I'm graduating from a master's program in June (yippeee!) and as a present to myself, I'm going to take a little trip. Bali's at the top of my list, but I'm trying to figure out how much I'd need to budget (not including airfare, which I'm thinking will be about $1500 from NYC).

My thinking is that I'd be there for about a month (that's the maximum an American can stay w/out re-entry, right?). Probably base myself in Ubud, with trips to places around the island. I'm thinking low-to-mid-budget acommodation, one or two restaurant meals/day (I love street food!), moderate souvenir shopping. To give you an idea of what my spending habits are when abroad, I spent about $30/day in Thailand and $10-20/day in India (4 years ago).

Any thoughts on what I can expect as a minimum daily budget, without big-ticket things like courses or diving?

The two of us spent $1500 in a month on Bali. That does not include a rt flight to Yogyakarta on a silver shopping trip. We went with carry-on & came home with two bulging bags of goodies. We spent two nights in a luxury hotel and the rest in B&Bs. The cheapest meal that we ate was two bowls of meatball & noodle soup with fruit teas for 80 cents for the two of us in Yogya, we were the only westerners surrounded by friendly curious people in a little neighborhood warung. If you were just eating & sleeping you could get by on $25 or less. We stayed at The White House in Ubud for $15, the room was huge, the pool sparkling, breakfast was good, it was back off of the street so very quiet. You don't have to book a place after the first night, just walk around and look at places and find your own treasure.

Hi

last time I was in Bali, & the next time I'm there, I plan to get along on a moderate budget.

Airfares & accomodation are somewhat taken out of the equation as they're already paid in advance.

I'm planning (for a 12 night stay), to survive on $200 meals, $200 alcohol, $200 spending, $400 diving.

I'm prepared to need a little more, but with my expectations I dont think there's really a need?

The one thing I noticed quickly was that you can survive in Bali quite cheaply, or you can spend $1000 a night for a room.

In Ubud you can find guest houses for 50,000rp per day ($6). You can also find cheap restaurant meals for ($2-3). In Kuta / Seminyak, you have it all, everything from cheap guest houses to low end, mid range, high end hotels (Poppies Lane, Padma, Seminyak & Kerobokan).

Same with meals. Bamboo Corner in Kuta (Poppies I ) will serve you a nasi goreng for 7,000rp (90 cents). ESC in Kuta will serve you a HUGE burger or sandwich for 38,000rp (just over $4).

Seriously, if you want to, you can spend $6 a day on a room and maybe $12 on food and drinks, less if you eat Indo food.

Happy travels.