Digital Nomad Starter Pack

Firstly, if you're planning to work in Bali, don't work with Indonesian businesses without having the right visa, or you could get deported! - see visas section.

Other than that.. here's some really useful stuff to have if you're planning to work remotely / create content in Bali!

VPN

A VPN is a Virtual Private Network (whatever that means lol) but basically it changes your IP address to be wherever in the world you like, so you can appear online as though you're there, and access whatever content you need as if you were there.

Not everyone will need a VPN, but there's a few reasons why you might want to get one if you're coming to Bali:

• if you're working and you need your IP address to be set to your home country (to access things / so your boss doesn't know you're away!)

• if you're a content creator (not having a VPN means you're content will eventually get targeted to local audiences)

• if you just want or need to access certain content (a lot of content is blocked in Indonesia: websites, music, films)

In most cases, having a VPN lets you do all these things, which isn't something we realised until about a year into being in Bali, and when we did, it was a game changer. As content creators, our content was progressively getting shown more and more to local audiences the longer we stayed in Bali, and ultimately it was really damaging to our business - when we got a VPN, it completely solved that issue (as well as using an eSIM for TikTok). We also always use it to watch films that are on UK netflix but not Indonesian netflix!

We got NordVPN as it's the top rated VPN, and it's been great. We also have a link that currently gives you up to 74% off which is insane.

eSIM

eSIMs are so useful. Way easier than trying to find somewhere to get a local SIM when you arrive in a country - you just buy one online and activate it as soon as you land, and boom you have data, and you can get an eSIM for any country.

It doesn't interfere with your current SIM either, it's just another, not physical SIM that you can turn on and off in your Mobile Data settings.

An eSIM is particularly useful:

• as a content creator, particularly for TikTok, as TikTok primarily judges your location and which audience to push your content out to via your SIM card - we learned the hard way about this when we got local SIMs. It took us a while, but we found an eSIM that is registered / gets data from the UK, and since using it we haven't had any issues with the audiences we reach, especially alongside using NordVPN.

• in Bali, as if you use a local SIM for more than 3 months withiut registering your phone, it'll stop working.

The eSIM we use also has a 10% discount via this link.

iAnyGo

It's not necessary, but if you want to absolutely fool-proof spoof your location so that nothing has any idea that you are anywhere else (something we had to do at one point), you can change your phone's GPS location using iAnyGo.

Travel Insurance

It goes without saying.. hopefully nothing goes wrong, but if it does.. you want to make sure you're covered. We've used Safety Wing ever since we moved to Bali, and what we like about them is you can add almost any country (180+, not the US) to your insurance for no extra cost (you can do it while you're already there, as well), and they now have no minimum coverage for a claim, so when Phil got sick recently, and the hospital cost was only a small amount, he didn't have to pay for the first $200 or anything, which is often the case, he just got the full amount back.

They cover up to $250,000 max limit.

Revolut/Monzo/Wise

These banking apps are honestly game changers for travelling, but also just in general - when we first came to Bali we just had regular UK bank accounts, and we were getting absolutely wrecked by international exchange and withdrawal fees. Phil personally was losing around £30+ a month to this.

We got Revolut accounts, and instantly saved so much money. You can also hold, spend in and exchange multiple different currencies, which is really useful if you earn in different currencies - in general you just save so much on those rates that normally cost you a fortune. Also Revolut was way easier to set up than we thought it would be, you literally just download the app and order a card, so don't stress about that!

It's worth looking online into which (Revolut/Monzo/Wise) is best suited for you specifically, or whether to just get all of them, because they're very similar but vary slightly in terms of what they offer - but either way they'll all save you so much more than just using your regular bank.

Long-term accomodation

The best way to look long-term accomodation is to book a place for when you first come, and then be able to look in person when you arrive, because the place can often look quite different in person (or might not even exist) and you can often get a better price in person.

Booking.com and Airbnb are great for finding places which you can then visit in person, but the best deals are probably on facebook (easy to find groups, just search by location). The only problem is facebook is full of scammers, so just NEVER book or pay a deposit for a place without viewing it first.