sanur is flat, calm and equipped with pavements and hospitals. The Bukit around Uluwatu and Bingin gives surf and views, but you are stuck without a bike and water runs short in the dry months.

Denpasar is the real city: a third to half cheaper, with hospitals, government offices and supermarkets but no tourist scene. Kuta and Legian are poor choices for living, being the noisiest part of the island and the worst for petty theft. Amed, Lovina and Sidemen are cheap and beautiful, with weaker healthcare, internet and logistics.

Check before signing: water pressure and supply, fibre availability, neighbouring construction sites (crews start at seven), how the access road behaves in the wet season, and whether the property is legally built at all - villas in protected green zones do get demolished.

Cost of living

Bali is not a cheap destination any more, and rent is where you feel it most after several years of double-digit increases in the popular areas.

A realistic nomad budget is $1,200-2,000 a month; a comfortable family one starts at $2,500. Landlords typically want six or twelve months up front, or at minimum two months of deposit, and monthly terms add around 20 percent. Budget separately for insurance with medical evacuation: complex cases leave Bali for Singapore, and without cover that is tens of thousands of dollars.

Practicalities: transport, climate, language, money

Transport. There is effectively no public transport. Grab and Gojek exist, but in several areas local taxi groups have pushed the apps out and no driver will accept your ride. In practice you get a scooter, and this is the single biggest risk of living here: crashes involving foreigners are constant, and without an A-category licence, local or international, insurance will not pay. There is one airport, and the run from Canggu can take ninety minutes at peak.

Climate. Dry season runs April to October, wet season November to March, with heavy rain, humidity near 90 percent and mould in poorly ventilated villas. It is 27-32C year round; Ubud is wetter and cooler at night, the Bukit drier and windier.

Language, internet, money. Indonesian has simple grammar and rewards a few months of effort, and English covers the tourist areas. Fibre in Canggu, Ubud and Sanur delivers 50-200 Mbps, but power cuts and outages happen, so keep a mobile backup. Local bank accounts require a KITAS; otherwise Wise, Revolut, cash and QRIS. Foreign arrivals pay a 150,000 rupiah tourist levy.

Moving and legal status

Indonesia has built a fairly clear ladder of statuses. Short visits use visa on arrival for 30 days, extendable once, or a 60-day tourist e-visa. For remote work there is the E33G KITAS, valid one year: you need a contract with a company registered outside Indonesia, income of roughly $60,000 a year, bank statements around $2,000 and international health insurance. The E33G explicitly bars work for Indonesian clients and does not extend, so you reapply annually. Since December 2025 it can carry dependants.

Above that sit the Second Home visa with a deposit of around 2 billion rupiah, the Golden Visa from $350,000 of investment, an investor KITAS through your own PT PMA company, and a retirement KITAS from age 55. Foreigners cannot hold freehold land: the options are right-of-use and long leases, and the popular nominee arrangements are illegal and regularly end with the buyer losing the property.

Tax: 183 days makes you resident on worldwide income at rates up to 35 percent, and the treatment of E33G holders is still argued over, so take advice. See our Indonesia page and the residence permits, nomad visa and tax sections.

Is Bali worth considering for the long run

Against it: Bali has stopped being cheap while the infrastructure has not caught up with the prices. Traffic, waste, water shortages, construction noise and rents rising in double digits. Scooters remain the leading cause of injury and death among foreigners. Immigration sweeps and deportations for working on tourist status are routine news. Healthcare handles the simple things and flies the hard ones to Singapore. You will not own property in the sense you are used to.

In its favour: a year in Bali still buys a lifestyle you would struggle to match anywhere else at the price - warm ocean, a house with a pool, a dense community and one of the few genuine one-year remote work permits in Asia.

The verdict: treat Bali as a good one-to-three-year chapter with a proper KITAS and evacuation insurance, not as the place where you build status, roots and predictable rules.