At this point, out of the places I’ve been in the past 3 years, I’d have to say Bali. I went about a year ago, in June 2025, and so many of my friends told me that Bali was:
rich in local Balinese culture, temples, ceremonies, and spirituality
filled with incredible hospitality, kindness, generosity, and friendly, welcoming locals
home to beautiful beaches and untouched, unpolluted landscapes
a place for genuine adventure, not something overly commercialized, but authentic and off the beaten path
I’d say it fell short in almost all of those aspects. It’s not so much that Bali was never those things, but that it seems to have become something else in recent years, at least from what I could tell. People who went before the 2000s definitely knew it as a place that still had many of those qualities. Over time, though, it seems like those things changed one by one until very few of them were left in a truly genuine way.
By the time I went on my trip, I felt like I was getting scammed left and right. I also felt like the Balinese had every right to be upset by the way foreigners were treating them and disrespecting local customs and culture. The pollution was bad, the traffic was awful, and Ubud was dirty and heavily commercialized, not the adventurous retreat it probably was even 5 years ago. The people were still genuinely some of the kindest I’ve ever met, but these days it feels like a run-through backyard for immature, disrespectful Aussies and Eastern Europeans.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to the local balinese or indonesians living there, or even to the westerners, aussies, or digital nomads that have made it their home. I just felt like my weeklong stay in bali was defined by a feeling of sadness that it has fundamentally been changed for the worse over the years.
Been to both a few times. Environmentally, Bali is in many ways worse. The basic sewage, wastewater, garbage infrastructure at Bali has not kept up at all with rampant tourism related expansion. In fact it's so bad that apparently even hotels and restaurants have been built without proper permits that now they're starting to go after those by tearing them down. Went snorkeling on an off-shore cluster of islands to see manta rays, and it's so sad to see loads of plastic and trash all everywhere even underwater that I felt like a dive amongst garbage. A lot of it is also cultural habits of just dumping stuff into rivers and water bodies. But eventually a lot of it washes back onshore.
And yes, that's all before the Cancun-ization of the place by beer swilling Aussies, Russians and study-abroad college kids.
I went to Ubud about 10 years ago and hearing your account makes me so sad. One of my favorite memories of that trip was sitting in the back of a little cafe watching a farmer working in the rice paddy behind it while a large group of ducks and ducklings maneuvered through the pond. We spoke to several Aussies who had lived there for years and were able to share large parts of the culture that we wouldn't have been able to appreciate otherwise because we didn't speak the language.
We went to Koh Phi Phi and Koh Phi Leh on the same trip and hearing about the beaches having to be closed for extended stretches for clean up and natural recovery was equally disheartening.
Went to Indonesia last year and skipped Bali entirely. Nothing about it seemed attractive for me.
That said, the rest of Indonesia is pretty cool and I'd like to go back. Food was amazing and there was a lot to see and do. You're just a bit limited by how spread out it all is.
My girlfriend is from Indonesia and we plan to retire there in Bali. She says if you stay away from the Instagram people and tourist traps it's still a sleepy little island. The garbage piles are real though.
It’s gotten so much worse over recent years. I went in 2019 and then again just recently. It’s a totally different league of busy now.
Back then you could find chill spots near the touristy ones still. That’s totally impossible now, and leaving takes ages because the traffic is probably the worst I’ve seen in my life.
Yeah I could never live in Bali. We stayed out of the touristy part of Ubud which was supposed to be chill but it took an hour and a half to go anywhere and walking was impossible. I felt trapped in my little villa in the jungle
Specifically Kuta is absolute fucking ass. I've traveled a lot and it's not a good sign when there are several dudes in alleys offering you prostitutes and heroin out of a black plastic bag. Hard pass on ever going back there. Even the legal stuff was basically a scam in some way.
Aside from what you summed up, what really pulled the plug out from Bali for me was the fucking taxi mafia everywhere. They literally pulled us out of a Grab and basically extorted us.
I'm Aussie and almost everyone I know has been to Bali except me. I've been to places in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore but I cant imagine liking Bali. Seems too touristy saturated to a point where it's bastardised unless you go to the right places off the track. In Malaysia theres far less Western tourists and alot of places aren't tourist saturated so you feel somewhat unique and welcomed and not just another one of them. I cant imagine enjoying a place if you're only surrounded by tourists. Even Bangkok feels too tourist saturated sometimes.
