Sanur

Sanur is the strip on Bali's east coast just beyond Denpasar, and it is the calmest developed stretch on the island. From the airport it is thirty to forty minutes, from Ubud forty to forty-five, and from the centre of Denpasar ten to fifteen. Sanur has been a resort for longer than the west coast has, and it shows: low buildings, mature trees, wide pavements, and a crowd that skews considerably older than Canggu's.

The paved path along the beach is what Sanur is actually for. It runs about five kilometres, flat and shaded, along a coast of seven or eight, and you can walk or cycle the whole of it without touching a road. That is unusual in south Bali, where a beach usually means a car park and a lane full of scooters.

Sanur faces east, so it does sunrise rather than sunset. The sun comes up out of the water between about six and half past, and on a clear morning Mount Agung stands along the coast to the north-east. This is the practical argument for the east coast: the west-coast routine of driving somewhere for sunset, then sitting in the traffic everyone else created doing the same thing, does not apply. The good hour in Sanur is the one before breakfast.

An offshore reef takes the swell out of the water, so the sea is calm all year and safe for children. It also means there is no surf, and the lagoon inside the reef is shallow. At low tide the water in front of you can be too thin to swim in and you walk out a long way to find depth.

Sanur is where the boats to the Nusa islands leave, and since the new harbour opened it is a proper terminal with indoor check-in and a pier rather than a wade out to a hull. Nusa Lembongan is about thirty minutes, Nusa Penida thirty to forty-five. One-way fares booked online run about IDR 150,000 to 250,000 for Lembongan and IDR 170,000 to 215,000 for Penida, plus a harbour fee of IDR 20,000 in cash at Sanur and IDR 25,000 on arrival at Penida. The first boats leave around half past six and the last around five in the afternoon, and you should be at the terminal thirty to forty-five minutes before departure. In December and January the sea is rougher; take the earliest crossing you can face.

We have been on the Sanur strip, and we would put a particular kind of traveller here without hesitating: families with small children, anyone who wants to sleep at night, and anyone whose trip is really about the Nusa islands. We would not send someone here for nightlife or surf, because there is none, and the restaurants are quieter and more hotel-shaped than the west coast's. Three or four nights is plenty unless it is your base for the whole trip. The weakness of Sanur is also the point of it: not much happens.