Updated September 2026
Padang Padang Beach, Uluwatu
A small white cove at the bottom of a crack in the cliff. At the right tide it is the loveliest hour on the Bukit. At the wrong one there is barely a beach left.
Photo Alexey Komarov, CC BY 3.0
Padang Padang Beach is a 110 metre cove on the west coast of Uluwatu, reached down a stairway squeezed between the cliff and a fallen block of limestone. It costs 15,000 IDR, and for a beach that small it gets a lot of people.
Most guides describe it as if it were always the same beach. It is not. The tide can take away most of the sand, and the swell decides whether the water is a paddling pool or a surf contest. Check both before you go.
Beach, temple and kecak with one driver
Free cancellationUluwatu day tours that stop at Padang Padang
- ✓A driver who waits while you are on the sand, which solves the Bukit's missing public transport
- ✓Most itineraries pair the beach with Uluwatu Temple and the kecak dance at sunset
- ✓Pickup from the south or Ubud, where the return trip is the hard part to arrange
- ✓Free cancellation on most listings
Affiliate link. Booking through GetYourGuide costs you nothing extra and supports the guide. Prices are indicative and vary by option and season.
Is Padang Padang Beach worth visiting?
Yes, at the right hour. It depends on who you are and when you come.
The beach deserves its reputation. Pale sand, two walls of grey limestone with jungle on top, a rock stack off the northern end and water that goes from glass green to deep blue where the reef drops away. The walk in, through a crack in the rock just wide enough for one person, is a better entrance than any other beach on the Bukit.
Is Padang Padang Beach busy?
The trouble is scale. A 110 metre cove cannot absorb a few hundred people, and on a clear day in July it gets them, from about ten until the early afternoon. At high tide the same crowd is squeezed onto a strip of sand against the cliff. That is the version most reviews complain about, and it is entirely avoidable.
Worth it: for an early morning swim at mid tide, for watching the left break on a big swell, or as an hour on the way to the temple. Not worth it: as the whole day's beach for a family, at high tide, or at noon in August. On those days another Bali beach will serve you better, and several are close by.
Photo Rantemario, CC BY-SA 4.0
Is it safe to swim at Padang Padang Beach?
At mid tide on a small swell, yes. The tide and the swell decide it: pick the conditions for your day and see what you will find.
Read two guides to Padang Padang and one will call the water calm and safe while the other warns about a heavy shorebreak. Both writers are describing what they saw. The beach sits on a steep shelf of sand with a reef platform right in front of it and a deep channel off one side, and those three shapes behave completely differently as the water rises and falls.
Padang Padang Beach at low, mid and high tide
At low tide the reef is bare and the water in front of the sand is only knee deep, which is good for rock pools and bad for swimming. Mid tide covers the reef and leaves enough sand, and on a small swell that is the calm, turquoise cove in the pictures. At high tide the water climbs the shelf and eats the beach, and a big swell on top of that pushes the waves right to the back of the sand.
The swell matters most from May to September, when the Indian Ocean groundswells arrive and the west coast of the Bukit gets its surf. In the wet season this side is often flatter, but runoff can cloud the water after heavy rain. What each month does is on the Bali weather guide.
Photo Alexey Komarov, CC BY 3.0
Not to scale. The cove is about 110 metres wide and the reef shelf sits just off the sand.
- The sand
- Enough room for everyone who came down, just.
- Swimming
- The good window. Enough water over the sand in the middle of the cove, small waves, easy entry.
- Surf
- Baby Padang is working and the lessons are out. The famous left is asleep.
- What it is like
- This is the Padang Padang in the photographs. It is also when the crowd peaks.
A big swell here means head high or more on the outer reef, which on this coast mostly happens between May and September. Tide tables for Benoa are close enough for the Bukit, and any surf forecast app will give you the swell. There is no lifeguard you can count on at any of these settings.
How to get to Padang Padang Beach: parking and the steps
The shortest descent on the Bukit, through a crack in the rock, and also the narrowest.
Padang Padang Beach parking
The entrance is right on the main road, next to the bridge over the small gorge at Labuan Sait. You park on the verge or in the small lot opposite, pay at the booth and start down straight away. Parking costs 2,000 IDR for a scooter and 3,000 IDR for a car, and the verge fills up by mid-morning.
How many steps down to Padang Padang Beach?
