Bali/Indonesia Travel Tips || A First Timer’s Guide (What I Learned)

Nonya Bigness

I like this video it was very informative. New subbie 📍 and I don’t say that often lol. “I’ve never said this before but if ya like what ya seeing subscribe to my channel 😅” your content was amazing and I love that you said that towards the end of the video. It’s funny b/c on a majority of youtube videos that’s literally the first thing said within 30 seconds, and I’m thinking 🤔, “we’ll why would I subscribe if idek if this is a good video or it’s for me”. I have a few questions because I want to solo travel do you have an email, I don’t have Instagram.

K & Si

I’m trying to go to Bali for my birthday, but I’m having trouble booking a flight any advice?

Andy Wu

Dia jin, you look very nice😘

M –

Very informative! Thanks

Emerson

Thanks so much for making this video! Going to Bali solo next month and this video is informative!

dale sides

You’re the cutest! And I loved your tips too!

Brad Wittwer

It would be very helpful if you Gabe the dollar equivalent on prices.

Agung Hutomo

What sim card did you buy? And what data plan did you buy?

mian said

My email miansaid.said@yahoo.com

Dicky

You are so beautifull,asian girl.Just like Asia .Beautifull.

YLK LK

Regarding travelling anywhere now, to be safe. Do not buy anything when you travel especially stuff that tour guides, taxi drivers or personal drivers recommend or take you. They always want to take you shopping or show you things to buy because they make good commission from the sale even if the stuff is fake/garbage (scams).

After sharing my Bali scam stories with my family & friends. I heard of more bad scam shopping stories from other tourists. Some people bought watches when they went on a Carribean cruise, chinese medicines/jade/tea in China (tour groups) and they found out later it is all fake & crap.

They lost hundreds or thousands of dollars. I don’t even buy much souvenirs when I travel anymore to avoid/skip buying junk/fake stuff and getting rip off tourist prices. They always target tourist to rip off/scam…I avoid shopping when I travel now unless it is at big shopping mall/department stores or duty free shops (less risk of fake & scams stuff).

Happy travels everyone and don’t trust everyone’s comments or stuff you read on TripAdvisors especially the negative comments defending scams or attacking others who are posting their scams stories to warn others. Some people try to cover up scams or defend them so as they make $$ from it 🙂

Steven Carpenter

Again another cute informative video keep up the good work!

YLK LK

By the way, I just wrote a post to warn people on Trip Advisor about scams, tourist traps in Bali as I got scammed by my personal driver to buy fake/crappy coffee/tea that I bought on a coffee plantation tour that I went back in 2016. I got negative and rude comments from people as reply instead. I am suspicious that these people who reply back are personal drivers or people who work in the Bali tourism industry so they don’t want to lose business and look bad. So they are trying hard to defend and attack me instead. So don’t trust recommendations or what you see on TripAdvisors, there are scammers writing replies back. One person said they want to support the drivers who need $$ to feed their family. I said there are more honest ways to make $$. This is not an excuse to go scam others into buying fake, garbage coffee that give people diarhea drinking. It is like selling fake jade and tricking tourist into buying them thinking they are real/legit because you want to make $$ to feed your family…(eyes rolling)…

I also shared your link to this video so those who actually want to avoid being scammed or ripped off, they can watch too as you provided very useful and honest feedback/recommendations! 🙂

YLK LK

For Taxi to avoid scams, only take official taxi called Blue Birds Taxi or take Uber. Same for Vietnam too (Only take VinaSun, Mai Linh or Uber). I mostly try to Uber anywhere when I travel. My hotel in Semiyak arranged a taxi for me and I had no issues. So from my travels in Asia, the taxi that hotels arranged so far in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia is pretty legit and no scams. They give good restaurant recommendations too and very nice. I am usually very friendly like you to the front desk. They all like me as I am super friendly so they even give me discounts for day tour packages (always try to bargain a bit about this if you can). They make like 30-40% commission off tour packages and are open to bargaining but I am not a crazy bargain person :)..So don’t book things online for tour packages or day tour, talk to front desk at hotel & ask them to give you a good deal :)…You can look up day tour prices online just for research but I found it was better to book with hotels. They will not try to scam you usually or rip you off badly. I tell all my hotels clearly that I will write a review after my trip and always enjoy having me as I am a very clean, quiet, organized and respectful guest 🙂

