🇮🇩Indonesia

One form before you fly

The All Indonesia arrival card is the single arrival declaration. It is run by the Directorate General of Immigration, it is free, and it covers immigration, customs, health and quarantine in one submission - which means the Electronic Customs Declaration (e-CD) and the SATUSEHAT health pass no longer exist as separate steps. Anything telling you to fill in those two forms is out of date.

• When - within 72 hours of your arrival, via the website or the All Indonesia app.
• Who - every arriving passenger, foreign national and Indonesian citizen alike.
• What you get - a QR code to present at the border. It also matters at the autogates, which will not process you without it.

Getting the visa

Most visitors buy the visa on arrival, either at the airport or online in advance as an e-VOA.

• 500,000 IDR, payable in cash or by card. Single entry only.
• 30 days, counted from the day you land.
• Extendable once, by another 30 days, at an immigration office within Indonesia. The extension is done in person - it is not a website transaction, so leave time for it and do not leave it to the last day.
• Longer stays and multiple entries are applied for online before you travel: the e-visa system issues multiple-entry and 60-day visas.

Check your own nationality before you rely on any of this. Indonesia publishes several overlapping lists - visa on arrival eligibility, a short visa-exemption list, and a calling-visa list - and they are not always in step with one another. The airline checks your case in Timatic at the desk, so confirm yours there too.

What you must be able to show

• A passport valid at least 6 months from the date you arrive, with at least 2 blank pages.
• A return or onward ticket out of Indonesia.
• Proof of funds for some categories.

Bali's own levy

Bali charges a tourist levy of 150,000 IDR per foreign visitor, once per trip, and it is separate from the visa - paying for the VOA does not cover it. Pay it online before you arrive or at the airport.

Overstaying

1,000,000 IDR for each day over. That is the statutory rate and it starts on day one. Beyond 60 days it is no longer a fine: it becomes prosecution, detention, deportation at your own expense, and a ban on returning.

Health

Yellow fever vaccination is required only if you are arriving from a country with yellow fever risk, for travellers aged 9 months and over. Coming directly from Europe or North America it is not required, and the CDC does not otherwise recommend it for Indonesia.

• There is no separate customs form any more. Customs is one of the four sections inside the All Indonesia arrival card, filed free within 72 hours of arrival - it absorbed the old Electronic Customs Declaration and the SATUSEHAT health pass. One submission, one QR code, shown at the gate. Any guide still sending you to fill in an e-CD is describing a form that no longer exists on its own.
• Phones need IMEI registration. A handset brought in and used with an Indonesian SIM is blocked from the local networks within days unless the IMEI is registered at customs, with duty payable above a small allowance. Roaming on your home SIM avoids the whole thing.
• IDR 100,000,000 or more in cash must be declared, and taking that much rupiah out has its own rule.
• Drug offences carry the death penalty, and the warning at Bali arrivals is not decorative.
• Pornographic material is prohibited, and the allowance for alcohol is one litre per adult - Bali's duty-free shops sell in quantities well above it.

Health, insurance and where to be treated

Hospitals that work for tourists in southern Bali:

• BIMC Hospital Kuta - officially lists a 24h Accident & Emergency Centre, on the Bypass Ngurah Rai.
• Kasih Ibu Hospital Kedonganan - confirms an Emergency Unit & Ambulance, in the Kuta tourist zone.
• Wider Denpasar - Siloam or RSUD Bali Mandara. (BIMC Kuta; BIMC emergency; Kasih Ibu Kedonganan; Kasih Ibu emergency)

Health risks:

• Yellow fever depends on your route - the CDC states conditions for Indonesia based on where you have been.
• Dengue occurs on Bali, per Smartraveller.
• Drink bottled water, not the tap. This is field best practice rather than a legal norm, but for Bali it makes very strong sense. (CDC Indonesia; Smartraveller Indonesia)

Travel insurance is practically a necessity, and not only for the hospital - scooters, evacuation, delays, lost luggage and liability all sit under it.

• Care is not free, and the US advisory warns that hospitals often require payment or a guarantee upfront, with foreign insurance not automatically accepted without assistance. (US International Travel Info Indonesia; Kasih Ibu international patient info)

Where to base yourself

Bali:

• Seminyak or Canggu for a first visit. Seminyak is the more polished - beach clubs, restaurants, hotels across the whole price range. Canggu is more relaxed and café-driven, where surfers and long-stay remote workers cluster.
• Ubud, inland, is worth about three nights if you have a week or more: temples, rice terraces and a much quieter evening.
• Kuta is the cheapest and the most party-oriented - skip it unless that is the point of the trip.
• Uluwatu, on the southern cliffs, is the luxury end, and the transfers are longer.

