Jimbaran

Jimbaran is the bay immediately south of the airport, on the neck of land before the Bukit plateau begins. It is fifteen to twenty minutes from the terminal, twenty to thirty from Kuta, an hour to an hour and a quarter from Canggu and about an hour and a half from Ubud. The bay faces west, so it takes the sunset, and it is one long shallow curve rather than a single beach: Kelan at the north end near the runway, then Kedonganan, then Muaya at the south.

Most people come to Jimbaran for grilled seafood eaten on the sand at dusk. Two clusters do it, one beside the fish market at Kedonganan and one at the Muaya end, with roughly forty places between them. Per-head prices vary too widely for us to quote one figure honestly, so ask what the fish costs by weight before anything is cooked.

The cheaper version is to buy the fish yourself at the Kedonganan market and pay a warung beside it to grill it. The market runs from seven in the morning to seven at night on weekdays and until nine at weekends; entry is free and parking is IDR 2,000 to 5,000. Everything is sold by the kilo and you do not have to take a whole one. Guides put common fish at roughly IDR 50,000 to 140,000 a kilo, prawns at IDR 120,000 to 200,000, squid at IDR 60,000 to 100,000 and lobster at IDR 300,000 to 600,000. Grilling is charged separately, between IDR 15,000 and 30,000 a kilo. First prices are not final prices; opening at about seventy per cent of what is asked is normal.

Go to the market early if you want the boats and the catch, or between four and six if you are buying dinner. Eat between five and seven. Jimbaran beach is quieter than Kuta for most of the day and then fills in the half hour before sunset.

Jimbaran is not the Bukit, although it is the road to it. The peninsula starts a few minutes south and changes everything: cliffs, reef breaks, beaches at the bottom of long staircases, and no app pickups. Jimbaran is flat and at sea level, the water is gentle and the waves are small. It is one of the safer west-coast beaches to swim at and no use to a serious surfer.

We have been to the bay, and we would come for an evening rather than a week. The reason to sleep in Jimbaran is the airport: it is the closest good sand to the terminal, which makes it sensible for a first night, a last night or a long layover. Otherwise it is a dinner, not a base. There is little to do here in the middle of the day, and the things people come to Bali for are all somewhere else.