Why We Chose Thailand Over Bali for Digital Nomad Life

Name: Why We Chose Thailand Over Bali for Digital Nomad Life
Uploaded: 2026-09-18T12:06:54+00:00
Duration: 13 min 40 s
Channel: Lloyd & Mandy

00:00Are you a digital nomad or a retiree looking to move to Southeast Asia but

00:05you're trying to figure out where you want to move to? Well you're in luck

00:09because in today's video I'm going to be breaking down exactly why we decided to

00:13move to Thailand as opposed to Bali where we actually lived for six months.

00:18Both Thailand and Bali have been a couple of the most popular destinations

00:23for digital nomads for over the last decade and both places have their pros

00:28and cons but for us personally we found that Thailand had a lot more pros than

00:33cons and in today's video I'm going to break down what all of those are. This

00:38is something that we get asked all the time a lot of people wonder why we chose

00:43to live in Thailand as opposed to Bali because honestly Bali is more popular for

00:48digital nomads especially people in our age bracket in their 30s but Thailand also

00:54has a lot of things that Bali doesn't have and in today's video I'm gonna be

00:58breaking down all of that so make sure you stay till the end and if you find

01:02this video helpful at all please like and subscribe as it really helps the

01:05algorithm. So one of the biggest reasons people choose to live in Bali or Thailand

01:10as digital nomads or retirees is the cost of living. It's probably the biggest

01:15reason people come apart from the weather and the beaches and while both

01:19countries are relatively cheap in comparison to countries in the Western

01:23Hemisphere unfortunately Bali has grown more and more expensive over the last few

01:29years especially since COVID. We were lucky enough to be in Bali right at the end of

01:332021 going into 2022 where prices were actually abnormally low. Since then prices for

01:40accommodation have skyrocketed about 150% on average. To put that into perspective just

01:46after the pandemic the average price of a decent one to two bedroom villa in Bali

01:51was around US $20,000 per year. However due to the increase in demand you're now

01:57looking at paying around $30,000 to $35,000 for a decent villa in Bali per year

02:03which to be honest actually more reflects the prices we would be paying back home

02:08and kind of defeats the purpose of moving to somewhere like Bali in the first

02:12place. Rental prices in Bali on average are around 125% higher than in Bangkok.

02:19However people do seem to be catching on and prices in places like Koh Samui and

02:24Phuket are starting to increase due to the large number of foreigners moving to

02:28the area. But there's still a ton of affordable options in Thailand in other

02:33major cities such as Chiang Mai, Hua Hin and Koh Phun Yang. It's really not that hard to

02:39find a really nice place to live in Thailand for under $15,000 per year and to

02:45be honest condominiums are much more popular in Thailand. They don't have as

02:49many villas as Bali has and that actually makes it a lot cheaper and a lot easier

02:53to find good accommodation. But other than just rental prices the price of food and

02:58drinks has gone up significantly in Bali as well and that's because there's been a

03:03ton of cafes and restaurants opening over the last few years which is honestly

03:08amazing like the food and the nightlife scene in Bali is really awesome but to

03:13be honest the prices are pretty similar to what I would pay back home. I'm

03:17talking about like between five and six Australian dollars for a coffee which is

03:21pretty much what they're charging back home in Australia and me personally I

03:26love having the option of being able to go out and eat whenever I like and when

03:30foods getting too expensive that's a little bit of a turn-off for us. While there are

03:34still cheap local options to eat in Bali we found that here in Thailand even the

03:40Westerner friendly restaurants are a lot cheaper than they were in Bali and that

03:44also comes down to gym memberships and transport we have found on average

03:49everything is just a little bit cheaper here in Thailand. Now that may change if

03:54you're in Bangkok or Phuket some of the more touristy areas however where we're

04:00living in Thailand we found it to be much cheaper than Bali. Probably the

04:04second biggest reason people choose to move to either Bali or Thailand is the

04:08beaches and I'm gonna be completely honest here before going to Bali I was

04:13under the impression that the beaches were all white sand crystal blue waters

04:18with palm trees and to be honest it's not really the case. While there is a lot of

04:22great beaches in Bali such as Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, Uluwatu. The main