Jakarta:

• SCBD / Sudirman - modern hotels with direct MRT access.
• Menteng - leafy and central, near the National Monument and walkable to Bundaran HI MRT.
• Kemang, South Jakarta - the expat dining and nightlife district, but not on the MRT, so everything becomes a ride-hail in Jakarta traffic.

What it costs

Bali accommodation prices move a lot, both by area and by season, so these are bands rather than rates:

• Add 30 to 50 per cent in July, August and December. The bands above describe the rest of the year.
• Seminyak, Canggu and Uluwatu run 20 to 30 per cent above the island average for both rooms and food.

At check-in

• Check which currency you are being charged in. Many Bali villas and hotels quote in US dollars on international booking sites even though the bill settles in rupiah. Take rupiah when the terminal offers you the choice, so your own bank does the conversion.
• Your passport is taken and scanned - providers are required to register foreign guests.
• Carry cash away from the southern strip and Ubud. Smaller guesthouses add a card surcharge or take no card at all.
• Book the first nights in advance. Flights into Ngurah Rai land disproportionately late in the evening, and arriving at midnight without a room is a bad way to start.

The local options are much cheaper - and you can buy them before you land

This is unusual: in Indonesia the local tourist eSIM beats the international ones outright, and you do not have to be in the country to buy it.

XL's eSIM is ordered online: pick the plan, enter the details Indonesian law requires - passport, email address and your device's IMEI - pay, and the profile activates within about an hour. All the packages include five minutes of calls.

Telkomsel is the coverage choice. If your trip goes beyond the main tourist areas - Ubud, northern Bali, boat crossings, the smaller islands - it is the network that keeps working. The catch is collection: the foreigner pre-order SIM can currently only be picked up in Bali and in Mandalika, Lombok, so it does not help you land somewhere else.

Saily, if you want nothing local at all

It costs several times more per gigabyte than XL, and the reason to choose it anyway is that it needs no Indonesian registration, no passport upload and no local product at all - install it, land, and it works. For a three-day stop that is a fair trade; for two weeks it is not.

Registering, and where not to buy

• Every SIM sold in Indonesia is registered against a passport. This is a legal requirement, so a seller asking for your passport is following the rules, not running a scam.
• Airport kiosks charge a premium. The same operator's product is cheaper in town or at an official store. Buy the eSIM before you fly and the question does not arise.
• You want data in the first ten minutes, not the first hour. Grab, Gojek, the map and the message to your accommodation all need it before you have left the terminal.

Sockets in Indonesia are Type C and F at 230 V, 50 Hz - two round pins, the same shape used across continental Europe.

• A Europlug fits everywhere. European travellers need no adapter, and Schuko plugs fit the earthed version.
• British, American and Australian plugs need an adapter, sold in any Indomaret or Alfamart.
• Unearthed sockets are the norm in guesthouses, villas and older housing: the same two round holes with nothing behind them.
• 230 V, so American 120 V-only appliances need a converter.
• Supply on the smaller islands sags under load and cuts are routine, which is a reason to charge a power bank when you can rather than when you need to.

Local rules worth knowing

• Bali publishes an official code of conduct for foreign visitors. The provincial government's "Do's and Don'ts" card covers respect for local culture, dress and behaviour, and the rules have been tightened after several years of visible tourist misbehaviour. In practice: cover up away from the beach, behave inside temples, and do not walk into, interrupt or photograph a ceremony without being invited to.
• Nyepi is the one date that can wreck an itinerary. Bali's day of silence runs 06:00 to 06:00 the following morning: the airport closes, nothing moves on the roads, shops and restaurants are shut and you are expected to stay inside your accommodation - the rule applies to visitors as well as residents. Check the date before you book, and if you land into it, arrange somewhere you are happy to be confined for a day.
• Medicines. Buying prescription-only medicine in Indonesia without a valid Indonesian prescription is illegal. Bring what you need, in its original packaging, with the prescription.
• Driving requires an International Driving Permit, of the 1968 Convention type, and a licence class covering what you are actually riding. See the driving section.

