I first came to Bali back in 2017. I started to notice lots of people working from laptops in cafes and this was when I first become aware of the “digital nomad” culture, at the time I was still working in my corporate job as a Buyer for luxury fashion brands, so never thought it would be possible to travel and work, but I made it my mission to try and work out how I could do that. Fast forward a few years later, I quit the corporate world and started my own retail consultancy business supporting start ups, I made sure the business was set up to be non-location dependent so that as soon as we were out of lockdown and travel restrictions were removed I could move around and work & Bali was my obvious choice for a first destination to live and work on my business from. I finally made the move in November 2021, Bali still wasn’t open to tourists yet, so I had to come over on a B211A visa, which allows me to be in the country for 6 months at a time. I had to quarantine for 7 days as travel was still more or less shut down in Indonesia, but when I finally made it to Bali it was a pinch me dream come true moment, and the 7 days of hotel quarantine were totally worth it for a more balanced, outdoor lifestyle.

Logistically the move was made harder due to COVID travel restrictions, visas aren’t cheap, neither was the quarantine & all the PCR tests I had to do to get in, so there were some hurdles I had to overcome, but other than that it was pretty straightforward. To apply for the B211A visa I used an agent called Bali Visas – there are a lot of scam agents out there, so my tip would be to make sure you are booking your visa with a credible agent, with this visa you are sponsored by a company to come in to the country for business purposes, you can stay for up to 6 months, renewing your visa monthly. 

To begin my trip I booked a co-living & working space called Dojo in the “digital nomad hub” of Canggu for my first month. They sorted me out with a local sim card, scooter and I automatically met some new friends who had done the exact same thing as me when I arrived. My advice would be if you are travelling solo and want to make friends quickly book into a coliving or guesthouse to start your trip as these are the places you are most likely to meet people. After that you could start to look for villas or apartments to settle in for longer, but beware of what you are booking – accomodation here almost NEVER looks like how it does in the pictures so make sure you check the place out in person before booking in something long term. Accommodation pricing ranges quite widely here, but to stay somewhere basic you could expect to spend approx £300 per month, if you want something super fancy expect to spend around £700 per month.

Gyms here will be a shock to your system in terms of cost, it’s more expensive even than London, with the average membership starting at around £120 month. Eating out however is super cheap, and you are likely going to be eating out every day, local food will cost around £2.50 per meal, western food ranges from around £4-£10 per meal. In terms of actual working there are lots of coworking spaces or cafes to choose from – my favourites are Dojo & Tribal. 

To get around I would strongly suggest learning how to ride a scooter, it is very difficult to get around in Bali without one, there is a ride app called Gojek and Grab from which you can order bike taxis, but for freedom it is 100x easier to jump on your own scooter and be able to go wherever you want. 

One last tip – make sure you are careful with your laptops going from heat to aircon, the humidity can cause some serious damage and the last thing you want whilst you are here working is for your laptop to break.