Bali has a way of getting under your skin. It's an island of emerald rice terraces and smoking volcanoes, of temples wrapped in mist and surf breaking on black-sand beaches, where offerings of flowers and incense appear on every doorstep each morning and the whole place hums with a gentle spirituality. You can chase waterfalls through the jungle, learn to surf, watch the sun rise from a volcano summit, and finish the day with a massage that costs less than your lunch back home. It's beautiful, soulful, and endlessly varied, which is exactly why people fall hard for it and keep coming back.
Here's the honest part for budget travellers: Bali is still one of the best-value destinations in Asia, but it isn't the ultra-cheap backpacker island people remember from a decade ago. Prices in the trendy hotspots have crept up, there's now a tourist levy on arrival, and tourism has shifted a little more upmarket. That said, your money still stretches remarkably far here. A bowl of food at a local warung costs a pound or two, a scooter to explore the island is a few pounds a day, mid-range villas with private pools cost a fraction of what they would anywhere comparable, and the rice fields, beaches and temples are the cheapest joys of all. The trick is knowing where the value lives. We'll show you.
