Planning a trip to Bingin

Getting there

You will need to organise a taxi/ driver to drive you to Bingin. We drove from Ubud and it took us around 2 hours. The private driving services in Bali are very affordable. Just ask your accommodation to recommend someone. If you’re arriving from the airport, contact your accommodation to organise someone to pick you up.

Where to stay

We stayed at Nyoman & Nyoman which is a very relaxed and rustic whitewashed set of rooms. Our balconies overlooked the beautiful blue ocean and we were treated to hot spot seats for all the surfing action

Top things to do in Bingin

Surf at Bingin Beach

Eat at the Cashew Tree and Latino

Hire scooters and go beach hopping to:
Padang Padang beach
Thomas Beach
Blue Point Beach
Balangan Beach
Dreamland Beach

Watch the sunset at the Uluwatu Temple (watch out for the monkeys!)

Traveling to Bali? Make sure you check out my blog posts on Canggu, Ubud, Bingin, Nusa Lembongan, Gili Trawagan and Gili Air.

 

Bingin, Bali

After a busy and culture filled few days in Ubud it was time to hit Bali’s beaches. We had chosen the Southern Bukit peninsula for our beach bum time on the island. We based ourselves in Bingin beach which is a favourite spot among the surfers. This area is painted in every shade of blue, sounds like crashing waves and has the most splendid dramatic cliffs. Along with these steep views come some very steep steps. Yes, every single beach we visited had a near vertical set of stairs we needed to descend and then hike back up again. Safe to say all the step goals were met, keeping our vitality active rewards very happy!

In Bingin we stayed at Nyoman & Nyoman which is a very relaxed and rustic whitewashed set of rooms. Our balconies overlooked the beautiful blue ocean and we were treated to hot spot seats for all the surfing action. While in Bingin we ate at Latino and the Cashew Tree for our dinners. Both serve delicious healthy food with loads of veggie and vegan options.

Upon arriving we put down our stuff and the hit Bingin beach. We enjoyed the late afternoon sun and watched as the tide got lower and lower. This beach is definitely the surfer’s favourite here so if you’re keen to catch a wave in Bali then this is the spot for you!

The next day we hired scooters with the intention of spending the day beach hopping our way along the coast. My dad drove my mom and Amy drove me. Both were such champion bike riders and kept us super safe.

Our first stop was Padang Padang beach. This is a small cove with turquoise water and a lovely spot to swim. It is also the beach that was featured in the movie Eat Pray Love, making is quite popular among the tourists. So yes, it was a bit crowded but we still really enjoyed our time on this beautiful beach.

Next up we scooted our way along the narrow road to Thomas beach. This was a lovely long sandy beach with fewer people and beautiful blue waters. We spent a lovely relaxing few hours just lying in the sun reading. This was my favourite beach of the day. This photo is taken from the top of the stairs, so as you can see it’s quite a hike down (and back up again!).

Our final beach for the day was Blue Point beach. We got there at low tide so it wasn’t the incredible blue we’d anticipated. We still managed to have a really lovely swim in a calm, deep ocean pool (all the other beaches have been quite tricky to swim at). I would recommend coming here at high tide rather if you can.

Another steep hike back up to our bikes and off we drove to Uluwatu Temple.

We paid our 50K IDR entrance fee and began our beautiful walk along the temple walls with a gorgeous view of the sunset. All was going well until a very cheeky monkey ran and grabbed mom’s phone right out of her hands! He darted off into the bushes and we all panicked. There was a monkey security guard who told us to calm down as he went after the monkey. After a long time of stress he came back with the phone. We were so relieved but also very shook by the experience!

All in all it was a very fun and adventurous day and we were treated to some incredible views.

The next day we hopped back on our scooters and drove down to Balangan beach. This beach was quite a bit further and I had heard that there was an amazing viewpoint there. We arrived at the beach and decided to spend a few hours sunning ourselves on the beach first. The tides have been crazy here, it’s either really high tide and you struggle to find a patch of sand to sit on without getting wet, or the tide is so low that there is so little water between the reef and the surface leaving you with not too much swimming space. Balangan on this morning had a very very high tide and we kept trying to escape the rising water.

Eventually we decided to leave it and head up to the viewpoint and wow oh wow did we have our breath taken away!

I knew this viewpoint was beautiful but I didn’t know just how beautiful until I saw it with my own two eyes. The bird’s eye view of crashing waves and distant cliffs with a whole lot of beautiful blue ocean in between. I couldn’t stop smiling from ear to ear!

There was a massive school of sardines in the water below that had formed a ball of flicking silver movement. I was left in complete awe and Balangan is definitely up there on my list of best views! (Lagos, Portugal is also featured in there!).

We hopped back on the bikes and made our final beach hop stop: Dreamland Beach.

Dreamland treated us to the most incredibly blue waters, wow! The waves were perilous and we didn’t even think about swimming. Instead we sat on the beach side restaurant beneath the cool shade of the umbrellas and gazed out at the ice blue waves. There were some incredibly talented surfers who put on a great show for us as we ate our Nasi Goreng and Mie Goreng.

We really enjoyed our time in Bingin and felt so wild and free being able to just scoot around, hopping from beach to beach. The views were so incredible, even if swimming there wasn’t always the easiest!

Next stop: Nusa Lembongan!

Traveling to Bali? Make sure you check out my blog posts on Canggu, Ubud, Bingin, Nusa Lembongan, Gili Trawagan and Gili Air.