The exotic aura surrounding Bali was embraced as a teaching and learning opportunity in the four-week, faculty-led study abroad programme at the centre of the present inquiry, which asked: how might a place-based pedagogical intervention shape student experiences of an exotified cultural environment? Grounded within sociocultural psychology and the philosophy of place-based education, we developed an intervention using Balinese arts and aesthetics as a pedagogical entry point. In this article, we conduct a longitudinal comparative case analysis of two Bali cohorts, one of which received the intervention. Data include three weekly narratives and one-year post-programme interviews. Findings suggest the intervention functioned as a cultural tool that mediated not only how students related to the Balinese cultural environment, but also their participation with the arts one-year later. How the intervention functioned as a cultural tool is discussed alongside pedagogical implications for study abroad futures, including the imagining of a 'virtual turn.'