BALI TRAVEL GUIDE 🇮🇩 - 23 Travel Tips For First Timers 🌴 | WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU

It's been about a week and a half since I've been traveling here in Bali, Indonesia. And from my first time being here, there's a couple of things that really surprised me during my visit here and things that might help you plan your trip better before your visit. So without further ado, let's get right into the video. Bali, also known as the land of the gods, is popularly known for their cafe cultures and blues of waters. They're the reason why it's such a popular travel destination. But if this is also your first time heading over to Bali, know that if you're checking in your luggage at the airport, to walk around the luggage area if you haven't seen your luggage for at least 15 minutes because if you walk over to the other side, there's a high chance that your luggage is just chilling outside. Wow, all these luggages fell off the conveyor belt and I was waiting for mine for like 20 minutes. This is crazy. Depending on how long you're planning on staying in Bali for, you might rent a bike and there's a high chance that you are going to rent a bike. So if you are, just be aware of how narrow the roads are here. They're super, super small and if you're not familiar or if you've never ridden a bike before, I recommend you going over to an open space and riding there first so you can get comfortable with it because the traffic here gets crazy and the traffic starts anywhere between 11 to 12 p.m. and it lasts for like 8 hours. Alongside with that, if you are planning on renting a bike here, short or long term, to have an international driver's license. So you can get that at AAA depending on which country that you're coming from, but for me, I got my AAA international driver's license for about $30 and it's so worth it. I've only used it once here in Asia, but it's nice to just have just in case. Leading me to my next point, if you're someone like me and you just don't want to think when on the road, Grab bike drives are really, really cheap here. So Grab is Indonesia's popular taxi driver app that you use and is widely used across Southeast Asia. Currently, I am in Seminyak and from Seminyak to Ubud, the drive usually will take you about 1.5 hours during traffic and that ride only cost me about $5 USD. If you're not familiar with driving on the left side of the road, get ready for that because here in Indonesia, everyone drives on the left side of the road. So in America, we drive on the right side of the road, so it might be a little bit confusing when you start, but it's not too bad once you start driving. And my last point about driving is that if you're walking and someone honks at you, don't get offended. That doesn't mean that they're trying to grab your attention in a nasty way, but they're trying to let you know that they're behind you or they're turning so they don't hit you. It also makes a huge difference when you're driving and you might notice it if you're planning on renting a bike or if you're driving a car out here because when I was driving motorcycles, I was the one honking and it totally makes sense that I'm trying to give someone a signal in front of me that I'm on my way and I just don't want to hit them. Whether or not you're planning on coming here solo or with friends, that it's a very safe country. I personally never felt threatened or unsafe here in Bali, but like anywhere you go, you always want to make sure of your surroundings and to not let your valuables out in public. Also leading me to my next point that if you are planning on coming here solo, that it is a solo travel friendly place, but I do recommend it better with friends. Bali was the first place during my seven months traveling here in Southeast Asia where I actually planned a trip here with my friends and I got to say that it was definitely a much more fun experience here. Yes, you can do this solo and if you are, I would highly recommend you going onto Facebook groups and trying to get yourself involved that way and then show up at events when you do plan on visiting. If it is your first time visiting Bali, note that English is widely used and accepted here, but also note that if you're here that not everyone knows how to speak perfect English, but many people are conversational. I never had a problem trying to get around only because Google Translate also works really well over here and the translation is pretty on point, but a lot of locals will also appreciate if you know a little bit of Indonesian, so try to learn the basics. That's something I do in almost every country that I go to and all the locals seem to appreciate and be shocked about how much I know. My next point, which is the most important point, is that when you are here visiting Bali to respect the people and the culture here. Bali was actually the first island that I've ever gone to where Hinduism is the most popular and practiced religion here. When you're walking under the trees, you'll see these offerings on the floors. Please do not step on them. The locals here, they use these as offerings and they pray and they put a lot of different things in them and they practice this three times a day, so just don't step on them. Step over them and just respect their culture and religion here. Aside from religion, just please respect the people here because these people are here working for you. Tourism is really huge in Bali and that's where a lot of the locals here earn their income and their money, so please just don't take advantage of that. I was at a bar with my friend the other day and he actually is an American Indonesian, but Indonesia is his home country and when we were at the bar, someone came up to us and asked where we were from and before any of us could answer, the guy just literally said, wait, it doesn't matter. All you guys in Southeast Asia look the same and I just told him to F off. So please, if you're here, just like either leave the country or just don't say stuff like that because it's really rude and disrespectful and a lot of people here, they don't know how to back themselves up, so please don't take advantage of that. So the next point is that, honestly, this is something that surprised me probably the most, but Bali has some of the best Western food. Emmanuel disagrees with me, but I've had some of the best, best brunches here at cafes. Coffee is pretty good too. Not the best coffee, I would say. The best coffee I've