Month by month
Bali in March
The month the whole island stops for a day, and the airport with it.
March holds the only date in the Bali year that can cancel a day of your trip outright. On Nyepi the island stops, and Ngurah Rai closes for 24 hours.
No number in this site's climate record competes with that, so the rain comes second on this page. For the record it is 210mm, the fourth-wettest month of the year, easing by about 26 per cent between its first fortnight and its second. But a March trip is planned around a date before it is planned around the weather.
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The one date that can stop your trip
Nyepi is the Balinese Day of Silence, the Hindu new year of the Saka calendar. For a full 24 hours the whole island observes it: no work, no travel, no going outside, no lights showing after dark. Shops close. Beaches are empty. And Ngurah Rai airport closes, so no flight arrives or departs for the entire day. There is no equivalent anywhere else in the world of an international airport shutting for a religious observance rather than an emergency.
Check the date before you book anything. Nyepi falls in March, but it moves from year to year with the Saka calendar. If your flight lands or leaves on Nyepi, that flight does not exist.
The evening before is the opposite of the day. Villages across the island parade giant papier-mache ogoh-ogoh effigies representing evil spirits, with gamelan and as much noise as can be made, and then burn them. It is among the most striking things a visitor can see in Bali, and it is not put on for anybody. If you are on the island for Nyepi, that evening is the reason to be glad of it.
Our pages on Balinese religion and the Balinese people set Nyepi in the ritual calendar it belongs to, which is the part most guides skip in favour of telling you the hotel will still serve dinner.
Where you spend Nyepi matters more than usual
For one day a year, the answer to "where should I stay in Bali" stops being about beaches and transfer times and becomes about the property itself, because you will not leave it. Twenty-four hours in a room on a lane is a different day from twenty-four hours somewhere with grounds, a pool you can use quietly and a kitchen that is cooking.
That points toward the resort-style areas rather than the walkable ones, which inverts the usual advice on this site. Ubud's valley resorts along the Campuhan, the clifftop properties on the Bukit, and Jimbaran's southern bay all give you somewhere to be. A guesthouse chosen for being two minutes from the market is chosen for a thing you cannot do that day.
Two practical points. Confirm with the property that they will be serving food, because the arrangements differ and the shops are shut. And if you are arriving in the days around Nyepi, arrive before it rather than after: the day after is normal, but the day itself has no transport of any kind, including from the airport, which is closed anyway. The full comparison of the twelve bases is on our where to stay in Bali page.
What March actually measures
March is on the descending side of the chart, the second month of the wet season's retreat.
Rainfall
210 mm
The fourth-wettest month. An independent check at the same point puts it at 201mm.
Across the month
7.93 → 5.87 mm
Per day, first fortnight against second. The retreat that April finishes.
Dry years
3 of 30
Under 100mm. This is still firmly the wet season, whatever the trend says.
The monthly average has two independent sources behind it and they agree to within three per cent. The fortnight split and the dry-year count come from the reanalysis alone. As on the other month pages there is no count of rainy days and no separate figure for Ubud, Munduk or the east coast.
Where to base yourself in March
Outside the Nyepi question, March takes the same wet-season answer as January and December: toward the coast and away from the highlands. Sanur is the strongest single base, because the reef keeps the water swimmable when the west coast is churned up and the flat seafront gives you somewhere to go between showers. Jimbaran holds a calm bay and sits twenty minutes from the airport.
Munduk and Kintamani are still nights rather than bases: the highlands catch more cloud and rain than the lowlands in every month and most of all now. A Batur sunrise in March is a coin toss and worth treating as one.
What March is good for
The island at its greenest, at its emptiest, and at its cheapest. Five months of rain have filled the waterfalls and saturated the terraces, and the crowds that arrive in July are four months away. If the reason for the trip is the landscape rather than the beach, March shows it to you in better condition than any dry-season month can.
It is also the month with the most to see in the way of ritual, and not only Nyepi. The Balinese ceremonial calendar runs on its own cycle rather than on the Gregorian one, so what is happening in any given week is a matter of the village you are near; our page on Balinese religion explains how that calendar works, which is more useful than a list of dates that will be wrong by the time you travel.
What March is not good for is a plan that needs the sky. Three of the last thirty Marches came in dry. Build a trip that works wet, keep the weather-dependent parts loose, and put the island day in the middle rather than at the end, since the fast boats to Nusa Penida do not run when the sea is rough. Our when to visit page sets March against the other eleven on crowds as well as rain.
Every month of the Bali year, with its measured rainfall and what the average hides, is on Bali month by month.
Bali in March: common questions
What is Nyepi and when is it?+
Nyepi is the Balinese Day of Silence, the Hindu new year of the Saka calendar, and for a full 24 hours the entire island stops: no work, no travel, no outside activity, no lights showing at night. Ngurah Rai airport closes, so no flights arrive or depart. It falls in March, but the date moves from year to year with the Saka calendar, so check the date for the year you are booking rather than assuming it.
Can you visit Bali during Nyepi?+
Yes, and many people plan around it deliberately, but you cannot travel on the day itself. Hotels continue to feed and look after guests quietly, and you stay inside the property for the 24 hours. What you cannot do is fly, drive, go to the beach or leave for a restaurant. If your flight falls on Nyepi it does not exist, so the date is worth checking before anything else about a March trip.
What is the weather like in Bali in March?+
Wet-season weather, easing. March averages 210mm in the southern lowlands, down from February's 253mm and on the way to April's 134mm, and it came in under 100mm in only 3 of the last thirty years. It eases inside the month too: the first fortnight averages 7.93mm of rain a day and the second 5.87mm, a fall of about 26 per cent. Daytime highs are 31.2C.
Is March a good time to visit Bali?+
It is a low-season month with low-season prices, a green island, and one hard constraint. The rain is real and the odds of a dry month are poor, but the crowds are the lightest they get and the landscape is at its best. Whether it is a good time depends on whether you can build a trip that works wet, and on where Nyepi falls in your dates.
Is it better to visit Bali in early or late March?+
Late, on the weather. The first fortnight runs at 7.93mm of rain a day and the second at 5.87mm. That is the same drying that April finishes, and April's version is steeper at about 45 per cent. Nyepi complicates the advice, though: it can fall in either half, so the date matters more than the fortnight.
What happens the night before Nyepi?+
The opposite of the day itself. Villages parade giant papier-mache ogoh-ogoh effigies representing evil spirits, with gamelan and noise, and then burn them. It is one of the most striking things to witness in Bali and it is not staged for visitors. If you are on the island for Nyepi, the evening before is the reason to be glad you are.
Can you surf in Bali in March?+
On the east coast. March is still inside the wet-season pattern, so the west-coast reefs of the Bukit are unreliable and Keramas and the Nusa Lembongan reefs are working. The switch back to the west begins around April.