Down to the Bukit
A private day of beaches along Bali's southern tip, from the calm water at Nusa Dua to a shipwreck at Nyang Nyang and sunset over Jimbaran Bay.
The driver collects you from the hotel lobby, and today the car heads south rather than inland, down onto the Bukit, the limestone peninsula that hangs off the bottom of Bali like a pendant. The Bukit is drier than the rest of the island, with scrub instead of rice, and its coastline is almost all cliff, broken every few kilometres by a beach at the bottom of a road or a staircase.
The plan for the day is simple and the pace is easy: a handful of very different beaches, as much or as little time in the water at each as you want, and the car waiting at the top every time. The only fixed appointment is at the end, with the sun going down over Jimbaran Bay.
Bring swimwear, a towel, sun cream and a change of clothes for the evening, and leave anything you would worry about in the hotel safe. You will be in and out of the sea all day, and there is nowhere to put things down that does not have sand in it.
Nusa Dua
Nusa Dua is the manicured end of the peninsula: wide lawns, large resorts, a long beachfront path and swimming water kept calm by the reef offshore. At its edge is Peninsula Island, a small headland joined to the shore, with open grass on top and a view back along the coast. It is a gentle start to the day, and a good place to find out how warm the sea is.
Close by, where the reef ends and the open ocean arrives, the swell runs into a shelf of eroded limestone and forces itself up through the cracks. If there is swell running, ask the driver to stop, because on a big day the water explodes skyward in white columns with a boom you feel through your feet. Stand where the other people are standing, not closer.
The water inside the reef here is shallow and calm, and it is the easiest swimming of the whole day. Make the most of it. The beaches after this have more character, and much stronger water.
The beaches after Nusa Dua have more character and much stronger water. Swim here, while it is easy.
Pandawa and Nyang Nyang
Pandawa Beach was a hidden cove until a road was cut down through the cliff to reach it, and the builders turned the cutting into a gallery. In niches carved into the limestone walls stand statues of the five Pandawa brothers of the Mahabharata and their mother, looking down on the traffic as you descend. At the bottom is a long white beach with canoes and kayaks for hire, and warungs selling grilled corn and cold coconuts.
Nyang Nyang is the opposite: no road to the sand, no stalls, and very few people. From the car you walk to the edge of the cliff and then down a long, steep path, with a view the whole way down of an empty beach running off in both directions. At the bottom, half-sunk in the sand, lies the rusting hulk of a wrecked ship, which is not a prop and has been there for years, slowly turning the colour of the cliffs.
It is a beach for walking and sitting rather than swimming. The waves here break hard, the currents along the Bukit are strong, and there is nobody watching. Paddle, look, walk out to the wreck and back, and save the climb up until the sun is a little lower.
Jimbaran at sunset
Jimbaran Bay is the last stop: a long curve of sand facing west across the neck of the peninsula, with fishing boats pulled up at one end and the airport runway across the water at the other. In the late afternoon, the seafood restaurants along the beach carry their tables out onto the sand and set them in long rows facing the sea.
The sun goes down straight into the ocean here, which is rarer on this island than you would think, and it takes the whole sky with it: gold, then orange, then a deep bruised red, with the silhouettes of planes sliding in to land across the bay every few minutes. Conversations stop. Somebody's child runs along the waterline with a kite.
Dinner is not included, which leaves you free to choose. Most people eat at the tables on the sand, picking fish, prawns and squid from ice-filled counters, paying by weight and waiting while it grills over coconut-husk coals. Ask the price per kilo before you choose. It is a very good dinner, and it is much better with no surprises on the bill.
The sun goes down straight into the ocean at Jimbaran, which is rarer on this island than you would think.
The driver waits for you, and the drive back to the hotel is short and dark and sleepy, with sand in your shoes and salt in your hair. It is the easiest long day of the trip, and very few people regret a single hour of it.
Experience Down to the Bukit
Nusa Dua, Pandawa, Nyang Nyang and sunset at Jimbaran, in one private day. Tell us your dates and we will build it into your Bali trip.