04:29hub where we stayed and where a lot of people actually stay in Canggu the beach

04:34just really wasn't that great at all. I'm talking about black sand lots of

04:39rubbish and not great water either. The flip side to that is if you're somebody

04:44who's into surfing then Bali is 100% for you. Thailand on the other hand I think

04:49has some of the best beaches in the world. I'm talking about everything you

04:53see on a postcard, crystal blue waters, white sand and palm trees. Some of the

04:57best beaches in Thailand are around Phuket, Krabi, Phi Phi Island, Koh Samui and

05:05Koh Phun Yang. But as I mentioned if you're somebody who's into surfing that's not

05:09really a thing in Thailand so maybe Bali is a better option for you. We don't

05:13really surf too much we have tried it a few times but it's not something that like we

05:18really need to be doing all the time so that wasn't really something we were

05:22interested in. So if you're just looking for a beautiful beach that looks like it

05:25does on the postcard then Thailand is probably for you. Alright guys we just

05:29need to give a quick shout out to Surfshark for sponsoring today's video. So

05:33one thing we really don't show a lot of on this channel is all the behind-the-scenes

05:37stuff like editing videos, uploading content and of course planning all of our

05:42trips. Up until a few months ago we actually didn't have our own place and we

05:46didn't have access to our own Wi-Fi which meant working from hotels, Airbnbs,

05:52internet cafes and co-working spaces and that meant logging on to public Wi-Fi. And

05:57not only that when we're traveling through airports and on buses and trains

06:01we're also using public Wi-Fi or whatever is available at the time.

06:05Unfortunately public Wi-Fi is an absolute goldmine for hackers which is why for

06:11almost three years now since we left Australia we've been using Surfshark VPN and

06:15still to this day I never log on to the internet without turning on my Surfshark

06:20VPN. And in case you don't know what a VPN is it stands for virtual private

06:24network and it's super important if you're going to be using Wi-Fi. Basically it

06:28acts like a mask encrypting all of your data that gets sent between our

06:32computers and the internet so that nobody can steal all of your sensitive

06:35information. Trust me it's happened to me before. But honestly that's just one

06:39reason we use Surfshark. The other reason is that it lets us log on to service from

06:43all over the world which means accessing streaming services from other countries

06:47such as Hulu, HBO and Netflix. Unfortunately when you're traveling

06:51around the world some content isn't available to you. So guys don't leave

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06:59clicking the link down below and remember to use code Lloyd and Mandy at

07:03checkout to get four months extra. Okay thanks for watching guys and let's get

07:07back to the video. Okay so we actually recently went back to Bali in January and

07:13I've got to say the thing that stood out to me the most apart from the increases

07:17of prices was the traffic. It is absolutely insane and it was January so it was

07:24school holidays and it was probably a lot busier than usual but I've seen photos

07:30and videos of people in Bali right now in July and there's traffic jams everywhere

07:36and that's because to be honest Bali and Canggu especially were never really

07:41intended to have this many people there. The roads are quite narrow and you get a

07:46lot of local tourism from places like Jakarta that bring their cars over and

07:51then they cause massive traffic jams. If you're riding around on a scooter in

07:55Bali it's really not that out of the ordinary to be stuck in traffic for 30 to 40

08:00minutes. On the other hand here in Thailand apart from Bangkok there really

08:04isn't any traffic congestion anywhere and a lot of the roads are actually

08:08designed for cars so if you're a digital nomad and you're looking at moving here

08:13and you want to ride a scooter around you're probably not going to experience

08:16much traffic at all or if you're interested in buying a car then the roads

08:20are really designed for cars to be driven around as well. We haven't found any

08:24traffic issues here as I said apart from in Bangkok where honestly the traffic is

08:28crazy but you don't need to drive in Bangkok you can get the BTS everywhere. Okay the

08:33next reason we decided to live in Thailand as opposed to Bali is the food.

