Bali has reopened to all foreign tourists from today, but direct flights from Australia are still nowhere to be seen.

The Indonesian government officially reopened the island in October, but only a handful of countries were permitted to visit and Australia was not one of them.

From 4 February, Bali was reopened as an international point of entry, welcoming its first direct flight with foreign tourists in nearly two years, according to Reuters.

However, a direct route from Australia is not set to take off until March, with Jetstar restarting flights to Bali from Sydney and Melbourne from 1 March, and Qantas set to resume in late March.

Virgin is yet to confirm when its Bali flights will restart.

In the meantime, Garuda has scheduled one flight a week from Tokyo and Singapore Airlines will begin weekly flights from Singapore from 16 February, for those who don’t mind a stopover.

On Tuesday, Indonesia’s Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan revealed the country would shorten its quarantine period from seven to five days for fully vaccinated travellers.

Travellers will need to spend their quarantine period in one of five designated quarantine hotels, all of which are five-star resorts located in Nusa Dua, Jimbaran, Sanur or Ubud.

“Currently, Bali also provides two additional options for international traveller quarantine, namely bubble quarantine at five hotels for now with a total of 447 rooms and on live-on-board ships that have been CHSE-certified by the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy,” Luhut said.

Each resort has been set up as a “quarantine bubble”, where travellers can move freely around its facilities.

Indonesia’s tourism marketing arm, Wonderful Indonesia, calls these quarantine bubble stays a “warm-up vacation“, seeing as guests can take advantage of their quarantine accommodation’s pools, gyms, restaurants and in-house activities.

Those entering Indonesia will also need to return a negative PCR test on their fourth day of quarantine before they are allowed to explore the rest of Bali, as well as proof of travel insurance, a tourist visa and a PCR test upon arrival.

According to the Bali Hotels Association, resorts will offer packages including transport from the airport, a second PCR test, all meals, laundry, and a clearance letter upon check out.

Check out each of the bubble resort’s packages HERE.

Image source: iStock/intek1