Denpasar
Denpasar is Bali's capital and its working city: government offices, the island's main hospitals, large markets and museums, and very few tourists.
Most families encounter Denpasar for practical reasons rather than leisure ones — immigration paperwork, a specialist appointment, a larger hospital, a shopping centre with the specific thing nowhere else stocks. Knowing your way around it is one of the quiet differences between a first year in Bali and a second.
It is also where a lot of ordinary Balinese life happens, which makes it more interesting with children than its reputation suggests. The Bali Museum and the art centre are genuinely worth an hour, and the big traditional markets are a sensory experience of a kind the tourist south does not offer, provided you go early and accept the crowds.
It is a city, so traffic is heavy, pavements are inconsistent, and there is little that is designed around visitors with young children. Most families treat it as a destination for a specific errand with a clear plan, rather than somewhere to wander, and are back on the coast by mid-afternoon.
