Bali's Best Beaches - the Bukit Peninsula and Others

UPDATED MAY 2014

Best beach on Bali? Well on the mainland at least in my humble opinion. This is Balangan, the closest of the Bukit beaches to Kuta and the airport. More info and pix down page.

The Bukit Peninsula is that higher limestone plateau you see when looking south from the Tuban-Kuta-Legian-Seminyak beach strip. Long a haunt of surfers, the fact it has arguably the best beaches on MAINLAND Bali and some spectacular cliff and coastal scenery means it’s becoming increasingly popular with both the backpacker set and midrange/high-end travellers.
Backpackers are taking advantage of cheap beach accommodation set up for surfers while a building boom has seen a growing number of flasher places for the fiscally enhanced.


Part of the Bukit coastline west from Dreamland North. Super busy Dreamland Main with its huge new hotel structure, deck chairs and beach umbrellas (see below) is just around that rock near-left. If you don’t like crowds, the beach in the foreground is a few steps away.Bingin where I based myself is the collection of seaside buildings spreading up the cliff in the near background.Right up the end of the peninsula is the famed surfing and Buddhist temple location of Uluwatu.
The neat little beach at Padang Padang is tucked in about half way between Ulu and Bingin.The nicest beach of the lot, Balangan, is about 2km behind the camera (CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGES).

THE BUKIT BEACHES ARE SOUTH OF AIRPORT-JIMBARAN
ULU-PADANG is between ULUWATU AND PADANG PADANG. Someone can't spell DREAMLAND or Jimbaran (hur hur, sorry) - image Google Earth

Dreamland (aka New Kuta Beach) pretty early and not yet crowded with daytrippers. This used to be the pick of the Bukit - a gorgeous beach behind which were lots of neat elcheapo losmen built for surfer-dudes to catch some shuteye plus some laid back warungs where you could sink a Bintang or 5 checking the surf. How things change - have a look at the shot  two down of the monster seaside club-retail structure which has replaced them. BTW, this was unfinished in my May 09 visit, although some guests were swanking it out in the horizon pool overlooking the beach. 


August 2012 shot of roof pool.


The completed Klapa beach club in August 2010. The architect should be shot. Nevertheless the place seems to attract the cool international and local set. I felt out of place even down on the front terrace at the good value beach-view warung.

But if your thing is sun-lounges, beach-umbies and a host of beautiful people to spec out, Dream Beach may be just the thing. Certainly the sand and water are way cleaner than the Kuta strip. The warung back of sand is a good place to spend time and I'm impressed with just how modest its food and drink prices are for an area which has headed way upmarket.

Umbrellas on patio above sand are part of budget warung - plenty more seating under roofed area. Prices are not much more than the bottom budget surfer warungs at adjacent Balangan. Note the life guard tower far left of patio.

 You can walk down between Dreamland and Bingin along the beach at low tide - at high water the headland tracks are not too hard to navigate - just walk up past the two dudes with the motorcycle food cart in the shot three above this and follow the tracks. The above shot is maybe half-tide.

The less crowded section of Dreamland, south of the main area. Note that most of this part has some rock just off the sand at low tide whereas the main area is mainly clear.



August 2012 change - lots more sand at Bingin: the most I've seen in 4 visits. Admittedly low tide, but so is the shot above this.

CHOCKY’S , my digs at Bingin. Nice surfer hangout. That upstairs loft is the one basic double room. There are 3 singles behind a higher veranda partly obscured in this shot by the building to the right. The railed area above the posters is the front of the restaurant - pretty neat views from both here and the higher veranda area. Access to the loft room and basic singles’ balcony is by ladder. Below the restaurant are 2 family rooms, flash-packer level with their own bathrooms. The other rooms share a big bathroom area which was kept pretty clean on the restaurant level.
My basic single had just enough room, was super clean, the bed was comfy with a pretty thick foam mattress, mozzie net in good condition, fan quiet. Electricity 24 hours. I paid 80K rupiah (about $us8 at the time) - current room pricing can be seen on the website.
At high tide the waves smack into the lower front of the building - actually wavelets because when the swell is big (often) the reef dissipates most of its size. Can sound pretty busy at night.
Chocky provides an airport pickup service which if you are coming in at night like I did is essential - Bingin is down some obscure side roads, which stop about 200m from the buildings - and finding the right lanes from there and the correct set of steps to descend would be impossible for newcomers. Chocky charged me 160K compared to an airport taxi to anywhere on the Bukit for 120K, but took me back to Kuta for no extra at the end of the stay.
If you are going to come up by hire-motorcycle from Kuta, check Google Earth first and draw yourself a map. But make sure it’s daylight, and watch out for cops checking for Indo or International Driving Licences endorsed for motorcycles.

