Denpasar Bali Airport

The airport is still undergoing reconstruction. None of the air bridges were working in either old or new terminals. Domestic departures was through the old domestic arrivals area. Business lounges for both domestic and international flights were fenced off parts of the main concourses with no computers available. No alcohol was on display but I discovered that in the international lounge a waitress would bring you a glass of wine if you asked for one. Arriving from Australia was a dreadful experience because many flights arrive at the same time. There is no fast track. Travellers should note that you have to pay the visa charge a desk before immigration which is not immediately obvious. It took 35 mins just to get through passport control with further long queues for the customs scanner and to exit the car park. (I subsequently noticed that there was not a car park wait at other times of the day.)

Arrived early afternoon with carry-on luggage. Through new Bali airport in twenty minutes! Helpful pleasant staff. Returned to Australia on 9pm flight Friday and experienced similar scenario!

Very poor communication here. Staff were friendly but incredibly slow we almost missed a departing flight in spite of being there early. The departure gate had been changed but no announcement was made the incorrect gate was on the boarding pass and electronic screens. A final call was made for our flight a few minutes before departure resulting in a huge cue of confused passengers required to use the same gate as another flight to another city at the same time. Sealed water bottles sold to us were confiscated yet other passengers were able to take theirs through as most bags but not all were searched. Food and beverages were very expensive and service slow. I have been to airports all over the world and although modern and clean this one was very disorganised. Our arrival was just as frustrating with 2-3 hr queues through customs luggage dumped on the floor and poor communication to passengers.

Very different experiences arriving and departing. Arriving we encountered massive and slow moving immigration queues and the most unfriendly staff i can remember at any airport. Leaving the terminal you see how much of an effort they have made to make it look nice with thousands of plants cascading down the outside walls of the terminal which itself is quite contemporary and airy. On leaving Bali the experience was better with very friendly staff all the way through and pretty good facilities for an airport of its size.

I just wanted to give my review after leaving Denpasar this morning at 8.30. I was very nervous especially having read these reviews. Our arrival 3.5 weeks earlier was pretty much what everyone else has described. Sure there's lots of room for improvement. But it's always been that way. So this review and taking is really just in relation to our departure experience. This morning we had an 8.30 am flight. We were checked in paid our departure tax gone through immigration and were sitting down to a rather pricey coffee by about 6.45. So all very smooth sailing. The airport is clean no toilet queues all very nice. I realise this would be different at different times of the day. So we're sitting killing an hour and a half before we leave and at 8.10 we decide we should head to the departure gate. But on the way we hear them page my husband. We arrive at the gate and we're late! We're last on the plane. There was no announcement but this was probably our fault for not getting to the gate earlier. Anyway I just thought I'd give my POV as I know a lot of people (me included) rely on info from the www and we can get too caught up in all the bad stuff. But our experience this morning was a breeze.

When we arrived at the airport still part of the building was under construction lots of declaration forms first second declare prohibited items then long queue at the scanning point. I wish the white card and declaration of the prohibited items was together to make things easier. When returning to Singapore drinks were expensive limited chairs and make sure you have at least 200000 rupiah per person when returning for airport tax which is a joke as countries like Taiwan Hong Kong Singapore Seoul Bangkok already include this in the airfares. Immigration - only 2 counter open in the morning at 7am with at least 60 people queuing despite lots of immigration counters.

Generally what can be expected from this sort of destination except for the overzealous security staff confiscating bottled water bought from within the departures area (duty free section) of the airport. I proceeded to drink the water and empty the bottle and was still refused to take the totally empty bottle on board! Pathetic. Ground staff and check-in persons are non-existent and nobody was around from Jetstar to talk to over the progress of our 3 hour delayed flight. The boards never updated and the first we knew we were leaving was an announcement of "Last Call"! There was also one lady to happened to slip (badly) on the very polished marble floors when going out the transfer bus. There was a ground agent standing right next to her but she didn't even assist to get her up or even ask if she was ok. Again just totally bad service and surly people. Spoiled a great holiday.

Bali was my first overseas holiday people had warned me about the porters that try and grab your bags then want money for it and the guards that could apparently be bribed to get you through the queues quicker and so on. Well we landed in Bali at 10pm and had to walk onto the tarmac. The shuttle bus smelt and we were crammed like sardines all standing up. Three international flights landed at the same time so it was busy. Inside the queues moved quickly staff were rude. The woman that stamped my visa didn't even look at me. The man who x-rayed my luggage was too busy talking and didn't look at the screen at all. All in all it was okay not as bad as I expected. When we were departing from Bali: Late flight home again Jetstar like you to be at the airport a few hours early. There was nowhere for us to check in for a good 30 mins. None of the staff knew what was going on. Got through the rest quickly security were so rude! 20 mins before our flight was due to take off we still didn't have a boarding gate. The information screens were in Indonesian and not one staff member could speak English. Lucky we heard our flight call got to the gate where we were treated to a pat down and bag search before we finally got on our flight.

