Travel To Bali In 2021 As Americans

How YOU Can Travel To Bali In 2021

As we are wrapping up our first few weeks as Americans living in Bali, we can’t resist sharing our process of how we traveled to Bali.

Several months ago, my boyfriend Matt and I decided that after graduating from college, we would spend one year living on the beautiful island of Bali, Indonesia.

So, let’s get into it.

I’ll start off by sharing our process of how we got into Bali during a global pandemic, and the necessary steps you will need to take if you are planning on moving to Bali. 

Travel to Bali in 2021 as Americans Checklist:

• Apply For Visa
• Travel and Health Insurance
• Schedule PCR Test Within 72 Hours of Departure
• Book Flights to Jakarta, Indonesia
• Book Quarantine Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia
• Book Flight from Jakarta, Indonesia to Denpasar, Bali
• Book Bali Accommodation & Schedule Airport Pick-Up
• Enjoy Bali!

Apply For Your Visa

Currently, Americans aren’t allowed into Bali as tourists, so our first step was applying for our visas.

In order to do this, we reached out to a visa agency here in Bali called Bali Business Consulting.

We submitted our applications and paid a total of ​​IDR 5,853,900 each ($412.50).

Within 3 business days of submitting our applications, we were both approved for our visas. 

We could not recommend Bali Business Consulting more, and they even provided us with a guarantee letter in case we would get asked at customs upon arrival.

Link to Bali Business Consulting

Travel & Health Insurance

The next step we needed to take in order to get into Bali was getting travel and health insurance.

The travel and health insurance agency that we use is SafetyWing. It costs $42 a month and covers travel, health, and even COVID-19 while we are abroad.

SafetyWing automatically renews every month, so we do not need to worry about it while we are here.

It is also a very reputable agency that many (if not most) expats use while traveling.

Link to SafetyWing

Flights & PCR Tests

Once we had our visa and travel/health insurance, it was time to book our flights.

Due to the current situation during the date of our departure from America, we had to do a mandatory quarantine in Jakarta, Indonesia for 4 nights and 5 days, which therefore meant that we couldn’t fly straight to Bali.

Not only did we have to do a quarantine upon arrival in Jakarta, but we also had to take 1 PCR test 72 hours before our flight, 1 PCR test upon arrival in Jakarta, and 1 PCR test on the 4th day at our quarantine hotel.

We booked our flights departing from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Our first flight was 9 hours long and landed us in Tokyo, Japan, where we had a 1-hour layover until our next 10-hour flight to Jakarta, Indonesia.

We flew Japan Airlines and were blown away by the remarkable customer service, spacious economy-class seats, and surprisingly delicious airplane food.

Quarantine Hotel

Following our arrival in Jakarta, we went through customs, got our bags at baggage claim, took our 2nd PCR test, and were greeted by staff from our quarantine hotel, which we booked around a week before our trip.

Matt and I stayed at the Novotel Jakarta Gajah Mada, where we were isolated in our hotel room for 4 nights and 5 days.

The total cost for our quarantine hotel room came out to $732, which is unheard of in America for a 4-night stay at a 4-star hotel. 

The Novotel was the perfect stay for us and they even offered free transportation from the airport to the hotel.

We were brought breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, and also had the option of ordering 24-hour room service (which we splurged on).

On our 4th day in quarantine, we took our final PCR test at the hotel and received our negative results that same day, which permitted us to leave the following day.

Jakarta to Bali Flight

We booked our flight from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK) in Jakarta to Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) in Bali, and it cost us $46 each.

The total duration of the flight was only 1 hour and 20 minutes. 

Bali Accommodation

At 4 PM on November 9th, we finally made it to Bali and were greeted by our incredibly kind taxi driver, which our Airbnb host organized for us.

He drove us to Ubud, Bali, which is around 1 hour from the airport in Denpasar, depending on traffic.

The total cost of the taxi fare was $25, and of course we tipped kindly.

When we arrived at our Airbnb, our villa manager, Kadek, was waiting for us and showed us around, gave us our Wifi code, and made sure that we were comfortable in our new home for the month.

She also gave us her WhatsApp number, in case we needed anything…which we ended up needing… a lot. 

Our beautiful villa for our first month in Ubud, Bali is one that we found on Airbnb after months of research.

Our requirements for our villa included: a private, modern, one or two-bedroom, indoor kitchen and living space, private pool, WIFI, AC, and within a 10-minute drive of Ubud Centre.

We were able to find plenty of great options, but the one we decided on came out to a total of $800 for one month ($4oo each), and we could not have been happier with our choice.

Due to fewer tourists in Bali during COVID, the prices for luxurious accommodations have gone down a lot, so we were incredibly lucky to get such a great deal.

Enjoy Bali!

Now that we’ve covered how we managed to pull off moving all the way to Bali, Indonesia as a young, American couple that just recently graduated from college, we want to know what you think of our journey so far and the process we took to get here!

Are you interested in traveling or moving abroad?

We thank you for reading our first blog post, and hope that you continue to enjoy our content!