Best beaches in Bali: Pandawa Beach

Known for a long time as ‘the secret beach’ as previously it was difficult to reach, until the local government built a road through the cliff.

This beach came up time and time again, during my search for the best beaches in Bali, the white sand and blue waters were so inviting, even in pictures.
I had originally planned to head to the Uluwatu for 5 days, after my time in Sanur, were I’d be able to explore other beaches along the coastline, popular for the surf.
However, during my time in Sanur, I met Ave, a girl from Estonia, who was planning to go to Ubud, so we ended up travelling together for the next 5 days or so. I’m slowly working out that things don’t always go to plan, when you travel. However, I am loving the flexibility and spontaneity that travel is bringing.

After having spent 2 days lounging in Sanur, and inspired by a photo in a tourism magazine, which was reviewing Pandawa Beach, we decided to go, and fit in a trip to the Uluwatu temple, whilst we were at it.
The hostel we were staying in, offered tours to the Uluwatu, for the Sunset at the temple, for 400,000 as a shared transport option. In hindsight, this would have been a good option.
Initially we thought that you could cycle, or walk from the beach, to the Temple, but no – they’re about a 20 minute car journey apart. After being told this when we got in the taxi at Sanur, we shrugged and thought, a 20 minute taxi journey won’t cost much, and that there would be plenty of taxi’s at the beach (wrong again!)
The journey to Pandawa Beach, took just over an hour, due to traffic (it was a weekend also, so much busier!) and cost a little under 200,000 Rupiah (about $20). This was fine we thought, as we were budgeting 200,000 each based on the price of the tour.
We got dropped off at the entrance to the beach, and had a 10 minute walk down the hill, as soon as you go round the corner, you get your first glimpse of the white sand, it looked divine.
The beach was a wee bit busier than I had imagined, with numerous tour buses parked up. There also appeared to be some sort of Kayaking competition happening, so this may have increased the people traffic.

We started with a wander along the beach, to the right of the main drag, away from the people. The sand was soft and just ran through your feet. As we were walking, we came across a lounging area, which clearly wasn’t maintained – seaweed mixed with rubbish people had left behind littered this small area; quite sad to see.
As we continuing walking, the sand became clean and white again, and we found a wee secluded spot. We sat took numerous photos and relaxed in the sun – bliss. Outside of the island I stayed on in Fiji, this was the best white sand, clear water beaches I had been on.

We later took a walk along toward the Northern end of the beach, and got stopped numerous times by Indonesian school kids on a trip to Bali, from Lombok. They were fascinated by the ‘white girls’ and wanted their picture taken with us.

Our walk ended in a wee café in a tent, run by an Indonesia lady who spoke minimal English. We took shelter here as it was nicely air conditioned, and it served fresh coconut. It was all very exotic.
Later we took a walk back toward the entrance, stopping to buy some barbequed corn, which along with rice, appears to be the main staple in Indonesia.

 

I then looked at the time: 4.09pm, and we wanted to get to Uluwatu temple by 5pm, to get ready for the sunset. We wandered to the place we were dropped off at find transport. We were out if luck; apart from the taxi mafia (private taxi services), offering us a ride for 200-300,000 ($20-30)
So we started walking, primarily to get phone signal (Ave had a phone with her). We then stumbled upon a local diary (convenience store), where we asked them to ring a local (bluebird) taxi. However, we were told that the taxi’s don’t come down this way for a one way trip.
In the end, a local boy who was playing pool at the store took us in the car for 150,000 ($15). The whole way, I was thinking ‘please don’t kill us.’ We got there safely.
Pandawa Beach, is a pretty spectacular beach, but it’s probably worth getting a tour, hiring a driver for the day (which usually costs about $40), or staying in the nearby towns.