Travelling to Bali with a baby can feel a little daunting.
Before our trip, I had endless questions about all the logistics that come with travelling with a baby to a developing country: bottles, food, safe drinking water and getting around, to name a few.
In the end, we found Bali incredibly welcoming with our daughter Sage, who was just shy of 10 months old when we visited. With a little extra preparation, it can be a wonderfully relaxed destination for your first family holiday.
In this guide, I’m sharing everything we learnt – from choosing a baby-friendly area and packing the right essentials to navigating taxis, cots, babysitting and the dreaded Bali belly.
How Baby-Friendly is Bali?
Bali is a wonderfully welcoming destination for families, and we found travelling with a baby fairly easy.
In our experience, Balinese people absolutely adore babies.
Wherever we went, our daughter was greeted with big smiles, waves and plenty of attention from hotel staff, restaurant workers and locals passing by. A few waitresses in restaurants even offered to hold our daughter while we were eating – unfortunately, she was in her stranger danger phase and didn’t enjoy that at all, but it was nice of them to offer.
While Bali’s infrastructure isn’t always particularly pram-friendly, everywhere we visited was baby-friendly. All cafes and restaurants offered a highchair, and some even bought out baby plates and utensils.
That said, how easy your trip feels will depend on where you stay, how you plan to get around and the facilities available at your accommodation. With a little preparation (and after reading this guide!), you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.
Getting Around
Pram and Carrier
We took our travel pram with us. Whether you’ll use a pram in Bali can very much depend on where you’re staying. We used ours regularly in Sanur, where the modern long beachfront path is relatively flat and ideal for walks. It was also useful around our resort and at the airport.
However, away from these areas, Bali can be challenging to navigate with a pram. In places like Ubud, Seminyak or Canggu, footpaths are often narrow, uneven, obstructed or missing entirely, while busy roads and steps make walking between places difficult.
We packed a baby carrier as well, but didn’t use it because of Bali’s heat and humidity. If you do plan on baby wearing, I recommend packing a muslin cloth to use as a layer between you and bub. I’m still glad we took it, as it was used on the plane for naps.
If you have space, I recommend bringing both.
A lightweight travel pram works well for resorts, shopping centres and walkable areas such as Sanur, while a carrier gives you flexibility for airports, stairs and uneven terrain. A portable pram fan is also well worth packing.
Taxis and Drivers
Taxis and private drivers are generally the easiest way to get around Bali with a baby. We used a combination of pre-arranged transfers and ride-hailing services for shorter journeys.
Grab and Gojek are widely used in Bali, while Bluebird is another reputable taxi option. We had no issues ordering Grab cars in Sanur, and would often order one instead of walking 15-20 minutes in the heat back to our hotel after a day out exploring.
Child car seats are not provided as standard. If you would prefer to use a car seat, arrange this with a reputable transfer company or private driver before your trip and confirm that the seat is suitable for your baby’s age and size.
We organised a transfer with our hotel in Sanur for both directions to the airport. While it cost more than it would if we got a Grab upon arrival, it was worth the extra cost to have a driver waiting for us with a sign and knowing the car would be good quality and comfortable for the family.
If you’re planning any longer drives or day trips, look to book a private driver in advance. Rates are quite affordable; expect to pay around 800K IDR for a full day with a driver.
Where to Go
While you can travel almost anywhere in Bali with a baby, some areas make the experience considerably easier than others. For a first family trip, I would choose somewhere relatively flat, close to the airport and within easy reach of restaurants and essential shops.
Sanur and Nusa Dua are two of the most baby-friendly areas in Bali, but they offer quite different styles of holiday.
Sanur
Sanur would be my top choice for most families travelling to Bali with a baby who still want to get out a bit as opposed to a “drop and flop” by the pool type holiday.
It has a relaxed atmosphere, a great selection of cafés and restaurants, and is much easier to explore on foot than many other parts of the island.
