Two families can spend a year in Bali at prices three times apart. One sends two children to the most expensive school on the island and takes a designed villa on the Canggu beachfront; another chooses a smaller school inland and a comfortable family house in Sanur. Both have a wonderful year. The gap between them is enormous — which is why a single headline number is close to meaningless. What follows are the real components, with honest ranges as at mid-2026 — indicative figures, not quotes, and worth confirming for your own family before you commit.

The two big line items: school and villa

International school. This is usually the largest single cost, and it varies more than anything else. Annual tuition across Bali’s international schools runs from roughly USD 8,000 a year, all-in, at the smaller and early-years schools, to north of USD 30,000 at the premium end. Most of the established south-west schools sit somewhere in the middle teens per child. Remember to add registration and capital fees, which can lift the headline by 20 to 30 per cent in the first year, plus uniforms, transport and lunches. For two children, school alone can be the difference between a modest year and an expensive one. We wrote separately on choosing the school by child rather than by brochure — the right fit is rarely the dearest.

The villa. The other big number, and almost as elastic. A comfortable family villa on a long lease — three bedrooms, pool, a good area like Umalas, Canggu, Sanur or the Ubud fringe — broadly runs from the high USD 20,000s into the USD 70,000s a year, with the architected, beachfront and Bukit-cliff houses climbing well beyond that. Take a simpler house, or go inland and quieter, and the figure drops considerably. Long leases are also where negotiation lives: a villa priced at a certain nightly rate often lets for a fraction of that, monthly, across a year.

“Two families can spend a year in Bali at prices three times apart. The gap is built almost entirely from two decisions: the school, and the villa.”

Where Bali is dramatically cheaper than home

The household is the part that surprises families, in the good direction. A full-time, qualified nanny; a housekeeper; a driver; someone to keep the pool and garden — the kind of support that is unthinkable for most families at home — is within reach here for a fraction of the Western equivalent. Depending on how many roles you take on and how you structure them, household staff across a year tend to run from the low five figures into the USD 20,000s. Eating well is inexpensive if you eat locally; transport, fuel, sim cards and utilities are minor by Western standards. This is the line where a Bali year quietly gives money back.

The costs that are easy to forget

Visas. The right family KITAS pathway, arranged properly through an agent for each member of the household, is typically a low-to-mid four-figure cost for the family across the year — and well worth doing correctly rather than cheaply.

Healthcare and insurance. A proper expat family policy — one that covers Singapore-tier private care and medical evacuation, not just travel cover — generally runs from a few thousand to over USD 10,000 a year depending on ages and the level of cover. We explain what the policy actually needs to do in our note on healthcare in Bali for families.

Setup and one-off costs. Flights, shipping or buying what you need on arrival, a car (and any scooters), school registration, deposits, and the hundred small things of landing a family in a new country. These land mostly in the first two months and are easy to underestimate.

Travel through the year. Part of why families come is the region on the doorstep. Trips into South East Asia — even modest ones — add up across twelve months; the remarkable ones add up faster. Worth budgeting deliberately rather than discovering.

So what does it come to?

Add the two big items to the rest and the honest answer is that a well-run family year in Bali comfortably reaches into six figures USD once a good school and a good villa are in the mix — and can sit far higher, or meaningfully lower, depending on the choices above. A family willing to choose a smaller school, a simpler house and a quieter area can do a genuinely lovely year for materially less. A family that wants the best school, the designed villa and frequent travel will pay for it.

The common mistake is not overspending; it is mis-spending — paying premium money for the wrong-fit school, or an agent who sets up the wrong visa, or a villa that photographed better than it lived. The cost of a year is far less painful than the cost of getting the year wrong.

What we do

Our own fee is published: The Annum Year is USD 48,000 and the Reset USD 22,000, inclusive of any applicable tax. The villa, schooling, household, healthcare, visas, insurance and travel are third-party costs that sit separately — scoped and agreed with you before commitment, so you have a clear view of the expected costs before anything is committed. Where The Annum receives a partner fee or applies a coordination margin, it is disclosed, and recommendations are always made on fit, not remuneration. Where a Bali year isn’t the right use of your money, we’ll say so kindly. If you’re weighing whether a year or a season makes sense, that is exactly the conversation the first call is for.

Author: The Annum  ·  Published: June 2026  ·  Last updated: June 2026 — figures indicative and subject to change

— The Annum