Flights cost a total of $650, with tickets being bought a week beforehand on the way there and then three days before on my way out. We flew Air Asia there, and I was wary of the budget airline, but it was fine even with a layover in Kuala Lumpur -- and overall cheaper even with the extreme baggage fees. On the way back though, I opted for China Airlines and a direct flight, which was about $400 one way. (Just had to get home!) Tack on about $100 for getting to and from the airport six separate times, and the total cost of getting door to door from Taipei to Bali was about $750.
Housing was cheap, as we had two people and opted for hostel-like conditions. The first AirBnB was bare bones and clean, and the second one was very nice, with daily breakfast and cleanings. The first one was $23 per night and the second $17. Split that between two people, plus tip, and all our housing costs came out to about $150 each for two weeks.
We didn’t scooter around, as recommended, so mostly it was walking around. But there were still taxis needed to go from Canggu to Ubud, about an hour's ride away, and that was roughly $18 one-way. Overall I spent maybe $40 on taxis and a handful of Ubers, but really didn’t ride in a car unless it was to another town.
SIM cards were easy to acquire, and even though I ran out of 10GB data three days before I left, I just got anther one, to the tune of $16 total, so about a dollar per day for 3G/LTE action.
Food was a problem, as we were in pretty touristy places and the options were limited to Westernized sit-down spots, or warungs, which were local road side restaurants (that mostly served the same thing). We avoided most of the upscale/midscale dining places, and shied away from all the "amazing fusion" food Bali is apparently becoming known for. Also, keep in mind I basically eat once or twice a day, so my food bill was pretty low.
Food in beachy Canggu was more expensive certainly, but overall a basic meal cost $4-7, with prices scaling up by a dollar or two either way. Portions were large, acai bowls and healthy type smoothies were plentiful, but finding cheap decent local food was mostly a bust. We did splurge for big dinners at La Favela ($65 for two), Room 4 Dessert ($60), and an Indonesian tapas place ($17) but otherwise most of the food was around ten bucks. Oh, except for my airport hamburger on the way back, that was a whopping $16 by itself. Also the one local chain I tried, a fried chicken place, gave me diarrhea for two days. So there's that...
Snacks of all kinds were consumed, to the tune of $25, plus $7 on groceries which probably means water and drinks, and maybe another $7 on laundry, extra paper towels, and toilet paper. I paid $6 for two packs of cigarettes, which came in just about the same for my drinking costs, since I don’t drink. Also, I didn’t really shop/buy anything, aside from $6 worth of trinkets at a gift store and $20 for a pair of big poofy pants that I'm very excited about.
“Play” in general cost $65 and that included $30 for the Bali Bird Park, $6 for Agung Rai Museum of Art, and about $20 for beach chair and surfboard rentals. (Standard beach rates were $7.50 for a chair and $3.50 for two hours with a board.) I actually did very little, so that represents the low end of what could be possible. There were no temples, shows, or much of anything else on my play list, so mostly it was just birds birds birds!
Overall the two weeks in Bali cost $2,000 all inclusive. As you can see, most of the cost is in getting there, but once in paradise you could live there for semi-cheap -- although not as cheap as you'd expect. Was paradise worth it? Well, I came back two weeks early, skipping Gili Islands and more surfing at Uluwatu, so you tell me!
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