The biggest advantage is the long, paved beachfront path. We could put Sage in the pram and walk between our hotel, restaurants and different sections of the beach. The path isn’t perfectly smooth everywhere, but it was far more manageable than the broken or non-existent footpaths found elsewhere in Bali.
Sanur also feels like a real neighbourhood rather than an isolated resort precinct. You’ll find local warungs alongside international restaurants, spas, pharmacies, supermarkets and plenty of accommodation at different price points. There were so many options when it came to dining out, we were spoilt for choice.
The trade-off is that Sanur doesn’t have Bali’s most spectacular beach, particularly at low tide. However, for us, its walkability and convenience were much more valuable when travelling with a baby.
Sanur is best for: Families who want a relaxed but independent holiday with plenty of places to eat and explore beyond their resort.
Nusa Dua
Nusa Dua is another excellent choice if you want an easy, resort-focused holiday. This purpose-built tourism precinct is home to many of Bali’s large luxury resorts, with landscaped grounds, beachfront walking paths and a quieter atmosphere than areas such as Seminyak or Canggu.
The main appeal of Nusa Dua is convenience. Many resorts offer multiple restaurants, large pools, high chairs, babysitting services and other family-friendly facilities, so you can comfortably spend several days without leaving the property. This can be ideal for your first overseas trip with a baby or if your priority is simply to rest.
The wider precinct is also relatively clean, spacious and easy to navigate with a pram. Depending on where you stay, you may be able to walk along the beachfront promenade or visit the shops and restaurants at Bali Collection without needing a taxi.
The downside is that Nusa Dua can feel more polished and removed from everyday Balinese life. Dining inside the resorts is generally more expensive, and you may need a taxi or private driver if you want to explore beyond the precinct.
Nusa Dua is best for: Families seeking a relaxing beach resort, plenty of on-site facilities and minimal planning once they arrive.
We chose Sanur for our first Bali Family holiday, but next time we might be tempted to give the resort life in Nusa Dua a go.
Accommodation Tips
We splurged and booked a very comfortable stay at Andaz Bali, a 5-star beachfront resort in Sanur.
Ask your hotel what baby facilities they provide – most large resorts have a range of items they can supply to make your life easier. We used the hotel cot and they also provided an electric bottle sanitiser.
Many Bali hotels and villas advertise baby cots, but the style, size and condition can vary considerably. My top tip is to contact the property and ask for a recent photo of the exact cot they provide to make sure it is suitable for safe sleep – otherwise we would have made sure to bring our travel cot with us.
We try to recreate our home environment as much as possible as we travel – this looks like using a Snoozeshade blackout cot cover, bringing our portable white noise machine and a cot sheet from home.
Other things to keep in mind when booking your Bali accommodation with a baby include:
- A fridge for bottles, expressed milk or baby food
- A kettle for preparing formula
- A bathtub or baby bath
- Reliable air conditioning
- A lift if your room is on an upper floor (unfortunately we did not have one, and had to carry the pram up a flight of stairs every time we came back to our room!)
- Enough floor space for a cot without blocking walkways
Baby Essentials
There’s a lot of logistics to consider when travelling with a baby. Here are some of the main things to consider, and I’ve summarised them below in my packing list.
You can buy most everyday baby essentials in Bali, particularly in larger supermarkets, pharmacies and shopping centres. However, the available brands may differ from those your baby is used to, so I recommend bringing enough of the essentials you wouldn’t want to change mid-trip.
Nappies and Wipes
Given we were staying for just a week, and my bub is prone to getting nappy rash with some brands, we packed enough nappies for our entire stay to make things easier.
If you need to buy nappies, the Mamy Poko brand is a reliable recommendation. You can find it in supermarkets and pharmacies, or get them delivered through Grab. I’d heard that the wipes aren’t as good quality, so I made sure to bring enough of those from home too.