For surfers, Chocky’s has one of the prime positions in Bingin because the reef break is directly out front. This is a super fast left hander breaking into about 15cm of water at low tide - plenty of coral-scraped bodies on show in this neck of the woods. If you expand this shot you will see some kamikaze merchant tucked into the edge of the white water on the shoulder to the right.
Chocky spent a lot of time with a huge-lens digital SLR propped over the railing, snapping pix. Late afternoon usually saw a lively bunch of surfer dudes and babes from all over Bingin checking shots of themselves on his laptop, which he will burn onto disc for a suitable fee.
Restaurant food was pretty nice, prices a bit higher than average but supplies have to be hauled down those dang steps (and rubbish back up!). This is maybe why small bottles of Bintang (heavy in crates) was 20k v the more normal 15. Service was normally pretty good although brekka never kicked off before 0830. There are plenty of other restaurants in the area.
Chocky was still snapping away in August 2012.
Distant Dreamland from the clifftop at Bingin - an easy walk at lowest tide. Once again, some nice flashpacker and midrange places on the clifftop.

Padang Padang is a neat little beach cut into the plateau. Another very good reef-break out front, but for experienced surfers. There is no accommodation right on the beach but you can see one of the growing bunch of midrange/top end places which have appeared on the Bukit on the cliff top behind. There is also a bunch of budget and flash packer places on the coast road about 300m inland from the beach plus a bit of a small village shopping area.

Once again you are looking at a decent set of stairs to get up to road level, but not as challenging as Bingin. Some nice shade areas side and back of beach. I dunno about those life-saver flags.

Uluwatu. There’s a dozen or so warungs plus surf shops in the area of the camera with great views of this world famous big wave break - not so big in this shot, the swell having a rest-day.
You pay extra for your Bintang if you want to hang in the joint front left…..

…..but no extra if you are quick enough to grab this neat little platform.
There is a neat little beach at the foot of the cliff at Ulu - actually there isn’t too much sand left at high tide. This is where the surfers enter the water.

Ulu always had a good range of budget surfer losmen, but now has a selection of flasher places. Google Blue Point Bay Villas for top-end cliff top.

Roughly midway between Uluwatu and Padang Padang is this un-named beach (actually I’ve seen it referred to as Ulu-Padang) where Thomas Homestay has set up a neat little budget/flash packer place. This is part of the view from the restaurant, you can actually see about twice as much beach - the rooms’ balconies have a similar outlook. The place has a large really nice tiled floor room with a big-screen TV for 200k - the smaller more basic rooms were 100k. ph 081 33775 6030
This is where I’m staying next Bukit visit.
Apparently the surf works okay here when the swell is up, but a wax-head with the universal motorcycle and sidewinder board-rack can reach even the most distant Bukit break, Balangan, in less than 15 minutes. For those on foot I walked from Ulu in less than 20 minutes and it took me just over 15 to then hoof it to Padang Padang.

