We surely hope so!
The end of the year, with its welcomed mane of Indonesian visitors, is done and gone. January 2022 saw Bali slip back to peace and quiet, apart from a few epic rainstorms. February is now on the way inaugurating the year of the tiger, and everyone is even more eager to welcome international visitors in Bali again.
Here are our advices to start planning a trip to Bali…and a fun transition with the previous section.
Get the correct information
The best way to keep up to date with the regulations for quarantine and visas along with travel and health requirements is the one stop information source: Welcome Back to Bali . It offers reliable and regular updates and verified links to sources and official websites immigration, covid task force, tourism association etc.
The landing page is – in my humble opinion – a bit messy. I strongly advise going straight to the left hand side menu to click on the section with the info you’re looking for.
Did you know that Bali had an actual tiger subspecies of its own, Harimau Bali (Harimau is tiger in Bahasa Indonesia)? It has been extinct (very sad) since the 1950’s. In 2017 it also was reclassified as belonging to the same species than Sumatran tigers.
Contrary to Bali tigers, Bali 2022 tourism is NOT extinct, it did however suffer a huge blow to the heart and wallet since March 2020 with the suspension of both:
Get a visa
Until the return of the NNFVV (“No Need For Visa” Visa) and the VOA, international visitors in Bali have a choice of 2 visas.
- B211a (for tourists and only since Oct 2021) and
- B211b (for business)
These visas for International visitors in Bali typically have a limitation on the numbers issued per day and get suspended in times of new variants scares or epidemic pics. They need to be pre-arranged and paid for. Depending on the agent it takes between 3 to 10 days to get the go ahead . Our guests have enjoyed great services from a visa agency, finding them reliable, very reactive and with great communication.
Book the best possible quarantine accommodation
Then of course there’s the issue of the quarantine.
The regulation states the number of days. One less night than the number you read, yay! Since March 2020 it’s been between 14 days (13 nights) to 3 days (2 nights).
From February 4 2022 (tomorrow then!), it’s supposed to be 5 days (4 nights), with…wait for it…the possibility to quarantine in Bali! Until today quarantine in Bali was only possible for international flights, which did not exist.
The modalities are still unclear. It’s quite probable that guests will have to stay in their rooms. My advice is to choose wisely your quarantine hotel in the official list. UPDATE : for the 5 “test hotels” quarantine travelers are allowed to use hotel facilities (separated from general public) and have dedicated quarantine staff taking care of them.
Since you might not be allowed to exit your “room”, go for hotels with “villa” or “bungalow” type rooms. They are pretty mainstream in Bali like the ones in Tanjung Sari rather than for classical hotel buildings.
Buy a plane ticket
Singapore Airlines has announced that flights would resume to Denpasar on February 16 2022. Let’s see how that goes! That would be the first international flights into Bali Airport since they have been officially re-authorised on Oct 14 2021. Bali airport even offers massively reduced landing fees for airlines.
So far no other airline has announced international flights for DPS. They are probably waiting to see if Singapore Airlines manages to fill up their planes. Make sure to ask about cancellation policies and health requirements. You might not know it, but the Airline’s check-in staff are in charge of deciding whether your documents are in compliance with the regulations.
Book your holiday accomodations
Depending of the length of your stay you might want to see several parts of Bali, and try different accomodation styles. Beach, rice-field, volcano, jungle? Jimbaran, Seminyak (that’s where we are!), Canggu, Ubud, Sidemen? Villa, hotel, guest house, glamping? Bali offers many possibilities.
- For hotels we advise booking directly on the website.
- For villas more unconventional stays we recommend using a platform such as Airbnb. You will be able to read verified reviews, choose the most reliable hosts and enjoy the safety of third party payment.
We of course would love to welcome you in one of our 4 villas, Lucy and Awen will make sure that you get the most of your Bali holidays!
Pack (light)…and Go!