Around 120 steps, well paved and in shade for most of the way, get you to the sand in three to five minutes. What makes it memorable is the last part. The stairway runs into a cleft between the cliff and a huge fallen block of limestone, a slot just wide enough for one person with a bag. You come out of the shade onto bright sand, and that is the bit people talk about afterwards. It is also a bottleneck: at busy hours people coming up wait for people going down, and boards make it slower.
Compared with the rest of the peninsula this is easy. Nyang Nyang and Green Bowl ask for several hundred steps in full sun, and Suluban is a scramble through a cave. But there is no handrail in the tight section, the steps get slick with sand and water, and a pram or wheelchair will not go through. Anyone who struggles with stairs can still do this one, slowly, and the climb back is short enough that the heat is not a problem.
Photo Felly A, CC BY-SA 4.0
Padang Padang Beach entrance fee and opening hours
Cheap, cash only, and the fee is the only one you have to pay.
| What | Rupiah | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Entry, foreign adult | 15,000 IDR | ≈ A$1.40 |
| Entry, foreign child | 10,000 IDR | ≈ A$1 |
| Scooter parking | 2,000 IDR | ≈ 20 cents |
| Car parking | 3,000 IDR | ≈ 30 cents |
| Umbrella for the day | ≈ 100,000 IDR | ≈ A$9 |
| Surfboard hire, per hour | ≈ 100,000 IDR | ≈ A$9 |
Entry and parking as charged in September 2026. The umbrella and board prices are what the stalls ask, and they bargain. Indonesian visitors pay a lower rate.
Hours are roughly 7am to 7pm, when the booth is staffed. Surfers paddle out at first light regardless. The fee is collected at the booth at the top of the steps, before you start down.
What facilities are there at Padang Padang Beach?
On the sand there are toilets, rinse showers and a row of warungs at the back selling coconuts, cold drinks, noodles and fried rice, plus umbrella and board rental. There is no beach club on this beach and no bar with a view: those are up on the cliffs.
Bring cash in small notes. Nothing at the booth or on the sand takes a card, and breaking a 100,000 note for a 15,000 ticket is not always possible at nine in the morning.
Surfing at Padang Padang Beach: the left, the right and Baby Padang
One of the world's best-known barrels, and a gentle wave next to it that most people who say they surfed Padang actually surfed.
Padang Padang Left, for experts only
The famous wave breaks left off the reef to the north of the cove, and on a proper swell it throws a hollow, fast barrel over reef that is very shallow. It needs a big groundswell to work at all, which means the dry season, and when it works it is crowded with some of the best surfers on the island. It gets called the Balinese Pipeline, and the comparison is not a stretch.
The Rip Curl Cup is held here, with a waiting period that runs through August and the green light given only when a big enough swell lines up. If you are in Bali that month, check the event's channels: watching it from the rocks is free, and it is a good reason to see the beach at its most crowded.
Padang Padang Right, the softer wave
Tucked behind the headland and separated from the left by the deep channel, the right is a far gentler wave: shoulder to head high on a good day, rolling rather than throwing, sheltered from the full force of the ocean. This is where the lessons happen. It works best at mid tide; at low tide the reef gets too close, and on a big swell it stops being a beginner's wave.
It is still reef, and it is still busy with learners crossing each other on a small peak. For a very first lesson a sand bottom is kinder, which is why plenty of Bukit schools take complete beginners to Dreamland instead. Boards rent on the beach for about 100,000 IDR an hour.
What is Baby Padang?
The name gets used for two different places, and it trips people up. For surfers, Baby Padang is Padang Padang Right, the wave above, on the same beach with the same ticket.
For everyone else it often means Padang Padang Kecil, "little Padang Padang", now usually called Thomas Beach: a separate, longer and quieter beach a few minutes south, reached from a lane opposite the cafés on the main road and about 150 steps down. It has no entrance fee. If someone tells you to meet them at Baby Padang, ask which one.
Board, instructor and the right beach for your level
Free cancellationSurf lessons around Uluwatu
- ✓An instructor who picks the beach for the day's swell and tide, which is the whole skill on the Bukit
- ✓Board, rash vest and reef booties where needed
- ✓Pickup in the Uluwatu area on most listings
Affiliate link. Booking through GetYourGuide costs you nothing extra and supports the guide. Prices are indicative and vary by option and season.