Everyday practicalities

• Time - Indonesia spans three zones. WIB (UTC+7) covers Jakarta, Java and Sumatra; WITA (UTC+8) covers Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi and southern Kalimantan; WIT (UTC+9) covers Maluku and Papua. A domestic flight can change your watch.
• Power - type C and F sockets at 230 V, 50 Hz. A Europlug fits everywhere and needs no adapter. See the sockets section for the detail on unearthed outlets.
• Convenience stores - Indomaret and Alfamart are on almost every street in a tourist area, and they are where you buy a plug adapter, a SIM top-up or an e-money card. Not all branches are 24 hours.
• Weather and air quality - Info BMKG, from the national meteorological, climatological and geophysical agency, is the official source, and it carries earthquake warnings as well as forecasts.
• Food delivery - GoFood inside Gojek has the deepest coverage, with Grab a solid second.
• Wi-Fi - hotels, cafés and co-working spaces all have it. What they do not cover is the first hour after you land, which is exactly when you need data most: arrive with a working eSIM.

The first-day setup

Four things done before you land remove most of the friction:

1. The All Indonesia arrival card, filed within 72 hours of arrival.
2. The visa - the e-VOA bought online, or the VOA at the airport.
3. The Bali levy, if you are staying on the island.
4. A working eSIM, and the ride apps installed with a card already added.

Then one rule covers most of the rest: do not take the first offer, do not let yourself be hurried, and do everything through an official counter, an official website or one of the major apps.

Cash and cards

The currency is the Indonesian rupiah (IDR). Hotels, the better restaurants and the ride-hailing apps take cards as a matter of course. Markets, warungs, local transport and small businesses want cash, so you cannot travel on plastic alone.

Withdrawing

Budget for two layers of fee: your own bank's, and the Indonesian machine's.

• The local access fee is real and it has been going up. Bank Mandiri introduced a 50,000 IDR access fee for foreign Visa and Mastercard cards on 22 February 2026, stated as separate from anything your issuer charges. BCA and BNI sit lower, in the region of 25,000 to 30,000 IDR per withdrawal.
• Because the fee is per transaction, not per amount, fewer and larger withdrawals cost proportionally less - within your card's limit.
• The machine shows the fee before you confirm. Read that screen; it is the only reliable, current number.
• Refuse dynamic currency conversion. If the ATM offers to bill you in your home currency, decline and take rupiah, so your own bank does the conversion.

QRIS - and its limit for foreign visitors

QRIS is Indonesia's national QR payment standard, introduced by Bank Indonesia, and it is everywhere. The catch for visitors is that cross-border QRIS only connects to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. If your payment app is European, American or Australian, you cannot scan an Indonesian QRIS code, whatever the merchant assumes.

Phone payments

• Apple Pay is not available in Indonesia. Apple's own list of supported countries covers Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines in the region, but not Indonesia.
• Do not plan around tapping your phone. A physical card, cash, and in-app payment inside Gojek or Grab are what actually work.

Tipping

Not formalised. Rounding up is common in tourist areas and a small tip for a driver or at a spa is normal. Check the bill first - many restaurants add a service charge, in which case nothing further is expected.

Match the transport to your group and the clock.

• Solo or a couple, travelling light - Grab or Gojek from the official lounge. The fare, the route and the payment are agreed in the app before you leave the building, which removes every argument that airport transport usually involves. Around 100,000-160,000 IDR to Seminyak.
• Three or four people with luggage - the prepaid taxi counter or a hotel transfer. Once you would need two app cars the price difference narrows, and one vehicle keeps the group and the bags together. Counter fares are fixed by zone: about 150,000 IDR to Kuta, Legian and Seminyak, roughly 350,000-500,000 IDR to Ubud.
• On the tightest budget - Trans Metro Dewata at 4,400 IDR, stopping at both terminals. Two conditions attach: it runs only until about 18:30-19:00, and it accepts no cash - you need QRIS from a Southeast Asian payment app, or an Indonesian e-money card bought at the terminal's Indomaret or Alfamart.
• Arriving late at night - taxi, hotel transfer or ride-hailing. Public transport is finished for the day.

In every case, settle the ride at the counter or in the app. The people who approach you inside the terminal are not the cheap option.

The bus is cheap and it is also the one you can fail to board. Trans Metro Dewata takes no cash: you scan QRIS or tap an Indonesian e-money card (BCA Flazz, Mandiri e-money, BRI Brizzi). Cross-border QRIS only works from Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese and Chinese apps, so a European or American banking app will not scan it. If you want the bus, buy an e-money card at the Indomaret or Alfamart in the terminal first.

Whatever you take, arrange it at the counter or in the app before you walk past the exit.

