What to pack for the Bali Fire Dance Retreat

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Bali Fire Dance Retreat Fire Props Flow Arts Packing Travel

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You’re going to Bali — hot, green, and full of temples, waterfalls, and fire jams. 🌴🔥 Packing for a flow arts retreat in the tropics is a little different from packing for a beach holiday: you need props, you need clothes you can spin fire in, and the regular holiday stuff.

This is everything we’ve learned from running the retreat — what to bring, what to leave at home, and what you can rent from us instead of dragging it across the planet.

🔥 Props · 🎪 Rentals · 👕 Fire-safe clothing · 🌦️ Climate · 🏝️ Trips & temples · 🔌 Plugs & money · 💊 Health · 🧳 Full checklist

🔥 YOUR FLOW PROPS

Bring all the props you need for the workshops you want to attend. This is the one thing nobody else can do for you — and the workshop schedule covers a lot of disciplines, so think about what you actually want to learn before you pack.

We can rent most props to you at the retreat, but remember: we have to fly them in ourselves, so there’s a rental fee. Let us know in the retreat form if you want to rent anything, so we can bring enough. 🙏

🌀 Poi — read this bit

Bring a pair of non-stretchy practice poi with knobs. Stretchy cords make everything harder to learn.
If you have lightweight (soft) poi — like sock poi — bring those too. You can practice far longer with much less strain on your arms and fingers, which matters a lot over a week of workshops.
Buying contact poi? We recommend Juggling Calling with Semi Static or VPC ropes.
No poi at all? You can rent them — just note it in the form. But you can also buy beginner friendly sock poi from Juggling Calling.

🛒 Pre-order from Juggling Calling — no extra shipping! You can pre-order Juggling Calling props and Nana will bring them to the retreat for you, without extra shipping costs. This works for staffs up to 90 cm. Message Nana on WhatsApp at +33 6 34 56 02 33 to arrange it.

🎯 A note on weight and space

Props are heavy and long staffs are awkward. A few things that help:

Choose collapsible or take-apart versions where they exist.
Sock poi weigh almost nothing — always worth the space.
Put props in your checked luggage, never your carry-on.
Check your airline’s oversized/sports baggage rules for long staffs.

👉 Flying with fire and LED props has its own rules — kevlar, fuel residue, batteries and airport security. Read the complete guide to flying with fire & LED props →

🎪 WHAT YOU CAN RENT FROM US

Note your rentals in the retreat form in advance — we can only bring what we know about.

✅ Rental available:

Poi
Hoop
Silk Fans
Long Staff
Double Staff

🆓 Free to use at the resort: Yoga mats

❌ No rentals — you must bring your own:

Contact staff — no rentals available.
Meteor — no rentals available, but there is a limited number of pairs to borrow for free. Tip: you can use two poi in one hand instead. Use light poi (sock poi are perfect) — contact poi will be far too heavy.

👕 CLOTHING — THE FIRE RULE

This is the one piece of packing advice that really matters:

🔥 Bring fire-spinning-proof, all-natural clothing. That means cotton, hemp, linen, wool or silk.

⚠️ Why: synthetic fabrics — polyester, nylon, acrylic, most activewear and most “quick-dry” clothing — melt onto your skin instead of burning away. A polyester top is genuinely dangerous around fire. Natural fibres char; synthetics stick. Please take this seriously. 🙏

👍 Pack for fire:

natural-fibre tops you don’t mind getting singed or sooty
Cotton or hemp trousers — loose enough to move in
Nothing dangly, floaty or fringed around your hands and wrists
Hair tie — and a bandana or cotton scarf if your hair is long

🌦️ WHAT BALI'S CLIMATE DOES TO YOUR PACKING

Bali is tropical: roughly 26–32 °C by day and rarely below 23 °C at night, all year round. It is also humid — which is the part people underestimate.

🗓️ Our dates: the retreat runs 27 April – 6 May 2027 — right at the start of Bali’s drier season, which is lovely timing. Expect warm, bright days with the occasional shower.

🌧️ Rain: Bali’s wetter months run roughly November to March. Even then it’s usually a heavy afternoon downpour rather than all-day drizzle — dramatic, warm, and over in an hour.

💧 What humidity actually means for your bag:

Loose and light beats tight and technical. Airflow is everything.
A quick-dry towel for the beach (all rooms have pool and normal towels included)
A dry backpack or a few zip bags for your phone, passport, and camera on waterfall days.

🏔️ And then there’s the cold: if you join the optional volcano hike (6–8 May 2027) — a sunrise climb up Mount Batur or Mount Agung — it is genuinely cold and windy at the top before dawn. Bring proper closed shoes — you cannot do this hike in flip-flops. No worries about the cold: warm clothing can be rented there, and a headlamp can be borrowed. 🥾

🏝️ FOR THE TRIPS, TEMPLES AND WATERFALLS

The second half of the retreat is about exploring Bali, so pack for a few days out.

