Bali in November 2026: Weather, Crowds and Is It Worth It

Bali in November costs you a few afternoon downpours and sticky 30°C days. Bali in August costs you peak-season hotel rates and packed beaches in exchange for drier skies. For most people flying out of Amsterdam, November wins. The wet season is only just starting, rain usually comes in short bursts, the island is noticeably quieter, and you trade a dark Dutch autumn for about twelve and a half hours of tropical daylight.

One catch: November is a month for flexible planners, not for anyone who needs a guaranteed sunny beach day on a fixed date. If that's you, read the mistakes section before you book.

November versus August

November beats August on crowds, prices and sea temperature, and August beats November on rain. The figures below are typical climate norms, not forecasts. For a forecast closer to your dates, check BMKG, Indonesia's meteorology agency.

The month in practice

November in Bali feels like a hot, humid, mostly bright month with a dependable afternoon shower. Mornings are the best part of the day, so plan anything outdoors before lunch.

Weather and packing

The wet season in Bali is the half of the year when the northwest monsoon brings regular rain, roughly from November to March. Early November often still feels like the tail of the dry season. By the last week, heavier evening storms are more common, and the odd grey day turns up.

The coast (Sanur, Seminyak, Uluwatu) sits at 30 to 32°C by day and rarely drops much below 24°C at night. Ubud is a couple of degrees cooler and wetter. The highlands around Munduk, Bedugul and Kintamani can need a light jumper after dark. The sea is bath warm, around 28 to 29°C.

The sun rises just before 6:00 and sets around 18:15 to 18:30 Bali time, so you get long days whatever the clouds do. Amsterdam, by comparison, gets well under nine hours of daylight in November.

Pack for heat and wet together:

• A light rain jacket or poncho, not an umbrella you'll leave in a Grab
• Quick-dry clothes, because cotton stays damp for days in this humidity
• Sandals or water shoes that cope with flooded lanes
• Insect repellent with DEET, since mosquito numbers rise with the rain
• A small dry bag for boat trips and waterfall walks
• A sarong and sash for temple visits (many temples lend them, not all)

Your Dutch plugs work fine. Indonesia uses the same type C and F sockets at 230 volts as the Netherlands.

What's on

November has no Indonesian public holidays, so you won't hit national travel peaks or closures. Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan) on 10 November is a commemoration, not a day off.

Galungan is the ten-day Balinese Hindu festival, ending on Kuningan, that celebrates the victory of dharma over adharma and fills villages with tall bamboo penjor poles. It follows the 210-day Pawukon calendar, so its dates shift every year. By that cycle Galungan is not expected in November 2026 (the next one falls in mid January 2027), but check the Bali Tourism Board calendar before you plan around it.

You will almost certainly still see ceremonies. Every temple has an odalan, a temple anniversary also set by the Pawukon calendar, and with thousands of temples on the island there's one somewhere most days. If you're in Ubud, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival usually runs in late October and occasionally edges into early November, so check the festival's own site for 2026 dates.

Crowds and prices

November is one of Bali's quietest months. It sits after the European summer and the Dutch herfstvakantie, the autumn school holiday, which falls in October according to the Rijksoverheid school holiday schedule. It also sits before Christmas and the Australian summer school holidays, which start in mid December and refill the island.

That gap shows up in hotel rates. Villas and resorts that charge peak prices in July, August and over New Year tend to discount in November, and good places that sell out in summer have rooms. For a sense of what a first stay costs, see the hotel prices for a first stay page.

On flights, baliamsterdam.com does not track fares for the Amsterdam to Bali route yet, so there's no November figure from us. When tracking starts, the fare calendar with the cheapest month and day to fly will show it in both directions. What's safe to say qualitatively: no Dutch school holidays fall in November, so you're not competing with families, and fares heading home climb as you get into December.

The November plan, step by step

This is the order to do things in, from booking to your first morning on the island.

