Bali Group Tour: 9 Days vs 12 Days, Which to Pick

Bali is the easiest “first big trip” on the map for Australians: short flight, cheap on the ground, and a well-worn backpacker circuit from the surf towns in the south up to the jungle in the middle and out to the islands off the east. The question isn’t really where to go. It’s how long, and with whom. Here’s the honest comparison between our two Bali group tours, and when you’re better off skipping the group altogether and just surfing.

The two Bali group tours, side by side

Both trips are fully guided group tours with a group leader, fixed departure dates, and a crew of other 18 to 30-somethings who’ve all turned up solo or in pairs. Both start in Canggu. For the first eight days, they’re the same trip.

The Bali Adventure, 9 Days Canggu to Gili T, from $1,299 runs:

• Days 1 to 3, Canggu. Welcome dinner, a temple day with a Canang Sari offering class and a sunset beach club, then a surf lesson with local instructors.
• Days 4 to 5, Lovina. North to the quieter black-sand coast, waterfall swims on the way, then a sunrise outrigger boat to see wild dolphins, followed by a coffee plantation and the rice paddies.
• Days 6 to 9, Gili Trawangan. Boat over to the island with no cars (bikes and horse carts only), a bicycle loop, a beach day, a snorkel trip with turtles, and an island beach party before you check out on day nine.

The Bali Adventure, 12 Days Canggu to Ubud, from $1,799, does all of that, then keeps going:

• Day 9, Gili to Ubud. Boat back to the mainland and up into the hills to Bali’s jungle town.
• Day 10, Ubud. The Monkey Forest, the markets and the jungle swings.
• Day 11, sunrise volcano. A pre-dawn summit with a local guide, then a massage to recover.
• Day 12, check out from Ubud.

So the choice comes down to one question: do you want Ubud and the volcano, or do you want the extra three days and the price difference for something else?

Who the 9-day suits

The 9-day is the beach-and-islands trip. Surf, sunsets, dolphins at dawn, then four days on Gili T, which is the bit most people are secretly in it for. It finishes on the island, which is a smart design: you can walk off the tour and straight into a few more nights there if you’ve fallen for it, or ferry back to Bali for your flight.

Pick the 9-day if:

• You’ve only got a week or so of leave and the flight days are already eating into it.
• You care more about the ocean than temples, and the surf lesson plus the Gili T snorkel is your idea of culture.
• You’ve been to Ubud before, or you’re planning to do it yourself afterwards on your own time.
• Budget is tight. On price, the 9-day ($1,299) is cheaper than the 12-day ($1,799).

It’s the better pick for a first-time solo traveller too, honestly. Nine days is long enough to bond with the group and short enough that you’re not sick of anyone by the end.

Who the 12-day suits

The 12-day is the one that gives you the whole island, not just the edges. Ubud is Bali’s cultural centre: rice terraces, temples, the Monkey Forest where macaques will try to take your sunglasses, and the yoga-and-smoothie scene that half of Instagram is built on. The sunrise volcano hike is the single best morning you’ll have on either trip: you start in the dark, climb with a guide, and watch the sun come up over the caldera with a crowd of other people who also didn’t want to get up at 3am and are all glad they did.

Pick the 12-day if:

• You’re flying a long way for this and want to see the inland side as well as the coast.
• This is your one Bali trip and you don’t want to come back for Ubud separately.
• You like a bit of variety: three days in the hills after a week of beaches is a good reset.
• The price difference between the two is, to you, worth three extra days with everything organised.

Finishing in Ubud also sets you up well if you’re flying home from Denpasar, which is around an hour and a half south by road depending on traffic.

What “fully guided” actually means here

These trips run on fixed departure dates with a set itinerary, so you book a date and show up. A group leader travels with you the whole way, handles the transfers, boats and check-ins, and gets the group out together at night. The activities listed in the itinerary are included rather than sold to you on arrival, which is a bigger deal than it sounds when you’re comparing the price with a do-it-yourself version where every boat and lesson gets added at the counter.

The flip side is that it’s a group trip. You move when the group moves. If the idea of a leader and a schedule makes you itch, keep reading.

The alternative: a Canggu surf and stay

Not everyone wants a tour. If what you actually want is to surf every morning, eat well and go out at night, with a bed sorted and no bus to catch, a surf and stay in Canggu is a much simpler product.

• 3 Day/2 Night Surf & Stay - Canggu, Bali, from $249: a long weekend’s worth. Good as a bolt-on at the start or end of a longer Indonesia trip.
• 5 Day/4 Night Surf & Stay - Canggu, Bali, from $499: the sweet spot. Enough sessions to actually improve rather than just stand up once.
• 7 Day/6 Night Surf & Stay - Canggu, Bali, from $759: a full week of surf coaching with your accommodation, and the rest of your time your own.

A surf and stay suits you if you’re travelling with a mate or two already, you’ve got a specific thing you want to get good at, and you’re happy to organise your own day trips (Ubud, the waterfalls, a Nusa Penida boat) around it. It won’t make you a group of twelve friends by day three the way a guided tour does. It will make you a surfer.

The cheeky move: do the 5-day surf and stay first, then join a group tour departure a day or two later. Canggu is the start point for both, so you’re not going anywhere.

When to go to Bali

Bali’s dry season runs roughly April to October, with the most settled weather and the best surf on the south-west coast (where Canggu sits) through the middle of that window. November to March is the wet season: warmer, humid, with heavy afternoon downpours rather than all-day rain. Gili T is good year-round for snorkelling, though the crossing can be rougher in the wet. July and August are peak for Australian school holidays and European summer, so book your departure earlier for those months.

Check the current visa rules for your passport before you fly. They change, and the airline won’t let you board without the right paperwork.

So which one?

Short leave, ocean person, budget-aware, first solo trip: the 9-day. One-and-done Bali, want the hills and the volcano, flying a long way: the 12-day. Travelling with mates, want to surf more than sightsee, happy to self-organise: a surf and stay in Canggu.

See all three alongside everything else on the Bali & Indonesia page.

FAQs

Are the 9-day and 12-day Bali tours the same trip for the first part?

Yes. Days one to eight match: Canggu, Lovina and Gili Trawangan. The 12-day adds a boat back to the mainland and three days in Ubud, including a sunrise volcano hike.

Can I extend my stay on Gili T after the 9-day tour?

The 9-day finishes on Gili Trawangan, so you can book extra nights there yourself after check-out. Boats back to Bali run daily; allow a full day to get back to Denpasar for a flight.

Is a Bali group tour good for solo travellers?

That’s who it’s built for. Most people arrive solo, the group is in the 18 to 30s range, and a group leader runs the whole thing on a fixed departure date, so you’re never organising transport or wondering where everyone is going tonight.

Which is better for learning to surf, the group tour or a surf and stay?

The surf and stay, by a long way. The group trips include one surf lesson in Canggu; a surf and stay is coaching across several days with a bed next to the break. If getting good on a board is the goal, that’s the product.