YLK LK

Do not buy coffee from those Coffee Plantation tours in Ubud or anywhere in Bali! I went as I heard about it online and my personal driver took me in Ubud. I found out that the tour is free & fun but do not buy their coffee. The coffee they let you taste is good but the ones they sell are crap. We got scammed and there was bad reviews about this on TripAdvisor which I wish I had read before going. The signal on my local sim card sucks so I couldn’t look up the reviews & read it while I was there. So I paid $110 CAD for crappy coffee…. I even got get diarrhea from trying the coffee when I landed in Canada so my friend said to just throw it away. I was going to give some of these coffee and tea to friends and family as souvenir gifts but not anymore. What a waste of money buying them in the first place! 🙁

This is what I told my friends to warn them about the coffee plantation tour:
I think we got ripped off for coffee in Bali. Our driver took us to a coffee farm/plantation which is fun but we bought some Luwack coffee and some other coffee and tea that we found later it was crap/low quality or even fake. We read later on TripAdvisor that many people say don’t buy anything there. They said the coffee is low quality and over priced on TripAdvisor. We spent like $110 cad on coffee and tea boxes…
I read online later on that the price is a major rip off like 2-3 times what you can buy in the market at Ubud. They were warning not to buy anything when you go visit this coffee farm/plantation. So I should not have listened or trust my Bali driver at all. He lied and said the stuff here is good quality stuff when I asked him about it before I was about to buy. What a bunch off bullshit… Drivers taking tourists to a coffee plantation/farms that sell fake or low quality coffee is like a scam or ripping tourists off…He later told me later on that all drivers making 20-30% or more commission off what we spend so they will always tell us the products is great and we should buy. Do not trust drivers! I don’t mind paying more but it has to be decent/good quality stuff not crap. So don’t trust drivers when you hire them. They all get commissions off of what we buy/spend even if the product is crap..lol

Thailand and China is super famous for aggressively luring tourists to their friend’s stores/shop but I didn’t realize Bali was the exact same crap. Lol… Now we will be super alert mode everywhere we travel and always look up prices and reviews online b4 we buy anything or just skip shopping completely…Best and safest thing is just buy from large Duty Free shops at airport. It is safer and more clean/fair prices!! We did this mostly in previous trips and had no issues :)…I messed up a bit in Bali. But overall had a good experience.

Muji Isam

This really helpful thank you Dia the jinn

Hekanne Simbolon

INDONESIA IS BEAUTIFUL!!! This video makes my heart yearn to visit my country <3

Nick and Helmi

Thanks for covering my hometown 🙂 always great to see a foreign perspective 🙂

Since then they have abolish visa on arrival on some countries

Currency is advisable to not exchange at the airport/random street vendor some even quotingg higher rates but what they do is they rip you off with commision rate / slight of hand / claiming your cash is a counterfeit cash

Alberto Rodriguez

Día Jin 👸🏻🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆✌️

Dallas G

Great Video soo akward:) ps dope scarf!

Muhammad Jahanzaib Malik

I want apply Visa for Bali

Gato

How about it wasn’t crumpled ? 😉

Lince francis

Nice video. Thanks for this. just got few doubts.
Interms of transport from Bali to gilli island , do you have any suggestion which boat service we should pick thats not very expensive ?
which island is ideal to look for an Airbnb accommodation ?
how many days you think is best to stay in gilli ? and which are the best activities to do in gilli ( also which island ) that is better than doing it in bali.

Joe Salling

Nice! Will heed your advice for sure. Traveling to Bali and Thailand next week!

Ytanythinggoes

Just because you felt awkward in the end , I subscribed 😜. Loved the vid thank you for sharing.

Sophie Velasco

Hello!! This video was so helpful for my trip to Bali in two weeks 🙂 I was wondering how you found trustworthy private drivers for longer outings? Thank you!

Wanderwoman

Thank you, this was very very very helpful!!! 💓👌

Senpai Kai

😍 You are stunning 🤤

Discharge Summary

Dis Djinn 🧞‍♀️

Ninja Hatori

OMG you are gorgeous ! <3

mitch b

They are slowly adopting us currency bills.

mitch b

Love the video, the visa info was all I needed, I heard the same thing.

David Muenchow

I’m a thirty something guy who has been to a few places in SE Asia but never Bali, and was researching different surf schools on the island. Do you have any advice?? Thanks!

Jean-Pierre Vander Elst

Thank you! Very helpful information. Already went 3 times to Bali but I keep getting the most useful information and amazing tips. Good job! Please continue. You’re very nice to watch at… 😉

ElectricityDanceMoms

What are some things u recomend doing for first timers? I’m going next month

Christopher King

Nice one where going in Jan.

Sidney Soares

Dia, thanks for sharing, all great tips..

Danny Ando

Fmd you’re absolutely beautiful. Single?

