Quick answer: You can smoke at Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport (DPS), but only inside marked rooms and outdoor areas. In the international terminal the main smoking room sits airside near gate 5, so you do not have to leave security. Domestic departures have their own rooms upstairs, near gate 1C and near gate 6. Everywhere else, including toilets, is covered by Bali's Smoke-Free Areas regulation, Perda No. 10 of 2011, which carries a penalty of 50,000 rupiah or up to three months.
Where you can smoke at DPS
| Location | Side of security | Type | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| International departures, near gate 5 | Airside, after immigration | Enclosed room | Reported in use continuously since at least 2023 |
| International departures, terrace by gate 7 | Airside | Open-air, with café alongside | Reported open from January 2024 |
| Domestic departures, near gate 1C | Airside | Enclosed room | Upper departures level |
| Domestic departures, near gate 6 | Airside | Enclosed room | Second domestic option |
| Arrivals | Landside | Outdoor | Near the car park and pick-up lanes |
| Terminal entrances | Landside | Outdoor | Useful before you check in |
The operator publishes no smoking page, and that is the honest starting point
Ngurah Rai is run by InJourney Airports, successor to Angkasa Pura I. Its site carries flight data and terminal news, but no published policy page listing smoking rooms by gate. That absence is why guidance online varies so much, and why this page labels each location with where the information came from rather than presenting it as official.
What does exist in writing is airline guidance. Air India's airport information for Denpasar states that "smoking is permitted only in the designated smoking areas outside and inside the terminals". That confirms the principle, though not the gate numbers.
Bali's law is stricter than Indonesia's reputation suggests
Indonesia has one of the world's highest smoking rates, and cigarettes are cheap. Travellers therefore assume that rules at the airport are loose. Bali is the exception.
The provincial government issued Peraturan Daerah No. 10 of 2011 on Smoke-Free Areas, known locally as KTR, and the Bali Health Office still cites it as the legal foundation for smoke-free environments across the island. The regulation covers health facilities, places of education, children's play areas, places of worship, public transport, workplaces and public places. An airport terminal falls into the last two categories.
Penalties under the regulation are modest by European standards: academic reviews of its enforcement cite three months or a fine of 50,000 rupiah, roughly three US dollars, under Article 18. Researchers studying its rollout describe the weak fine as the main reason enforcement is patchy. Do not read that as permission. The people who enforce it most consistently are airport staff, temple guardians and hospital security, and an airport is a workplace before it is anything else.
National law sets the frame above it: smoking is banned outright on public transport and in healthcare, education and worship facilities, while other public places and workplaces must provide designated smoking areas. That is precisely the structure you meet at DPS, a smoke-free terminal with marked exceptions.
Why the signs say "smoke-free terminal" anyway
Passengers have been confused by this for a decade. Large wall signs declare the building smoke-free, then a marked room appears near the gates. Both statements are true: the default is no smoking, and the rooms are the legal exception the regulation requires workplaces to provide. If you cannot find a room on your concourse, ask staff for the "smoking area", the Indonesian phrase being "area merokok".
Lounges: several have their own smoking space
| Lounge | Terminal | Smoking provision |
|---|---|---|
| Garuda Indonesia Executive Lounge | International, near gate 1 | Indoor smoking room |
| Garuda Indonesia Domestic Lounge | Domestic | Large patio for smokers, plus an outdoor balcony overlooking the apron |
| Blue Sky Premier Lounge | Domestic | Smoking booth indoors; outdoor smoking terrace added in a late-2025 expansion |
| Concordia Lounge | Domestic | Separate smoking area outside the lounge, per its Priority Pass listing |
| Premier Lounge Bali | — | Reviewed in 2020 as having no smoking area |
For a smoker facing a three-hour wait, this changes the arithmetic. A lounge entry buys food, Wi-Fi and a smoking space in one payment, rather than repeated walks back to a crowded room near the gate.
