The St Gregory's Primary School acting principal was one of the many Australians recently left stranded in Bali after flights were grounded because of the volcanic ash cloud.

While most would assume being stranded in a tropical paradise was ideal, Mrs Wiley said it was anything but that.

Chaos at the airport - which the family chose to avoid after hearing "close to riot"-like conditions and general uncertainty contributed to stress and anxiety for holidaymakers.

"You think you've got a flight but then you don't. You get excited and then you hit rock bottom when you realise you're not going to get home that day. It wasn't fun and your mind is always on it," she said.

"We became avid sky, wind and cloud watchers - just looking for signs the wind was travelling away from the airport rather than towards.

"The frustrating thing was...we weren't getting any information. All the information was coming from Australia."

The Queanbeyan resident described a less than jovial mood around the island.

While Mrs Wiley and her family were "one of the lucky ones" being able to remain at their accommodation, she said others were less fortunate. Some had run out of money, were forced to change accommodation or had run out of their medication.

"We would look around and people were not in a holiday-mood," she said.

"The Balinese were saying people were not spending money because they were conserving it and no new tourists were coming in so it was hurting the locals as well."

Mrs Wiley and her family were originally scheduled to fly out on Thursday, July 9 but were told they could not fly out until the end of month.

Relatives in Australia spent at least two and half hours on the phone daily trying to secure seats for an earlier flight. The family was able to leave on Tuesday, July 14.

Mrs Wiley was straight back to school the very next day after landing in Australia. While the acting principal understood the safety reasons for not flying, she said the whole ordeal put a dampner on their overseas trip.

"It has tarnished the holiday. We try to remember the first part - that was relaxing, a lot of fun being in beautiful warm balmy weather. It lifts your spirit and you can get through the rest of the Canberra winter," she said.

"But all that relaxation we did in the first part, you kind of lost it after a while...you're back at square one."

However, Mrs Wiley hasn't completely ruled out a return to Bali.

"We'll go in the wet season so rain can douse the volcano!" she said with a laugh.