Month by month
Bali in July
The weather improves 35% across the month while the island fills up. It is the only month where those two point in opposite directions.
July is the one month where this site cannot tell you which fortnight to take. The weather gets better as the month goes on and the island gets fuller, at the same time.
The first fortnight averages 2.07mm of rain a day and the second 1.35mm, a fall of about 35 per cent. Meanwhile the northern-hemisphere school holidays begin across late June and early July, so the crowd builds through exactly the same weeks. Every other page here ends with one answer. This one ends with a question about which of the two you mind more.
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What July actually measures
July sits in the deepest part of the trough, second only to August.
Rainfall
51 mm
On average. An independent check at the same point puts it at 40mm.
Across the month
2.07 → 1.35 mm
Per day, first fortnight against second. Late July runs close to August’s 1.16mm.
Wettest year
124 mm
The second-lowest ceiling of the twelve, behind August. A bad July is barely bad.
The monthly average has two independent sources behind it and they agree to within three per cent. The fortnight split, the dry-year count and the wettest year come from the reanalysis alone. As on the other month pages there is no count of rainy days and no separate figure by region.
The only month where the advice points both ways
Three other months on this site have a fortnight worth choosing, and in each of them the answer is clean, because only one thing is moving. April dries as it runs, so take the late half. October and November wet up, so take the early one. In July two things are moving and they disagree.
The weather half is measured: 2.07mm of rain a day in the first fortnight against 1.35mm in the second, a fall of 35 per cent. By the back half of the month July is running within a rounding error of August, the driest month of the year, at 1.16mm a day.
The crowd half is not measured here, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. What is structurally true is that the northern-hemisphere school holidays start across late June and early July rather than on a fixed date, so the island fills gradually across the month rather than switching on. That makes the first fortnight the least busy part of the peak and the last fortnight the most.
So: early July for the emptier island, late July for the drier one. If you want both, the honest answer is that July is not the month for it, and June or September is.
July or August
August wins on the weather, narrowly and on every measure: 1.16mm of rain a day against July's 1.65mm, dry in 29 years of thirty against July's 25, and a lower ceiling at 105mm against 124mm. Neither is quiet: both are the peak.
The one thing July has is that its first half is not yet fully in the peak. That is the closest the calendar comes to offering peak-season weather without peak-season company, and it is a narrow window rather than a month. Outside it, if you are choosing between the two on weather, take August; if you are choosing on crowds, take neither and read June or September, which give up almost nothing on the sky and all of the queue.
Where to base yourself in July
Everything is in season, so the constraint is not the weather but the volume. The west coast is working, so Uluwatu and the Bukit are at their best and their busiest, and Canggu and Seminyak are at their most crowded. The highlands around Munduk and Kintamani have dry-season odds on a view and a fraction of the southern congestion.
Two things are worth doing differently in July. Book earlier than feels necessary, because the gap between reserving in March and in June is not small at the properties worth having. And plan around the traffic rather than the rain: the drive between the south and Ubud is at its slowest now, so a split stay beats day trips more decisively than in any other month. All twelve bases, with what the airport transfer costs to each, are on our where to stay in Bali page.
What July is good for
Certainty. July is the month you can book an outdoor plan into and expect it to happen: the volcano at dawn, the day on Nusa Penida with the fast boats at their most reliable, the west-coast surf that made the island's name. Our surfing guide has the seasonal switch, and July sits squarely on the good side of it.
The counter-move to everything else about the month is the same one that works in August: start early. Bali's sights empty out before about nine in the morning and refill for the rest of the day, and in a month with a near-guaranteed clear dawn that costs you nothing but the alarm.
What July does not offer is the green. Three months of drying have taken the terraces and waterfalls past their best, and they reach their thinnest in August and September. If the landscape is the reason for the trip, January shows it in better condition and charges rain for it. For how July sits against the other eleven, see when to visit.
Every month of the Bali year, with its measured rainfall and what the average hides, is on Bali month by month.
Bali in July: common questions
What is the weather like in Bali in July?+
Dry-season weather, improving through the month. July averages 51mm in the southern lowlands and came in under 100mm in 25 of the last thirty years. Its first fortnight runs at 2.07mm of rain a day and its second at 1.35mm, a fall of about 35 per cent, so late July is measurably drier than early July. Daytime highs are 29.2C, among the coolest of the year.
Is July a good time to visit Bali?+
It is the best weather in the calendar apart from August, and the second-busiest month of the year. Whether that is a good trade depends entirely on you. Nobody who visits Bali in July is disappointed by the sky; a fair number are disappointed by the queue at the viewpoint and the drive that took twice as long as the map said.
Is it better to visit Bali in early or late July?+
That is the one month where this site cannot give you a single answer. On weather, late July: the second fortnight is about 35 per cent drier a day than the first. On crowds, early July: the northern-hemisphere school holidays start across late June and early July, so the island fills as the month goes on. The two point in opposite directions, and which matters more is your call rather than the data's.
How busy is Bali in July?+
Very, and it gets busier through the month. July and August are the year's larger peak, driven by the northern-hemisphere summer holidays. Accommodation worth having goes early, the southern roads are at their slowest, and anything with a sunrise or a viewpoint in its description has a queue by mid-morning. Going out before nine in the morning is the cheapest fix there is.
Is July or August better in Bali?+
August, narrowly, on every weather measure: 1.16mm of rain a day against July's 1.65mm, and dry in 29 of thirty years against 25. Both are peak months, so neither is quiet. If you are choosing between them on weather alone, take August. If you want a fortnight of the peak's weather without all of the peak's crowd, the first half of July is the closest the calendar gets.
How hot is Bali in July?+
About 29.2C by day and 23.9C at night, which is the joint coolest of the year alongside August. Bali's hottest month is in the wet season, not in the middle of high season, and the whole year spans barely two and a half degrees. Nobody will feel this; it is worth saying because the assumption runs the other way.
Is the surf good in Bali in July?+
It is the classic month, and the busiest one in the water. The southeast trades are blowing offshore on the west coast, so Uluwatu, Padang Padang, Bingin and Balangan are all working. They are also as crowded as they get, which is the same trade the rest of the island is making in July.