In Reply to: Advice on daily expenses for two person posted by poobalan on Friday, 28. January 2005 at 14:09 Bali Time:
Food- depends whether you eat at the hotels (which can be expensive).
Breakfast (usually included). if not- cheap 20.000 Hotels 50.000+
Lunch (usually don't need much after big breakfast.
spring rolls 10.000, salad 15.000 juice 10.000 (at decent reasonablew places. Of course there are places cheaper and much dearer.
Dinner Warungs you can get a decent meal for under 20.000 with drink. A decent restaurant will be 50.000 each (incl drinks).
Hotels and fancy restaurants 200.000+ each
A big difference in your costs will depend what type of dining you like but there are many cheap, good restaurants. Also if you drink a lot (cocktails are yummy).
Driver 150-250.000 (as mentioned before). This is a good way to go. If you find a driver you like book him for more days (many recommended on this forum). You can drive but you may miss things as a lot of places are not on main roads or signposted. I think it is more enjoyable to just sit and watch the scenery (speaking from experience of trying to find places and having a husband who drives fast and gets the sh#ts easily). And I am aided by the fact that I speak a bit of Indonesian. For example if I didn't speak Indonesian we would have driven straight past a major waterfall as the sign was in Indonesian (air tujun) Warterfall or literally water fall down.
You will have difficulty using public transport from Candi Dasa (it can be done though). You can get a taxi to Nusa Dua (but it's pretty deadly now- as in not much open). From Jimbaran you can get a taxi or bus to Sanur, Benoa (water sports), Kuta.
entrance fees- most places are cheap or free. Not elephant park or zoo.
Not much to spend at volcano, Lake Bratan, Tanah lot (except stuff you buy). Tipping is not expected in Bali but I do for good service etc. But 5.000 tip is only 75cents so it's not massive like in America.
Hope this is of some help. There are a lot of variables of course.
I have lived on less than $30 a day including accomodation but only because I had no choice. A few cocktails soon blows that out the door. I go for the 2 for 1 happy hours. Can't beat that. 2 cocktails for $3.
Enjoy.