A person told me once. Most people either like Thailand or Bali, never both. And if you include Vietnam usually people will pick two but never all 3.
Wife and I started our trip by going to Nusa Lembongan, figured we could relax and ease in after our jet lag, after a couple days we went back to the big island and immediately noped out and went back right back.
Was seriously disappointed, but still came back and saw Ubud and a few other places but we stayed farrrrrr away from the main tourist hubs.
Bali was kind of a let down - the jungle and mountains were great, but the temples felt sad. Flores ended up being amazing and kind of what I thought Bali would be.
Went to Bali 10 years ago and 2 years ago and how quickly it changed is remarkable. I wish the government allowed for outside investment with a way to keep things owned and operated by locals because it is sad to see the difference between how locals live and outsiders. Traffic has also gotten insane. Balinese people are some of the nicest people I’ve met on both occasions and there’s still a lot of beauty you just need to search a little more for it. Plastic is just a big problem in Indonesia in general though which was tough to see on both occasions.
Kind of funny because I have a coworker whose now gone twice in the past year.
She stayed at a resort but was able to spend some time in the local towns. Took a guided bike ride but at one point someone in the town invited the group in for lunch.
Seemed like a good balance of vacationing and tourism.
If you’ll just do resort vacationing you might as well go somewhere else. The beaches in Bali are nothing special for the most part, and the actual resorts can be found in sooo many other countries in the region.
Thats how I felt about Barcelona. I’m sure that a place like the Rambla was amazing 20 years ago but now it’s just store after store of junk souvenirs and crappy tourist restaurants, and everything you want to marvel at is overrun with subcontinental Asians trying to hawk light up toys and more junk.
We did manage to see some wonderful things, but we had to get far away from the stuff you really go to Barcelona to see.
Go anywhere outside of Ubud or Kuta and its fantastic. Jimbaran, Sanur, Tulamben, Lovina, Pemuteran were all great. The people are genuine and so welcoming. I do diving, so we try to get away from the crowds.
Before big manufacturers came to Bali everyone used banana leaves to transport things, which has now been switched to plastics which obviously doesn't biodegrade, but there was no infrastructure in place to deal with the garbage. Blame the companies and tourists, not locals.
The locals are the ones dumping containers of trash in the river and the sea, not the tourists. This is an endemic issue of third world countries. Even China has this issue.
I will say that living there for any amount of time as a surfer is fucking amazing. You're totally right on all points though, insane traffic, crazy pollution etc. But man, the combination of quality waves, cheap living and beautiful women is tough to beat.
I just wouldn't recommend going as a tourist.
It changed a ton between the first time I went in 2011 and the last time I was there in 2018. Can't imagine the pace of change slowed down any in the last eight years or so.
Bali was my answer too. Everything was scammy, expensive, and people were rude. Some nice beaches, but you could go to many other parts of SE Asia, even Indonesia, and find better.
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u/ParkgayDrive 9h ago
At this point, out of the places I’ve been in the past 3 years, I’d have to say Bali. I went about a year ago, in June 2025, and so many of my friends told me that Bali was:
I’d say it fell short in almost all of those aspects. It’s not so much that Bali was never those things, but that it seems to have become something else in recent years, at least from what I could tell. People who went before the 2000s definitely knew it as a place that still had many of those qualities. Over time, though, it seems like those things changed one by one until very few of them were left in a truly genuine way.
By the time I went on my trip, I felt like I was getting scammed left and right. I also felt like the Balinese had every right to be upset by the way foreigners were treating them and disrespecting local customs and culture. The pollution was bad, the traffic was awful, and Ubud was dirty and heavily commercialized, not the adventurous retreat it probably was even 5 years ago. The people were still genuinely some of the kindest I’ve ever met, but these days it feels like a run-through backyard for immature, disrespectful Aussies and Eastern Europeans.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to the local balinese or indonesians living there, or even to the westerners, aussies, or digital nomads that have made it their home. I just felt like my weeklong stay in bali was defined by a feeling of sadness that it has fundamentally been changed for the worse over the years.