Moving to a new country takes a lot of research, a lot of trial and error, and usually a lot of patience.
When you are living in Bali as an expat, or if you are considering moving to Bali, it can be really helpful to get your tips from others who have done the same before you!
We have some key businesses and services that really help with making our Bali life easier, and also help with our cost of living in Bali too.
Read about each of them below…
Table of Contents
You can save this page to your Pinterest board for later. Feel free to follow Bali Buddies Blog’s boards and get the latest pin directly from there as well.
1
Using AeroConnect (link only works for mobile devices) to take care of our visas in Bali has not only saved us a lot of money, but the process has also been far more professional than anyone we have dealt with in the past.
Using the AeroConnect app we can track every step of where our visa process is at, and they have a money-back guarantee in the case your visa does not get approved.
The AeroConnect team is also who we highly recommend when it comes to setting up a company as a foreigner in Indonesia, their rates and professionalism takes all of the guesswork out of what is required to legally establish yourself a company in Indonesia.
This service gives you an assigned airport butler on arrival who fast tracks you through the immigration process at the airport and guides you through the entire process (this is especially helpful during times of COVID when landing abroad and following new protocol can be confusing!). AeroConnect is certainly a Bali lifeline for us now, we love the professionalism of this company and highly recommend their services.
*This link only works on phones
2
When it comes to day-to-day life in Bali, things such as transport, food delivery, buying electricity for you house, purchasing phone data, buying cinema tickets can all be done from your phone…and better still can all be done in one app!
Grab app is a super app that literally makes your life and time in Bali so much easier and cheaper! We can’t tell you how many times a day we used this app. Using Grab to book our transport in either a car or a motorbike, or to order food delivery are the two ways we use the app the most. This is super app though, the more you use it, the more features you will discover!
When you run out of something at home or want to send something to a friend or client, you can even use to the app to do this. There is even an option to shop from the Mart. We can’t tell you how handy it is to be able to get groceries or other items delivered without having to leave home. Paying bills and buying tickets can also be done on the app. Like we said, the more you use it, the more features you will discover!
You can either pay using cash or you can connect your account to your bank card. For us, we find it so much easier to have our card attached to our account, this means no searching for cash or waiting for change when you order something. The truth is, once you get use to life with the convenience of Grab app, it’s very hard to live without it, it truly is a Bali lifeline and must when you are living on the Island.
3
If you are living in Bali there is no doubt you have seen some of the disturbing images coming out lately of the plastic situation on the beaches during the extreme rainy season. We feel it’s everyone’s responsibility to do what we can, when we can, to reduce single-use plastics being used.
Easy things we’ve always done are to always carry a reusable shopping bag, refuse plastic straws and take a water bottle with us and refill where we can (rather than buying water bottles). When it came to reducing single-use plastics in our home we found this task a little overwhelming, and this is where Zero Waste Bali has become an integral part of our Bali lives.
Late last year we heard about their new REFILLution Bali program. Basically, it’s a monthly delivery/subscription service where they will bring you whatever you need, and this includes swapping out your liquid items (think oils, shampoos, body wash, laundry products), meaning no more throwing away plastic bottles every month! You hand back your empty glass bottles and they give you new full ones.
Your used glass bottles are then cleaned and then reused. Their service is great and there is nothing to be locked into. You can create a recurring, monthly delivery, which you can also make changes and additions/exclusions as you need to each month.
For those like us who found the idea of changing out household items to be zero waste a little daunting, Zero Waste has created starter packs for each of the rooms in your house. That way you can just start with one room and transition slowly (every bit helps!). The best part is, we’ve done the math, when you compare buying these items from traditional stores gram for gram the zero waste alternative often works out cheaper.
Zero Waste Bali is always really supportive with any questions that you have about their services and switching from single-use plastics. We also have taken to gift buying from Zero Waste. Their starter kits make a great gift. What better gift to give (both to Bali and your loved ones) than to help someone start their own zero waste journey.
4
Living in Bali as an expat means that you usually have money both in your original home country and in Bali, and quite often you need to transfer between the two countries. Not only can this work out to be super expensive, but it can also be so time-consuming if you try to do this through the local banking systems. We absolutely can not live in Bali without Wise, we use it both for business and for personal use.
Wise is easy to use both in the app form and in the desktop version. You can not beat their exchange rates or their low fees when it comes to transferring money between countries. Better still it is super quick! Often when we send money from Australia to Bali, it hits our Bali bank in under a minute.
If you are transferring money between countries for any reason, definitely set yourself up a Wise account.
5
I wish we had discovered Rebtel earlier but alas, now we’ve found it, it’s here to stay! When calling our banks etc back in Australia (any business that doesn’t use internet-based contact options) we’d end up spending a lot on landline calls. Someone gave us the tip about the Rebtel app.
We now have a monthly subscription for $5 USD per month that gives us unlimited calls to Australia (including 13 and 1300 numbers). You can either choose one country or you can choose worldwide numbers for $10 USD per month.
Itinerary Planner
Podcast
Travel Deals
PS. Some links in this blog are affiliate links and if you make a purchase, at no extra cost to you, we receive a commission. We thank you in advance as it helps to keep this website going.
Bali Buddies is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
For more information, please visit our disclaimer page.
If relaxing poolside in Bali is high on your vacation’s priority list, a hotel or resort with a swim-up bar is a must. Here are our favourite resorts in Bali with a swim-up bar.
Located at the southern part of Bali, Seminyak is home to some of the most beautiful resorts in the region. This comes at no surprise, with the dazzling stretch facing the Indian Ocean being the perfect setting for a beautiful oasis like Hotel Indigo.
Find the best Bali hotel deals, weekly updated by Bali Buddies. From luxury beachfront resorts to private pool villas, we’ve got you covered.
Hitting that magic 100% occupancy rate is little more than a dream for most hotels. But Ini Vie Hospitality’s newest property, Astera Villa Canggu, has done just that since opening in November last year.
Located right beside the largest lifestyle complex in Bali, Beachwalk Shopping Mall, 15-minutes drive from the international airport, just a few steps away from the phenomenal sunset and surfing beach, Kuta, Aloft Bali Kuta is all about location!
No trip to Bali is complete without indulging in some self pampering. Here’s a list with our favourite spa experiences in Bali.
Between 2009 and 2018, the world lost about 14% of its coral reefs, due to the rising sea temperature. That is more than the size of all of Australia’s reefs combined. Let’s think about that for a second…
From huge free-form swimming pools to interactive games rooms and traditional crafts activities, Bali’s top family hotels know exactly how to keep the little ones entertained. Here’s our edit of Bali’s best hotels for families in each area of the island.
