We stayed 29 days and budgeted $40 per day for two people, which ended up being too low, even though our final average was pretty close. We were able to keep it low mainly by picking our accommodations carefully and eating very cheap. We found one warung in Indonesia that we loved and she served Nasi Campur, our favorite dish in Gili Air, which was only $1.10. Some days we would eat that twice a day and only end up spending $4.40 on food. When we weren’t eating Nasi Campur, we ate Nasi Goreng (fried rice) and Mie Goreng (fried noodles) for pretty much every meal ($2.00 and under), and had breakfast covered at every place we stayed (eggs and toast or pancake and fruit with coffee). We ended up spending an average of $46.31 per day, not including our “Adventures” budget. (All numbers are total for the two of us, items like visas, fees, activities and food can be split in half to get a per person amount.)
Exchange rate: 9,000 IDR = $1 USD
Below, you can see a breakdown of our 4 weeks in Indonesia by category:
| CATEGORY | USD ($) |
|---|---|
| Lodging | $654.81 |
| Food | $328.91 |
| Misc. | $105.37 |
| Transportation | $176.10 |
| Activities | $31.27 |
| Visa on arrival x 2 | $50.00 |
| Total Spending | $1,346.76 |
Budget Notes:
- For lodging, we stayed in guesthouses. There are many accommodation options in Bali and Gili Air and we could have spent even less if our standards were lower.
- Food was pretty cheap if you knew where to find it. Most restaurants in Bali were expensive, but if you only ate at warungs, you could eat plenty of good food for cheap.
- Misc. included flip flops, new shorts for Josh, a book, lots of bug spray and sunscreen, playing cards (how did we leave these at home?), and $30 for the stupid airport departure fee that required Josh to go through security three times since there are no ATMs in Ngurah Rai airport.
- Transportation included three taxi rides (Kerobokan – Seminyak, Seminyak – Ubud, Kuta – Airport) and our fast boat to Gili Air.
- Activities does not include our scuba diving in the Gilis which is included in our separate “Adventure” budget shown below:
| ADVENTURE | USD ($) |
|---|---|
| Scuba Diving – Open Water Certification x 2 | $755.98 |
| Scuba Diving – Adventure Deep Dive x 2 | $118.07 |
| Total Adventure Spending | $874.04 |
Indonesia is a country made up of over 17,000 islands, and by going to two we saw less than 1% of them. With that said, based on what we saw, Indonesia is very affordable. There are many mini marts with cheap snacks, water and toiletries compared to other touristy destinations. Accommodation is available at every budget level and Indonesian food is cheap everywhere. If you are traveling on a budget, there are many places in Indonesia where you could stay for awhile. We would have stayed longer if our visa didn’t end!
Hi there!
Interesting post. We spent about the same in the past two weeks in Bali. Will arrive on Gili’s on the 25th. Staying on Gili Air. What is the name of the warung you liked with the great nasi? Would like to check it out!
Regards,
Erica
It was Warung Muslim. Definitely go. When you get off the boat on Gili Air, go to the right, and you’ll see Oceans 5 (stay there!) after that, take the first left on the little path, and then turn right at the next intersection (after the Natural spa). Warung Muslim is the first place on the left.
Nice post, very inforrmative. Keep us updated.
thanx!
I also spent just 1 month in Indonesia because my visa ran out. If it was a longer visa it would definitely be easy to stay for a very long time in Indonesia. Great insights into your travel budget for Indonesia!
Thanks for the comment Mark! We love your blog and have been trying to find all your recommended foods in Bangkok. Indonesia was very hard to leave.
I was just thinking that it would be cool to keep money from each place that you visit, but I know you don’t want to carry that around nor “waste” that money! LOL Love your detailed post and organizational skills. Impressive.
We actually still have HKD, SGD and IDR. Will probably convert most of the HKD and SGD at some point. Without even trying it’s easy to misjudge how much you need and end up with some left over. We did good with IDR though, only 1,000 left ($0.11). 🙂 Thanks!
Josh, these posts are super helpful for me and my wife as we’re planning out our own RTW travels. Thanks for your transparency.
I’m really glad these are helping. We found the budget posts on other blogs were extremely valuable and wanted to give back. Let me know if you have any suggestions on how I can give more explanation or data.
Thanks for sharing your budget. I find it very useful when planning future trips. The added benefit of knowing where to find the cheap food is priceless.
You’re welcome! Thanks for reading. We are endlessly in search of cheap food, so look for more on that!
Hey guys,
I just got back from visiting Britt in Barcelona and being in Spain and France really made me want to travel again. Britt sent me the link to your page and I just wanted to say I love the extreme details so others can plan trips of their own. I will be following your page for now on.
Thanks Laura! Glad to hear you’ve gotten the travel bug.
How was the diving in Indonesia?
Really great. It was our first time, so we don’t have much to compare it to, but we loved it.