We woke up fresh after touching down late in Bali the night before. Unsure of exactly what the time was, we left the hotel sometime around midday to hunt out a flower shop, where we were to meet a local kid to borrow his motorbike. We walked for about an hour along Raya Seminyak Road before we found the shop. Armed with a motorbike, we filled up the tank (15,000 rupiah) and decided to check out Bali’s most popular beach: Kuta Beach.

Kuta Beach is enormous. It stretches for about five kilometers, but it’s the depth of the beach that makes it stand out compared with the beaches on a similar island, such as Phuket. Like Patong Beach, the road running along Kuta is lined with Pizza Huts and outlets of Starbucks and McDonald’s. If the beach weren’t so huge, the place would be a dump.

The best place I found to eat around Kuta Beach was the seafood food center. Bali has a few of these food centers and food courts dotted around the island. The seafood food center is like a small courtyard with restaurants lined around the perimeter. You walk in and have about 50 people screaming at you and trying to get you to take a look at their menus. You can have a decent meal for about 20,000 to 30,000 rupiah. There are cheaper places to eat, but for Kuta this isn’t bad.

The beach itself is clean and well kept, although the sand is tinged black thanks to volcanic activity. Most people seem to come to Kuta Beach to go surfing or bodyboarding and there are more than enough places to rent boards. One of the plus points of Kuta Beach is the lack of sun loungers. However, there are only a few shady areas, mostly located at the back of the beach near the road. Set foot in those spots and you will be hounded by all manner of touts.

The waves at Kuta Beach are fairly big, so swimming isn’t ideal and is only permitted in certain zones. There are lifeguards keeping watch over the area. To make the most of Kuta, head north along the beach road to the Legian area, where there are less people. You can grab a beer and sit under a parasol at one of the makeshift bars for about 15,000 rupiah. You’ll still be pestered by touts, but there are less of them.

The road along the beach is one-way and is hectic to drive on. If you want to park a motorbike anywhere it might cost you 1,000 rupiah, although the parking “attendants” sometimes play the up-to-you card, which adds a bit of confusion into the equation.

I was impressed by the size of Kuta Beach and how clean it is, but I have found other beaches in Bali that I would rather go to. Like many place in Bali, Kuta seems to have been taken over by the Aussies and the Japanese. If you want to surf, however, this is the place to do it. Lessons cost about US$30.