Tips for Digital Nomads Traveling to Bali

Digital Nomads have a love-hate relationship with Bali: It has the best and the worst that a hub for digital nomads can offer. I’ve asked 12 digital nomads to each to tell us what were the 3 things that they like the most on the island.

The culture, the surf, the nature, the people are amazing. But internet connections are notoriously unreliable, even though amazing coworking spaces like Hubud in Ubud, LineUp Hub on Sunset Road, The Dojo in Canggu have sprung up and cheap mobile internet connections allow you to code from the side of your pool villa.

As the owner of 2 villas in Bali and as a digital nomad myself, I know how crucial a great internet can be. For instance, at my beach retreat Bulung Daya, I’ve had a giant antenna installed to get the signal from the other side of the island.

However, digital nomads are not just digital beings: They like that they island is so big that you actually spend a long time here, that the surf is so good and that there plenty of other digital nomads to meet (especially in Ubud, where a few members of the Tropical MBA / Dynamite Circle crowd hang out).

Chiang Mai in Thailand is a big hub for digital nomads, but Ubud in Bali has a lot of similar things to offer.

Find out what these 12 digital nomads have to say about Bali, Indonesia.

• People
  You keep meeting new people from all around the world. It’s surprising how people from countries you’ve barely heard of, are more like you than people who live in your own street back home. Local people are great fun to chat with and hang out with.

• Places to Work
  I’ve visited Lineup Hub, Hubud and The Dojo. All are good but different – so you can choose your particular flavour of nomad life or hop between them. Now that wireless mobile is easy to get and pretty fast, you can work from pretty much anywhere.

• Surf
  There are surf beaches (and lessons) for all levels. A great way to have fun and stay fit. If you don’t know how to do it, this a great place to learn as there are so many instructors and places to hire boards from to practice. Elsewhere learning and practising will require more planning.

• Awesome people (locals, as well as other Digital Nomads)

• Chilled atmosphere (If you want it)

• Activities (although, I am a surfer and have a surf company so I am biased!)

• Great nature. Too much beautiful beach, lake, mountain.

• Great culture. Yeah Bali is a blend of tradition and hindus religion. and a little bit chinese i think.

• Great food. Yes of course, lawar, betutu, jukut meurap, siobak, are delicious!

• Relaxed pace of life in the interior of Bali combined with epic surfing/scuba diving at the beach.

• Easy and cheap to fly there from anywhere in SE Asia via Denpasar International Airport.

• Interesting spiritual and yoga scene around Ubud lets you chill out and get work done.

• Always hot weather, big waves if you like to surf, relatively cheap, but a lot of places to spend money in.

• Easy to get long-term visa.

• Enough coworking spaces to choose from – Lineup Hub is highly recommended!

Bali is my favorite place in the world. The six months I spent there was the best time of my life. Internet is crap and working is a bit difficult, but there are workarounds and the lifestyle is well worth it.

• All the world class surf spots that are within 45 minutes of motorbiking.

• Everything is so easy and cheap – getting apartments, motorbikes, surfboards.

• Many nice and modern venues where you can eat and party.

• Spectacular dichotomy of genuine local tradition and expat recreation.

• Daily lifestyle will naturally make you a happier person.

• There’s free wifi everywhere.

No no no…

• There is no good beach. Trash.. trash and trash.

• Expensive food.

• Slow internet.

Phuket is better =)

• Internet is great if you know where to look.
  The common misconception is that Bali has terrible internet, which for the most part is true. However, if you go to anyone of the co-working spaces here, you can get world class internet.

• It’s relatively cheap to live here.
  Although tourists drive the prices up, our rent, for example is half of what we pay back home. In general, things cost around half the price for the same quality we pay back home (in Australia)

• The island itself.
  Bali is beautiful and the weather is hot all year round. They have a relaxed way of life here which I also find refreshing.

• Bali has many nice place for travelling, so I am sure there is no stress after working 🙂

• Everything in Bali is cheap (I mean the restaurant and bar is safety for your wallet)

• There are many co-working spaces, and they have good internet connection and cozy space.

• Bali has a great ambience both for work and leisure, so we can feel more relax while working.

• Has a lot of good coworking space.

• Also good for networking.

• The people are amazing, including the westerners that visit.

• The food and juices (Ubud)

• Cost of living.

I hope that these expert tips will help you make up your mind. When it comes to traveling to Bali itself, you may want to read this other blog article, where we interviewed 13 travel bloggers on their 3 favorite things to do in Bali.

How about you? Do you feel like spending a few weeks or months here in Bali as a digital nomad? Leave a comment below!