Updated August 2026
Bali weather in May
The other month that gets everything at once. Dry skies, settled sea, pools still clear, and the tour vans not yet arriving at nine in the morning.
May is the driest month of the first half of the year, around 80 mm over six days, with eight hours of sun and a sea that has properly settled. It is April with a little more certainty and a little less green.
It is also the last month before the price wall. Rates climb through May and step up sharply in mid June, so the difference between a May trip and an identical June one is real money for weather that barely changes.
May in figures
Orders of magnitude measured on the south coast, which is where every published average for Bali comes from. Ubud runs wetter and cooler at night, and above a thousand metres none of it applies.
- Day
- 30 to 31 °C86 to 88 °F, warm and dry
- Night
- 24 °C75 °F, easing towards June
- Sea
- 28 °C82 °F, starting to cool
- Rain
- About 80 mmroughly six days with rain on them
- Sun
- 8 haverage per day
- Humidity
- About 78 %comfortable for walking
Is May a good time to visit Bali
Yes, and it is the last cheap one
May sits with April and October in the top three. Dry mornings, dry evenings, calm crossings to the Nusa islands, and a crowd that is building but still comfortable. Nothing on the island is closed and nothing is over subscribed.
The reason to prefer May over June or July is money and space. The weather difference is marginal and the price difference is not, and by mid June the same sites need a strategy about what time you arrive.
Is May right for your trip
May is a strong answer for almost everyone, and the standout month of the year for surfing: the swell has filled in and the line ups have not.
Diving in May
Very good, and quiet
Strong month for this
Visibility is properly back, typically twenty to twenty five metres, and the crossings run. The manta sites are calm with a fraction of the August boat traffic. Water is starting to cool and the thermoclines at Crystal Bay bite, so bring more wetsuit than a page about Bali suggests.
Manta Point and what you actually see thereSurfing in May
The best month of the year
The best month for this
The south west swell is established and the trade winds hold offshore on the Bukit through the morning, so Uluwatu, Padang Padang and Bingin all work. What makes May the pick rather than July is that the crowd has not arrived. Same waves, a third of the people, and the swell is a size more forgiving.
Families in May
Strong, before the rush
Strong month for this
Reliable beach days, warm sea, low rain and sites that do not yet need an early alarm. Rates are still below high season and family rooms are available at short notice, which stops being true in June. The only caveat is that the sea is starting to cool for small children.
What a Nusa Penida day trip really involvesCouples in May
As good as April
The best month for this
Dry evenings every night, comfortable humidity, and the last month before the good hotels stop discounting. The valley places around Ubud and the clifftop places on the Bukit are both still at shoulder rates through most of the month.
Budget in May
Good, and closing fast
Strong month for this
May is not cheap the way February is, but it is the last dry season month priced below high season. Rates climb week by week across the month and jump in mid June. Booking the first fortnight of May rather than the second is worth a noticeable amount on the same room.
Waterfalls in May
Still good, thinning
Strong month for this
Two months into the dry season the falls have come off their peak but still carry real water, and the pools are clear. Tukad Cepung works well now. April is better for volume, May is better for the walk in, because the paths have dried out and stopped being clay.
The waterfall guide, month by monthFirst time in May
Among the best picks
The best month for this
Everything works, nothing is cancelled, and you can still turn up at a famous site mid morning without losing the day. That last part is what separates May from July and it is worth more on a first trip than any weather statistic on this page.
The Gates of Heaven, and the queue nobody warns you aboutMay is not one month
May moves in one direction: prices and people both climb steadily across it. The first fortnight and the last are noticeably different trips, for weather that is essentially identical.
1 to 15 May
The value half
16 to 31 May
The climb begins
What May does badly
Clear, and colder than it looks
The same upwelling that clears the water around the Nusa islands cools it. A shorty is not enough at Crystal Bay from May onward.
Two small things, and one of them catches people out. The sea starts to cool in May and keeps cooling into August. Surface temperatures around the Nusa islands drop towards 26 °C and the thermoclines below that are colder again. People who packed for a Bali page promising 29 °C water find a forty minute snorkel less pleasant than expected.
The second is that May is the month the waterfalls start to visibly thin. They still carry water, but Tegenungan in May is not the wall of white water it is in February, and the gap widens every week from here to September.
The haze over the interior also has not fully lifted, so the volcano views are less certain than they become in June.
Booking around May
May is the last month where booking a week ahead still gets you the good options. From June that stops being true, first for accommodation and then for the popular day tours.
Before the high season pricing
Free cancellationBali day tours and island boat trips
- ✓Calm, predictable crossings to the Nusa islands
- ✓Shoulder pricing on tours and drivers, before the June step up
- ✓Visibility back to twenty metres and more, with a fraction of the August boat traffic
- ✓Free cancellation on most listings
Affiliate link. Booking through GetYourGuide costs you nothing extra and supports the guide. Prices are indicative and vary by option and season.
Bali in May: common questions
Temperature, rain, the sea, crowds and what to wear.
Is May a good time to visit Bali?
What is the climate in Bali in May?
Is May cheaper than June in Bali?
Is May good for surfing in Bali?
How cold is the sea in Bali in May?
Does it rain in Bali in May?
Read next
Bali weather month by month
All twelve months in one table, and what the two seasons really change.
Manta Point, Nusa Penida
Calm, clear and far fewer boats than the same site sees two months later.
Tukad Cepung
The gorge with the light beam, and May is when the walk in has dried out.
The Campuhan ridge walk
No shade on the ridge, which makes a dry, breezy month the one to do it in.
The last month before the price wall
May gives you June weather at April prices, and the difference disappears in the middle of June. These guides say what each place is really like and the hour that changes what you see.