Planning a Wellness Trip: Bali

Whether you prefer to plan out an itinerary full of activities for each day or take a more unstructured approach to travel, there are resources to help you research and plan for the necessary details. Follow along with us as we research and plan our first (!) adventure to Bali. While you don't need to know everything about Bali before you go, there are things you should be familiar with and details you need to arrange.

First Things First: Traveling

Once we decided that we wanted to experience Bali, our first steps were researching requirements for entry, visas, local laws, etc. I am traveling on a US Passport, so my first question was how long does my passport need to be valid for? A Google search for "Bali travel requirements 2024" returned both government and non-government sites with much of information. I like to use official government websites of the US and my destination as a starting point, and then branch out into travel websites, airline-provided information, and travel blogs. I start with government websites as their content is usually the most up to date.

As with many countries, Indonesia requires that your passport have a minimum of six months validity beyond your entry date. For me, that meant getting my passport renewed as it was set to expire in less than six months after my planned arrival. Indonesia also requires that you have a return/onward ticket, and you may have to show that you have sufficient funds for your stay. Okay, passport sorted - next question was whether I need a visa. The answer is yes, and Indonesia does have a visa-on-arrival that applies to me, or I can apply for it in advance of arrival using the Official e-Visa Website for Indonesia. The visa must be used within 90 days, and my trip is more than 90 days away, so I added a calendar event to apply for the visa type that applies best for me six weeks prior to my departure.

While researching passport and visa requirements, I discovered that Indonesia has made changes in 2024 to offset the challenges of overtourism - there is a new entry fee and tourist tax, so I added paying these as calendar events as well. There is also a customs form that can be pre-filled three days or fewer from arrival. While I could leave most of these to be done when I arrive, I want to save time when I get there, thus my system of calendar entries. This way, I will have all necessary paperwork pre-completed and save time getting admitted to the country when I land.

Where to stay

Now that I am armed with information needed for travel documents, I can research and book flights and accommodations. Flights are less complicated than accommodations, because to book the latter, I need to know more about the areas in Bali and decide which of them I want to stay in and for how long. For this research, using an AI Chatbot can come in handy. I ask a chatbot about pros and cons of different areas in Bali for wellness travel and for solo travel. In addition to information about some of the primary areas, the chatbot also gives me links to a variety of websites I can use for further research. These include:

• Lonely Planet

• The Asia Collective

• Bali.com

• The Blonde Abroad

• The Scrapbook of Life

• Londoner in Sydney

Not all these links have information about the different areas of Bali and accommodations, but enough do to help me decide where in Bali I want to go based on my preferences for activity level, my budget, and the kinds of things I know I want to do. The latter two suggested links provide tips for travelers that are things I might not have discovered otherwise, so I bookmark them both to come back to. There is also information on weather, food, culture, when to visit, and things to do.

Transportation in Bali

The next consideration is getting around once in Bali - what's the best way to get to/from the hotel? What about travel from area to area? What are the costs of different options? A Google search again provides a lot of information, and deciding what will work best for you (rent a car, rent a scooter, hire a driver, taxi, ridesharing, public transportation) and which apps will come in handy while you are in Bali to arrange transportation is easy. While I often choose to get an International Driving Permit, rent a car, and drive myself, the chaotic traffic described inclines me more towards hiring a driver. While I might have opted for a scooter to get around once I am at the hotel when I was younger, scooters are no longer ideal for me. As with visa and tax, I prefer to pre-book transportation ahead of my arrival to save time.

Health

My next research area is health-related: are there required or recommended vaccinations? Is the water drinkable? Are there health items I should add to my first aid kit? I usually start with the CDC website to find these answers, and for Indonesia the answers are yes, no, and yes. I schedule an appointment with my healthcare provider a month before my departure to discuss planned travel and schedule any vaccinations that aren't up to date, get information on whether I should take malaria-preventing medicine, and go over any specific health risks I have.

Money

In the post-COVID landscape, I have discovered that many trips abroad can be done with a minimum of local currency as places like London are mostly tap to pay. In researching Indonesia, this is not the case, especially in more remote areas or at smaller shops or eateries, so I research currency exchange options to see what the best value is and calculate how much cash I should have.

Connectivity

Okay, so I am armed with sites for more research and a general plan for travel at this point - I will refine my research in the coming days. My last travel question is how to maintain connectivity once I arrive - for many travelers, this means purchasing a local SIM. Bali does have good wi-fi available in many areas, and I also have a phone that supports eSIMs. eSIMs are becoming more popular and more widely available, so while I have a preferred provider I have used for the past couple of years, I research current options to see if there are better deals.

Round 1 of research and planning is done, and I will be doing round 2 to refine my plans soon.