When to visit Bali & Indonesia

Best time to visit Bali & Indonesia

When planning any trip your first one of the most important considerations for getting the most out of the experience is knowing the very best time to visit – based on both climate, and taking into account any festivals or local celebrations.

For Bali – and also Indonesia’s other established tourist destinations Java, Lombok, and Flores – the ‘best time’ is less of a concern, with these regions straddling the equator and therefore enjoying a largely consistent (if tropical) climate year-round. The recognised best time to visit is March through to October: this is when the weather is most likely to be consistently pleasant with minimal rain, calm seas and blue skies, making it easy to travel between the islands while enjoying gorgeous backdrops for photos and all sorts of adventures.

The more far-flung regions of the archipelago have an inverted seasonality, with the best time to visit Papua, Raja Ampat, and northern Sulawesi generally falling from November through to March. These areas typically attract a dedicated, intrepid traveller who is looking for a specific kind of trip – diving, cultural immersion, trekking, jungle exploration – in which case please ask your consultant for a detailed analysis of when to plan your trip. There are other factors to consider for specialist trips: current or wind patterns for divers, fruiting seasons for wildlife enthusiasts, or festival calendars for those look to study one of Indonesia’s many unique cultural groups.

Whenever you do plan to visit you’ll find an equatorial climate countrywide, with short, sharp downpours or dramatic thunderstorms occurring at least once or twice during your trip, and temperatures that are consistently warm but never scorching hot. A wider guide on Indonesia’s seasonality is found below.