Does the area change the best time to visit Bali?
It changes how much rain you get, not when to come. Canggu, Ubud and Uluwatu are an hour or two apart by scooter, and in our 11-year climate data they follow the same rain calendar: dry from June to September, wet from December to February. If you only have one rule, that is it.
Guides that give each area its own season are mostly describing the experience (Canggu's surf and beach clubs, Ubud's rice terraces and cooler air), not a different calendar. The grid below is the whole year at a glance: darker blue is wetter, and the small number is rain days. Read it down a column for one area's year, and across a row to compare areas in one month.
Rain per month by area: millimetres (large) and rain days (small)
| Month | Canggu | Ubud | Uluwatu | Lombok |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 31319 d | 33221 d | 39118 d | 25018 d |
| Feb | 29520 d | 31019 d | 35517 d | 26717 d |
| Mar | 20516 d | 24918 d | 26114 d | 27318 d |
| Apr | 15411 d | 17012 d | 1089 d | 13611 d |
| May | 887 d | 1249 d | 855 d | 855 d |
| Jun | 695 d | 1039 d | 725 d | 824 d |
| Jul | 696 d | 13611 d | 474 d | 323 d |
| Aug | 564 d | 1189 d | 174 d | 102 d |
| Sep | 1017 d | 1169 d | 705 d | 483 d |
| Oct | 1078 d | 13810 d | 1216 d | 1316 d |
| Nov | 20415 d | 24918 d | 22711 d | 22714 d |
| Dec | 28821 d | 32822 d | 33817 d | 25718 d |
Averages 2015-2025 · Source: Open-Meteo, CHIRPS · How we measure
A note on the numbers
Rain days and temperatures come from Open-Meteo everywhere. Rain totals for Uluwatu and Lombok come from CHIRPS (satellite and rain-gauge data). For Canggu and Ubud we keep Open-Meteo's totals, because CHIRPS reads their dry-season rain two to three times wetter than the Denpasar airport rain gauge nearby; Open-Meteo is on the wet side there too, but less. So Canggu and Ubud compare cleanly with each other, while a small gap between Canggu and Uluwatu is not worth much: trust the rain days for how often it rains.
Which area suits you?
Canggu
56 mm in Aug
Rain on about 4 of 31 days in August.
Suits: community and surf
Ubud
118 mm in Aug9 rain days in Aug
Wetter than Canggu in every month.
Suits: quiet and cooler evenings, if you can live with more rain
Uluwatu
17 mm in Aug
The driest dry season of the three.
Suits: cliffs and the driest Bali dry season
Lombok (Kuta)
10 mm in Aug
The driest of the four, July to September.
Suits: a drier, quieter July to September; not a dry option from December to March
Where to be next: your month-by-month route, $19
A route for your months with a leave-by date for each stop, a backup, and the seasonal traps on your path. Drafted from 11 years of weather data, every number checked against it, in your inbox within 48 hours. Not included: visas, insurance or bookings.
Which month is driest in Bali?
August. Uluwatu averages 17 mm, Canggu 56 mm and Ubud 118 mm, with rain on about 4 of 31 days on the coast and about 9 of 31 in Ubud (a rain day is a day with at least four millimetres, the amount rain gauges count). Find August in the grid: the pale stretch runs from June to September in Canggu and Uluwatu, and Uluwatu is the palest column from July on. The catch is the calendar, not the weather. July and August are the busy, expensive months in the south, so for a longer stay many people choose June or September.
What happens in the shoulder months?
The dry season does not switch on and off. April is still wet in Canggu and Ubud (Canggu has rain on about 11 of 30 days), while Uluwatu is already easing. Rain fades step by step through May and June rather than stopping at once. On the way back, October is the last fairly dry month, with rain on about 6 to 10 of 31 days. By November the grid has turned blue everywhere and Uluwatu's dry-season lead is gone.
When is the wet season in Bali?
December to February is the peak. People say "November to March", which is fair, but the heaviest rain sits in the middle of that range. The three areas are about equally wet then, with rain on about 21 of 31 days in Ubud in January, and we do not rank one of the three months above the others: treat the whole stretch as wet.
Which area should you base yourself in?
Because the calendar is shared, choose the area by how you work and what rain does to your day.
Ubud is the odd one out: inland and higher, with fewer sea breezes and cooler evenings, and it is wetter than Canggu in every month, even in its driest. It is the one place where the dry season is not very dry, though the gap to the coast nearly closes in January and February. If rain is your main worry, base on the coast and visit Ubud for the day.
Lombok is the alternative if you want a drier, quieter dry season. Our Lombok numbers are for Kuta on the south coast, and from July to September it is the driest of the four, with rain on about 2 of 31 days in August, against about 4 in Canggu. It is no cooler than Bali, with highs of 28 to 29°C. It shares Bali's wet season, so from December to March it is not a dry option.
What would we do?
If your dates are flexible, plan Bali for June or September. Then pick the area to fit how you work: Canggu for community and surf, Ubud for quiet and cooler evenings if you can live with more rain, Uluwatu for cliffs and the driest Bali dry season, or Kuta on Lombok for a drier, quieter July to September. If your dates are fixed in December to March, accept the rain and choose by flat quality and internet, since no area is clearly drier. If you want dry weather in those months, the Bali or Thailand in January guide shows where Thailand is much drier, and the Bali rainy season guide covers how nomads handle it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best month to visit Bali?
August on rainfall: Uluwatu 17 mm, Canggu 56 mm, Ubud 118 mm. June to September all stay at about 100 mm or less in Canggu and at 72 mm or less in Uluwatu, but July and August are also the busiest and priciest months, so many nomads prefer June or September.
What is the wettest month in Bali?
The wet season peaks from December to February, and the three areas follow the same curve. In Canggu, December has 288 mm, January 313 mm and February 295 mm in our data, so we do not rank one of those months above the others. In Ubud January is the wettest, at 332 mm, and Uluwatu also peaks in January, at 391 mm.
Is Uluwatu drier than Canggu?
From July, clearly: 47 mm against 69 mm in July, 17 mm against 56 mm in August and 70 mm against 101 mm in September. In May and June the two are about level (85 mm against 88 mm in May, 72 mm against 69 mm in June). From October to March our figures put Uluwatu higher (391 mm against 313 mm in January), but the two totals come from different sources and Uluwatu has about as many rain days, so treat the coast as equally wet then.
Is Ubud wetter than the coast?
Yes, wetter than Canggu in every month, and most of all in the dry season. Ubud gets 249 mm in March against Canggu's 205 mm, and even its driest month, June, has 103 mm; in August it has 118 mm, more than double Canggu's 56 mm and far above Uluwatu's 17 mm. The gap is smallest in January and February (332 mm against 313 mm, and 310 mm against 295 mm).
Is Lombok drier than Bali?
In the dry season, yes. Kuta (Lombok), on the south coast where we measure Lombok, has 10 mm in August with rain on about 2 of 31 days, against 56 mm and about 4 of 31 days in Canggu. From December to February it is a little less wet than Canggu (250 mm in January, 267 mm in February), but rain still falls on about 18 of 31 days to about 17 of 28 days.
Is Bali okay for remote work in the wet season?
Yes, many nomads stay all year, but in Canggu rain falls on about 16 to 21 days of the month from December to March, so most days of the month are wet. Plan for a reliable internet backup and a flat that does not flood.
Not sure where yet? Pick your months and what to avoid, and get your 3 best places → Where should I go?
Weather data: Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0), open-meteo.com; rain totals: CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Center, UC Santa Barbara); Canggu (Bali) and Ubud (Bali): Open-Meteo. Processed by NomadWeather from stored copies of the data.