What to expect in chilled Canggu & Seminyak
What to expect in chilled Canggu & Seminyak
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Only a 45-minute drive away from the airport, you will find the chilled coastal towns Canggu and Seminyak. Vegan cafés, scooter with surfboards and beach vibes are typical for this area. We highly recommend to skip Denpasar and Kuta and to go directly to Seminyak and Canggu to experience the real Bali vibes. Seminyak is located a little more South at the coastline, directly above Seminyak you will find Canggu. Between these places are a lot of cool spots which you can easily reach with a scooter.
What to do
This area of Bali is all about chilled beach life, surfing, extremely good vegan restaurants and cute shops. It’s also THE place for alle the co-workers and nomads. However there also a few beautiful temples to explore.
1. Batu Balong Beach
Batu Balong is the beach of Canggu. The sunsets there are incredible. For 25.000 IDR you can rent a surf board directly at the beach. However in our opinion the sand beaches in Seminyak are better for surfing beginners, because Batu Balong has only a stony ground.
2. Pura Tanah Lot
Officially this place opens at 7 am, but they actually open the doors earlier. We recommend to be there at 6:30 am in the beautiful morning light without lots of tourists. There are two big rocks with temples on top. Be prepared for some cute dogs and many locals who want to take a picture with you.
3. Berawa Beach
10 minutes from Canggu centre you will find the very chilled Berawa Beach. There are a lot of smaller beach bars directly at the beach and cute dogs chilling under sunshades. This day the waves were very high, red flag means it’s dangerous to swim. If you walk until the end of the beach you can chill at Finns Beach Club, but it’s really expensive.
4. Echo Beach and La Brisa
Echo Beach is our favorite beach with our favorite beach bar. There is a big beach bar with the best view of the ocean called “La Brisa”. For the daybeds you have to buy a day ticket or half day ticket. But the seats in front of the bar (actually best view in the bar) are for free. Can you see the rock a the beach with the temple on top?
5. Rice fields in Jl. Pantai Pererenan
Well, the most beautiful rice terraces are for sure in Ubud, like Tegallalang or Jatiluwih Rice Terraces. But did you know that Canggu has also a few beautiful rice fields close to the centre? Search for the road Jalan Pantai Pererenan and you will find them. They are easily reachable with a scooter. On your way stop at Bali Bowls and Smoothies.
6. Love Anchor – shopping at local markets
In Canggu and Seminyak are a lot of beautiful boutiques with handmade clothes, organic materials or stylish furniture. You will also find a lot of surf shops here. There is one famous local market called Love Anchor with a lot of local craft.
7. Community Short Cut
There are two main roads leading from the inland to the ocean, between these two roads they build a short cut for scooters. Actually taxi drivers have to drive the longer way along the inland, but from time to time you see cars trying to save time circling around the scooter drivers at the short cut trying not to crash down in the rice fields. It’s really funny to drive here, but be careful!
8. Learn to Surf
Canggu and Seminyak are both perfect for surf beginners as well as for pro surfers. There are different beaches for different levels depending on the waves. In our opinion Seminyak has the best beginners surfing beach because it’s a sandy beach without any sharp stones. If you are a beginner or want to improve your skills, we highly recommend to book a surf camp. There you can get video analysis, guides who challenge you safely and daily theory classes. We loved to stay at KIMA Surf in Seminyak.
Where to stay
Canggu and Seminyak have so many beautiful hotels and airbnbs. With Ubud it’s the place where you can get incredible looking rooms or villas for little money. It’s hard to choose on of the many amazing places! Of course there are also some famous more expensive places to stay at.
1. Own Villa
Felicity and her boyfriend put so much heart in the beautiful wooden villas arranged around an amazing blue pool. We felt so welcomed and special there! The eco-friendly villas are 100% built with recycled wood within 2010 and 2012. Due to the use of natural building techniques, they was no need to use screws and nails. Relaxing in one of the villas in the middle of nature and ending the day with a fantastic dinner felt like a dream come true.
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2. Phinisi Villas
It was such a pleasure to work with Barbara and the villas are absolutely fantastic. They have 6 different villas in the Seminyak area. All of them have a similar style and only differ from their floor plan and the number of bedrooms. On the ground floor you will find a chilled living room and kitchen area with the outdoor pool and on the first floor you can enjoy the amazing bedrooms with their own bathrooms.
All of the villas have a very unique detail: A pool with a window to the living room area. Isn’t that cool?
3. KIMA Camp Seminyak or Canggu
KIMA surf is for everyone, who likes to be active in their holidays. Surf lessons, yoga sessions and amazing food – you will get all of that here! And no worries, they also have double rooms for more privacy. You can choose between different surfing levels and daily classes, they also do video analysis of your improving surfing skills.
3. D´djabu villa, roller vespa, 24 st 90k
If you are looking for a budget hotel with a nice pool and beautiful modern rooms directly in the centre, this is a great place to stay! We’ve stayed there several nights. They also rent beautiful vespas for 90.000 IDR for 24 hours.
4. Surf Motel
This hotel is located near Echo Beach and it looks so cool! We’ve been there after it just opened. The roof top terrace with the pool and the beautiful wooden furniture looks amazing! And the bowls and coffee is really good! At the time we’ve been there, the prices were really affordable.
Where to eat
Canggu and Seminyak is definitely food heaven for us. Especially for plant based people there isn’t a place on earth with more vegan restaurants. Spend some time testing all the different cafés and restaurants. The most famous place is Kynd Café for sure, because of its Instagram walls. But there are a lot more places who create incredible food!
We wrote a whole blogpost about our favorite cafés and restaurants in Canggu and Seminyak. Read here: Best restaurants in Canggu and Seminyak.
- Shady Shack
- Kynd Café
- Peleton Supershop
- Greenginger Noodle House
- Give Café
- Bali Bowls & Smoothies
- Quince Café (zu)
- Farmers Brews
- Tasty Vegan
- Earth Café
- I am vegan babe
- Mocca Cafe
How to get around – About the Taxi Maffia
We highly recommend to rent a scooter to be able to explore everything on your own without getting exploited by taxi drivers in Canggu centre. Outside the centre it’s still possible to order a Grab or Uber driver with moderate prices. But in front of most popular hotels and especially in the centre of Canggu it’s nearly impossible to get one, you can only take a taxi with enormous prices. It happened to us twice, that we jumped in a Grab car and a taxi driver pursued us and threatened our driver until we had to get out.
Also we highly recommend to wear a long trousers although it’s really hot and looks silly (for example on top of a shorts, so you can change quickly). There are so many scooter accidents in Bali, I myself had one and covered legs reduces the injuries a lot! I think we don’t have to remind you to wear a helmet too.
Coming from West/Denpasar
If you are coming from the airport in Denpasar the easiest way is to order a Grab or Uber with the App to get to Canggu or Seminyak. You can see the price on your phone so you don’t get ripped off by taxi drivers.
If you are coming from Java you can take the ferry to West Bali. Unfortunately you can only pay with a kind of prepaid card in Java, but the supervisor helped us to pay with cash, also he organized a driver for you at the terminal in Bali. The ferry ride was very relaxing, there were around 3 other tourists and 20 locals. On the other side in Bali we were chased by the taxi mafia who provided a ride for extremely high prices. We were so lucky that we already had a driver. We even invited Say, a desperate girl from Munich who was fooled by the taxi drivers, to drive with us. The 4-hour drive to Canggu were perfect to exchange travel plans.
*Anzeige/ad This article contains recommendations of hotels and restaurants. We collaborated with some of the hotels. However, this article represents our own and honest opinion.
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