Vegan meter: 5/5
I nearly didn’t bother with Bali.
In my head it was the Australian version of a Brits-in-Spain package holiday. I lived in Australia for nearly fifteen years, and Bali is where half the country goes for a long weekend. Too touristy, too obvious, too done. I assumed I’d land, roll my eyes at the smoothie bowls, and count down to the next flight.
I was completely wrong, and I’m happy to say so.
Bali turned out to be one of the easiest, tastiest, most welcoming places I’ve ever eaten as a vegan. It landed on my 40th birthday trip almost by accident (I was really there for the Komodo dragons in Flores and the orangutans in Sumatra), and it stole the show. If you want somewhere that feels genuinely foreign but wraps you in warmth, good food and friendly people while you find your feet, this is it.
Is Bali good for vegans? Yes, embarrassingly so
Short version: Bali is a vegan paradise. HappyCow lists something like 563 vegan-friendly places across the island, and in the two spots I stayed (Ubud and Canggu) you could eat somewhere different for every meal and never get bored.
There’s a catch, and it’s a small one. Local dishes love shrimp paste (terasi) and fish sauce, so at a traditional warung you do need to ask. But here’s the thing nobody warns you about in a good way: tempeh is originally Indonesian, and it is everywhere. Fried tempeh, tofu, rice, veg, sambal. I love tempeh with an intensity that concerns my partner, so for me this was less “coping strategy” and more “constant reward.” You’ll even find dedicated vegan warungs doing a plant-based nasi campur (a scoop of this, a scoop of that, all over rice), which is my favourite way to eat in Indonesia anyway. And even on day trips out of the tourist hubs, where the fancy vegan cafes thin out, you’ll almost always find a plate of tempeh and veg with your name on it.
Ubud: rice paddies, a rooftop dinner, and a vegan cinema
I did the Ubud leg as part of a tour I booked through TourRadar (the Best of Bali & Komodo Escape), which handled the logistics so I could just show up and eat.
We stayed at ARTOTEL Haniman Ubud, which was lovely: modern, comfortable, and a short walk from the main street. Breakfast came included at the cafe next door, and normally “breakfast included” means a sad coffee and a bowl of fruit while I quietly plan where I’ll actually eat. Not here. Miso mushrooms on toast with avocado, a proper a la carte vegan menu, the works. An actual benefit rather than a box ticked.
On the first night, I fell in love with the place over dinner at Plant B (also called Plant Bistro). It’s a rooftop vegan restaurant tucked up a hill a little way out of the centre, so you walk to reach it, which is part of the drama. The food is fine dining, mostly a clever vegan spin on Italian, and the setting is jaw-on-the-floor treehouse-over-the-canopy stuff. There’s a bakery downstairs turning out cakes, tarts and pastries that have no business being this good without butter. Stop there on your way out and grab something for later. Non-negotiable. It goes straight into my top five vegan meals anywhere in the world, and I’ve eaten in a lot of places. That was the moment Bali flipped from “fine, I suppose” to “oh, I get it now.”
Ubud is where the vegan scene properly overwhelmed me. There are so many plant-based places you could stay a month and never repeat a dinner. 9 Angels & 9 Bambu is a family-run garden warung where you help yourself buffet-style, pay what you scoop into a trust-based money bottle, and eat home-cooked plant-based Indonesian food under the greenery with a fresh coconut in hand. Loose, cheap, lovely. And there’s Paradiso, which bills itself as the world’s first vegan cinema. It’s nothing like a Western multiplex: sofas, a big projector, people wandering over to take your order while you sink into a beanbag. We went during the day and caught a David Attenborough documentary, which felt about right. Great wraps, smoothies and cake.
Ubud itself is hard to describe without sounding like a brochure, so I’ll just say it feels special. Jungle and hills on the drive in, a small centre with a genuinely Zen little temple, and that soft green light everywhere.
The things you actually do around Ubud
A few of these came bundled with the tour, and a couple I’d never have chosen myself, which turned out to be the point.
The Mount Batur sunrise was the standout. You take a jeep up the volcano in the dark to watch the sun come up, then stop at the Toya Devasya natural hot springs on the edge of Lake Batur on the way back. Warm mineral water, a view over the lake, slightly smug about being awake at that hour. Recommended.
Then there was the coffee plantation, which I was lukewarm about going to and which I have Thoughts about. It’s the place with the animals that “process” the coffee beans, if you know the one. That’s a whole ethical can of worms I’m going to open properly in its own post, so I’ll leave it here for now, except to say: keep your wits about you at these stops, because the whole point is to sell you something. Same with the swing, where they push you high over the valley and take roughly nine hundred photos. Not my usual thing at all, but the staff were so delighted for me to do it that saying no felt rude.
We also did the rice terraces (as photogenic as advertised) and the Sacred Monkey Forest, which I researched hard before going because I wanted to know whether it was actually ok. That’s another one getting its own post, because “is this ethical” deserves more than a throwaway line.
Canggu: surf, black sand and an easy vegan base
After the tour, Sumatra and Flores, we came back to Bali and based ourselves in Canggu for the last four or five nights, purely because a friend told me the vegan food was good. She wasn’t wrong.
Canggu is a laid-back surf town with a black-sand beach and enough good coffee roasters to keep a digital nomad army caffeinated. The vegan spots are dotted all around. I Am Vegan Babe was the standout by a mile (I rated it five stars on HappyCow at the time and I’d happily do it again). The Sloth does a proper vegan menu with the kind of things you rarely see, seitan, vegan bacon, vegan tuna, alongside big bowls and falafels. The Shady Shack is your wholefood, salads-and-share-plates spot. And Secret Spot is worth a stop for smoothie bowls and waffles, though it’s veggie rather than strictly vegan, so keep your eyes open.
The food was properly good, not just available: local nasi goreng, Aussie-style smashed avo with kale and mushrooms, smoothies, ginger shots, pizzas. Canggu is pricier than the rest of Indonesia (they know exactly who they’re feeding), though still cheaper than Australia.
Full honesty: I got a bit ill in Canggu and didn’t explore as much as I’d planned. Rough. But even at half capacity, the vegan food was so easy and so good that the trip never felt like a loss. That tells you something.
Vegan in Bali: FAQ
Is it hard to eat vegan in Bali?
No. Ubud and Canggu in particular are two of the easiest places I’ve eaten as a vegan anywhere. The only care needed is at local warungs, where shrimp paste and fish sauce sneak in, so ask before you order.
Which part of Bali is best for vegans?
Ubud, for me. The number of vegan and vegan-friendly places there is almost silly, and a couple of the meals were genuinely special. Canggu runs it close and makes an easier beach base, with a good cluster of spots and great coffee.
Is Bali expensive for vegan food?
Cheaper than Australia or the UK, but the tourist hubs (Canggu especially) cost more than the rest of Indonesia. You’re paying for the concentration of good vegan kitchens. Worth it.
What vegan food should I try?
Tempeh, obviously (it’s Indonesian and it’s everywhere), nasi goreng made without egg or shrimp paste, and gado-gado. Then let Ubud and Canggu spoil you with the fancy stuff.
The verdict
Bali is a vegan paradise, and I say that as someone who arrived braced to be unimpressed. Come for the volcano sunrise and the rice terraces, stay for the fact that being vegan here is not a compromise but a genuine upgrade. Just go in with your ethical radar on for the tourist-trap stops, and ask the right questions at the local places.
If you’re plotting the wider trip, I’ve written about the ethical orangutan trekking in Bukit Lawang over in Sumatra, and I’ve got posts coming on the Monkey Forest and that coffee plantation, both of which deserve a proper look before you hand over your money.