Vapes: legal, but treated exactly like cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes are legal in Indonesia and sold widely. The regulatory frame comes from Government Regulation No. 109 of 2012 on tobacco products, extended to electronic nicotine delivery systems, with Government Regulation No. 28 of 2024 adding specific rules from July 2024, including the minimum purchase age. In practice that means vapes are bound by the same smoke-free zones as cigarettes, so vaping in the concourse breaks the same rule as lighting up.
The minimum age to buy tobacco or a vape in Indonesia is 21, not 18. Article 434 of Government Regulation No. 28 of 2024, signed on 26 July 2024, prohibits selling tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to anyone under 21 years old, and to pregnant women. Health ministry guidance states the change plainly: the threshold rose from 18 to 21. The duty-free operator at DPS states that it requires a customer's age before selling age-restricted categories such as alcohol and tobacco, without naming the threshold on its own pages.
Three customs facts matter more than any of this if you are flying in with a device. Vapes must travel in cabin baggage, never in the hold, because of lithium battery rules.
The duty-free allowance depends on what kind of vape you carry, and the numbers are smaller than the round figures repeated in travel blogs. Indonesian customs set the limit per adult passenger at 140 sticks or 40 capsules for solid electronic cigarettes, 30 millilitres of liquid for an open system, and 12 millilitres for a closed pod system. Carry more than one type and the allowance is converted proportionally, the same way it works for cigarettes and cigars.
The consequence is harsher than a fine. Excise goods above the allowance cannot be settled by paying duty: customs officers destroy the excess on the spot, with or without the passenger watching. A traveller arriving with a pod kit and 40 millilitres of liquid, believing the widely quoted figure, is over a 12-millilitre limit by more than three times and loses the liquid rather than paying for it.
And CBD e-liquid is classified in Indonesia as a Golongan I narcotic, the same category as heroin, which makes bringing it through Bali customs a narcotics offence rather than a customs infringement.
Buying and bringing tobacco
Duty-free shops at DPS sell cigarettes, and kretek, Indonesia's clove cigarettes, are the local speciality. The duty-free allowance into Indonesia is 200 cigarettes, or 25 cigars, or 100 grams of sliced tobacco. Carry a mixture and customs converts proportionally. Anything above the allowance must be declared on the electronic customs form. Excise goods over the limit are destroyed by customs officers rather than taxed, so there is no option to pay your way past the ceiling.
If you are flying onward to Australia, check that allowance separately before you buy: it is far tighter, and our Bali duty-free guide sets out the numbers.
Practical notes before you fly
Smoke before security if your terminal's airside room is crowded, since the outdoor areas by the entrances are larger. Allow time: the walk from the gate 5 room back through a busy concourse takes longer than it looks during boarding. Never smoke in the toilets, which is explicitly outside the permitted areas and is where fines actually get issued. And if you land at night, the arrivals smoking area sits outside by the pick-up lanes, past the crowd of drivers.
Sources
- Bali Health Office (Dinas Kesehatan Provinsi Bali) — Peraturan Daerah No. 10 of 2011 on Smoke-Free Areas as the island's legal basis
- Academic reviews of the regulation's enforcement in Kertha Negara (Udayana University) — Article 18 penalty of three months or 50,000 rupiah
- Tobacco Control Laws — Indonesian national rules on smoke-free places and designated smoking areas
- Air India airport information for Denpasar — smoking permitted only in designated areas inside and outside the terminals
- Government Regulation No. 109 of 2012 and No. 28 of 2024 — tobacco products and electronic cigarettes
- Government Regulation No. 28 of 2024, Article 434 — sale of tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to under-21s prohibited, signed 26 July 2024
- Priority Pass and published lounge reviews — smoking provision at Garuda, Blue Sky Premier, Concordia and Premier lounges
- Indonesian customs (Direktorat Jenderal Bea dan Cukai) — passenger allowances under PMK 203/2017 as amended by PMK 34/2025: 140 sticks or 40 capsules, 30 ml open system, 12 ml closed system, excess destroyed on the spot
- Avolta, duty-free operator at Bali airport — age verification required for alcohol and tobacco purchases
About the author
Bali Airport Guide Editorial Team writes about I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. Last updated September 2026.
