Bali in 2 Days: Cheap and Local
Two days in Bali is one cheap, local base, not a tour of the island. Bali is a province of Indonesia, not a country of its own, and this plan keeps you in Ubud both nights: a free ridge walk, a warung lunch, the rice terraces and a low-key village dance on Day 1, then a full day south to Uluwatu’s cliff temple and its sunset Kecak on Day 2. Even a scooter-and-warung budget still carries two fixed costs before you count a single meal: Indonesia’s Rp 500,000 paid visa on arrival and the separate Rp 150,000 tourist levy.
Want more days? A 3-day version of this trip keeps the same Ubud base and adds a slower morning plus a second temple or waterfall; a 6-day version extends south to the coast and works in Nusa Penida as an overnight rather than a rushed day trip. The Bali guide covers the visa, the levy and the seasonal calendar in more depth than a 2-day plan has room for.
Book these before you go:
- Uluwatu Temple and Kecak sunset dance bundling temple entry with the clifftop performance, the one evening on this trip worth pre-booking
- An Ubud rice terrace and temple day tour if you’d rather skip renting a scooter on Day 1 and let someone else drive
- A budget guesthouse or hostel in Ubud , close enough to walk to Campuhan and the market
| Day | Focus | Rough daily spend (IDR) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Free Campuhan Ridge walk, warung lunch, Tegallalang rice terraces, a village dance evening | Rp 150,000-300,000 |
| 2 | Uluwatu Temple, a cliff beach, the Kecak sunset, dinner in Jimbaran or back in Ubud | Rp 250,000-450,000 |
Neither row includes the one-time Rp 150,000 tourist levy or the Rp 500,000 visa fee. Both are paid once for the whole trip rather than per day, but they land before Day 1 even starts, so budget for them separately.
Day 1: Ubud, cheap and on foot
Start early at the Campuhan Ridge Walk, a free ridge trail through grassy hills just outside town, best before the heat sets in and free of any ticket booth. Walk back into Ubud for a warung lunch, a plate of nasi campur or mie goreng at a plain local eatery rather than a resort restaurant, and expect to pay a fraction of what the same dish costs on a cafe menu aimed at tourists.
In the afternoon, head to the Tegallalang rice terraces. There’s a small path fee paid directly to the farmers who maintain the paddies, and it’s worth the stop for the photo everyone comes for, but get the fact most guides skip: Tegallalang is not Bali’s UNESCO-listed rice landscape. That designation belongs to the Subak System, the temple-governed irrigation cooperatives inscribed in 2012 as the Cultural Landscape of Bali Province , whose actual listed terraces sit at Jatiluwih, further west. Tegallalang runs the same subak tradition and looks the part; it simply isn’t the site UNESCO named.
For the evening, look for a village-style Kecak or Legong dance performance in Ubud itself, at a stage like Ubud Palace or in a neighbouring village. It’s a cheap, walk-up ticket with no advance booking needed, and a genuinely different experience from the bigger, pricier Uluwatu version you’ll see tomorrow. Getting around Ubud on foot or by scooter is cheap, but a scooter here is a real safety and legal question, not just a budget one: an International Driving Permit with a motorcycle endorsement is legally required, checkpoints do check, and riding without one can void travel insurance on top of any fine. Wear a helmet regardless.
Day 2: Uluwatu’s cliff temple and the Kecak sunset
Uluwatu sits at the far south of the island, roughly 1.5 to 2 hours from Ubud depending on traffic, which on Bali’s roads is most of the time. For a drive this long, hiring a driver for the day at a fixed rate, split with anyone you’re travelling with, is the cheaper and safer local move, not a splurge; a scooter can technically do the trip if you’re carrying the right permit, but the highway distance and the dark ride back make a driver the better trade for this one day.
At the temple, a sarong and sash are required and usually available to borrow or rent at the gate. Uluwatu’s resident macaques are known for grabbing sunglasses and hats off visitors, so keep loose items zipped away; rabies is present in Bali’s stray dogs and monkeys, so if you’re bitten or scratched by any animal, seek medical care immediately rather than waiting to see if it’s fine. Spend the afternoon at a nearby cliff beach, Padang Padang or Balangan both work on a budget, before the Kecak dance starts at sunset on the temple grounds. For dinner, either grab grilled seafood at a plain Jimbaran warung stall rather than the pricier tourist-facing tables right on the sand, or head back toward Ubud and eat there instead. Either way, skip the homemade arak; cheap and counterfeit spirits have caused real methanol poisoning deaths in Indonesia, and it can’t be tasted or smelled in a mixed drink.
What is the Bali tourist levy?
It’s a one-time Rp 150,000 fee charged to every foreign visitor, in force since February 2024, separate from your visa. Pay it online in advance through the official Love Bali portal or at a counter on arrival; the payment produces a QR-code voucher that’s your proof of payment, so keep it accessible on your phone.
Do you need a visa for Bali?
Yes, for most Western nationalities; Bali does not offer visa-free entry the way some guides still claim. You’ll need a paid Visa on Arrival, Rp 500,000 for 30 days and extendable once for another Rp 500,000, applied for on arrival or in advance as an e-VOA through the official evisa.imigrasi.go.id portal. Use only that domain; copycat sites charging extra fees are a known problem.
When should you go, and what about Nyepi?
Dry season, roughly April through October, is the reliable window for this itinerary, with July and August the busiest and priciest. Wet season runs November through March, with short, heavy downpours rather than all-day washouts. If any part of your trip lands around 19 March 2026, that’s Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence: the entire island shuts down for 24 hours, the airport included, with no flights in or out and everyone required to stay indoors. Don’t book a flight that day, and build a buffer if you’re travelling anywhere near it.
Check the current UK FCDO advice for Indonesia before you go rather than assuming a fixed risk level here; at the time of writing there’s no Bali-specific warning beyond the general national picture, and any elevated call-outs tend to sit around volcanic exclusion zones elsewhere in Indonesia, not Bali itself.
Carry small IDR notes for warungs, path fees and temple donation boxes. A big-note ATM withdrawal that looks efficient on paper just means struggling to break a Rp 100,000 note at a Rp 20,000 lunch stall.