Balangan - with the overdevelopment of Dreamland, probably the nicest beach on the Bukit AND mainland Bali (not as nice as Dream Beach on Nusa Lembongan though). Note that there is a rocky bottom off the sand at lowest tide in most places although a couple of little sub-beaches appear against the left headland as the tide drops with sand out into the water. There are also some nice pools to fossick and splash around in this near headland area as the tide drops. A good selection of budget losmen and laid back warungs lining the beach. This seemed to be the beach attracting most backpacker types although Padang Padang had its share. If you are feeling flush google La Joya for a flash place back behind the beach.For lower-midrange check for Balangan Sea View and Balangan Flowerbud.
Interestingly, on a day Bingin and Impossibles seemed to have lost swell, it was still quite good here. Once again a super-fast left hander. Goofy-footers’ paradise!
I walked across from Dreamland via the headland golf course - with a fat security turkey blowing his whistle at me. I just gave a cheesy and waved. You can walk around via the road - check the map down page a bit.At lowest tide you can walk the water’s edge from Dreamland. I found this pretty easy although it was a very low full moon tide and there were still a few puddles to jump. Actually I read on a surfer site you can walk all the way from Uluwatu at low tide - but from what I saw I think this may be confined to those twice monthly (full moon/no moon) lowest low tides.
Notice the area behind the beach is much lower than further west towards Bingin -Padang Padang - Uluwatu. The Bukit plateau is tilted upwards both towards the west and particularly the south. There are some awesome cliffs on the far southern side - and a few very upmarket hotels have perched themselves up top - google Bali Cliff Hotel.

Balangan at low tide. Some don't like exposed rock but many enjoy checking out the pools. Some nice sandy-bottomed ones in this area.

Tide has dropped a little more.

This is an August 2012 shot further along the beach away from the better pools in the western corner - I'm now starting to think that if you want off-the-sand swimming and hit the beach around low tide you may not think Balangan is mainland Bali's best beach. You would probably be better at nearby Dreamland or Padang Padang. Before you consider a day visit, better Google Bali tide times. If you are staying multi days, remember that low tide/high tide get an hour later each day so what may not be a good situation when you first arrive could be fine say 3 days later.


Looks sweet at higher tide levels - another 2012 shot. Remember it is about 6.25 hours between low and high tide so if the tide is too low when you first arrive on any day it could be fine a few hours later. Or vice versa. This was taken the same morning as the previous shot - about 1130 compared with the previous shot's 1630 from memory. Nice shot to click-expand.

Besides surfers and backpackers, Balangan is beginning to attract midrange travellers. Wax-heads shoud drag their eyes away from on-beach distractions to the point break. Balangan was running 6'-8' this day and VERY fast.

STAYING AT DREAMLAND AUGUST 2010
I wanted to show Lady Tezza the Bukit and looked into some of the midrange places behind Balangan Beach. But when checking Agoda for alternative Bukit accommodation I found the New Kuta Condotel which Google Earth showed was a few hundred meters from Dreamland itself.

Dreamland's New Kuta Condotel from the adjacent golf course. Seemed to me to be a 3.5-4 star property in facilities and service at prices similar to 2 star in Kuta itself ($us70 high season 2010 - these cheapest rooms more like 2.5 star but very nice). Maybe discounting to attract customers - running at 50% capacity in August, mainly young Euro surfer couples and Chinese tour groups - also some Euro student groups. Restaurant prices way lower than western levels and free brekka buffet was a killer. Place runs 3 free shuttles down to Kuta each day and 2 to Nusa Dua, so you are not isolated to the Bukit. Free bicycles but not great - I walked most places.

Outlook from the wi-fi lounge in back of the Condotel lobby. Pyramid in background is top of the new beach club structure on Dreamland Beach.

The Condotel was a central point for good access to the nearby beaches. The stroll down to Dreamland took less than 10 minutes.
Balangan was about 20 - turn right out of the hotel and follow the curved divided road for 10 minutes to the big new hotel on the left - take the lane immediately past this - a short distance down this you will come to a security gate and be waved thru if you say you are going to Balangan - follow the lane to the edge of the headland where you will see short paths leading down to the far south end of the beach. If you have wheeled transport there are several access roads a fair bit further past this first access lane.
To get to Bingin, go down to Dreamland and clamber up the southern headland on the paths the surfers take - follow their motorcyle tracks but don't take the new tarred road past where if veers inland - follow the paths closer to the sea. The hardest part is the haul down the mega-steps when you reach the top of Bingin. From the hotel you are looking at maybe 25 minutes. It takes about 5 minutes to walk along the shore from Dreamland to Bingin when the tide drops.
This isn't a bad pic to expand (click).UPDATE FEB 2012 - travelfish now has a very good site on Bukit accommodation from budget thru flashpacker into lower midrange.

