Traveling is one of the most important ways to fulfill our curiosity as human beings, but since the pandemic started, traveling, especially international travels, came to a halt because of all the safety measures.
It’s the beginning of 2022 now, while traveling is not as strict as when the pandemic just started, its definitely not as easy to travel as pre pandemic times. If you want to travel to Bali, Indonesia, here’s a list of things that you need to go through:
Check if Indonesia’s boarder is open to your country, the regulations change fast 🌍
As of now (1st Feb, 2022), Indonesia has opened the boarders to all countries. But please do your own research thoroughly when you plan to travel here, because you never know if a new COVID variant would show up, and the regulations would change fast if there are new variants.
When we where coming to Indonesia on the 4th of Jan, 2022, there was a list of 14 countries that where banned from entering Indonesia because of the omicron variant, and while we were in quarantine, a new variant “IHU” was detected in France and Flying into Indonesia from France was immediately blocked. However, at the end of our quarantine, France was off the list because the research IHU caught up, and the restrictions eased up accordingly.
That’s why, when you decide to come to Indonesia be sure to do your research to check the latest restrictions.
Get Vaccinated 💉
Getting vaccinated is an absolute must for entering Indonesia. So if you’re planning to come here and you are not vaccinated already, you need to plan ahead, because some vaccines require a month in between two shots.
Applying for Visa & Tips 📩
The only way to apply for the visa at the moment is through a visa agent. There is no tourist visa available as the writing of this post. Once you have your visa agent they will provide you with all the necessary information and the documents you need for applying.
There are some documents you defo need vaccine certificated, passport copy, etc. But different agents work differently, so you need to ask them what you need to provide.
💡 Important Tip:
Talk to more agents to see whether what they say are aligned or not, because a lot of agents are not very professional, the information you get from them might be inaccurate. So the best way to make sure is to talk to more agents so you can have the accurate understanding of all the regulations. In our scenario, when we were applying for the visa (Dec, 2021), flying into Indonesia from South Africa was blocked, because South Africa was one of the 14 countries on the banned list due to the omicron variant. When we talked to some agents in the beginning, we were given the false information that despite of where we were flying from, the citizens of South Africa were not allowed to come into Indonesia. Which is not true, Indonesia was banning people that were in the banned countries within 14 days before their departure, and this false information caused us to delay (and nearly gave up on) our plan for 10+ days.
Waiting for Visa Approval 👍🏼
In general, the visa approval process takes anywhere from 3 to 15 days, it really depends on the process, it’s out of your control. Luckily our visa didn’t take too long, we only waited for 4 days.
However, no matter how long you wait for it, once you have received your visa, you have 90 days to enter Indonesia starting from your visa’s approval date. Which gives you a lot of time to plan for your trip.
Booking your Flight to Indonesia ✈️
The process of booking a flight is not different from booking a flight during normal times. The only thing you need to be careful about is that:
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If you have have layovers, you have to do your research to make sure that the regions of your layovers can’t be on the band list. Otherwise, even though you started your journey from a region that’s not blocked Indonesia, you still might not be able to enter.
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As of January 2022, quarantines can only be done in Jakarta. However, there is a great news just came out that the Singapore airline is opening up for traveling to Bali starting from the mid of February 2022. Which means that you can directly fly into Bali and do your quarantine here. If your destination is Bali instead of somewhere else, this might be a very good news for you. But this doesn’t apply to anybody, so again, do your own research to understand more.
Here’s the statement from the Singapore Airlines:
SINGAPORE AIRLINES TO RESTART SERVICES TO BALI FROM FEBRUARY 2022.pdf
Book a Quarantine Hotel 🛌
As of January 2022, and most probably for the following months, if you enter Indonesia from other countries, you have to do quarantine.
And booking a quarantine hotel is an absolute must for entering Indonesia. In order to successfully book quarantine hotel you need to provide your flight information. However, you can message the hotels you plan to stay at beforehand to check with them about availabilities base the date of your arrival, ask your questions, as well as communicate any requirements you might have. The hotel staff that we’ve encountered have been very nice and helpful, so mostly your needs should be met. And then you can book your flight with more certainties. This way, you can make sure everything goes smoothly.
💡 Tip:
Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country, so if you are traveling as an married couple, some hotels might not allow the 2 of you to stay in the Sam room. So be sure to communicate with them when you book your hotel.
As of Jan 2022, the regulations still state you need to fly to Jakarta and do a quarantine there, once your quarantine is done you can fly domestically all over Indonesia. When we were planning to come to Bali, a 3-day quarantine was required, it then got bumped up to 7 days and then 10 days because of the omicron variant. While we were in quarantine, the required quarantine time got knocked down to 7 again. So this is another regulation that is often changing so you have to do your own research and check the new quarantine length just before you come.
Get Negative PCR test 72hrs before flight 🧪
A negative PCR test within 72 hours before your flight takes off is a requirement for boarding the flight as well as entering Indonesia (Jan 2022).
Again, this requirement might change when you travel, so do your research to make sure.Again, this requirement might change when you travel, so do your research to make sure.
In our case, we needed to have a negative PCR test within 72 hours before departure, however, because at the time the rules changed fast, even though we were not required to, but we also did another negative PCR test within 24 hours before departure (because we knew people flying to America from China were required to have a negative PCR test within 24 hours before departure), just in case any rule changes.
Preparing To Fly 📑
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Print out all the needed documents so its easier to show the airport staff when needed.
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Arrive to the airport earlier, during COVID times there are more procedures to go through, as well as more documents to check, and the processes can take longer (which did for us)
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Don’t miss place or lose your boarding pass, you need it once you arrive in Jakarta
What to Do Upon Arrival 🚏
Once you arrive to the airport there will be three different sections you need to go through before heading to the immigration counters.
Here is where your printed documents will come in handy, you can just get them ready for the check and it will most probably make the process a lot smoother for you and for the airport staff.
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Boarding Pass and Passport check
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Vaccine and Negative PRC test check
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Quarantine Hotel booking check (QR Code & Booking Confirmation) and do a PCR test at the airport. (They do nasal and throat swab)
Once you have been through these 3 sections you will go through:
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Immigration: Here you need to show your e-visa
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Baggage claim
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Customs declaration
And lastly you can find hotel staff at the airport and go with them to your quarantine hotel.
Keep in mind we went through this process early (4th) January 2022 so there might be some changes.
