← Back to the guide
Free quiz

The Bali belly quiz: how careful are your food and water habits?

Ten questions about what you actually drink, eat and touch in Bali, scored against the Australian Government's travel-health advice and the habits chapter of our free guide. You get a habits profile and a short list of things to change, each with its source, and you can email the result to yourself. No score predicts whether you will get sick. The quiz measures habits, because habits are the part you control.

Checked 13 September 2026. Every figure on this page carries its source and the date we read it.

Take the quiz

Answer for the trip you are actually going to have, not the one you would describe to a doctor. Ten questions, one minute.

0 of 10 answered
  1. 1 What do you drink when you are thirsty in Bali?
  2. 2 What do you brush your teeth with?
  3. 3 Ice in your drinks?
  4. 4 Salads and raw vegetables?
  5. 5 Fruit?
  6. 6 Where do most of your meals come from?
  7. 7 Street food?
  8. 8 Before you eat?
  9. 9 Oral rehydration sachets?
  10. 10 Have you spoken to a GP or pharmacist about this trip?

Answer the remaining 10 questions and your result appears here.

The result appears under the last question, with the habits to change listed under it, each one naming the source it comes from. Email it to yourself if you want it on your phone at the warung.

The short answer

Bali belly is usually food or water carrying bacteria or viruses, so the habits that matter are the boring ones: sealed water, hot fresh food from busy places, fruit you peel, and washed hands. The quiz checks those, one at a time.

Every question maps to a line in a primary source: healthdirect's four rules for places where the tap water is not safe, Smartraveller's eight-weeks-out doctor visit, healthdirect's guidance on rehydration and on carrying antibiotics, and the three habits our guide keeps however adventurous the trip gets. Your answers stay on your device unless you ask us to email them.

What the quiz will not do is tell you your odds. The Victorian Department of Health notes that the risk is higher where sanitation and hygiene standards are poor and that young adults get it more than older ones, probably because of how they travel, and that is as specific as any Australian source we can cite gets for Bali. It will also not sell you anything: the result is a list of habits, and none of them cost money.

What the quiz scores, and why

The ten questions are the government's list and the guide's list, turned into choices. Here is the same list as prose, so you can see what a careful answer looks like before you start.

  • Water and teeth: sealed bottled water for drinking and for brushing. Boiled water works if you watched it boil; a hotel jug you did not is a guess.
  • Ice: healthdirect says no ice; the guide's sensible middle is factory ice at busy, reputable cafés and bars, and nothing from a stall's esky.
  • Salads, raw food and pre-cut fruit: the classic gap. Fruit you peel yourself and food cooked hot in front of you are the safe defaults.
  • Where you eat: busy places with food cooked hot and fresh, locals in plastic chairs. A queue is the best food-safety certificate on the island.
  • Hands: the habit nobody rates and everybody needs. Sanitiser in a pocket makes it possible at a warung with no sink.
  • The chemist bag: oral rehydration sachets packed before you go, because healthdirect recommends oral rehydration solution for diarrhoea and says sports drinks are not a substitute.
  • The doctor: Smartraveller says see one about eight weeks before you fly; healthdirect suggests asking about a course of antibiotics to carry in case you get gastro away from medical care.

Where local tap water is not safe to drink, take these precautions: Only use bottled water to drink and brush your teeth. Don't put ice in your drinks. Only eat fruit you can peel. Avoid uncooked food, such as salads.

Why the result is habits, not odds

The Better Health Channel lists the usual culprits: bacteria such as enterotoxigenic E. coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella and Shigella, plus viruses and parasites, spread by contaminated food and water. It also notes that a bout does not make you immune to the next one, which is why the habits matter on the tenth day as much as the first. Our page on what causes Bali belly has the detail.

A quiz that printed a percentage would be inventing it. No Australian Government source gives a Bali-specific rate, and we do not publish numbers nobody can measure. What the sources do say is which habits carry the risk, so that is what the quiz scores and what the result lists.

One more honest line, because it changes how people read their first three days: heat, jet lag, a long flight, more coffee, more beer and different food unsettle almost everyone's gut on arrival. That is not Bali belly, and it usually passes by itself. Our page on how to avoid Bali belly explains the difference.

What to do with your result

Careful habits

Keep them. Pack the sachets, book the doctor if you have not, and enjoy the warungs. The habits are the whole plan.

Mostly good, a few gaps

The list under your result is the fix. Usually it is ice, pre-cut fruit or hands: cheap changes that take a day to become automatic.

Adventurous habits

You are the traveller the advice is written for. Change the water and teeth answers first, then food, then hands. Each line names its source, so you can decide which ones you believe.

If you already have it, the quiz is the wrong page: go to what to do if you get Bali belly for healthdirect's rules on fluids, anti-diarrhoeals and when to see a doctor, and see a doctor now if there is blood in your stool, a fever, signs of dehydration, or a baby under six months involved.

What happens to your answers

Nothing, unless you ask. Your answers are saved in your own browser so the result survives a reload, and that is where they stay. If you use the email form, we send you the same result you see on the page, along with the free Bali guide, and you join the guide's email list with the usual unsubscribe link. We do not store quiz answers on our servers.

Bali belly questions people ask

How likely am I to get Bali belly?
No Australian source we can cite gives a Bali-specific figure, so we do not print one. The Victorian Department of Health says the risk is higher where sanitation and hygiene standards are poor and that it is more common in young adults, probably because of the style of travel. The quiz scores the habits behind that risk, which is the part you control.
What is the fastest way to avoid Bali belly?
The four healthdirect rules for places where the water is not safe: bottled water to drink and brush your teeth, no ice, only fruit you can peel, no uncooked food such as salads. Add the guide's three habits: sealed water, busy stalls with hot fresh food, and washed hands.
Do I have Bali belly?
healthdirect describes gastroenteritis as vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach pains and nausea, often mild. See a doctor if there is blood in your stool, a fever, signs of dehydration, or if a baby under six months is unwell. Our what-to-do page has the full list of red flags and where the international clinics are.
Can I eat street food in Bali?
The guide's answer is yes, at the right stall: busy, cooking to order, food hot and fresh. The problem is food that has been sitting out, not the street.
Is the ice safe in Bali?
healthdirect's rule is no ice in your drinks. The guide's middle ground is that reputable cafés and bars use factory ice, so be mindful with ice from places you do not trust rather than from everywhere.
Does the quiz store my answers?
Only in your own browser, so the result survives a reload. If you email the result to yourself, we send the result and the free guide and add you to the guide's email list, which has an unsubscribe link. The answers are not stored on our servers.
Why is there no tablet in the results?
Because no tablet or drink can honestly promise to keep Bali belly away, and the government advice is built on habits. The two medicines healthdirect does discuss, oral rehydration solution and a doctor-prescribed course of antibiotics to carry, are on the medical kit page with their rules.
A bottle of Wander Gut Bali Belly travel probiotic
Wander Gut

Bali Belly: the travel probiotic made for Bali and beyond

Your travel companion: 60 billion CFU, five strains plus a prebiotic, shelf-stable so it needs no fridge and lives in the day pack. Two capsules a day, from about a week before you fly and every day you are away. Suitable for adults and children over 3.

  • 60 billion CFU
  • 5 strains plus a prebiotic
  • No fridge needed
  • Ships from Australia
Shop Wander Gut

Always read the label and follow directions for use. Everything on this site is free and stays free: the guide, the tools, the checklists. The shop is what pays for it.

Sources and dates

Left out on purpose because we could not verify it from a primary source: a percentage chance of getting Bali belly, which no Australian source gives for Bali specifically; any claim that a tablet, supplement or drink keeps it away.