STAYING AT BALANGAN AUGUST 2012

I was pretty keen on spending some time at Balangan on my latest visit to Bali. I was a bit surprised at how expensive the non-basic surfer/backpacker places were and how hard it was to find a vacancy on the booking sites despite looking some months ahead. I finally found a room at Balangan Garden but this overpriced place wasn't all that great. I got Lady Tezza to do a trip report which is good value because she looks for other things in a beach and is not afraid to stir the pot. Plus there's a bunch of the new pix etc which could help your future visit.


OTHER BALI BEACHES

I RECKON BALI'S BEST BEACH is DREAM BEACH on the offshore island of Nusa Lembongan. It is away from other areas near the south-west corner of the island, maybe 3km from Lembongan Village and is probably only 200m across, book-ended by high headlands with one rather nice flash-packer bungalow/restaurant place overlooking the bay. The sand is clean and white. One caveat - this place tends to pick up a lot of swell so the surf can be quite tricky. There is a permanent rip current on the left side of the bay (facing the sea) - anywhere past halfway across should be avoided otherwise you may find yourself disappearing towards the distant fringing reef and the bigger waves at a rapid rate of knots. Remember, if caught in a rip current swim SIDEWAYS out of the rip - in this case towards the right hand side of the beach.

Sweet beach but often tricky surf at Lembongan's Dream Beach


Latest July 2012 shot. Dream Beach seems to have been discovered by the daytrippers from other areas on Lembongan. Carpark full of motorcycles, restaurant busy. Resort now has snazzy 2 level rim pool -  seemingly plenty of guests. Surf as tricky as ever - this is a bit of a lull.

When the tide is full and the swash of a big swell is coming a long way up the beach there is not a lot of dry sand left on Dream Beach. If you click expand you may be able to see sunbathers in a small pocket of dry sand just behind the sunlounges at left. There is a similar pocket back left of beach.

MUSHROOM BAY on Lembongan is also a pretty nice beach. This one is backed by a variety of midrange and top-end accommodation and some restaurants with good views. It can get pretty busy from about 1100 thru to 1400 with daytrippers from Bali, but is very relaxed at other times. The bay is sheltered by a fringing reef so dangerous surf is not a factor.

More shots of Mushroom Bay and Dream Beach can be seen on this page.

I rate SANUR BEACHas mainland Bali’s 3rd best after Balangan and Dreamland, although other people may prefer one of the beaches mentioned later.
Sanur has some very nice sections of sand, particularly now that extensive but not intrusive groyne development has finished which seems to have achieved the aim of building up the beach. Sanur is a 5km long curved beach along which runs a nice walking/cycling path, backed by hotels, restaurants, some beach markets etc. Much nicer and lower key than Kuta. However an offshore reef means sheltered water, no surf, and some parts of the lagoon get real shallow at low tide, okay for low-key snorkelling at higher tides.
For nice sand I particularly recommend the area around the Bali Hyatt (central) & Bali Beach Hotels (south end) and last trip I was impressed by the sand build-up in my favourite mid-north region around Gazebo Hotel - Griya Santrian (not Puri Santrian)- MAP

This is NOT the nicest section of Sanur Beach - just south of the little harbour in North Sanur. The beach widens and improves from the Inna Grand Bali Beach hotel in background. But for you local-culture fiends, this section is very popular with Balinese families because of good parking near the harbour. Note early Sunday morning seems to be THE time for the family to hit the beach - this was shot at 0730. The Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida ferries are in middle-ground - the harbour gets bumpy in any big swell so the boats get moved up a bit behind the protection of the reef.

