What it's actually like to live in Lombok as a foreigner
The good, the inconvenient, and the genuinely hard. Two of our editors moved here in 2019; here's what they wish someone had told them.
Half of our newsletter subscribers don't intend to live in Lombok full-time. The other half do — they're investing as a step toward relocating themselves, their families, or their retirement years. This piece is for that half.
The good
Cost of living. A two-bedroom villa with a private pool rents long-term for €900–1,400/month. A full-time housekeeper (5 days, 7 hours) costs €240/month. Monthly groceries for a couple eating mostly Western: €350. A meal at the best restaurant on the south coast: €18 with a bottle of wine. A scooter rental: €60/month.
Climate. April to November: dry, breezy, 27–32°C, the lowest humidity in Indonesia. December to March: rainy, but in 30-minute tropical bursts followed by sunshine. Almost no extreme weather; cyclones don't form here.
Community. ~3,200 long-term foreign residents across the south coast and Gilis (up from ~900 in 2019). Mostly French, Italian, Dutch, Australian, with growing American and German cohorts. Everyone knows everyone within 6 months.
Healthcare. A private hospital in Mataram (Siloam) handles most things; a 90-minute flight to Bali for anything complex. Annual private insurance for a 45-year-old: €1,800–2,400.
The inconvenient
Bureaucracy. Visas, vehicle registration, importing personal goods — every interaction with a government office requires 2–3 visits, a paper folder, and a fixer who charges €25–50. This is the cost of doing business; it doesn't get faster, you just get used to it.
Internet. Fibre is now available in Kuta, Selong Belanak central, Senggigi, and Mataram. Reliable 100/30 Mbps for €30/month. Outside those zones, you're on Starlink (€100/month, install €380) or 4G/5G mobile, which is fine but not enterprise-grade.
Driving. No serious foreigner uses a scooter for daily transport — the road safety statistics are sobering. A used right-hand-drive Toyota Avanza or Honda BR-V costs €11–15K, takes 6 weeks to register in your name as a foreigner.
Education. Until late 2026 there's no Western-curriculum school on the island. Kids do remote learning (a Pearson IGCSE programme is most common), or you commute to Bali (Green School, BIS) for boarding. The Singapore-backed Praya K-12 changes this in 2027.
The genuinely hard
Distance. Calling your mother gets harder when you're 7 hours ahead. Time-zone fatigue is real for European subscribers' first 18 months.
The wet-season cabin fever. January and February can be heavy. People who don't have a project (a build, a business, a thing they're working on) struggle with the slower rhythm.
The transaction tax of "small things". A leaking pipe in Lombok takes 4 days to fix, not 4 hours. A lost passport is a 3-week ordeal. You learn to lower the urgency you feel about small problems, which is also a kind of gift.
Who it works for
The people who thrive here in our anecdotal observation: writers, investors with passive income, surfers, families with one parent fully remote, founders who can run their company async, retirees with a clear social plan. The people who struggle: salaried 9-to-5 professionals trying to keep European hours, people who came mostly to escape something, parents of teenagers without access to a peer group.
This is one of the easier places in Asia to live as a foreigner. It is not, however, an easier life than the one you have now. It's a different one — slower, simpler, with a different gravitational centre. Worth understanding clearly before you pour €245K of your savings into a villa.