Unlike when travelling in Japan, we found finding dedicated baby change facilities quite difficult, even in large shopping malls like Icon Bali in Sanur. We ended up having to change her in the pram on a couple of occasions, so I was glad we had our nappy change clutch with us (and it was very handy on the plane!).
Feeding and Sterilising
Sage had recently transitioned to 100% formula fed just before our trip to Bali. As we use specialty allergy formula, I made sure to bring more than enough to get us through. Given the heat, she drank a lot more than she would at home, so I was glad to have the surplus tin as backup.
Places like Bali Kidz Hire (run by an Australian mum) stock common Australian formula brands, albeit for a premium price, if you are in a pinch.
We used bottled drinking water for preparing formula, which we also boiled using the kettle in our hotel room. I brought a few packets of Milton Sterilising tablets, but our hotel provided a bottle steriliser, which we used instead.
I still used the sterilising tablets to sterilise the tap water used for washing bottles, as I didn’t want to take any chances when it came to Bali belly!
I use this portable bottle washing set when I travel.
Note: some people may prefer to pack a collapsible bucket to wash bottles in, but given we were staying at a 5-star resort, I felt comfortable using the bathroom sink along with our steriliser tablets.
Bring more bottles than you think you’ll need – as mentioned, Sage wanted more milk than we’d normally give her at home due to the heat, and having extra meant we only had to wash bottles once a day (we took 8 with us).
Baby Food
We mostly do baby-led weaning when it comes to solids, so at 10 months old when we were in Bali, we found there was almost always something Sage could eat.
Fresh fruit (ideally peeled fruit), bread, steamed vegetables, eggs and rice were all a hit. If there wasn’t anything suitable on the menu, we often asked if they could do some simple steamed vegetables and grilled chicken, and all places were happy to oblige.
Given meals are so cheap, we would often order something like a tomato-based pasta off the kids’ menu (even though she would only eat a small amount of it).
I would recommend bringing plenty of snacks and pouches from home, given they take up so little luggage space.
Baby Sunscreen and Sun Protection
Given Sage was over 6 months, we brought baby-safe sunscreen from home to use. We used the Cancer Council Kids one, but I’ve also heard good things about Wotnot’s natural baby-safe version.
We tried not to rely on suncream alone, making sure we had a muslin cloth and light, long layers to cover her when we couldn’t avoid the sun.
Mosquito Repellant
After Bali belly, mosquito bites and borne diseases were one of the things I was most concerned about. Mosquito repellent is definitely an essential when travelling to Bali with a baby.
I grabbed these mosquito repellent stickers from the supermarket at home, and made sure I had one or two stuck to her clothes whenever we went out. I also stuck some to her cot just in case.
When going out in the early evening, we used Aerogard Kids roll-on, but just a note that this shouldn’t be used on younger babies.
Avoiding Bali Belly
One of my biggest concerns before travelling to Bali with a baby was keeping her safe around water – and avoiding the dreaded Bali belly. While you can’t eliminate every risk, a few simple precautions made this much less stressful than I expected.
How to Reduce the Risk of Bali Belly
Touch wood, but we have been to Bali 5 times (once with bub) and never gotten Bali belly.
While I think being careful around tap water plays a large part, the biggest thing we make sure we do is to practice good hygiene and always sanitise our hands – especially before eating and after touching money or common spaces.
Taking extra precautions for bub, I used the Milton disinfecting wipes to wipe down all surfaces within reach at meal times, as well as every surface on the plane.
We enjoyed a lot of local food, more so than Western, opting for baby-friendly options for Sage such as freshly cooked rice, eggs, vegetables and well-cooked meat from reputable restaurants.
Bottled Water
As I knew we would need a lot of bottled water to make formula, I ordered a rechargeable pump and a gallon bottle of water that was delivered to our hotel.
I ordered ours through Bali Kidz Hire since we were hiring some other baby items, but you can also buy the pump on Amazon and organise Grab or Gojek delivery for the gallon water bottle.
