The best time to visit Bali: month by month, from BMKG's own numbers

When is the dry season in Bali?

Dry season is roughly May to October (best weather, biggest crowds in July and August). Wet season (November to March) means humid afternoons and dramatic downpours, but quieter streets and greener rice terraces.

The numbers agree with the guide. From May the rain days fall to eight a month, June to July to four or six, and August to four with 25 mm for the whole month; September is 47 mm and October climbs back to 63 mm on twelve days. Those are also the coolest months, with mean maximums of 29.6 to 31.4 °C from June to September, which is why Ubud evenings can want a light layer in the middle of the year.

It is also peak season. The guide puts the biggest crowds in July and August, which is the Australian winter school holidays and the European summer at once. If the weather matters more than the quiet, May, June and September are the dry months with fewer people in them; if the quiet matters more, read on.

What is Bali like in the wet season?

Smartraveller's phrasing of the wet season is wider than the guide's, and its concern is practical:

Heavy rains can cause significant flooding in urban areas, including in Bali and the greater Jakarta region, disrupting transportation. Walking and driving in flooded areas is dangerous. Weather conditions can change quickly during the wet season (usually around October to April).

In the Denpasar record November is the turn (179 mm on sixteen days), December and February are around 275 mm on 22 days, and January is the wettest month at 345 mm on 27 days. March is still 234 mm; April drops sharply to 88 mm on nine days. The rain is mostly afternoon downpours rather than all-day drizzle, and the guide's packing list makes a light rain jacket and a dry bag non-negotiable in these months.

What you get in return is the guide's promise: quieter streets and greener rice terraces. Sunrise hikes and waterfalls are the outings to move to the morning; beach clubs and massages are the afternoon. Floods do close roads some days in the wet season, which is Smartraveller's point, so build slack into any airport day.

When is Bali busiest, and when is it quiet?

The guide's line is the only crowd figure we print: biggest crowds in July and August. Australian school holidays drive a second, shorter peak over Christmas and January, which is also the wettest stretch; we have not printed the school-holiday dates because they differ by state and year and we could not verify a single source for all of them. Quiet, in the guide's telling, is the wet season, November to March, when the streets empty and the terraces are at their greenest.

Whether quiet also means cheaper is the question everyone asks and the one we cannot answer: we have no accommodation or flight price data we could source, so it is on this page's dropped list rather than guessed at.

Nyepi: the day the island stops

One date to check before you book: Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence (usually in March, so check the exact date for your year). The whole island, airport included, shuts down for 24 hours. Magical to experience, awkward to arrive on.

Nyepi is the Balinese Saka new year, a day of silence when the whole island, airport included, closes for 24 hours: no flights land or leave, no traffic, no lights after dark, and hotels keep guests inside their grounds. The date follows the Balinese calendar and moves each year, usually in March. For 2027 it is Tuesday 9 March, listed as Hari Suci Nyepi in the Yogyakarta City Education Office's academic calendar for 2026/2027, an Indonesian government document we could read; the national three-minister holiday decree for 2027 had not been published when we checked on 13 September 2026, so confirm the date with your airline before booking flights on or around it.

The day before Nyepi, the ogoh-ogoh parades of giant papier-mâché demons are one of the best things on the Balinese calendar; the day itself is a rare, dark-sky, silent night that people who planned for it remember. Arriving into it is the problem, not being there.

Ramadan, and the other dates to know

Bali is a Hindu island in a Muslim-majority country. Smartraveller's Indonesia page notes that during Ramadan eating, drinking and smoking in public may be illegal, and asks travellers not fasting to avoid these activities around people who are; in practice that shapes Java and Lombok far more than Bali's tourist areas, but the domestic holiday at the end of Ramadan, Idul Fitri, fills Bali's hotels with Indonesian travellers. The same Yogyakarta calendar lists Idul Fitri 1448 on 10 and 11 March 2027, the two days after Nyepi, which would make that week an unusual one to arrive in.

Galungan and Kuningan, the Balinese festival days when penjor bamboo poles line every street, follow the 210-day Balinese calendar and fall twice in some years; we could not verify their 2027 dates from a source we would print, so they are listed under dropped. Temples are busier and more beautiful around them, and nothing closes.

The best time for what

Surf seasons and the best months for diving are real questions we could not source to a standard we would print; both are on the dropped list rather than invented.