Kuta

Kuta is Bali's original tourist centre and still its busiest: the closest beach area to the airport, a wide sandy bay with beginner surf, and a level of noise and crowding that divides families sharply.

Its practical advantages are real. It is minutes from the airport, which makes it a sensible first or last night with tired children rather than a place to spend two weeks. The beach is long, sandy and gently sloping, and the density of surf schools along it means lessons for beginners are easy to arrange at short notice.

The drawbacks are equally real. Kuta carries the heaviest concentration of nightlife, street vendors and traffic in Bali, and the main streets are not pleasant with a pram. Families who want the beach without the rest of it usually stay in Legian or Seminyak just to the north and drive down for a surf lesson.

For older children the area's malls, waterparks and beginner waves make it genuinely fun for a day or two. For under-fives it is mostly friction. The most common pattern among families who know Bali well is to use Kuta deliberately and briefly, and to be based elsewhere.