Bali has been in many travel guide books for years now. Maybe too many. The Indonesian island has been receiving travellers from all over the world, taking in the breakfast bowl / salty hair / hipster aesthetic and wanderlusting their way through life. I joined their ranks this summer, and I was in awe at this Indonesian island. That’s why I’ve come up with a few reasons why you should visit Bali – and a few reasons why you shouldn’t.

Should I visit Bali?

When I was planning the blog posts that I would write about my travels this summer (I also went to Japan, by the way!), I just couldn’t seem to come up with a good blog post idea for Bali. Since it’s been so popular among travellers lately, it seemed like everything that could have been written about this island has actually been written and I had nothing more to add.

But after a while, I noticed that there weren’t many posts that highlighted both the positive and negative aspects of Bali. Most posts either focused on why Bali is worth a visit or why Bali is not worth a visit.

In this article, I’m taking the middle road and leaving the final decision up to you. These are the main reasons why I believe Bali should and shouldn’t be on your bucket list.

Before you continue reading: watch this Bali travel video I made to get you in the mood for this article. You won’t regret it.

Here’s an overview of everything I talk about in this post, in case you want to skip ahead and read one specific part (just click one of the links below!)

Why you should visit Bali

• The food
• The massages
• Nusa Penida
• Rice paddies
• Hospitality
• Ubud monkey forest

Why you should not visit Bali

• An authentic look into Indonesian culture
• Unique, off-the-beaten-path destinations
• Safety
• Scooter fun
• Idealised image on social media
• Beautiful deserted white sand beaches

Why you should visit Bali

You should visit Bali for food

The food scene in Indonesia is unreal. Nasi goreng, beef rendang, chicken satay, not to mention the trendy breakfast bowls that are served daily in hipster cities like Canggu.

There are so many restaurants in Bali worth a visit that you’ll probably barely scratch the tip of the culinary iceberg that is Indonesia.

Also, if you’re used to paying $20+ for a meal, Bali restaurants are heaven on earth. So. Ridiculously. Cheap.

Also #2: breakfast bowls. That’s it.

You should visit Bali for massages

One of the best things to do in Canggu (or any other city on the island, probably) is to get a massage.

Throughout our five full days on the island, we got three massages. Just throwing this out there to give you an idea.

If you truly want to relax and let go of any kind of stress or tension you have bottled up inside, a massage parlour on Bali is the perfect place for that.

There is nothing better to help you relax after a long, strenuous day of hiking around Bali than getting a foot massage. There’s something soothing about having a stranger rub your feet with essential oils and feeling the pressure leave your body.

Bali massage prices are definitely way cheaper than comparable services in Europe and Northern America. For a 1-hour full body massage, you’ll be set back between 60,000 and 100,000 IDR (about 4-7 USD). For a 30-minute foot massage (which I also highly recommend), you’ll pay about 50,000 IDR (about 3.50 USD).

You should visit Bali for Nusa Penida

Still wondering what to do in Bali?

If you’ve got a day left to spare, why not consider leaving the island and taking a day trip to Nusa Penida?

Nusa Penida is an island that is located southeast of Bali and can be easily reached by boat, crossing the Badung Strait. You’ll have to get to Sanur Harbor in Denpasar (ask your taxi driver to help you get there) and then spend about 30 minutes on a speed boat before arriving at your destination.

A Nusa Penida day trip will show you everything that’s worth a visit on the island, and it will also include some – how do I say this – interesting roads. (Read: wobbly and headache-inducing)

Notable sights in Nusa Penida include Kelingking Beach (you’ll know this one from all the Instagram photos), Broken Beach, Angel’s Billabong and Crystal Bay. All of these can be combined easily on a fairly cheap organised day trip, including your own personal driver to take you all around the island.

You should visit Bali for rice paddies

Bali rice fields are great.

I might just be saying this because I haven’t seen rice paddies anywhere else, but still. I recommend the Tegallang Rice Terraces (about 20 minutes north of Ubud), because you’re able to really walk between the fields and see some locals.

Of course, locals know that these rice paddies are popular among tourists and they try their best to make some money out of it. However, I can still say that Tegallang was the most beautiful rice fields I have seen. So far.

Tip: if you want to take a picture of a local farmer in traditional clothes, you might want to reconsider. As I said before, locals know that their rice fields are popular, and they exploit this knowledge. If you do take a picture of one of them, they’ll expect you to pay up and they won’t leave you until you do.

You should visit Bali for hospitality

You might not agree with me if you’ve been to Bali yourself. And I completely get that. After all, local taxi drivers and market/street vendors will always try to find a way to get you to spend some of your hard-earned money on their products. And they probably won’t be very nice and approachable about it.

However, I still strongly believe that the Balinese people are some of the friendliest and most helpful people out there.

You should visit Bali for Ubud monkey forest

One of the most popular things to do in Ubud is without a doubt the monkey sanctuary. In this forest-like terrain, monkeys roam around freely (and sometimes they even try to steal stuff from oblivious travellers’ backpacks).

