Canggu

Canggu is the west-coast stretch most families land in first: black-sand surf beaches, an unusually dense café and coworking scene, and narrow lanes that carry far more scooters than they were built for.

The appeal for parents is that almost everything is walkable-to-scootable within a few kilometres, and almost every café has been rebuilt at some point around the reality that its customers arrive with a toddler. Highchairs, shaded seating and a patch of grass or sand pit are common rather than remarkable, and there are enough other foreign families around that a newly arrived four-year-old finds someone to play with within a week.

The trade-off is traffic. Canggu grew faster than its road network, and the shortcuts between Batu Bolong, Berawa and Pererenan can move at walking pace in the late afternoon. Families who stay long tend to pick a base within a short ride of the school, the beach or the supermarket they use most, rather than assuming they will criss-cross the area daily.

The beaches are open ocean with real surf and rip currents, which makes them excellent for lessons with an instructor and poor for unsupervised paddling with small children. Most families with under-fives use a pool for swimming and treat the beach as a sunset-and-sand outing. Surf schools here are used to nervous first-timers and to kids as young as five or six.