We all know that Bali is a bit of a hotspot for tourists and, chances are, if you haven't already been, it's got to be pretty high on your bucket list! Canggu is located just north of Kuta and is synonymous with surfing, but surfing isn't the only reason why you might want to visit! Here are the top 5 things that we liked doing the best in Canggu (and you're sure to love too)!
Go To The Beach
A lot of fun can be had at the beach whether you go to surf or not! Although if you don't surf, what better place to learn? There are more and more amazing 'surf camps' popping up in Canggu, which sadly, we didn't get to do (for budget reasons!), but we did enjoy playing in the waves and swimming about in the shallows! The sea is a great way to cool off and you could always chill out with a cold beer or tasty cocktail at one of the beach bars such as Old Mans, or a little further away is Finns.
Speaking of beach bars, the local businesses do their best to clean the beach of any washed up rubbish each morning, but it can sometimes be too much for them to tackle alone. Doing your own #2minutebeachclean is always a good thing! Here are some more social campaigns you can get involved with: #givesealifeahand, #4fortheshore and #trashyourselfie.
Cool Cafes And Clean Eating
Canggu is home to countless amazing restaurants and cafes and, although some are a bit on the pricey side, a lot can accommodate travellers on a tighter budget (like us)! With places like Motion Cafe, Betelnut Cafe and Cafe Organic offering food that's delicious and vegan friendly, it was the food that quickly became our favourite thing about Canggu! And let's not forget the smoothie bowls! Mocca Cafe was definitely our favourite place for smoothie bowls!
Shopping
As well as the cafes that line the streets in Canggu, you'll also find a lot of boutique clothing stores... Afends had some great stuff for guys and, for girls, Onelove had an awesome vintage vibe. We also liked Nalu Clothing who donate school uniforms to local children with every item sold! Tshirts generally range from 250-400 RP in Canggu, but cheaper ones can be found. An abundance of cheap accessories and sunglasses can be found too.
Get A Tattoo
You don't have to look very hard to find talented and reputable tattoo artists in Canggu... What's really cool though is that The Temple Of Enthusiasm (Dues Ex Machina) offer "free" tattoos every Tuesday! The idea is that those quick enough to put their names down for a tattoo just have to get a plate of tacos and a drink, which only totals about 115 RP! There are only 16 slots for the tattoos though and, as you can imagine, they're in pretty high demand, with some people waiting from 3pm to get their names on the list at 6pm! Not really knowing how it worked, we weren't successful in getting our names down, but treated ourselves to taco's anyway!
Go Exploring
We admit... Canggu is cool, but it isn't exactly cultural... If you want to go exploring, you're going to have to venture out of town, but what makes Canggu even cooler is that there are plenty of places relatively close by that are perfect for a good adventure! Of course, you could hire a scooter, but we aren't exactly experienced scooter drivers so, instead, we went on a couple trips with Nyoman, a local driver who is happy to be hired for whatever crazy adventures you can think of!
Seeing as we needed to go to the South of Bali to extend our visas at Jimbaran Immigration Office (using www.visaagentbali.com made this a very easy experience btw), we thought that we would explore some points of interest in the area - Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park and Uluwatu Temple. Whilst the tour was definitely worth doing, the cultural park was very overpriced and the temple was rammed with tourists! Thankfully, there was a stunning sunset!
The other tour that we did with Nyoman was truly incredible! We started in the early hours of the morning so that we could make it to Ulun Danu Temple for sunrise, which really surprised us by how stunning it was with the lake and mountainous scenery to match! We were also taken to Twin Lakes (where we could literally swing out from a super high view point), Gitgit Twin Waterfall (which was perfect for getting some Instagram shots) and Jutiluwih Rice Terraces (where we were free to explore the rice paddies)! Finally, we headed for Tanah Lot (The Temple On The Sea) and stayed until sunset, which was sadly snuffed out by storm clouds, but the temple itself was still mind blowing and like nothing we'd seen before!
The beauty of having a driver for a long day of exploring like this was that we could sleep in between locations and stay at each spot for as long as we wanted! If you're planning something similar to do in Bali, then you can find Nyoman at his website here... www.nyomanbalidriver.com