A visit to Ubud monkey forest is a welcome respite from days of going through traffic in the back of a cab, wondering whether or not today is the day you die in a car crash.

The monkeys have a better training than many people give them credit for. They won’t jump on you, become aggressive or steal from you unless they are provoked. And even if something does happen, the park is guarded by many attentive rangers who have years of experience attending to these monkeys.

Besides, at an entrance fee of only 50,000 IDR (3.50 USD), it’s a steal.

Why you shouldn’t visit Bali

You shouldn’t visit Bali for an authentic look into Indonesian culture

If you’re looking for an authentic view of what Indonesian people are actually like, Bali isn’t the place to be.

As I mentioned before, the Balinese know that their island is immensely popular among Australian, American and European tourists. And they take no shame in using this knowledge to get them some extra pocket money (see also the ‘local farmer’ who posed for pictures with travellers at the rice fields).

You shouldn’t visit Bali for unique, off-the-beaten-path places to visit

If you’re looking for things to do on Bali that haven’t been done a million times by thousands of people yet, you’re going to be looking for quite a while.

I’m not saying that visiting Bali off-the-beaten-path is an unattainable dream that you shouldn’t pursue if you really feel like it.

Everyone who went to Bali has gotten a massage and sat by the beach at Kuta or Canggu. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it.

You shouldn’t visit Bali for a sense of safety

Now, this is one of my personal main reasons why Bali is not worth a visit.

Although the people of Bali are generally very kind and accommodating to travellers, Bali is probably not a place where you’ll feel safe and secure as a foreign traveller.

For starters, traffic is crazy. I’m not exaggerating. Cars pass each other left and right on the highway, lanes don’t seem to have any significance and turn signals are not a thing, apparently. And I haven’t even talked about the scooters yet. (More on that later)

This goes without saying, but don’t try to smuggle drugs into Bali. You’ll be faced with massive cash fines and long jail sentences. 

Be wary of taxi drivers and street vendors who try to get your attention in order to sell things to you. Once you give them some kind of attention (even just making eye contact or saying ‘No, thank you’ will encourage them), they’ll be difficult to get rid of. Just completely ignore them and move on.

I think you get the gist. I didn’t feel safe in Bali, and chances are that you won’t either.

You shouldn’t visit Bali for fun on a scooter

I promised you more explanation about the problem of heavy traffic in Bali, right? Here it is.

Don’t go to Bali if you’re looking for a week of fun cruising through the island on a rental scooter, unless you’re a highly experienced scooter driver.

On our short stay in Bali, and especially on Nusa Penida, we saw several western-looking travel couples on scooters with bloody and bruised limbs. Admittedly, these might be from other accidents that had nothing to do with Bali, but there were too many for it to be a coincidence.

It’s no fun driving a scooter through rice paddies if you’re injured. Be very careful if you do decide to rent a scooter. Or, better yet, save yourself the trouble and don’t rent a scooter at all. There are plenty of other things to do in Bali.

You shouldn’t visit Bali for its idealised image on social media

You know which pictures I’m talking about. The ones on Instagram that show a pretty, tanned blonde girl in an infinity pool, turning her back to the camera, sipping on a coconut cocktail and overlooking the lush rice terraces of Bali.

The truth is, this isn’t what Bali actually looks like. Social media is giving us a false image of travel, and while social media-fueled tourism might be a good thing for local economies, it could lead to disappointment on the part of travellers convinced by this exact idealised image.

Yes, there are beautiful sights to be seen and wonderful things to do in Bali. But the road to these sights is paved with ugly concrete and garbage on the sidewalk.

You shouldn’t visit Bali for beautiful deserted white sand beaches

I went to the beach in Bali twice. And I wasn’t impressed.

Tip: if you’re going to Canggu and you’re not planning on taking surfing classes, don’t go to Batu Bolong Beach. It’s not worth it.

You see, back in Belgium, I grew up in a coast city. Which means that it essentially takes a lot for a beach to impress me. The only beach that I saw during my week in Bali that came close to impressing me wasn’t even in Bali.

Kelingking Beach (Nusa Penida) looked great from up above. The beach down below doesn’t have a lot of people, because it takes a hell of a pathway to get down to the bottom. We didn’t get down, but at least it looked nice from a distance.

Undoubtedly, there are plenty of wonderful beaches in Bali, hidden away from the public. However, we were only in Bali for about six days, so we didn’t really get a chance to discover these.

Is Bali overrated?

If you really want to know what I think about it: yes. Bali is overrated. But you shouldn’t abstain from visiting Bali just because I say it’s overrated. I also think there are many things worth seeing and discovering in Bali, and in the end, it’s really your own personal decision.

This whole post boils down to this one question, and the truth is that it’s up to you to decide. You have to ask yourself “Is Bali worth a visit?” and come up with an answer before you make the decision to travel there.

My only hope is that this post might shed some light on the actual condition of the Indonesian island, so that you can make an informed decision for yourself.

Would you still want to visit Bali after reading this post? Why (not)? Let me know in a comment!

Thanks for reading!

-S

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