Nightlife and Live Music in Bali

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Bali's nightlife is geographically segregated in a way that is worth understanding before you book a hotel. Kuta and Legian are the loud, cheap, young end that has been running since the 1970s. Seminyak is the polished club-and-cocktail-bar version. Canggu is the newest and most distinctive — a surf-and-skate crowd, long-stay residents, and parties that start at four in the afternoon and end at two. Ubud is deliberately quiet and everything closes by eleven. Sanur and Nusa Dua are, for practical purposes, asleep.

Canggu

The Canggu night follows the sun: beach club from four, dinner around eight, then a bar. Old Man's is the pivot — a huge open-sided beer hall on Batu Bolong beach with a Wednesday night that has run for years. Vault and Savaya (the latter actually on the Uluwatu cliff but Canggu in spirit) are the electronic rooms, and Bali's DJ bookings have climbed steadily enough that internationally known names now play here on Asia tours. The Lawn does sunset with a pool. Everything is within scooter distance of everything else, which is both the appeal and the reason the road is dangerous after midnight.

Seminyak and Petitenget

Seminyak is the grown-up version: cocktail bars with actual bar programmes, Motel Mexicola's technicolour party-restaurant, Potato Head running music into the night, and Mrs Sippy's pool sessions. Jalan Petitenget and Jalan Kayu Aya are the two strips. The crowd skews thirty-plus and the drinks are Jakarta-priced — 150,000–250,000 rupiah for a cocktail. This is the part of Bali that has the most in common with a Sydney or Singapore night out, which is either the appeal or the objection depending on why you came.

Kuta and Legian

Jalan Legian is the original strip — Sky Garden's multi-floor free-entry-and-buffet model, Bounty, and a run of open-fronted bars with 30,000-rupiah beers and cover bands playing the same eight songs. It is cheap, chaotic, overwhelmingly young and not to everyone's taste. It is also where the 2002 bombing memorial stands, quietly, in the middle of it. If you want a big night on a small budget this is where it is; if you want anything else, stay north of Seminyak.

Live music and practicalities

Live music leans towards reggae, blues and cover bands rather than original material — Laughing Buddha in Seminyak and the Kuta strip are the reliable spots, and Ubud has a small circuit of jazz and world-music nights at Laughing Buddha and CP Lounge. Bali's electronic scene is the growth area, with regular festivals and beach parties. Practical notes: drinks are cheap by Western standards but not by Indonesian ones; Indonesian-made spirits are far cheaper than imports; never drink home-distilled arak; and use a ride-hail car home rather than a scooter — police checks and accidents both spike after midnight.

Nightlife and Live Music at a glance

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