Kuta, Bali, Indonesia – 3 Day Trip

So first off, my trip to Kuta was short-lived, I had initially planned five days here because I was told it was lively and beautiful beaches, this is 100% true. However, the place is full of hecklers that do not leave solo travelers alone. And compared to my time in Ubud I went from extremely relaxed to annoyed AF in a quick minute.

When I was staying in Ubud if anyone asked me for a taxi, to go into their shop, eat at their restaurant I would reply “no, thank you” and they would say “thank you” in Kuta, saying “no, thank you” clearly translates to “follow me down the street, touch me, grab my wrist, get in my face and do whatever you possibly can to try and get me to say yes”.

So after finding out about this experience first hand, I looked up nearby cities that are quiet, and I found Canggu, what a lovely place, and I am so glad I headed over there. You can read more about my trip to Canggu here.

Yes, Kuta is lively, yes it has lovely beaches, the traffic is horrible, and they have many worldwide stores and shops. I don’t want to spend this whole post complaining about the bad of Kuta so I will go into the good.

The beach, wow, unbelievable, at low tide, you can walk out relatively far and have your bare feet lightly sink into the soft sand. Plenty of restaurants and opportunities to learn to surf, and the further you go down the beach towards the Beachwalk Shopping Center, you can snorkel.

Day 1 – Beach & Market 08.30.2019

I arrived early in the afternoon and made my way from my hotel to the beach. I booked this hotel using Airbnb, and I was not impressed, you can view the place here. The place was not clean at all and in the initial room, I had no view, just the view of a wall. I was able to change rooms for a small fee. If you’re new to Airbnb use my referral code for $50 off your first stay.

In Kuta, there are not many homestays, so you don’t get the Balinesian experience. Staying closer to the beach has your brand name hotels, which are beautiful and close to a lovely outdoor mall

Passing through the market about every 30 seconds, I got chased down to buy something, but the shops were beautiful, and they had many nick-nacks that someone would want to buy.

Once I arrived at the beach and got away from the tourist traps. I was finally able to take in the true beauty of Bali Beaches.

Day 2 – Surfing & Off to Canggu 08.31.2019

There are plenty of places along the coastline to rent a surfboard or hire an instructor. The cost runs around 100k IDR per hour for the board rental, and the total two-hour lesson was 500k IDR.

They say the waves here are suitable for beginners, but compared to my time in Fiji, I found this to be rather tricky. In the two hours I went, I was only able to get up and ride the wave in twice versus Fiji in two hours I did it about 20+ times, so I think that anyone trying for the first time or is a beginner should consider the lessons.

Almost all of the surf rental places had bag storage, I left my phone and other valuables there and had no issues. If you don’t have a Surf Shirt, you can hire one at no additional cost.

After surfing, there are plenty of places to sit and relax and have a cold drink. I was at Eddie’s Bar, he is a great host and will make sure any hecklers move on if they’re “too much,” plus he has Wi-Fi.

Day 3 – Really Day 5 09.02.2019

After spending two days in Canggu, I’m back in Kuta for a full day before my flight leaves at 22:00. It wouldn’t be an official trip to Bali without getting a tattoo, so… I got my tattoo at Two Guns Tattoo. The cost for a two-hour window was 2,000,000 IDR; I had to put 1,000,000 IDR down for a deposit, which goes towards the value of the tattoo. This place is rated as one of the safest places to get a tattoo in Bali.

After my tattoo, I went to the beach to take in one more sunset. I did book an extra night stay at the hotel in Kuta so I could leave my luggage and shower before heading to the airport and then I checked out late in the evening. I used the Grab car share app to get to the airport because traffic is so heavy in Kuta this took over an hour by the time the car picked me and dropped me off. So be sure to take that into account, even though Google maps told me 20 minutes it was way longer.