Swimwear 👙
A beach towel.
A sarong can be rented where necessary. You need to cover your shoulders and knees to enter some Balinese temples, and a sarong does the job for everyone. You can buy a beautiful one here for a few euros — this is the fun kind of shopping. 🧣
Closed walking shoes — waterfall paths are steep, wet, and slippery.
Flip-flops or sandals for everything else.
Sunscreen — high factor, and reef-safe if you’ll be in the sea. The equatorial sun is much stronger than it feels. ☀️
A hat and sunglasses.
Cash in rupiah — bus fees and site entry on the trip days are paid locally, and village temples don’t take cards.

🔌 PLUGS, MONEY & CONNECTIVITY

🔌 Electricity: Indonesia uses Type C and Type F sockets at 230 V / 50 Hz — exactly the same as continental Europe. So if you’re coming from the EU, you need no adapter at all. 🎉

Coming from the UK (Type G), US/Canada (Type A/B), Australia/NZ (Type I) or Switzerland (Type J)? Bring a travel adapter.
US travelers: check your chargers say 100–240 V (nearly all phone and laptop chargers do). Hair dryers and clippers often do not.
A power bank for long trip days.

💰 Money: the currency is the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR). Cards work at the resort and in Ubud, but cash rules in the villages, at warungs, markets, and temple entrances. Withdraw rupiah from an ATM (at the airport) — the rate is better than the exchange desks. Bring a card that doesn’t charge foreign-transaction fees.

📱 Connectivity: get a local SIM card (Telkomsel has the best rural coverage) or set up an eSIM before you fly. Data is cheap. The resort has WiFi, but it’s a village signal. 😊

💡 Unlike some countries, nothing is blocked in Indonesia — Google, WhatsApp, and Instagram all work normally. No VPN needed.

💊 HEALTH & TOILETRIES

🚰 Water: do not drink the tap water in Bali. At the resort, there is a water filter in the restaurant, and drinking water is available for free — just refill your bottle. ♻️

🦟 Mosquitoes: bring repellent. Dengue exists in Bali, so it’s worth taking seriously — cover up at dusk and use repellent in the evenings. Nothing exotic required, just be sensible.

🩹 Your flow-arts first aid kit:

Rehydration salts/ electrolites — the most underrated thing in this list 💧
Any prescription medication, in its original packaging with a doctor’s note

🛌 For sleeping:

Earplugs — roosters, geckos, frogs, ceremonies, and enthusiastic flowmies. 🐓
A sleep mask — there aren’t blackout curtains everywhere.

🛡️ Travel insurance: please have some, and check that it covers your travel destination.

🧳 THE FULL PACKING CHECKLIST

🔥 Props & flow:

✅ Non-stretchy practice poi with knobs
✅ Sock poi / lightweight poi
✅ Any other props for your workshops
✅ Rentals noted in the retreat form

👕 Clothing:

✅ Natural-fiber tops & trousers for fire (cotton, hemp, linen)
✅ Light, loose everyday clothes
✅ Warm layer + closed shoes (for the optional volcano hike, 6–8 May)
✅ Swimwear
✅ Flip-flops + walking shoes
✅ Hat & sunglasses

📋 Documents:

✅ Passport — valid at least 6 months beyond arrival
✅ Visa / e-VOA confirmation printed or saved
✅ Bali tourist levy QR code
✅ All Indonesia arrival card QR code
✅ Onward/return ticket
✅ Travel insurance details
✅ Retreat confirmation & the info PDF

🔌 Tech:

✅ Travel adapter (not needed for EU plugs)
✅ Power bank

💊 Health & comfort:

✅ Sunscreen (reef-safe) + after-sun
✅ Mosquito repellent✅ Rehydration salts
✅ Personal medication + doctor’s note
✅ Ear plugs 🐓
✅ Sleep mask
✅ Beach towel/ quick-dry towel

💰 Money:

✅ Bank card without foreign-transaction fees (Revolut, Wise)
✅ Some cash (Indonesian Rupiah)

🚫 WHAT TO LEAVE AT HOME

❌ Synthetic clothing for fire spinning — the one real “don’t”. 🔥
❌ Fuel of any kind. Never in your luggage. We sort out the fuel here.
❌ Anything you’d cry about losing — sand, water, soot and fire are all involved.
❌ Heavy toiletries and towels — buy locally, it’s cheap.
❌ Jeans and heavy jumpers — you will never wear them.

✅ YOU'RE PACKED — SEE YOU IN BALI!

Natural fibres, your favourite poi, a water bottle and an open heart. That’s genuinely most of it. Everything else you can buy in Ubud. 🌴🔥

📚 More Bali Fire Dance Retreat guides:

Still not sure about something? Message Nana on WhatsApp +336 3456 0233 or email .