Canggu Bali – RealQuick Guide 2019
I’ve lived in Canggu for a few months at the time of this post. So I know it pretty well but not an expert — so share your tips in the comments!
Overall, it’s tropical paradise!
VIBE:
Canggu: surfer vibes. Green rice paddies everywhere. Funny narrow roads. Mororbikes. Beaches. Organic cafes everywhere. A great place.
– A similar city size and ‘easy living’ style as Chiang Mai.
COST OF LIVING:
$900/mo: Food, coffee & drink: $30 a day (2 western 1 local)
Food breakdown:
- Western Food 2 meals a day w/ coffee or smoothie or green juice : $7-10 x 2 = $20
- 1 Local meal per day: $3
- 1 Coffee: $3
- / $26, rounded up to $30 per day.
$75/mo: Motorbike + 2 fills
$600/mo: Avg Rent: Solid room in good location Canggu
$120/mo: Coworking space part-time 100hr membership.
at Dojo and/or Tropical Nomads. You can do 50hrs each, which is what I’ll do next month.
- Example: 4 hrs a day 5 days a week for a month.
- or $80 for 50 hrs
- or $50 for 25 hrs
$400: A healthy Nightlife (1-2 nights a week)
- at popular bars & clubs, a beer is 50k, cocktail 100k, Like at La Favela, Mexicola, La Brisa, The Lawn, places like this. 5-10 drinks can be $30-$70. Let’s just say in the middle, you spend $50 for a night out. You do this 2 nights a week for $100 a week.
$120/mo: Crossfit unlimited, or $17 for a drop-in
- Bali MMA unlimited: $240, or $125 for a 10 pack or $18 for a drop-in
- Cheaper option: Victory Gym, $2/day or ~$30/mo.
/ ~ $2300 so far
$200: Random & regular life stuff: touristy stuff, shopping, taxis, laundry, massages, desserts, snacks, toiletries,
/ $2500 Average Monthly Living
+/- $500 or so based on your room, gym, coworking, nightlife, if you
CAFE / COFFEE SHOP / CO-WORKING SCENE:
- It’s more of an Organic Cafe scene than a ‘coffeeshop coffeeshop’ scene. There are not lots of coffee chains like in Thailand.
- But in the Organic Cafes, they call serve coffee, and you can work in them just fine.
- I cafe hop in the daytime, and co-working space alternate between Dojo & Tropical Nomads in the evening and for late night sessions, as there are no 24-hour cafes like there are in Thailand.
- My new fave cafe: Alter Ego. Right accross from Dojo. It has AC, great coffee, and some of the best salads I’ve ever had.
- A list of my favorite coffee & bomb food spots are all in my full guide.
NIGHTLIFE:
- There’s amazing nightlife!
- The best nightlife:
- Beach bars: Old Mans to Sandbar (staple basic night out)
- Bars/clubs: Mexicola to La Favela (staple more expensice night out) SUPER dope
- Beach Clubs: La Brisa, Finns, Potato Head
- Super Clubs: Sky Garden
GYMS IN CANGGU
- Crossfit
- Crossfit Wanderlust
- Crossfit S20
- Nirvana Strength
- Bali MMA
- Next to Wanderlust
- Canggu Nest – Functional Training
MAIN AREAS:
Canggu vs Seminyak vs Kuta Where to Stay?
Okay so first of all – which area to stay?
Here’s the breakdown of the main areas of Bali.
We have Canggu, Seminyak Beach, Kuta Beach – in order of addending touristy-ness. What’s the difference and what’s the best?
In a nutshell, Canggu is the more quiet, chilled hip area. Seminyak is in the middle, still very hip with cool beach clubs – and Kuta is closer to ‘Cabo’ area – or the heart of tourist area, including the strip with the main biggest nightclub SkyGarden, which i’ll get into later.
All 3 are good options, depending what you’re looking for. And it’s only 45-mins to an hour depending on traffic from the heart of Kuta up to Canggu.
- Canggu vs Seminyak vs Kuta
- Quiet & Chill vs Middle vs Busy
- Canggu to seminyak around 15-30 mins depending on traffic, Canggu to Kuta around 30-60 mins motorbike or taxi
- Ubud: its 1hr ride inland. Smaller & quieter, jungle vibes, Coworking space, popoular for yoga people.
Arriving
So! When you first get into Bali Airport:
You will be greeted by tons of taxi drivers. As always, First get your SIM card. And get money – at the ATM or exchange.
Many villas, hotels, resorts will pick you up at the airport (usually for fair a fee). Or just take one of the taxis. Use Grab, Uber, or GoJek to compare fares to your place and use that to get a fair price.
*ProTip – the guys who brought my bags to the van were asking for a tip – as I didn’t know the bill value right away, they each insisted on 100k ($7) so thats what they got – each of the three guys lol. Tip them $1 which is 20k, each. That’s a good tip for 5 mins of work.
BTW GoJek is the biggest app in Indonesia – you may wanna download it before coming – it’s like the Indonesian Uber, UberEats, and more in one app. Order taxis, motorbike taxis, food, groceries, and even massage, yes massage.
Getting around in Bali – most go by motorbike. Or you can hail taxis or motorbike taxis from GoJek because they’re local cabs. Uber and Grab are frowned upon because they’re not local.
__
Things to do
- Bali has it all
- scuba diving, horseback riding, cooking classes, waterfall jungle treks, ATV riding, dirt biking, Bungee Jump, Coffee tasting, city tours, food tours’ etc.
- Surf lessons
- MySurf
- Gili Islands
- mushroom shakes beach party
- Nusa Penida – closest Bali auxiliary island
- trekking and crazy views for pics at Kelingking Beach
- Drive to Sanur beach for ferry – on Google Maps
- go early
- Balinese New Year
- Was the week of March 16th 2018
Must eat Food
- Canggu Local Joints
- Cabe Cabean
- Babi Guling (crispy pork aka Lechon)
- one we tried was 99
- Pork Sate
- Unlimited Organic Cafes
- Crate
- See my guide on Cafes to Work at in Canggu
Ubud
Hanging Gardens of Bali – starting at $600 a night – 5 Star
- Ubud
- Hubud
- 30hr/mo for $60
- 100hr/mo for $195/mo
- $275 for Unlimited
- Community based – tons of events
- just as much about networking and social life, as it is about productivity
- Hubud
Tips
- Rainy season & Low Season
- Dec-March
- Busy Season
- Aug-Nov
Visa Situation!
You don’t need to do anything beforehand to go to bali, other than show a return ticket. If you don’t have one, you can check out onward.flights. For most countries, its free 30 days on arrival.
IF you want to stay for 31 to 60 days, go to the Immigration counter BEFORE standing in line to enter the country, and pay the $35 for the actual visa sticker, that you can extend to 60 days at the immigration office once inside the country. After 60 days, you must fly to another country and come back if you wish to extend.
That’s the current situation! As of early 2019. Pls update us in the comments if things change.
More details in my Full Bali Guide Video!
-
detailed comparison of Canggu, Seminyak & Kuta
-
Top things to do
-
My favorite spots to work & eat
- Airbnb.com screencast showing the price rances & the type of places you can get
- A google maps screencast showing the lay of the land and the important landmarks
- What do when you get to the airport
- The best SIM card packages
- Detailed Nightlife breakdown
- Changgu vs Ubud