had is probably Vietnam, so holler Vietnam. Aside from the really good Western food that you will find here in Bali, I do highly recommend that you guys go and try the warungs. So warungs are pretty much local shops that you'll find just on the streets or in restaurant form. That is where you'll find the most local, local dishes and they have been some of my favorite and tastiest foods to eat here in Indonesia. The next point, guys, is my absolute favorite one here in Bali, excepted in the fancier places, cash was really at the markets or if I was eating at warungs. And also, if you're looking for the best travel credit cards, check out my favorite international travel credit cards in the description below. I've added every single one of them and a lot of places here also take American Express, so... So if it's your first time in Bali and you're wondering what world introduction to Asian And this is where a lot of people come and pray. All around Bali, you'll see these stray dogs. One tip, just try not petting them. A lot of them are going to come up to your table asking you for food, so that's really up to you. Yesterday, Emmanuel and I fed the dog's bones. This is Emmanuel, guys, by the way. He's been helping me here recording my videos in Bali, but we actually met at the airport. I gave him chocolate, he gave me money, and now we're friends. I mean, it's more like I'm Grace's assistant. Just my assistant, yeah. This is our friendship chocolate. You gonna eat it? No. Why not? I don't know. I'll take like a small bite. Are you filming this? Yeah. This is how we became friends. I asked him if he wanted chocolate and I kept it. And that's kids. That's how I met your mother. I'll take the car first, right? I'll go straight to the market. The cool thing actually about the patrol system here in Bali is that you'll find a lot of these conveniences and stands that sell these absolute vodkas, but they're not really absolute vodkas, they're patrol. This one, for example, costs 13,000 rupiah, which is less than a dollar. I don't know how long this could actually last you, but it's really convenient because they're really just everywhere within Bali. There are gas stations here, but if you want the fastest and I'm assuming cheaper way of getting your patrol or gas, these convenience stores are where they're at. Personally, I've either found Chengdu or Sonya, some of the best places to stay. If you want to experience the coffee culture, there are literally coffee shops all over the place. I would say from my experience, I've definitely found a lot more places where you can do work in Chengdu, but most of my time here in Bali has been spent in Seminyak and sometimes I've just taken a bike, which took me 10 minutes over to Chengdu. Leading me to my next point, if you're here in Bali looking to party, I recommend you staying in Seminyak. A lot of the clubs and the bars and the day parties that you're going to be wanting to go to, they're all in Seminyak and a lot of places are walking distance. It was pretty convenient when going to the day clubs or just walking over to a bar. If you guys are traveling to Bali or just anywhere internationally, I highly recommend that you get travel insurance. I use Nomad Insurance and it's only $42 a month. It's really nice just in case anything happens to you abroad, but if you are looking to sign up for travel insurance, I've added a referral link to do that in the description below. I really have an ease of mind when I'm traveling to places just because I know that I have any type of backup if I need. I haven't had to use it yet, but it's only $40 a month and you can cancel it whenever. Online, you've probably read about something called Bali Belly. Bali Belly pretty much is just drinking the contaminated water that you might not realize is contaminated. There's been a couple of times actually where my stomach has been kind of upset and I think it is from some of the tap water. I shouldn't have done that, but I do recommend that you just buy bottled water everywhere you go so you can avoid Bali Belly and clogging up the toilet. My second to last point, I personally haven't done this so I might be a hypocrite saying this, but if you're here in Bali, don't just stay on the island. I do recommend that you travel over to the other islands here, but Emmanuel actually went to Lombok Island and he said he had a great time. So do you recommend Lombok Island? Yeah, so you can go on the east side and you can take a ferry to go to Lombok. It takes two hours. It's a very nice journey, but there's not only Lombok on the east side. There's also the Gili Island. So I've been to Gili Air, which is very small. It takes maybe like 15 minutes to walk from one side of the island to the other. Definitely recommend going over there. It's way more chill. There's no cars. There's no bikes. So everyone is walking and it really feels like you're on holiday. You can also go to the Komodo Dragon Island, which is even further west. So it's a longer expectation that I will definitely do the next time I come to Indonesia. Yes. So take his advice. Go to the islands. I generally had like no more energy to kind of go to the islands because I've been traveling like hardcore for nonstop for seven months. But yes, if I'm back here in Bali, definitely want to hit up the islands. This is my last and final point. But when you're here and when you're going shopping, you will definitely run into people who are trying to overcharge you. They can probably find for less than half of the price. But I will say that, yes, when you are bartering, try not to barter so much because this is how these locals actually make their income. From my experiences here, people have been wanting to charge me over 50% of the actual price. But honestly, from all the Southeast Asian countries that I've gone to, that's usually the case. But here, I've been trying to be overcharged the most. So that is it. So these are all my tips here to help prepare you for when you come to Bali. I actually should have left Bali 10 minutes ago, but I actually have to get over to the airport in like half an hour because I'm going to Korea and I'm going to leave Emmanuel over here. So thank you guys so much for watching this far into my video. I hope this video helped. And if you guys haven't done so already, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe onto my channel for more travel vlogs like this. I'll see you guys in Korea. Safe and happy travels, y'all.