Is Kuta still worth visiting?

Kuta is where Bali tourism began, and it has spent the last decade being overtaken by Seminyak, Canggu and Uluwatu. What remains is cheap, busy, and better than its reputation for two specific purposes.

What it is actually like

A dense grid of hotels, surf shops, bars, tattoo studios, minimarts and tourist retail, running from the airport up the coast into Legian and then into Seminyak. The beach is long, wide and sandy, with lifeguards and a gentle break.

It is loud, worn in places, and full of people having a very specific kind of holiday. It is also the cheapest place in southern Bali to sleep and eat, and the easiest place to learn to surf.

The two reasons to stay here

Learning to surf. Kuta Beach is a long sand-bottom beach break with dozens of schools, boards for hire every 50 metres, and lifeguards. For a first week on a board it is better than Canggu, which is more crowded, and far better than the Bukit, which is reef.

Budget. A clean private room runs 15 to 25 USD, meals are cheap, and everything you need is within walking distance. For backpackers and first trips it does the job.

Legian

Immediately north, slightly calmer, with more mid-range hotels and a better balance of restaurants to bars. If Kuta sounds too much and Seminyak too expensive, Legian is the compromise a lot of people end up making.

The beach

Wide, long and sandy, which is unusual for the west coast. Lifeguards patrol the main sections and the flags mean something: currents here are strong and this is one of the few beaches where patrols happen daily.

Sunsets are the event. Vendors, beanbags, cold beer, a lot of people.

In wet season the beach receives marine debris on the currents, which is cleaned daily but can be bad after a storm.

Nightlife

Concentrated on Jalan Legian: bars, clubs and late venues. It is cheap, loud and has an unfortunate reputation attached to alcohol.

One serious practical note: stick to sealed bottles and established licensed venues, and avoid free-pour spirits and very cheap cocktails at unlicensed places. Methanol contamination in counterfeit spirits has caused deaths in Indonesia. Beer is beer; the risk sits with spirits at the bottom end of the price range.

What else is there

Waterbom Bali, a genuinely excellent water park in the middle of Kuta and the best family attraction in the south.

Beachwalk and Discovery malls, air-conditioned shopping when it rains.

The 2002 Bali bombing memorial on Jalan Legian, which matters to a lot of visitors, particularly Australians.

Tuban, between Kuta and the airport, quieter with big hotels and easy access to arrivals.

What Kuta is not

It is not the Bali in the photographs: no rice terraces, no cliffs, no turquoise water. It is a busy, cheap, commercial beach town that happens to be where the island's tourism industry started.

The hawking on the beach is persistent, the traffic is dense, and the streets are not clean by Seminyak standards. For a week of learning to surf on a budget, none of that matters much.

Getting around from Kuta

Everything in Kuta and Legian is walkable, which is rare in Bali. Seminyak is a 15-minute drive or a long walk up the beach. The airport is five minutes away, which is why Kuta and Tuban work well for a first night or a last night.

Scooter hire is cheap and everywhere. The traffic through the Kuta one-way system is dense and slow, and it is one of the worst places on the island to learn to ride.

Tuban, the quiet version

Between Kuta and the airport, Tuban has the large beachfront hotels, a calmer stretch of sand, and a five-minute transfer. For a family that wants cheap flights, a pool and no ambition to explore, it is the practical choice, and it is quieter than Kuta at night.

Where Kuta still wins

Price, for equivalent comfort, by a wide margin. Surf lessons, by depth of supply. Convenience to the airport, absolutely. And a specific kind of unfiltered, unpretentious holiday that the rest of the island has quietly stopped offering.