Kuta & Legian

Kuta and Legian are the oldest tourist strip in Bali, one long west-facing beach running north from the airport. Central Kuta is 7 to 10 km from the terminal and 20 to 30 minutes away; Legian is 6 to 8 km and about 20 minutes on a clear run, 25 to 40 in normal traffic. The two towns run into one another with no real boundary, Legian being the quieter and slightly more residential half, and Seminyak starts where Legian stops. Nothing else in Bali is this close to a flight.

The beach is the honest reason to be here. It is wide, sandy and patrolled: Balawista lifeguards set red and yellow flags along Kuta, Legian and Seminyak, and swimming between them is the sensible rule, because longshore rips run hard on big tides and the water outside the flags is your own risk. Sunset is over the sea, most evenings of the year, between about 18:00 and 18:45. In December the tide pushes rubbish onto this shore along with everyone else's, and no amount of morning cleaning quite keeps up.

Kuta is where most people in Bali learn to surf, and the prices are the island's baseline. A two-hour group lesson runs about IDR 300,000 to 450,000 with board, rash vest and instructor; semi-private and private lessons run IDR 500,000 to 825,000. A board on its own rents from about IDR 100,000 a day. The beach break is forgiving in a way Canggu and Uluwatu are not, which is the whole point.

The other Kuta fixture is the big water park on the Kuta side, open 09:00 to 18:00, with adult tickets around IDR 495,000 to 595,000 and children's tickets lower. It is one of the few things in south Bali that works in heavy rain, which makes it worth knowing about in December and January.

Be clear about the downside. Kuta at night is loud, the main streets are lined with touts and bars, and the traffic through Kuta and Seminyak is bad from about 12:00 to 19:00. This is not the Bali of the photographs and it does not pretend to be.

Stay here anyway if you have an early flight, a late arrival, a learner surfer in the group, children who want a water park, or a budget that will not stretch to Seminyak: Kuta and Legian have the cheapest beds within walking distance of sand anywhere in the south. Legian is the better of the two for sleeping. We have passed through Legian on both trips and would happily take a first or last night there, but we would not give Kuta a week. Two nights, bookended by the airport, is the shape that makes sense.