We landed in the New Denpasar Airport early afternoon. We were bus transported to the terminal we then proceeded through the Visa on arrival passports check etc... The process was absolutely hassle free fast efficient and friendly. Every counter was manned and the lines were only four-five deep so it took no time and we were out at the taxi booth paying a fixed price for a Taxi to our Villa in Seminyak (au $10.00). After reading many very disturbing reviews about the airport departure process we decided to get to the airport early. We went to the airport by taxi and arrived 3 hours before our 11.30pm flight. We have travelled extensively around the world and been to many international airports and Bali airport was one of our better experiences. The booking in immigration passport check luggage checks all worked well with very little delay. The food prices in the airport were more expensive than on the streets of Kuta but that is typical of any airport. The shopping section cannot be avoided the walkway winds through the shops this not unusual in airports. Once we got to the departure lounge I found a lot of congestion many people were sitting on the floor. We had not been allocated a departure gate and the flight details board did not have the departure gate numbers listed for many of the flights this caused congestion. We simply walked past all the congestion to another group of departure lounges (plenty of empty seats) and we waited for the announcement telling us which was our departure lounge. The announcements were loud and clear. There were many spotlessly clean toilet blocks throughout the departure lounges in the airport. I strongly recommend once you get to the departure lounge area walk to the left past the congestion and you will find many empty departure lounges and empty toilet blocks. We look forward to going back to Bali and seeing the airport when it is completely finished.

I travel to Bali every year and have done so for the past 15 years. Last year I went through the old airport and as I left in a taxi I saw the lovely new one next door thinking 'gee that looks nice pity it wasn't finished for this year'. This year I got to experience the fancy new one - how could they have got it so wrong. To be honest it wasn't too bad arriving but with multiple planes arriving at the same time it is confusing which carousel to collect your luggage from. We were lucky our bags came out first so we were then able to move to the next point - having them x-rayed for clearance. This is confusing as you need to go need to double back to put your bags through the machine before moving forward to the declaration inspectors. There wasn't signs telling you to do this and many people who collected their bags moved forward through the gate to the inspectors as you would expect to do but were yelled at by a security guard to go back to the x- ray machines. If these machines were at least on the way to the declaration station this would cause less chaos. Everyone is told by the airlines to get to the airport at least 2 hours before departure which in all the years I have travelled overseas to a variety of countries has made good sense. When departing from the Bali Airport arrive at least 3 hours early with your fingers crossed and a good book. On arrival you will be asked if you want your bags wrapped in plastic if you do then allow more time again. Most people I noticed didn't take up this option me included. When you make your way to the check in counter ASK someone which one as they put the wrong signs up. We were leaving on a Virgin flight @ 22.10 to Melbourne on flight VA54. The 3 check in desks displayed Brisbane 21.20 pm VA 58. After some confusion and wasting time looking for our flight I eventually asked 3 people including other passengers and was told the signs are wrong it's the Brisbane desk where the Melbourne flight is. Getting into line @ 7.30 it took until 845 to be processed. Initially there was 3 desks open but shortly after standing in line one was closed leaving only 2 desks to process both the Brisbane and Melbourne passengers. Now having received our boarding passes it indicated plane boarding time is @ 9.25 Gate 10. Next is the need to pay the Rp200000 departure tax at another counter which was done efficiently and quickly IF you had the right money. Next was the immigration centre where about 600 or more people had lined up waiting to be processed. Having waited over an hour in the last queue my heart sank stressing I had less than an hour to board my plane. Amazingly this process was quite quick as fortunately they had about 8 desks all processing people quickly. After passing through Immigration you can not avoid the Duty Free and every other hugely overpriced shop as to get to the departure gates you must wander or run in my case through all of these. I wanted to do some Duty free shopping but unfortunately this was no longer an option as my plane was now boarding. If you want to go to the toilet before boarding good luck it if you are female. There is only one sign for toilets and the line up was enormous. As I wanted to change into warmer clothes for the flight back and unable to get into the toilets I managed to change behind a pot plant! We were then ushered down stairs and loaded and packed onto buses like sardines and driven out to the plane where you walk up stairs . Having taken our seats we had to wait for 2 more bus loads of passengers before finally leaving late. Like others are saying it does spoil an otherwise lovely holiday. Such a shame but I don't think I'll come to Bali again as there are other tropical places to visit that have happier endings!