1. Book the flight. There's no nonstop between Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) and Ngurah Rai International (DPS). Most people fly one stop with Qatar Airways via Doha, Emirates via Dubai, Turkish Airlines via Istanbul or Singapore Airlines via Singapore. If you're reading this in late October 2026 you're booking close in, so be flexible by a day or two and compare Amsterdam to Bali fares across a few midweek dates. Aim to fly home before mid December.

2. Sort your entry. Your passport needs at least six months' validity on arrival, according to Indonesia's Directorate General of Immigration (Imigrasi), 2025. The e-VOA is Indonesia's electronic visa on arrival: a 30-day tourist visa, extendable once for another 30 days, that Dutch citizens can buy online in advance. It costs IDR 500,000, according to the Directorate General of Immigration, 2025. Apply only on the official site, evisa.imigrasi.go.id, not through lookalike agents.

3. Pay the Bali tourist levy. The Bali tourist levy is a one-off charge of IDR 150,000 per foreign visitor, introduced by the Bali Provincial Government in February 2024. Pay it through the official Love Bali website or app before you fly and keep the QR code on your phone.

4. Pick a base for the season. In November the east coast is your friend. Sanur has calmer water, a flat beachfront path for wet mornings and quick boats to Nusa Penida, so look at hotels in Sanur first. Add a few nights in Ubud for rice terraces and cooler evenings. Canggu and Uluwatu still work for cafes and cliffs, just not for beach-first plans.

5. Get connected before you land. Ride-hailing apps like Grab and Gojek are the easiest way around, and you'll want data at the airport to use them. Install a travel eSIM for Bali in Amsterdam and switch it on when the plane lands.

6. Build your days around what November does best. Our picks:

• Rice terraces at their greenest. Jatiluwih and Tegallalang look their best once the rains start. Go early, before the clouds and tour buses.
• Waterfalls with real flow. Sekumpul in the north and Tukad Cepung near Bangli run fuller than in the dry months. Paths get slippery, so wear proper shoes.
• East coast surf. The wet season wind pattern makes Keramas and the Sanur reefs the better bet while the west coast turns choppy.
• A Mount Batur sunrise trek. Doable in November, though cloud can hide the view. Book it for your first few days so you have spare mornings to retry, and compare Mount Batur sunrise tours for pickup times from your base.

One to skip: beach days in Kuta and Legian in late November. The monsoon currents start washing plastic and debris onto that stretch from around the end of the year, and the sea there gets rough.

For a day trip east to Sidemen or Amed, a car gives you freedom to dodge the showers. You'll need an International Driving Permit (in the Netherlands, the ANWB issues it) to hire a car in Bali. Hiring a driver for the day is the lazy alternative, and on Bali's roads it's often the smarter one.

The common mistakes

Most November problems come from treating it like a dry season month.

Expecting all-day rain, or no rain. Neither is typical. Plan outdoor things for mornings and keep afternoons for spas, cafes and museums.

Booking the west coast for surf. Uluwatu and the Canggu breaks are dry season spots. Beginners will be fine with a lesson, but keen surfers should head east.

Scootering in a downpour. Roads in Seminyak, Kuta and Denpasar flood fast in heavy rain, and police checks for foreigners without a valid permit are common. If you ride at all, carry the International Driving Permit and pull over when it pours.

Cutting the airport run fine. The same flooding slows traffic to Ngurah Rai. Leave a generous buffer for an evening departure.

Taking a fast boat the day before you fly. Crossings to Nusa Penida and the Gili Islands get choppier and are sometimes cancelled. Do island trips early in your stay.

Forgetting the time difference. Bali is seven hours ahead of Amsterdam once Dutch clocks go back on 25 October 2026. Schedule home calls and remote work accordingly.

Ignoring the mosquitoes. Dengue cases rise in the wet season. Use repellent in the evenings and pick rooms with screens or air conditioning.

The verdict

Go. November gives you warm seas, quiet temples and lower hotel rates for the price of an umbrella-free afternoon shower. Base yourself in Sanur and Ubud, do the mountain and the boats early, and fly home before the December rush. The only people who should hold out for August are those whose whole trip is a west coast surf or beach week.

For quick answers on visas, banking and moving between the two cities, see the corridor FAQ.

Last updated: October 2026