What to wear in Bali: temples, heat, rain, scooters, and what not to wear

Everyday: light, loose, and half of what you laid out

Cotton and linen, loose fits, colours you do not mind sun-fading. Shorts, T-shirts, light dresses, a couple of shirts with sleeves for evenings and temples, one pair of long light trousers, and swimwear. That is a week, because the villa or the laundry down the road will wash it for a few dollars a load, which is why our guide's two-week list adds a laundry bag rather than more clothes.

The heat is the constant. Bali sits eight degrees south of the equator and the humidity does the rest, so fabric that breathes beats fabric that looks good in the photo. Dark, tight synthetics are the mistake most first-timers make on day one and fix by day three.

Temples: shoulders and knees, a sarong and a sash

Our guide's etiquette card is the rule: shoulders and knees covered, and a sarong and sash are usually lent at the gate. Your own sarong is nicer, doubles as a beach towel and a picnic rug, and is the single most useful thing in the bag. Men wear the sarong too; it is not a women's garment at a temple, it is everyone's.

Some sites have gone further. Tirta Empul, the water-purification temple, now requires a licensed guide if you want to enter the pools yourself, and the guide's line for it is sarong on, phone away. Smartraveller's page puts the wider principle plainly:

If you're travelling to Bali, read the Bali Provincial Government's official 'Do's and Don'ts' advice before you travel. If you don't observe local customs and laws, you may face criminal penalties and/or deportation.

It also says to respect local religious beliefs, places of worship, ceremonies and offerings, not to climb sacred trees, and to be careful what you post. Our guide adds two things visitors get wrong without meaning to: never climb on a shrine for a photo, and never stand higher than the priest during a ceremony.

The beach and the street are different places

Swimwear stays at the beach and the pool. Our guide's etiquette card says cover up for the minimart, the streets and the warungs, and Smartraveller notes that standards of dress and behaviour are conservative in many parts of Indonesia. In Canggu and Seminyak nobody will say anything about a bikini top and shorts on the walk back from the beach; that does not make it the local norm, and the further you get from the tourist strip the more it reads as disrespect.

The fix is a T-shirt or a throw-on dress in the beach bag. Two seconds, and you are dressed for the minimart, the warung and the ride home.

Dawn and dusk: dress for the mosquitoes

This is the section that is about health rather than manners. Smartraveller reports dengue in people returning from Bali and advises long, loose, light-coloured clothing and closed shoes, with extra care in the early mornings and late afternoons when mosquitoes are most active. healthdirect's dengue page adds that the dengue mosquito bites throughout the day, that it will bite through tight clothing, and that socks and covered shoes matter as much as sleeves.

So the evening outfit at a rice-field restaurant or a sunset bar is long light trousers or a long skirt, a loose long-sleeved shirt, and repellent on whatever is showing. The staying healthy page has the rest of the mosquito advice.

Sun: the hat, the sunglasses, the rashie

healthdirect's rule is sun protection whenever the UV index is 3 or higher, which in Bali is most of every day: clothing that covers as much skin as possible, a hat that protects face, head, neck and ears, sunglasses that meet Australian standards, and broad-spectrum water-resistant SPF 30+ reapplied often. It notes that water and light sand increase exposure, which is a Bali beach.

In practice: a hat that survives a scooter, a long-sleeved rashie for surfing and for kids, and a light shirt to throw on at the beach club. Reef-safe sunscreen is expensive on the island and on the packing list for that reason.

Wet season and the cool bits

Our guide puts the dry season at roughly May to October and the wet at November to March, with humid afternoons and dramatic downpours. A light rain jacket and a dry bag for the phone are the packing list's non-negotiables in the wet, and grippy sandals earn their place on wet temple steps and scooter floorboards all year.

The warm layer is the thing everyone forgets. The plane is cold, Ubud evenings can be cool in the middle of the year, and the ride down from a sunrise hike is chilly. One light jumper or a big scarf does it, and it is the only warm thing you need.

Scooter days

Closed shoes, and a helmet that actually clips. Smartraveller says to always wear a helmet and that helmets available locally may not meet Australian standards; our packing tool's scooter-day items are closed shoes and a check that the rental helmet's strap works. Thongs and a scooter are how a lot of the grazes at the clinics happen, and long light trousers are cooler than they sound at 40 km/h. Whether you should be on a scooter at all is a licence question, on the getting around page.

The lists: men, women, kids

What not to wear

• Swimwear anywhere but the beach and the pool. Cover up for the street, the minimart and the warung.
• Singlets, short shorts or bare shoulders at a temple. Shoulders and knees covered, sarong and sash on.
• Thongs on a scooter. Closed shoes, and a helmet that clips.
• Tight dark synthetics. They are hot, and mosquitoes bite through tight fabric.
• Shoes on a shrine, or a foot pointed at one. Our guide's etiquette cards cover feet, heads and offerings; step around the little flower trays on the ground, never on them.