This is shot from the 10th floor of the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel and shows the first section of the better part of Sanur beach which continues around far corner for another 3-4km. Offshore reef means sheltered water - gets shallow in parts at low tide but always has some water. Good spot for watersports - so-so snorkelling for non-fanatics (although I saw some snorkel boats working the reef drop-off on the OCEAN SIDE which could be better). Good surf for experts at times along the ocean side of reef in several spots. Inna Grand is a pretty sweet hotel with a big variety of rooms and bungalows in mega-spacious grounds - prices drop dramatically after Sept 1 which allowed us to spend a few days in the Garden Wing on the 2010 visit.


The NUSA DUA/TANJUNG BENOA strip has some nice sand areas, but unlike Sanur, I find the groyne development along much of here a bit intrusive. There are certainly some very nice international style properties to stay in this area. However not all Nusa Dua's beaches are between groynes - some of the best resorts are behind what I call Nusa Dua North and Nusa Dua South beaches. These longish beaches are definitely not groyne beaches (a groyne is a transverse to the beach breakwater aimed at trapping beach drifitng sand to cut beach erosion/build beaches).

Nusa Dua North - sweet. Nusa Dua South is similar but longer.

Note too that not too shabby Geger Beach (see below) can be argued to be a Nusa Dua beach, being a continuation of Nusa Dua South.

GEGER BEACH
Now here's one I didn't know about. In August 2012 Trip Adviser ran a feature on 10 of the world's unforgettable beaches. Bali made it with PANTAI GEGER. This beach is part of the western end of the Nusa Dua strip where it starts to wrap around the south-eastern coast of the Bukit peninsula - I'm not sure if you would rate it a Nusa Dua or Bukit beach. Note that recent Trip Adviser reviewers say the beach is being encroached on by the new and huge Mulia Resort and is a construction zone. When finished apparently there will only be about 75m of free beach squeezed between the Mulia and the St Regis. I wish this report had come earlier - a week before it arrived in my email I was only 5km away on Balangan - cruising over and checking it would have been a doddle. Not having been there, I had to swipe this image from Trip Adviser.


UPDATE JUNE 2013 - I managed to stay a few days at a nearby hotel and check Geger out. To clarify things, it definitely is a Nusa Dua beach - actually an extension of the rather nice Nusa Dua south beach which starts at the far corner in the above shot (that corner is highlighted in the Trip Advisor shot above this). And even though the Mulia Resort and Spa takes up maybe 60% of Geger's southern half's beachfront the public is free to walk the whole beach.

There is a bunch of inexpensive restaurants where the road on the far side of the Mulia reaches the beach - each has sun lounges, umgrellas etc available. Note Mt Agung in background - telephoto makes it appear a bit close: better perspective is in the shot above this one.

So is Geger Beach Bali”s best? It is a fine stretch of sand protected by an offshore reef with water that appears not to get too shallow at low tide. But the part domination by the huge Mulia seems to have taken some of its former quaintness away. I prefer not too distant Balangan and Dreamland.


JIMBARAN immediately south of the airport has its fans and is a definite step up from Kuta. Some nice places to stay and the area is highly rated for good seafood restaurants. I rate the 800m long beach itself a grade under Sanur. In May 2014 I managed to revisit Jimbarin and stay a few nights - gone is the occasional fishing junk and flotsam: locals seem to be manicuring the beach much more now with more resorts and a rush of visitors to dine at the many beachside fish restaurants while checking the sunset.

Sun's gone but not the crowds - about 30 seafood restaurants line the beach at north Jimbarin. Another half dozen mid beach. Sunset is an event with people coming from all over south Bali to check it out.


The beach is widest in the north in front of the restaurants. Not bad central beach but gets pretty skinny high tide in the last 20% - at least in May 2014, but maybe the recently finished wet season was a rough one with more than usual storm wave erosion. Beaches can recover fairly quickly once fine weather dominates. 


There is a pretty nice white sand beach just south of the harbour bay at PADANGBAI on Bali’s east coast called Bias Tugal. Maybe 200m long, book-ended by headlands and backed by a steep rain-forested hill - a major part of which had been cleared in May 09 for a mega Korean owned hotel. There are a few small warungs on the beach, and the ladies running them told me the hotel does not have title to the beach, but I bet there will be multiple beach-lounges and umbies when it opens.

