Nusa Dua Beach is located around the southern part of Bali Island and just few hundred meters away from ITDC Nusa Dua Resort Area. In my opinion compared to other numerous beaches in Bali, Nusa Dua Beach is very well maintained and more importantly there no entrance fee which allow anyone freely enter this beach. For me one of the most important characteristic or feature for the good beach is, it must have clear yellowish sand and I think Nusa Dua Beach able to fulfill that criteria with passable score. Nusa Dua Beach is cleaned routinely on daily basis by janitors and also by many shops worker near the coast, they cleanup all the junk left by some irresponsible visitors.
And that was the reason why this beach able to retain it’s cleanliness where the amount of plastic or trash littering around are reasonably low. But of course this doesn’t mean Nusa Dua Beach will be always in clean condition from time to time, usually when the number of beach visitors reached it’s peak during weekend days (Saturday and Sunday), the sand here will be a little bit dirty. There also traditional Balinese resting places made purely from the combinations of woods and bamboo tree which built across the shoreline, Balinese people called it “Bale Bengong”. That name can be literary translated as “Dozing Pavilion” which stay true to it’s name, a simple resting place specially designed to let you enjoy the beach scenery while also at the same time allow you to dozing off, sitting or even napping.
Compared to Kuta Beach which largely known as the most popular Beach in Bali, The Nusa Dua Beach is definitely less crowded and much quieter, this condition should be suitable for people who seek a peaceful retreat in tranquil environment. There also one more point which I think Kuta Beach lack, Nusa Dua Beach doesn’t have many touts running around such as illegal guide man and pushy souvenir peddler. Their target is mostly foreign visitors and those touts often force beach visitors to use their services or to buy their stuff in annoying way. Fortunately their number are already close to zero as of now in Kuta Beach, thanks to regular patrol from Bali Police Forces. To be honest I can’t totally blame them, they have belly to fill and kids to feed at home after all but I think it should be done in more graceful manner to avoid annoying the beach visitors.
As for water condition from what I see so far, the water current and waves in Nusa Dua Beach can range from small to moderate. It’s vary from time to time since it greatly depend on multiple factors such as current season, weather and distance from the shore. There a couple of surfboard rental shop nearby for surfing lover visitor, I often see many surfers in Nusa Dua Beach going farther away from the coast because waves intensity is much greater and more powerful over there. Everyone including children and old people should be able to swim safely in here as long as they not swimming really far away from the coast. Midnight in Nusa Dua Beach will become a hunting ground for local fisherman and what they catch during night time will be freshly sold in the morning at traditional marketplace, we call that marketplace with name “Peken”. Most Balinese old school fisherman are armed with nothing but fishing rod, fish net or just a forked spear, they will catch all kind of seafoods for example fish, squid, sea urchin, crab and many more.
Maybe you are kind of tired, hungry and need a good place to relax or you just simply want to enjoy the beach beautiful scenery while being served together with delicious drink and food on the table. In that case there are some café and restaurant nearby alongside the beach walking path, ready to serve you anytime you want. But what if your budgets are low right now but want to drink or eat something that taste quite good enough yet still affordable. The answer is, there exist some small food stands nearby called “Warung” where fresh drink straight from the source like coconut water cost rather cheap over there. But what about food ?, there no need to worry because foods like fried rice, fruit salad, fried noodle, satay are also priced reasonably for sure.
While still on the beach and perhaps have some spare times, I personally suggest you to visit both Nusa Dharma Island and Nusa Dua Peninsula sometimes. Because those two places are located not really that far from Nusa Dua Beach anyway and their distance is just around a hundred meters away, in fact you can get there quick just by walking a few minutes from the beach. You can read about those places in two separate articles and the links are already provided inside this blog post. That’s all for the overview, it seem today post is a little bit short because there not much content to explain actually, alright without further ado let’s move now into the video and gallery section.
Gallery
This is the close view of shore water on Nusa Dua Beach, in picture above right section you should spot a small fraction of Nusa Dua Peninsula or Nusa Gede Island, meanwhile the bigger one on the left is wild bushes of Nusa Dharma Island. Around shoreline area, the water is moving very gently most of the time even during high tide period and it also have shallow water depth over there. This condition will create a safe and pleasant swimming environment for people of all ages, as long as they not drift really far away from the coast.
The view of Nusa Dua Beach around 07.00 AM in the morning, above picture was taken right in front of Nusa Dua Peninsula entrance. The beach is located very close with Peninsula Island, so it’s no wonder that you can visit both places back and forth very quickly. As you can see in picture above, a lot of people will come in the morning to do some morning exercises which mostly jogging and then afterward they usually take a rest in order to let morning breeze cool off their sweat. Also if you look closely, Nusa Dharma Island can be seen even from the distance.
During noon time at Nusa Dua Beach from 12:00 until 13:00 PM, the air temperature is rising significantly and will reach it’s peak soon enough. Because it’s so blazing hot during this period of time, the number of beach visitors usually drop to only just a few people. But not all people hate this hot condition, some foreign visitors often use this chance to sunbath and tanning their skin quietly without any disturbance.
Nusa Dua Beach usually have large amount of visitors in afternoon especially at Saturday and Sunday, in other words the weekend days. If you plan to visit during afternoon time, just be sure to prepare your ears because sometimes the nearby restaurants or coffee shops will turn up their speaker volume to maximum, so that beach ambient will become even more lively than ever before.
In picture above that greenish small island in the middle is Nusa Dharma Island, a slightly smaller sibling of Peninsula Island. Although word “Island” was put on the name, it’s only half true since that place is still connected to the mainland and can be entered just by walking from Nusa Dua Beach. The scenery over there are mostly filled with grassland and trees, also the old Nusa Dharma Temple was built inside which have almost same name as the island itself. This temple was a relic of the past left behind by Legendary Pedanda (Balinese Hindu Priest) around 500 years ago and his name is Dang Hyang Nirartha. The borders around that island are mostly consist of cliffs which you can see in my Nusa Dharma Island blog post.
This square shaped resting place which look like small pavilion is called Bale Bengong, it mean “Dozing Pavilion” in English. This resting places are built across many popular beaches in Bali. Many people use this as a best place to relax after long session of beach walking or after doing other beach activities. Some fisherman also use this Bale Bengong as a place for preparations before fishing or hunting down seafoods into the beach water.
Above picture is the view of Nusa Dua Beach during low tide period where you can even go much farther into the sea direction (east). When this low tide occurred, the beach is literary being naked so everything that normally beneath the water will be visible now including coral, reef and other sea creatures. People often use this chance to do some foraging on the beach to easily catch and collect many kinds of seafoods such as crab, shrimp, mussel, oyster, seaweed and many more. The bad news is you can’t swim on the beach during low tide, unless you going deeper into the sea and moving away from the coast which is very risky.
Bias Tugel Temple is a part of Nusa Dua Peninsula and somehow a little bit resemble Geger Temple in Geger Beach. This temple is located on the top of shallow cliff and largely surrounded by sea water from below. From outside of Peninsula Island, the only way to directly view Bias Tugel Temple is by visiting Nusa Dua Beach southern area. Bias Tugel mean “Split Sand” in English, maybe because the temple appear to be almost got split from the land, the meaning of word “Sand” in previous context is referring to land or island.