Kuta, Denpasar and the South

 Kuta is the first place you’re likely to encounter on your trip to Bali. Just 15 minutes north of the main Denpasar airport, its a city with a long beach, 5 star hotels, bars, restaurants, massage parlours, fast food chains, night clubs and coffee shops. This makes it pretty noisy, crowded and not too relaxing.

Its frequented by tourists from all over the world, particularly Australia, who come for cheap prices, warm weather and pretty much everything else that they are likely to miss from back home such as Chicken Schnitzel and Starbucks.

If you’ve been to other places around the world like Hawaii or Thailand, you will not be impressed by Kuta’s beach. It is a long sprawling beach which gets dirtier and dirtier the further you get from the 5 star hotels.

But I guess if you like to surf, Kuta could be described as paradise. The waves are predictable and the beach is home to a number of surf schools. Many motorcycles in Kuta have a surf board carrying attachment, and you’ll see many people walking along with their surf boards.

To cater for this crowd, Kuta is full of shops selling the latest surf wear, by the coolest brands, from all over the world.

The streets of Kuta are very narrow and it has a hellish one way system where you can find yourself in a traffic jam at 11pm even on a motorbike. Just like Ubud, its probably safer to ride a motorbike than walk amongst them.

Massage is a Bali specialty and there is no cheaper place than Kuta, with plenty of establishments to choose from. You can expect to pay 60,000RP for a 1 hour Balinese oil massage in Kuta.