How much does a trip to Bali cost?

Bali spans a wider price range than almost anywhere. The same island supports a 12-dollar guesthouse and a 1,200-dollar clifftop villa, and both are having a good time. Here are the honest numbers, excluding flights.

Three daily budgets

Backpacker, roughly 35 to 60 USD a day. Guesthouse or hostel at 12 to 30, warung food at 2 to 4 a meal, scooter at 5, beers at 2 to 3, entry fees and the occasional tour.

Comfortable, roughly 90 to 160 USD a day. A good hotel or a small private villa with a pool at 60 to 110, a mix of warungs and cafes, a driver a couple of days a week, massages, a beach club afternoon.

Villa holiday, roughly 250 USD a day and up. A three-bedroom villa with staff at 200 to 500 a night split between a group, restaurant meals, a full-time driver, spa, and any activity you want.

Two people sharing a villa cuts the accommodation line in half per person, which is why Bali is disproportionately good value for groups and couples and only moderately good for solo travellers.

The line items

Accommodation. A clean private room in a guesthouse runs 20 to 35 USD. A good boutique hotel is 60 to 120. A two-bedroom private villa with a pool is 120 to 250 in most of the south, higher in Uluwatu and for anything with a real ocean view. Rates drop 30 to 50 per cent in February and rise hard in July, August and around Christmas.

Food. This is where the spread is widest. A nasi campur at a local warung is 25,000 to 40,000 rupiah. A brunch in Canggu with a smoothie bowl is 150,000 to 250,000. A dinner at a good restaurant with drinks is 400,000 to 800,000 per person. You can eat for 8 dollars a day or 80, in the same street.

Drinks. Local beer is cheap. Imported spirits and wine are heavily taxed and expensive: expect 150,000 to 250,000 rupiah for a cocktail in a beach club, and the wine list to cost more than the food.

Transport. Scooter 70,000 to 100,000 a day. Driver 600,000 to 900,000 a day. App rides 30,000 to 100,000 a hop.

Activities. Temple and attraction entries 30,000 to 100,000 per person. Surf lesson 350,000 to 600,000. Fun dive with gear 700,000 to 1,200,000. Massage 100,000 to 250,000 an hour at a local spa, three times that in a hotel.

Day trips. Nusa Penida with boat, driver and lunch is typically 700,000 to 1,200,000 per person. Mount Batur sunrise trek is usually 500,000 to 900,000 including transfers.

What people forget to budget

• The tourist levy, IDR 150,000 per person on arrival.
• The 10 per cent accommodation tax plus service charge, which adds about 21 per cent to hotel and restaurant bills where it is charged. Cheap menus usually include it; hotel restaurants usually do not.
• ATM withdrawal fees, typically 30,000 to 50,000 rupiah per transaction, plus your own bank's charge. Withdraw larger amounts less often.
• Card rates. Choose to be charged in rupiah, never in your home currency, whenever a terminal offers.
• Airport transfers, both ways, which are 20 to 40 dollars each in a car.
• The last-day spend. Everyone buys the same rattan bag and pays baggage fees on it.

The cheap version and the expensive version of the same trip

A week in Bali in February, staying in Sanur guesthouses, eating in warungs and riding a scooter, comes in around 450 to 600 dollars a head plus flights.

The same week in August in a Uluwatu villa with a driver and restaurant meals is 2,500 to 4,000 a head.

Both are Bali. What the money buys you is space, a pool, and not sitting in traffic.