Only part of the new mega-resort can be seen in this shot. Good news from my latest August 2010 visit is that the resort is in limbo - apparently the developers did not get the correct permits. Same is true for another upmarket resort on a headland maybe 400m to the left of shot. Pathway to beach from road heading up hill south of town now well sign-posted.

More pix of other Padangbai areas can be seen on this page.
Padangbai's town beach is not bad towards the left (north) end of the bay. The beach across the other side of the steep northern headland at BLUE LAGOON is very skimpy, maybe absent at higher tides of the month. Nice snorkelling here however.


CANDIDASA is maybe 10km further north as the crow flies - the TOWN BEACH here is non existent at high tide and stones at low tide. Lots of concrete break-walls and groynes here and south west to cut wave erosion.
There is a WHITE SAND BEACH about 6km further north which is a popular daytrip call-in, although I was underwhelmed by a lot of natural beach flotsam, some overkeen warung owners trying to drum up business and more yellow than white sand.
Just south west of town centre is a range of midrange places accessed by lanes off the coastal highway which have no beach at high tide but patches of white/yellow sand at lower levels.
(Candi Beach shots this page)


THE NORTH COAST BEACHES on the coastal strips around AMED and LOVINA are black sand. Nevertheless the series of little bays which make up the Amed strip are very scenic and relaxing. Lovina had a rep for Kuta type hassle in the old days but was pretty relaxed last time I 2 times I visited. Pix of Lovina beaches can be seen on this page.


I hadn't visited THE NORTH-WEST COASTAL AREA of Bali on earlier trips but was told not all the beaches are black sand, and are comparatively deserted and laid back with a few nice budget places to stay. In AUGUST 2012 I got to Pemuteran and Menjangan island in the north west. The main beach at Pemuteran is black sand but a short distance west colour turns yellow and seems to stay that way. However I did not see any beaches to rave about to although a good look around the Prapat Agung Peninsula of the north-west National Park would probably turn up a gem or two. The coastal track is about 30km long here and I didn't have the time to do it. Menjangan Island seemed to have some okay sections of sand but approaching from the ocean seemed tricky because the fringing reef appears to go right to the shore. Anyway, your time is better spent snorkeling in this outstanding for Bali coral and fish location.


WEST COAST BEACHES
I've stayed at the west coast surfing spots of Canggu and Medewi. Beaches were tan-grey and nothing to write home to mum about. But the surfing can be good, the water clean particularly at more northern Medewi and there are no crowds.


KUTA
Kuta beach was gorgeous way back when I first visited as a surfer-grommet. Good waves, lovely clean white sand, backed by a line of palms, behind which were mainly grazing water buffalo and cash-cropping. The beach was pretty deserted apart from a handful of surfer dudes and naked hippy-chicks sunning and frolicking in the shore-break. I spent my teens pining for a hippy-chick girlfriend to take to the beach.

ALL YOU DESPERATE DANS EXPECTING A GRATUITOUS SHOT OF A NAKED HIPPY CHICK AT THIS POINT ARE OUT OF LUCK - THIS IS A FAMILY SHOW DUDES.

Kuta these days? Ummm - well the surf is still often pretty good.
The sand has a definite tint of grey. It’s lined with beach chairs, usually crowded, has heaps of places selling drinks, snacks, surfboard hire, and is backed by a super busy road the other side of which are a host of hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
The palms are gone, but many areas have shade-trees in back which is nice. The crack-down on hawkers seemed to have been relaxed on my last few visits with heaps of ladies wanting to give massages, guys with the usual watches/paintings/wood carvings, girls with fruit and snacks or sarongs/bikinis/board-shorts.
Unfortunately the water aint pristine any more - with a fair few plastic bags etc. In wet season the wind is onshore and so a lot of natural and man-made flotsam and jetsam can be washed onto the sand.
The surf is still often very good but watch for rip-currents. There are Aussie-trained surf-lifesavers but not enough for a pretty long strip of beach.
You can walk north for several km and in previous recent trips I’ve always hired a bicycle and fanged along at lower tide checking the scene. Some very nice girls, only semi-naked these days, so the scene is okay. For you ladies, the surfer-dudes and Bali beach boys can cut it.
Actually if the tide is right you can go 10+km all the way to Canggu, although you may have to ford some streams in wet and early dry seasons.

