Bali News & Blog

In September 2024 there was a groundbreaking ceremony in Kuta for something genuinely exciting: an underground rail line that would run from the airport through Kuta and Seminyak and on toward Berawa and Cemagi. For anyone who has sat motionless in Bali traffic with a flight to catch, it sounded close to miraculous. Nearly two years later, the site is an empty plot behind barriers. No machinery, no workers, no tunnel. Short version: Bali's subway project has stalled, the company behind it is being sued over unpaid invoices, and

Ask a first-time visitor to name places in Bali and you'll get Seminyak, Ubud, Canggu, maybe Uluwatu. Almost nobody says Tabanan. Which is slightly odd, because two of the most photographed places on the island are sitting inside it. Tanah Lot is in Tabanan. So are the Jatiluwih rice terraces, which hold UNESCO World Heritage status. People visit both constantly without ever registering the name of the regency they've driven into. Short version: Tabanan's tourism revenue is running ahead of its 2026 targets and local officials are reporting a

A second airport for Bali has been discussed for so long that most people on the island stopped believing in it somewhere around the third announcement. It's been proposed, relocated, redesigned and shelved more than once. So the temptation is to file the latest development under "we've heard this before." This one is slightly different, and the difference is the money. Short version: the proposed North Bali airport at Kubutambahan has presidential support and is being planned as a fully private project, with no national or provincial budget money

Extending a visa in Bali has always involved the same small ritual: a drive down to the immigration office in Jimbaran, a queue, a number, and a chunk of a perfectly good holiday morning gone. It works, but nobody has ever described it as pleasant. That changed quietly on July 8, 2026, when the Ngurah Rai immigration office opened an Immigration Lounge on the top floor of Discovery Mall in Kuta. It's the first immigration service in Bali to operate inside a shopping centre. Short version: if you need

Book a hotel anywhere in the world and you get a shorthand you instantly understand. Four stars means something. Five stars means something else. You may argue about whether a particular hotel deserves its rating, but at least you're arguing about a shared standard. Book a villa in Bali and you get none of that. You get photographs, a price, and a review score assembled by strangers with wildly different expectations. That's the gap the Bali Villa Rental and Management Association is now trying to close. Short version: BVRMA