Bali in 6 Days: Cheap and Local
Six days in Bali covers the cheap Ubud-and-south core from the shorter versions of this trip, then adds a full Nusa Penida day and two budget nights further east, in Sidemen or Amed rather than the resort strip. Bali is an island and a province of Indonesia, not a country of its own, and even a warung-and-homestay budget carries two fixed costs before day one starts: Indonesia’s Rp 500,000 paid visa on arrival and the separate Rp 150,000 tourist levy.
Shorter on time? The 2-day and 3-day versions of this trip cover the same cheap Ubud base without the trip east; this 6-day plan nests both inside it and keeps going. The Bali guide has more room on the visa, the levy and the seasonal calendar than a day-by-day plan does.
Book these before you go:
- A Nusa Penida day trip on Viator , the fast boat from Sanur sells out in peak season and a shared tour beats chartering your own
- An Amed snorkeling or Sidemen day tour on GetYourGuide , useful if you’d rather not put unfamiliar east-coast roads on a rental scooter
- A budget homestay or guesthouse in Sidemen , worth booking ahead of the July-August peak when the cheap rooms go first
| 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, warung dinner | Rp 250,000-450,000 |
| 3 | Tirta Empul’s purification pools, Tegenungan or Tibumana waterfall, Ubud Art Market | Rp 150,000-350,000 |
| 4 | Full-day Nusa Penida trip: Kelingking cliff, Angel’s Billabong, fast boat from Sanur | Rp 450,000-750,000 |
| 5 | Shared driver east to Sidemen or Amed, check into a homestay, walk the terraces or coast | Rp 300,000-550,000 |
| 6 | A last morning in Sidemen or Amed, then the drive back to the airport | Rp 200,000-400,000 |
Neither the table nor a day’s spend includes the one-time Rp 150,000 tourist levy or the Rp 500,000 visa fee. Both are paid once for the whole trip, not per day, but they land before Day 1 even starts.
Day 1: Ubud, cheap and on foot
Base yourself in Ubud for the first three nights; it’s the cheapest, most walkable anchor for the temples and rice terraces ahead. Start at the Campuhan Ridge Walk before 7am, a free grassy-ridge trail with no ticket booth, done before the heat and the tour groups arrive. Walk back for a warung lunch, nasi campur or mie goreng at a plain local table rather than a menu written for tourists, and expect to pay a fraction of a cafe price for it.
In the afternoon, head to the Tegallalang rice terraces. There’s a small path fee paid to the farmers who keep the paddies working, and it’s worth the stop for the view, but get the correction 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 , and the actual listed terraces sit at Jatiluwih, further west. Tegallalang runs the same subak tradition; it just isn’t the site UNESCO named.
For the evening, find a village-style Kecak or Legong performance in Ubud itself rather than paying Uluwatu prices twice on one trip. It’s a cheap, walk-up ticket with no advance booking needed. Getting around Ubud by scooter is cheap, but it’s a real legal and safety 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 of how short the ride looks.
Day 2: Uluwatu’s cliff temple and the Kecak sunset
Uluwatu sits roughly 1.5 to 2 hours south of Ubud depending on traffic, which on Bali’s roads is most of the time. Hiring a driver for the day at a fixed rate, split with anyone travelling with you, is the cheaper and safer move for a drive this long; a scooter can technically do it with the right permit, but the distance and the dark ride back make a driver the better trade.
At the temple, a sarong and sash are required and usually available to borrow or rent at the gate. Uluwatu’s resident macaques grab sunglasses and hats off visitors, so keep loose items zipped away; rabies is present in Bali’s stray dogs and monkeys, and any bite or scratch needs medical care immediately, not a wait-and-see approach. 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, grab grilled seafood at a plain Jimbaran warung stall rather than the pricier tables right on the sand, and skip the cheapest arak on the menu; counterfeit and cheap spirits have caused real methanol poisoning deaths in Indonesia, and it can’t be tasted or smelled in a mixed drink.
Day 3: A second temple, a waterfall, and a slower morning
Sleep in a little, then spend the morning at Tirta Empul, the sacred spring temple near Tampaksiring where Balinese visitors bathe in the purification pools as genuine practice rather than a photo op. A small entrance fee covers it, a sarong is required, and bring a change of clothes if you plan to join the pools rather than watch. If you’d rather see the Sacred Monkey Forest instead, the same rabies caution from Day 2 applies there too.
In the afternoon, hike down to Tegenungan or Tibumana waterfall. Tegenungan is minutes from Ubud and busy by mid-morning; Tibumana is quieter and further out, and either one is a short walk past a small entrance fee. Close the day at the Ubud Art Market, where the asking price on sarongs, baskets and wood carvings is a starting offer, not the price; haggling down by a third or more is normal. This is the last full day based in Ubud, so use the evening to book tomorrow’s boat and confirm your levy payment if you haven’t already.
Day 4: A full day at Nusa Penida
Book a fast boat from Sanur, well under an hour each crossing, for a full day at Nusa Penida rather than trying to squeeze it into a half-day. The Kelingking cliff and Angel’s Billabong are the two sights everyone comes for, and a shared day tour costs less than chartering a private boat and driver for the island’s rough, guardrail-free roads. Bring cash; card machines are unreliable once you’re off the boat, and small notes matter more here than anywhere else on this trip. Head back to the mainland by early evening and sleep in Ubud one more night before moving east tomorrow.
Day 5: East to Sidemen or Amed
Check out of Ubud and hire a driver for the roughly two-hour run east to Sidemen, a quieter rice-terrace valley with none of the south coast’s traffic, or continue on to Amed, a black-sand coast better suited to snorkeling than surfing. Splitting the driver’s day rate with anyone else on the same route keeps the cost close to what a scooter would run, without the highway risk of covering that distance on two wheels yourself. If Munduk or Lovina in the north appeal more than the east, the same logic applies; just add an hour or so of driving each way.
Check into a homestay or basic guesthouse rather than a resort; Sidemen and Amed both run cheaper than anywhere in the south, and a homestay host is usually the best source for where the locals actually eat that night. Spend the afternoon walking the rice terraces or the coastline rather than booking another paid activity; this stretch of the trip is where the itinerary is meant to slow down.
Day 6: A last morning, then the drive back
Use the morning for one more walk, a swim, or a snorkel session if you’re in Amed, before the drive back to Ngurah Rai airport. Build in real time for the return leg: two to three hours is realistic from Sidemen or Amed once you allow for traffic near Denpasar, and a departure day is not where you want to test how bad Bali’s roads can get. Confirm your driver for the return the night before rather than trying to arrange one that morning.
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 , by card, bank transfer or QRIS, or at a counter on arrival; the payment produces a QR-code voucher that’s your proof of payment, so keep it on your phone before you land.
Do you need a visa for Bali?
Yes, for most Western nationalities; Bali doesn’t offer visa-free entry the way some older guides 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 a trip that includes a boat day and a long drive east; July and August are the busiest and priciest months. Wet season runs November through March, with short, heavy downpours rather than all-day washouts, and cheaper rooms throughout. If any part of this six-day 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 your dates land anywhere close to 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. Carry small IDR notes once you’re past Ubud’s ATMs, since Sidemen and Amed both lean more on cash and QRIS than card terminals, and a big-note withdrawal that looked efficient in Ubud just means struggling to break it at a homestay warung.