Afternoon until late
Savaya — beach club by day, party by night
One venue, one entry, and two completely different rooms depending when you walk in. Get there in the afternoon and it is pool, daybeds and the whole Indian Ocean in front of you, with the music building rather than pounding. Stay where you are and the sun goes down and it becomes the big club night on the island — except the beach is a cliff a hundred metres up. You do not have to pick one: go for the day and the night is the same day out.
- Uluwatu, the Bukit
- Complimentary guestlist
- Day into night, one entry
It is a long way from most places you might be staying, and ride-hailing cannot pick up at the venue — it is a five or ten minute walk out before a car will take the job. Canggu is an hour on a good night. Agree the ride home before you go, not at two in the morning.
Garden nights, Tue / Fri / Sat
Desa Kitsuné, Canggu
A garden rather than a cliff, and not a beach club in any sense — it is inland in Canggu, low and green, with the café and the restaurant running through the day and the garden events on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from eight until late. The easy pick if Uluwatu sounds like too much of a journey: it is walking or a short scooter ride from most of Canggu and Berawa.
- Canggu
- Complimentary guestlist
- Tue / Fri / Sat
Photo to comeThe room at Luigi's on a Monday once the tables go
Monday, eat then dance
Luigi's on a Monday
A Neapolitan pizza place on Batu Mejan that turns into a house and techno night on Mondays. A properly mixed crowd of locals and visitors rather than a tourist night, and the one Canggu night people plan their week around.
- Canggu, Batu Mejan
- Monday
- Eat first, then it turns
Get there before seven or you will not get a table, and people end up dancing between them. It is loud, cramped and there is no real dancefloor — which is either the charm or the problem.
Photo to comeMiss Fish after the kitchen closes
Tue & Wed are its nights
Miss Fish, Berawa
Japanese omakase in Berawa that becomes an underground house club once the kitchen closes around eleven. Ladies’ night on Tuesday, international DJs on Wednesday.
- Berawa
- Restaurant, then club
- Book ahead
Smart casual and they do turn people away in shorts and sandals. Two things worth knowing: the room gets very smoky by one in the morning, and the minimum spend is not always made clear up front — ask before you sit down.
Photo to comeDa Maria once the tables clear on a Wednesday
Wednesday, eat then stay
Da Maria on a Wednesday
A Neapolitan restaurant in Seminyak that stops being a restaurant partway through Wednesday evening and becomes one of the better nights on that side of the island. Eat first, stay where you are, and the room changes around you.
- Seminyak
- Wednesday
- Book a table
The people still standing at eleven are mostly the ones who ate at eight, so book. It is Seminyak, so a slightly older and better-dressed crowd than Canggu.
Photo to comeThe beer pong tables at Old Man's on a Wednesday
Any night · Wednesday is the big one
Old Man's
The biggest, cheapest and least pretentious night in Canggu, and it goes every night of the week — a huge open-air beach bar at Batu Bolong that turns into a dancefloor. Wednesday is the big one, with a beer pong tournament people sign up for from about six and a band after it. Free, no door, no dress code.
- Batu Bolong
- Every night
- Free, no door
Nowhere to sit after eight, and it is commercial singalong music rather than anything clever. Keep hold of your phone — theft in the late crowd here is a real problem.
Photo to comeThe bar at Jade later in the evening
Thursday is its night
Jade, Berawa
Jade by Todd English — an upmarket wood-fire restaurant in Berawa with a resident DJ that runs late, and Thursday as its flagship night. Dinner that turns into dancing rather than a club you queue outside.
- Berawa
- Thursday
- Closed Mondays
It is a restaurant first: the DJ plays alongside people eating and there is no dancefloor as such. Book a table if you want the evening rather than a spot at the bar.
Photo to comeThe beer garden at Black Sand on a Friday
Friday, and after everything
Black Sand Brewery
A craft brewery and open-air beer garden at Batu Bolong that has quietly become the after-party — Friday is its own night, but it is also the room people end up in once everywhere else has finished.
- Batu Bolong
- Friday is its night
- Free, open-air
It is a beer garden, so it flattens out around one and there is no real dancefloor. At that hour that is rather the point.
Photo to comeThe rooftop at Mesa after dark
Every night, busy late
Mesa, Berawa
Three storeys of rooftop and pool club in Berawa, and one of the few places in Canggu that feels like a proper venue rather than a bar that got loud.
- Berawa
- Rooftop and pool
- Busy after midnight
Busy every night rather than one big one, and it fills after midnight. What is programmed changes, so check if you are going for a specific DJ rather than the room.
Photo to comeThe jungle rooms at La Favela
From about half ten
La Favela, Seminyak
The Seminyak institution — a restaurant that unfolds into a multi-level jungle of rooms and becomes the busiest club on that side of the island after about half ten.
- Seminyak
- Smart casual, enforced
- Busy after 10.30pm
No flip-flops, no singlets, no beachwear. Worth knowing that the door has a mixed reputation, the dress code is applied inconsistently, and table minimums are high. Go for the room rather than the drinks.
Photo to comeThe pink room at Mexicola once the tables start
Every night
Motel Mexicola
A Mexican cantina in hot pink that turns into table-dancing every night of the week, and a genuinely good party if you go in the right frame of mind. Backpacker energy, loud, and busy whichever night you turn up. There is one in Seminyak and one in Batu Bolong and both do the same thing.
- Seminyak & Canggu
- Every night
- Go early to eat
Backpacker energy more than anything else, and priced like a tourist party. Go early and eat, or go late and do not pretend you are there for the food.
Photo to comeThe bar at The Shady Pig
Every night, from about seven
The Shady Pig, Berawa
A proper cocktail bar in Berawa and the one good room in Canggu that is not shouting at you — low light, decent drinks, somewhere you can actually hear each other. Open every night. Start the evening here rather than finish it.
- Berawa
- Every night
- Drinks, not dancing
Small, so it fills early. This is a drinks room rather than a dancefloor — if you want to dance, have one here and move on.
Photo to comeBatu Bolong after dark, bars along the road
From about eight
Canggu, on foot
The most walkable night on the island and the reason a lot of people stay in Canggu in the first place. Batu Bolong and Berawa have enough within a few hundred metres that you do not need a scooter between places, which matters more than it sounds like it should at one in the morning.
- Canggu & Berawa
- Walkable
- Busiest Fri & Sat
Grab and Gojek pickups dry up in parts of Canggu after about eleven, and one street near Echo Beach bans them outright in both directions. Walk to a main road and order from there.
Photo to comeA Seminyak rooftop bar after dark
Dinner, then bars
Seminyak, later on
The grown-up end of it. Seminyak does dinner properly and then rooftops and beachfront bars along Petitenget and Double Six, with a crowd a decade older than Canggu and a lot less shouting.
- Seminyak & Petitenget
- Rooftops and beachfront
- Starts and ends earlier
It finishes earlier than Canggu. If you want somewhere still going at three, this is not it — and Canggu is twenty minutes away at that hour.
Photo to comeA beachfront bar in Seminyak as the sun drops
From about five
Before any of it, the sunset
Seminyak does the beachfront sunset better than anywhere else on the west coast, and it does it every night whether or not anything is on. It is the cheapest good hour in Bali and it costs nothing but the drink.
- Seminyak & Petitenget
- Beachfront
- Go before sunset
