The cost of travelling in Bali and Lombok, Indonesia

When I travel, I like to try to keep track on my daily spending. I came to South East Asia, with a rough budget plan, and I am trying to stick to it. All my costs get recorded in a notepad, which made it easier to budget.

I’m not overly frugal however, I don’t stick to the budget 100%. Some days I will spend a lot more, and others a lot less, so it sort of works out.

Bali and, subsequently Lombok was the first stop on my 4 month trip around South East Asia. I did end up sticking to my per daily budget, but probably could have done this all a lot cheaper.

Indonesia uses the Rupiah (Rp or MYR) as its currency, as of July 2014, the exchange rate for 100,000 Rp (just to make it easier to convert):

Australia Dollars: $8.90

US Dollars: $8.30

NZ Dollars: $9.50

GBP: £4.88

Here is a breakdown of all my costs:

Accommodation

A private guesthouse in the Gilli Islands. More expensive, but lovely to have my own space.

I stayed mostly in hostels, which were fairly cheap, and one homestay which was slightly more expensive

Total cost: 2,160,000 Rp

Transport:

I mainly took buses, taxi’s and one return ferry journey to get around Bali

Total cost: 1,587,000 Rp

Visas:

Entry visa and exit fee for Bali

Total cost: 502,000 Rp

Food and drink:

I ate out all the time, or had street food. Mainly as I was moving around all the time, and most places I was staying didn’t have cooking facilities. It was cheap, but I could have eaten cheaper. Sometimes I splurged on a nice restaurant.