How to avoid Bali belly: the food and water habits that actually matter

What the Australian Government actually says

Two sources, same advice. Smartraveller's Indonesia page, in its health section, is blunt about why the habits matter:

Waterborne, foodborne, parasitic and other infectious diseases are widespread, and serious outbreaks occur.

Its list under that heading, read on 13 September 2026, is: boil drinking water or drink bottled water; avoid raw food, such as salads, and only eat meat from reputable suppliers; and seek medical attention if you suspect food poisoning or have a fever or diarrhoea. healthdirect, the government's health information service, puts it as four precautions for anywhere the tap water is not safe:

Water and ice: the rules, and the sensible middle

healthdirect's four lines are the rules. Here they are in its own words:

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.

Water is the easy part. Sealed bottled water, or the refill dispensers that villas and cafés run from sealed 19-litre gallons, for drinking and for teeth. The water page covers boiling, hotels and kids' bottles in detail.

Ice is where the rule and real life part ways, because a week of warm drinks in Bali's heat is not how most people want to travel. The honest middle, which is also what our guide says, is that established venues buy factory ice, made from treated water and delivered in sealed bags, while a bucket of hand-chipped ice at a roadside stall is water you know nothing about. Take the ice at the beach club and the busy café; skip it at the stall.

What to eat, and where

The official risk-food list from the Victorian Department of Health is long: raw and peeled fruit and vegetables, leafy greens, undercooked meat, raw or poorly cooked seafood, sauces and mayonnaise, unpasteurised dairy, food from street vendors, hot food left to cool, and buffets. Follow all of it and you will eat toast for a week. The practical version, which every experienced Bali traveller ends up at, is about heat, freshness and turnover.

Our guide's line is the one to remember:

The habits worth keeping, however adventurous you get: sealed bottled water, busy stalls with hot fresh food, and wash your hands. Be mindful with ice from places you don't trust. Reputable cafés and bars use factory ice.

A busy warung is a good sign for exactly the reason the buffet is a bad one: food that sells out is food that was cooked recently. Point at what is being cooked hot in front of you, not what has been sitting in a tray under a lamp. Peel your own fruit. Go easy on raw salads and unpasteurised anything in the first few days, then decide for yourself.

Hands: the habit nobody rates and everybody needs

Every source on this page ends up at hand washing, because a lot of gastro is passed from hand to mouth rather than plate to mouth. healthdirect's gastroenteritis page says the infection spreads easily, including by person-to-person contact and through contaminated objects, and its first prevention line is washing your hands well after the bathroom and before handling food or eating.

In Bali that means soap and water when you can get it and a small bottle of sanitiser for when you cannot: after the money changer, after the scooter, after the monkey forest, before the nasi campur. The Victorian page adds a detail people miss: dry your hands properly before you touch food.

Travelling with kids

Children get dehydrated faster than adults when they are unwell, which is why the sources treat them separately. The Victorian Department of Health's list for children is practical: keep small children off the floor, keep unwashed fingers out of mouths, wash their hands often, and make up formula with bottled water or tap water boiled for at least five minutes.

Add the obvious: a child will drink the pool and the bath, so use the sealed bottle for teeth and keep mouths closed in the pool as best you can. Pack oral rehydration sachets from home (see the medical kit page) so you are not looking for them at 2am.

The first three days feel like Bali belly and usually are not

A long flight, a 1am arrival, heat, a different breakfast and a few Bintangs will unsettle most stomachs, and healthdirect lists a change in diet and alcohol among the ordinary causes of short-term diarrhoea. That is not an infection and it settles as you do. Drink more water than feels necessary, eat something plain, and sleep.

The what-to-do page has the signs that separate an unsettled stomach from something a clinic should see: blood, a fever, pain that is getting worse, or not being able to keep fluids down.

Tablets, supplements and the honest answer

The autocomplete for this topic is full of 'tablets' and 'medicine', so here is the straight version. The Victorian Department of Health's page says there is no vaccine that reliably keeps traveller's diarrhoea away and that the best defence is the habits above. Whether any medicine is worth carrying for a trip is a conversation for your GP or a travel clinic, and healthdirect's own suggestion on that is quoted on the medical kit page.

We sell a travel probiotic, so we will say this plainly: no supplement can honestly promise you will not get Bali belly, ours included, and our own product FAQ says so in one word. A daily probiotic is a routine some travellers keep; the routine page explains what it is for and what it is not. The habits on this page are the part that changes your odds.