You might have already read many, many articles about this, but here is another one.

Budget: 2500€ (1100€ flights, 400€ air bnbs, 600€ food and transport, activities; 400€ diving license)

Duration: 16 Days

Travel Time: September (best travel time, since it is shortly before seasonal change to rain period, semi high season, it is always warm on Bali, but in September it is quite windy and not as humid)

I have always dreamt about going to Bali for a very, very long time. But since i had been working a lot the past years, doing an apprenticeship and relaying on school vacation, earning super less money, i was never able to actually go there.

So finally when i got a job i started saving for this journey and then i did not book it. I was super scared, since it is also a different culture and i looked at flights over and over again, but never got the guts to actually buy them. I knew i wanted to go in September, since i researched for the best travel time, so it would have been just so very easy.

One evening i finally told myself that i can do this and i tried to book on a flight, which went wrong several times. I had gotten a new Visa Card, which was not activated, so i tried several times to book my seats (with more leg space, since it's quite a long flight) and desperately failed. When i finally managed to make my Visa Card work after 2hours, all those seats that i tried to pick in previous sessions, where gone, since they are blocked for a while. I got so super mad and thought this might be an omen, that i should not go and went to bed, angry and frustrated. Of course i could not fall asleep, since this was all driving me super crazy, so i got up again and looked at flights at 1am in the morning.

I said to myself: this is the last time you try and if now you don't get the nice seats, then you might not go. So fingers crossed, i got my seats with nice leg space and could finally go to sleep happily.

This got me so super stressed that night, that i did not consider booking any hotel or place to stay for a while.

(Prices for flights can variate, depending on the airline you travel with and where you stop. I went with Thaiairways from Stockholm-Bangkok-Bali with a total travel time of around 18h, staying at Bangkok airport for 3h approx and paid 1100€. Flights to Bali are fairly expensive, while living there is super cheap. So i would always recommend, also due to long flight times, to stay at least 14 Days, if i would go again it would be definitly more)
So after 6 weeks i looked deeper into places to stay. I decided to travel around a bit, but not too much, since it was my first real journey on my own. Of course my first destination was Ubud - The cultural heart of Bali. Since i was also interested so much in Balinese Culture and Mentality, i thought it would be best to live with a Balinese Person. It was quite frightening for me to go on my own and live with a stranger, but i got so far with booking the flights, that i felt i could also do this.
I researched for quite a long time and finally found Putu Merni's Air BnB which is Jawi Painter House in Ubud. Of course i did not want to book my first Air BnB with a man, beeing really critical and sceptical, as i always am.
Staying at Putus Place was 22€ a night including a really nice breakfast with amazing pancakes and fresh fruit salad and free drinkable water.
After Ubud, i wanted to go to Gili Air, so i researched again for a super long time and finally found Dean's Bale Kampung Bamboo Hut. The price was reasonable and since he had good recommendations i felt it would be fine, even though he was a man -haha.
This Hut was a bit more expensive, so around 27€ a night, including free water and breakfast as well.
To be honest i invested more than the 16 Days i spent on Bali, just for researching and beeing super sure, about what to do. As i mentioned it gave me a lot of security, knowing where i am going and what i will do and where i will stay.