Not exactly Kuta - my camera's card was full by the time I got there in 2009. Instead this is a beach on a small island near Sarpe in East Sumbawa a few weeks before. I had to spend a day in Sarpe - 7am to 7pm - waiting for the ferry to Labuanbajo in East Flores. Sarpe pier area is a God-forsaken hole so 5 of us hired this boat for $3 each and spent much of the day on this and another deserted beach. This one in particular had fairly good coral. No palms in back here - parts of eastern Sumbawa are almost semi arid.

My camera's card was okay on a later 2010 trip - as you can see Kuta would not make the list of the world's top 1000 beaches these days. It did when I first saw it.

About 2km north in the mid-Legian area the beach gets less crowded, starts to narrow and the sand gets darker. In parts of Seminyak it is quite narrow and darkish in places. Some very flash newer hotels up here.

North Seminyak in 2012 maybe 5km from Kuta's main section of beach - not too narrow in this section although this is low tide. August peak season yet not exactly crowded. The central part of Seminyak beach had more people but way fewer than down at Kuta-Legian.

 South of Kuta main the beach is divided by break-walls and groynes into shortish sections. Most of this area is known as Tuban. It has always been possible to walk all the way to the airport thru the Tuban area and there is now a very good paved path which runs all the way back of the beach - see pix on the main Bali page.

Beach-side paved path finishes at groyne mid shot. You can walk a block or so inland from there to the main road and then to the airport, but it would be at least a km from the terminal, maybe more.

There are some nice pockets of sand along here, some laid back beach bars and restaurants and quite a few good places to stay - pretty flash in the near-Kuta area. The water is calmer, protected by Kuta Reef offshore which is a fairly hot surfing spot for experienced riders. Best accessed by hiring one of the local boaties - it’s a looong paddle.

So is Kuta Beach a waste of time? I don’t think so. It has good surf, great people watching and magic sunsets.
On a recent trip I had half a day before my flight. I got a Perama bus from Padangbai to Kuta, wandered down to the beach, walked up to Legian checking the scene, had a nice swim-surf-some sun, walked back down to Kuta beach central and bought a beer off one of the hundreds of guys selling same up under the trees.

When you do this you are their best friend for life. Out comes the plastic chair, placed in prime shade-spot under the trees. 

I sat there, checked the passing parade of beautiful and not-so people......

....the ever so keen tourists trying to learn to surf in 1 or 2 lessons (impossible) at one of the many surf-schools....

....the Balinese beach boys cracking-on to backpacker-babes and vice-versa....

Who's tuning who? (Or is that whom?)

... fended off the massage girls and sarong sellers, bought me a delicious peeled pineapple and a choc-ice from a nice passing lady - and several beers later headed for the airport in a real good mood. Which was just as well, knowing Bali airport.

If you want some out of the way beaches with few crowds etc this site is very good.

If you click this June 2013 shot to expand it you will see around 100 people with boards and rash-vests in the surf - virtually all of them are surf school pupils. Crikey, I've never seen a crowd like this - and early June is still shoulder season. Kelly Slater has a lot to answer for.

Why surf-school teachers' voices sometimes go squeaky - image TransWorld Surf


If you see mistakes or have extra info, please post it below.
If you have any questions, please ask them on THE FORUM which can be clicked on three-quarters down the INDEX page - I don't get a chance to check individual pages often.

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If you are considering BALI BEACHES perhaps you might be interested in EAST BALI, THE MAIN BALI PAGE and the nearby GILI ISLANDS and LOMBOK pages which can all be accessed via THE INDEX
Budget SERAYA and KANAWA islands in West Flores are also very sweet and have a page.-------------------------------------------------------