08:39I've got to be honest Thai food is probably my favorite food in the whole

08:43world. It's amazing, it's so fresh, it's spicy, it's sour, you've got so many

08:49different options. I love Thai food and there's so many local Thai restaurants

08:54everywhere. Every city you go to you're gonna find a really really good home

08:59cooked Thai meal. While I will say that Bali does have a lot of really cool like

09:05vegan cafes and more international cuisine than Thailand, as I mentioned

09:11earlier it's just a little bit expensive and to be honest I do like Indonesian food

09:16but not as much as Thai food. I think Thai food is the best and the night markets

09:21here are absolutely amazing. You can go to a night market and eat anything you like

09:26and you're probably not gonna spend more than ten dollars. Me and Mandy go to our

09:30favorite restaurant here and the menu is about 50 pages thick. We order as much

09:35food as we want and drinks and we never spend more than about 20 bucks and the

09:40food is amazing. I can't speak highly enough of it. So for us personally food was

09:45a factor in deciding to live in Thailand over Bali although it probably wasn't the

09:49biggest factor. We also found that when we were in Bali we struggled to find

09:53really good grocery stores that had like all the stuff we wanted to cook at home

09:58and even a lot of the accommodation didn't really have great kitchens to be

10:01honest. So we found ourselves eating out most of the time and we got to a point

10:05where we really just wanted to cook at home. In Thailand we have found some

10:09amazing grocery stores and they're actually pretty cheap like I'm talking

10:13maybe half the price as we would pay for stuff back home and you can find

10:17everything you want that you would usually get back home here in Thailand in the

10:21grocery stores. If you're a retiree then this probably isn't going to apply to

10:25you but if you're a digital nomad then co-working spaces are probably a massive

10:30thing on your list and to be honest Bali definitely gets the nod when it comes to

10:35co-working spaces. There are a ton of co-working spaces especially in Canggu,

10:40Uluwatu and Ubud and it's actually a great way to meet other young people who

10:44are digital nomads as well and that's one thing we really love about Bali.

10:47However, unfortunately there really isn't quite the same digital nomad scene

10:52here in Thailand just yet and there isn't as many co-working spaces. A lot of

10:57people I think here mostly work from home or cafes. So until recently I would have

11:02said that Bali had better options for digital nomads as far as visas but since

11:07Thailand has just released the new destination Thailand visa I have to say I

11:12think Thailand might actually take the cake now. So the new destination Thailand

11:16visa is a visa that any digital nomad can apply for. It's valid for up to five

11:21years with stays permitted up to 180 days per time and can be extended for

11:26another 180 days for five years. The cost of the visa is about 10,000 baht which

11:32works out to be about 300 US dollars something like that and the

11:36requirements actually aren't too bad at all. All you need is a valid passport, proof of

11:42income from either an employer or a client and around about twelve to thirteen

11:48thousand dollars in your bank account. And with this visa you can actually bring

11:52your spouse and children. So if you're someone like us who's married and maybe

11:57you have a kid and you work online and you want to bring your family over then

12:02you're just going to be paying one visa bill and you and your family can stay and

12:06work remotely for up to five years in Thailand. So that pretty much sums it up. I think

12:11honestly both places have their pros and cons. We really love Bali. If it wasn't

12:16as busy and expensive we would love to live there but unfortunately things have

12:21gotten a little bit crazy and we opted for a little bit more of a chilled out

12:25place here in Thailand and we can honestly say we don't regret it at all.

12:29However if you're thinking of moving to either place you really can't make the

12:32wrong decision because you're going to be happy wherever you go. There's so many

12:36amazing people to meet in Bali and in Thailand who are working remotely as well as

12:41the locals. The locals in Thailand have been absolutely amazing to us and

12:46especially with Mandy pregnant. They've all been so welcoming and nice and our

12:50landlord even is like the nicest lady ever. Everyone we deal with here is

12:54amazing so we're really happy that we chose Thailand. However we are looking

12:59forward to going back to Bali for a holiday sometime soon. If you're looking

13:03for any more info on either Bali or Thailand we have playlists available. We've

13:07made a ton of videos about visas and remote work and finding accommodation, cost of

13:13living, all that sort of stuff. So go and check them out. We'll leave the link to

13:17everything down below and if you made it this far we really appreciate it and if

13:20you found this helpful at all again please remember to like and subscribe. It

13:24really helps us out. Cheers guys.

Why We Chose Thailand Over Bali for Digital Nomad Life

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