The three that matter

• Grab - ride-hailing, food and deliveries, across Indonesia. At Bali's airport it has an official Grab Lounge in the arrivals pick-up zone. Registration works with an international phone number, and you can add a foreign card in the app.
• Gojek - the Indonesian super-app. Same ground as Grab plus GoFood, which is where it is strongest, and GoBluebird if you want a Bluebird taxi ordered through it. Card payment is supported for GoRide and GoCar.
• MyBluebird - the taxi company's own app. Worth having for the times you want a normal metered car and a driver in a company vehicle rather than whoever the algorithm found.

Having two of the ride apps rather than one is the practical move, because coverage and surge differ, and in a few areas one of them has better standing with local drivers than the other.

Two more worth the space

• Info BMKG - the app of Indonesia's meteorological, climatological and geophysical agency. It carries the official forecasts and the earthquake and weather warnings, which matters in a country this seismically active.
• An e-money card, not an app - BCA Flazz, Mandiri e-money or BRI Brizzi, bought and topped up at any Indomaret or Alfamart. Public transport such as Trans Metro Dewata is cashless, and cross-border QRIS only reaches Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese and Chinese payment apps - so without one of these cards, a European or American visitor cannot pay a bus fare at all.

An International Driving Permit is required and is genuinely checked, particularly in Bali.

• It must be the 1968-Convention permit. The UK government lists Indonesia as a 1968 country, so the older 1949-Convention IDP that some countries still issue is not the one to bring.
• Roadside checks in Bali are routine and a permit is what is asked for. Without one the fine is small; the uninsured accident afterwards is not.
• A car licence does not cover a scooter. Hiring one without the right licence class voids travel insurance, and scooter accidents are the leading cause of large medical claims among visitors here.
• The alcohol limit is effectively zero and alcohol is heavily restricted in much of the country.
• Traffic drives on the left and Jakarta's traffic is among the worst in the world; toll roads charge through the e-money card.
• Drivers with cars are cheap - a day with a driver in Bali costs less than a day's car hire in Europe - and solve the parking, the language and the traffic at once.

Money changers

This is the scam Indonesia is known for, and it is preventable in one step. The FCDO's instruction is simple: use only licensed currency exchanges, identified by a Bank Indonesia logo and a QR code - the code carries the licence details of that specific operator.

It is not a theoretical problem. Bank Indonesia and the Bali police shut down 68 illegal money changers in a single 2025 operation, and enforcement has continued since.

The methods reported are all sleight of hand at the counter:

• Notes slipped into a crevice in the counter while counting, then produced as "damaged" to justify a worse rate.
• A count that lands on a similar-looking number - 5,750,000 handed over as 5,075,000.
• A calculator worked through at a rate different from the one agreed at the window.
• The small change simply not returned.

So: count the money yourself, in front of the teller, and do not hand it back once counted. And treat an unusually good rate as the bait it is.

The roads

This is the actual danger, not crime. The FCDO reports a large increase in moped and motorbike accidents in Bali, some of them fatal, and describes traffic discipline as very poor.

• Do not ride a scooter here if you have not ridden one before. Bali traffic is not where to learn.
• A minor accident can turn into extortion. Foreign nationals involved in even small traffic incidents are, in the FCDO's words, vulnerable to it.
• Journey times are longer than the map suggests. Do not plan a first day that depends on crossing the island quickly.

Drink and drugs

• Counterfeit alcohol causes methanol poisoning, and even a small amount can be fatal. Watch your drink being prepared and never leave it unattended.
• Police raid venues popular with foreigners, especially in Bali. If drug use is suspected you can be required to give a urine or blood sample. Indonesian drug penalties are among the harshest anywhere.

At the airport

The first pressure point of the trip is the walk out of arrivals. Use the Grab or Gojek lounge, or the prepaid taxi counter. Do not negotiate with anyone who approaches you - the price is always worse and the leverage is all theirs.

Emergency numbers

Calling from a foreign phone, dial +62 first.

Bali tourist police: +62 361 771 234 in Nusa Dua, +62 361 300 7777 in Kuta.

Getting to hospital

The US State Department warns that ambulances may not arrive quickly and are not uniformly well equipped, and that it can be faster to reach a hospital by car or taxi. For anything short of a spinal or head injury, that is the practical route - order a car, or ask your accommodation to.

• Southern Bali has hospitals used to foreign patients: BIMC Hospital Kuta and Kasih Ibu Kedonganan.
• Expect to pay or guarantee payment before treatment. Keep your insurance policy number and the insurer's emergency line saved offline, not only in an email you need data to open.
• Look up your own embassy or consulate before you travel. It is the first call if your passport goes missing, and searching for it after the fact is slower than it sounds.