Our Recommended Kuta/Legian/Seminyak Hotels
Kuta Area Information
Nightlife in Kuta
Whatever your choice for after-dark entertainment, you will find it in Kuta. Evenings start with witnessing spectacular sunsets over cocktails, progress through a leisurely dinner and then around midnight the partying starts, either with a pub crawl, club rave, a rhythmic Balinese dance show or a 'Wayang Kulit' shadow puppet performance. Cafes, pubs and discos line the streets of Kuta, but nothing gets going very early. Most party animals will be found dancing the night away at the Paparazzi Lounge or Double Six, side by side on the beach at Seminyak, where the action kicks off after 2am. The Bounty on Legian Road is a mock galleon where dancing is the order of the night. Peanuts at Legian rocks with its huge open-air disco and two dance floors. There are also often special events, like beach full moon parties, or body-painting parties, which are announced by way of flyers handed out around town.
Espresso Bar is a nice bar in JL Legian Street with very good live bands every day. Can be very crowded from time to time but even then very nice! Paddy's is a great bar to go out to before going to the other discos and clubs. There is always a good crowd, and live music. People do not start getting the clubs like Bounty and M Bargo until 12 and is crazy well until the early morning. Bounty is very casual, M bargo is a litlle more upscale, but still very casual and fun both great places and very close.
Restaurants - Until fairly recently the only reliable restaurants for Western palates in Bali were those operated as part of luxury hotels. Today, however, restaurants of all persuasions have proliferated, although standards and prices vary just as much as type of cuisine. In Kuta you can find anything from Japanese sushi to Wiener schnitzel, pizza to paella, and enchiladas to espedata. Sometimes the taste is not quite original because these international favourites have been adapted to suit local tastes and ingredients. If you want to play it safe stick to McDonald's or Pizza Hut! Some visitors like to brave the rather primitive little roadside foodstalls, 'Warungs', to sample local cuisine, or pick a 'padang', which is a 24-hour diner displaying a dozen or so different dishes in a glass box at the door where you can sample them all for just a few US dollars.
Aromas Café Jl Legian. Nice cappuccino and good value meals. A popular restaurant especially with their baguettes & coffees. Well this will always be my favourite rest whilst shopping or pick me up kind of a place. Great vegetarian dishes, smoothies, heaps fresh juices to cure all kinds ailments and great salad sandwiches when youre so hanging out for one.
Beaches in Kuta
Once a lonely village on the road from Denpasar toward the Bukit Peninsula, Kuta is now a thriving tourist resort, popular mainly among the young. It owes its claim to fame owes to two factors: its beach (originally Bali's best) and the sunset. The beach front is now host to many hotels, except for Legian and Seminyak, where much of the social scene is now centered. The main shops are located along Legian street.
Kuta has become one of the most dynamic places in Indonesia. It is a place to encounter new ideas and lifestyles and a place to experience all manner of pleasures. It is a popular beach for surfing although, currents make it less suitable for swimming. Life guards are on constant duty during the day. Kuta faces the West, offering beautiful sunsets.
The popular Kuta Beach, overlooking the Straits of Bali, attracts foreign and local water sport enthusiasts and sun worshippers. Throngs flock to this 1.5-kilometer stretch on weekends. The period April to September/October promises favorable reef and beach breaks, enabling surfers to take to the waves. Amateurs should stick to the milder beach breaks for safety reasons. You can also swim here--make sure you do so only within the designated area--or just join the carefree sunbathers. Wandering hawkers and guides offer their wares and services, while others provide a relaxing massage for a reasonable fee.
Shopping in Kuta
Kuta is swarming with shops and shoppers, usually clusters of stores and stalls all selling much the same goods, waiting for customers to barter on the prices. Accessed either from the beach or Kuta Square is the vast, fun market area where you can buy anything from CDs to kites, sarongs to shoes, and fake brand name clothing. Local handcrafts, jewellery and custom-made leather goods are good buys. Visitors are usually assailed by pushy street hawkers selling goods like fake watches, and are expected to haggle on prices, which are often quoted in US Dollars. Kuta is also well supplied with department stores and shopping centres where prices are fixed, like the new Discovery Mall on Jalan Kartika Plaza. Around Kuta Square you can have a spending spree at dozens of brand name stores where goods (the real thing) are sold at amazingly low prices. Those who are keen to buy local crafts, hand-made jewellery or traditional wood and stone carvings will do well by taking excursions into surrounding villages where these arts are practised.