This lasted us perfectly for the entire week and made life a lot easier when preparing bottles.
Swimming Pools
Despite our best efforts, there was inevitably a small amount of pool water that ended up in her mouth due to the sheer amount of splashing. I think this is very likely to occur, and there’s not much you can do to avoid it, especially if your bub loves swimming like ours. It’s treated with enough chlorine that hopefully they don’t get sick.
We have a Mambo baby float at home, and instead of lugging it over with us (it takes up a lot of space), I hired the exact same one through Bali Kidz Hire.
Bath Safety
I requested a baby bath through our hotel, but it never actually made it to our hotel room.
After the first night, we realised it wasn’t essential as we just made do with quick shallow baths. At home, Sage splashes around a lot, so we made sure bath time was a very quick affair, and she never got water near her face.
We also showered with her once, but found the shallow baths a lot easier to manage.
Travel Insurance
Despite all the precautions in the world, babies (and you!) can still get sick. We never travel without comprehensive travel insurance for peace of mind.
We use Cover-More when we travel. I find they always have very competitive prices, generous coverage and the one time I had to make a claim, it was very easy.
What to Pack
Feel free to use my packing list as a guide.
Carry On Bag:
- Bottles (pre-filled with boiled water)
- Formula Dispenser
- Passport
- Toys (this painter’s tape was a lifesaver!)
- Change of clothes
- Milton Disinfectant wipes
- Carrier
- Nappies and our Nappy Clutch
- Snacks (more than you think you’ll need!)
- Baby Panadol (just in case)
- Pram Fan (this had to go in carry-on due to battery requirements)
- Muslin Cloth & Pram Clip
- Travel Pram
Feeding:
- Bottles
- Formula
- Travel-sized washing kit
- Steriliser tablets
- Bib
- Water Bottle
Sleep:
- Snoozeshade (we love this thing when we travel; it creates a blackout environment and goes over most cots)
- Cot sheet from home
- Sleep sacks (we took 1 and 2.5 TOG and used both)
- White Noise Machine
- Room temperature thermometer
Everything Else:
- Body thermometer (in case of fever)
- Baby nail file
- Wipes and Nappies
- Nappy cream
- Mosquito repellent & stickers
- Sunscreen
- Snacks
- Bedtime book
- Toys
- Swim nappies
- Bathers
- Hat
- Lightweight cotton clothes
- Wondersuit for sleep
- Rug/ Blanket – this came in handy when we were having a drink at the resort, and Sage was sick of sitting in her highchair; we would set this up on the ground with a few toys to keep her somewhat entertained.
Babysitting
It’s very common and popular with families in Bali to hire a nanny for an extra set of hands or to enjoy an adult-only date night.
Obviously, trusting someone new with your baby in another country is a very personal decision – there’s no pressure to use a babysitter just because it’s a popular option.
We travelled with Sage’s grandparents this trip, and so decided not to use a nanny, but we will definitely consider it for our next trip.
I would look for a personal recommendation when hiring a nanny wherever possible – multiple groups of friends have used Vita Bali Nannies before, so that is where I will start looking for our next trip.
Many resorts also offer Kids Clubs, which are a great option for older kids (usually the minimum age is 4 without parental supervision).
Laundry
We didn’t end up needing to do laundry on this trip, but getting laundry done in Bali is very cheap and easy. If you’re looking for a low-fragrance option for baby clothes, many places offer this, or ask for no perfume or fragrance.
Final Thoughts
That covers all the things I wish I knew before travelling to Bali with a baby for the first time. Bali’s balmy weather, family-friendly resorts, great restaurants and relaxed pace made it a wonderful destination for a family holiday, and we’re already looking to go back soon. I think it will be even better as we enter the toddler stage too.
I hope you’ve found this guide useful, check out my other Bali guides below for help in planning your Bali adventures.
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- Is Maya Ubud Resort & Spa Worth It? An Honest Review
- TransNusa Perth to Bali Flight Review