Bali in the shoulder season, and why September is the answer
April to October is dry. That is the marketing. Here is the month that is actually better and the month that is genuinely bad.
Everyone says April to October is the dry season, which is true, and everyone books July and August, which is also true and is the single biggest mistake people make with Bali.
The rain in the wet season is short, heavy and theatrical. It arrives in the afternoon, does its business in forty minutes, and leaves the island greener and the air cleaner than it has been all year.
September is the month we would pick
The crowds from Australia and Europe have thinned. Prices drop by thirty per cent on the good rooms. The rice terraces are still green rather than gold. And the rain, if it comes, tends to come in the evening.
We send our own family in the first week of September every year.
March is the other good answer
March is the tail of the wet season. Green, quiet, cheaper, and warm enough for the sea. The downside is that Ubud occasionally gets a proper afternoon storm and some of the smaller roads flood.
What the wet season costs you
Two things. Boat trips to the Gili Islands and Nusa Penida can cancel on a bad afternoon, which is why we build those as flexible days. And some of the smaller beach clubs on the west coast shut for a few weeks in August.
That is genuinely all. Nobody has ever told us a wet-season Bali trip went wrong for weather reasons.
Key Highlights:
- Best value: September and late March.
- Best weather: May to July, if you book early and accept the crowds.
- Avoid: mid-July to mid-August, when prices peak and the west coast is busiest.
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