Located on the west coast of the southern region of Bali – Indonesia, between Canggu and Kuta, Seminyak offers large golden-white sand beaches, with a lot of restaurants and bars options.
More suitable for surfers than for swimming and bathing, Seminyak has gained its reputation from the rows of designer boutiques along its main roads and side streets combined with luxury resorts and fancy restaurants.
More suitable for people who are looking for nightlife and shopping than for backpackers and budget travellers, Seminyak still offers a large variety of accommodation. For a decent accommodation, with good services you can pay between 30-50 euro/night. This time we reserved a room on booking.com at Bali Sunset Villa and for us was the perfect choice.
Tip! Choose your accommodation based on more criteria like: to be a walkable distance to the beach and restaurants, to have a pool and free airport pick-up, free shuttle. This can make a big difference to your holiday and to your budget.
For adventurous persons traveling in Seminyak is quite simple: you can rent a scooter for 50000 – 75000 Rp./day and all your problems are solved. Apparently. But it could be dangerous if you don’t have experience because they act like they have no rules in traffic. If you still choose to do this, you should wear a helmet and have an international driving license.
Tip! If you want to take a taxi, choose always a car from Blue Bird Group. They are using a certified meter so you don’t need to worry how much they are going to ask at the end of the trip. Pay attention! A lot of cars look similar with the ones from Blue Bird Group..
Go to Seminyak if you enjoy eating at fancy restaurants, are a shopping addict, a party lover or if you surf. As I said before, you can choose a super fancy restaurant, with international menu and expensive prices or you can try the local restaurant, with Indonesian food and cheap prices, called “Warung”.
Tip! When in Seminyak, try Warung Murah on Double Six Street and fall in love with their food. As you can see in the picture, they serve local food and the prices are great, approximate 20000 IDR for a plate. For two person, you can pay between 70000-100000 IDR (5-6 euro) with beverages included.
As I mentioned before, Seminyak is today a travel destination for people that are looking for nightlife, expensive restaurants and shopping. Not to much to do for backpackers and people looking for natural landscapes. For surfers and backpackers is recommended Canggu. With big waves, fancy but not expensive bars and not so crowded, Canggu might be the place where you can find the old spirit of Bali. Returning to Seminyak, you can enjoy a young coconut or a cocktail at the sunset on Double Six Beach.
You can walk on the beach for more than 6 km, from Kuta to Potato Head or even far, as you can see in the map below. It might be possible at some point to leave the beach and go on the street because of the private clubs that doesn’t allow you to simply pass or they allow you but after making a rigorous security check.
Potato Head is a resort with private beach and a lot of security. They have also a fancy restaurant with bar right in front of the ocean. For a normal place at the pool you have to buy a 500 000 IDR voucher and you can use it for two persons. For a premium place at the pool you have to buy a 1 000 000 IDR voucher and use it for two persons but is valid only 5 hours. Also they have an option where you can sit at the bar and still use the pool and pay what you order. But in this case you don’t have a long chair.
The same tip of resort is Ku De Ta or La Lucciola, but we didn’t had the chance to visit them.
Tip! If you really want to go there make sure that you arrive early because it is really crowded.
Here you can find a lot of stores with handmade jewelry and deco stuff at fair prices but also a lot of stores selling fake products at really expensive prices even if you negotiate it. On the main shopping road in Seminyak you will find a lot of restaurants and bar, serving Indonesian and international food and drinks.
Tip! Alcohol drinks are really expensive in Bali comparing with food price.
Tip! If you plan to visit also Ubud is better to wait until you get there to go shopping because Ubud Market has a lot to offer.
What could be more relaxing if not a foot or body massage after a few hours of shopping? Yes, Seminyak is the place where you have a lot of choices in matter of massages. From really cheap to really expensive, from small, local spa to big, fancy ones Seminyak have all of them. For a traditional Balinese body massage you pay between 70 000 – 200 000 IDR depending on your preferences in matter of the spa design, type of products they use or type of massage.
We wanted to visit Uluwatu and Tanah Lot Temple and decided to go on a day tour during our stay in Seminyak. For a day tour with private car it will costs you approximately 600000 IDR.
For both temples you need to pay entry fee. Here you can find a complete list with of entrance fees in Bali: https://www.gustibali.com/services/bali-entrance-fee and it is better if you have your own Sargon. Pay attention at the monkeys near Uluwatu because they are really aggressive comparing with the ones from Monkey Forest and here tourists are not allowed to feed them.
Tip! If you want only to see these two temples it is enough to take a half day tour. And it is a lot better to go to Uluwatu for sunset.
Tip! Take good care of your own goods as they say at the entrance because we saw monkeys stealing tourist’s stuff as Iphone, hat, slippers and bottles of water. They are not friendly at all.
Tanah Lot is a beautiful temple but the main problem remain the tourists. I know, we have been two of them :)) but still, it is too crowded.
Our guide recommended us to visit Padang-Padang beach. A beautiful beach with white sand and turquoise water but way to crowded. The entrance is really interesting, a narrow aisle with stairs built between rocks.
Tip! Go there really early in the morning, take a bath in the ocean, enjoy the view and then go to another place because it will be too crowded to relax when the tourists come. A lot of local guides advertise this beach because is one of the places where Eat Pray Love was filmed.
Our impression: Seminyak worth a visit but not more than three days. Bali has so many to offer that it doesn’t worth to spend many days in one place, unless if you really enjoy a type of activity on that place as surfing or clubbing.