Sukhvinder Saggu

Nice info…. Thanks

Adi Adie

Cantik \(-ㅂ-)/ ♥ ♥ ♥

Roger mckenzie

Hi Dia do i need two visa to go from China to Vietnam

Ratha Siv

Best places to visit and things to do in Bali for 6 days?

Steven Cite

Hi Dia.. we are from Mauritius island. I’m going to bali with wife and daughter of 3 years for first time. Any tips where to stay at beach side with a cost effective budget. Thanks for the tips.

Melissa Vilane

How long were you in Bali for? Which was your favorite Gili Island?

usa12watch

So much to see so little time-Sounds very cool

Chuen

As information, If you want to stay in indonesia for no more than 30 days, US passport holders don’t need any visa and free visa is unextendable, but if you want to stay for more than 30 days, you should appy for visa on arrival which is extendable once for another 30 days, meaning that can stay in Indonesia for 60 days totally, but this is only for tourism~I hope this information will be helpful for all of you guys who want to travel to Indonesia~

Harry P

Ho Dia . I live in Chicago. I’m going to Bali for the first time. Any recommendations where to stay I mean town ?

Cosma Adrian

So cute.. Thank’s!!!

Abhinav Chaudhary

U need to do share your channel more… It’s good content .. people must be knowing your channel, try some collaboration

Abhinav Chaudhary

Nice work…. 😀

Wayne Samuel

I went there in 2015 but before I go I contacted the Indonesian consulate in New York. I asked them about the visa for U.S. citizens. Instead of answering my question being they work in New York so should be aware of the visa rules for American citizens they sent me that link that shows it costs $35. When I arrived in Jakarta I went to the window and paid the $35. I then proceeded to immigration. The immigration officer told me they no longer charge a visa fee for tourists only for businessmen. You would think that when I went to the window to pay the clerk would have told me I don’t need to pay or ask me if I am a businessman. Two years later they still got the same information on their website which tells me they are not serious. Imagine the amount of money they make charging people for a non-existent visa every day. I hope their tourism bureau will speak up about this.

When I walked in Bali it becomes annoying that every driver thinks I need a taxi and blows the horn. I think westerners love to walk and explore. If we need a taxi we will be the first to let you know. I’m for supporting the locals too but unfortunately some of these locals make it a habit to leave out information that would have given the person an opportunity to make a choice that’s why this type of video is appreciated.The taxi I hailed at my hotel in Seminyak to take me to the airport I had to tell him turn on the meter. Then he tells me the meter is not working. I told him then you should not run your taxi if the meter is not working. And better yet you should give me a price upfront. He then gave me a ridiculous price upon which I told him to stop the car and let me out so I can hail a taxi. Then he dropped the price like half of what he told me. So this is another thing to look out for whenever you take a taxi, especially with luggage from your hotel, ask if the meter is working. If you’re just hailing a taxi going back to the hotel without any luggage then easy to just jump out. But once you have luggage in the trunk they figure they got you.

Robert Lloyd

Hi. Nice collection of tips. Only one I was not aware of was the partial trip to the harbor and then being let off to be taken the rest of the way by carriage. If my AirBNB host arranged this and did not advise me of the exchange I would be really pissed. Not much I could do other than leave a scathing review of him later on the website (hopefully this would affect his future bookings). Will be in Nusa Lembongan next month and will look out for this. Thanks.

zero ali

fresh dollar.. what type of food is that? lol

ItsJustMe

I’m from Australia and I know all this stuff but I’m just watching this because I wanted to see if it was right NO HATE

JW

Dia, it depends on what kind of visa you want. Technically you are correct, but if you get the “free” visa it is only valid for 30 days and is not extendable. The visa you mention in your vid for $35 is a “visa on arrival” which is also valid for 30 days, but can be extended for another 30 days. Bali.com is a great website that explains the difference really well.

Jermiony

Thanks for the tips!

Rico Lee

Leaving for Bali in 3 days, so much appreciated! 🙂

John Sturgeon

Thanks.. that was very informative.. especially the currency info.

Derek

Very helpful video thanks! headed to ubud in 11 days

Kon L

I am planning to go to Ubud in a few months time, this information is very helpful. Thank you

Usman Khalid

Very helpful information awesome work 😜😜😘👍🏻

Shimal Ahmed

I’m planning to visit Bali very soon. And these information are very helpful. Thanks for the tips and the travel advice. I will keep it in mind 👍✌️☺️

Blood Wine

Thanks for this info. Quick question, how affected the tourist area of BALI by the mt agung eruption? I am planning to go to BALI early January 2018. And i am thinking of not going coz of this eruption. Thanks in advance for your reply.