Monkeys at Padang Padang Beach
Fewer than at the temple, and they have learnt a different trick.
A troop of long-tailed macaques lives in the trees around the entrance and the top of the stairs. They rarely come down onto a crowded beach. They work the car park and the steps instead, where people are distracted by paying, parking and the gap in the rock.
Their speciality here is scooters. Anything left hanging from a handlebar or in the basket goes, and some have learnt to get into a seat compartment that has not been properly shut. On foot, they are after sunglasses, hats, phones in a loose hand and anything in a plastic bag, because plastic bags usually mean food.
Pack things away before you get off the bike, carry nothing in your hands on the steps and never feed them. If one grabs something, let go. A monkey bite means a course of rabies shots, and the monkeys at Uluwatu Temple are much bolder, so treat this as practice.
Best time to visit Padang Padang Beach
The hour first, the tide second, the month last.
Before ten in the morning the cove belongs to surfers and a handful of early swimmers, the umbrellas are still furled, and the sun is already over the cliff. From ten to about two it fills with day trippers and tour vans. After three the crowd thins, but the cliff starts to throw shade across the sand and by five most of the beach is in shadow.
Best tide for Padang Padang Beach
Then fit the tide around that. Look up the day's tide table and aim to be on the sand between mid tide and a couple of hours either side. If high tide falls in the middle of your morning, go the next day or come for the afternoon low instead.
Best months for Padang Padang Beach
April to October gives the clearest water and the most crowds; July and August are the peak, and also when the left is most likely to be breaking. May, June and September are the sweet spot. In the wet season the beach is quieter, the swell usually smaller, and the water sometimes brown after a heavy night of rain.
Photo TMFalkner, CC BY-SA 4.0
Padang Padang Beach in Eat Pray Love
The 2010 film version of Eat Pray Love shot a beach scene here with Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, and for a few years afterwards Padang Padang was known as much for that as for its surf. You will still see the film named on tour itineraries and in the odd sign by the road.
There is nothing to find on the beach that marks it. If the film is the reason you are coming, the cove looks the way it does on screen at mid tide on a calm morning, which is the right time to come anyway.
What to do near Padang Padang Beach
Four beaches within ten minutes of each other, each with a very different way down, then the temple at sunset.
| Beach | From Padang Padang | Way down | Go for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Beach | ≈ 5 min | About 150 steps, free | More sand and fewer people when Padang Padang is packed |
| Bingin | ≈ 10 min | Steep lanes and steps through a clifftop village | Warungs above the surf and the sunset Padang Padang lacks |
| Suluban (Blue Point) | ≈ 10 min | Steps down past cafés, then through a gap in the rocks | Sea caves at low tide and the Uluwatu surfers up close |
| Uluwatu Temple | ≈ 15 min | A drive, then a short walk from the car park | Sunset and the kecak dance |
Padang Padang Beach to Uluwatu Temple
The day that works: Padang Padang at mid tide in the morning, lunch at a warung above Bingin, Suluban in the afternoon if the tide has dropped enough to open the caves, then south to Uluwatu Temple for the last hour of light. The kecak dance starts at six and the seats go early in peak season.
None of these are walkable from one another along the road, which has no pavement and plenty of trucks. You need a scooter or a driver. How the peninsula fits together, and why every distance on it takes longer than the map says, is on the Uluwatu guide.
Padang Padang Beach: common questions
What people ask before driving to the Bukit for it.
Is Padang Padang Beach worth visiting?
Is it safe to swim in Padang Padang Beach?
Do you need to pay for Padang Padang Beach?
How much does it cost to go to Padang Padang Beach?
What is Padang Padang Beach known for?
What are the opening hours of Padang Padang Beach?
What to do near Padang Padang Beach?
How do I get from Padang Padang Beach to Uluwatu Temple?
What is the most beautiful beach in Uluwatu?
Is Padang Padang good for beginner surfers?
More of the Bukit
Uluwatu
The cliffs, the other beaches ranked by their staircases, and whether to stay on the peninsula.
Uluwatu Temple
Fifteen minutes south: the clifftop temple, its fee, and how to keep your sunglasses from the monkeys.
Kecak dance
The sunset fire dance beside the temple, when to arrive and where to sit.
Bali beaches
Which coast to pick for swimming, surf, snorkelling or a sunset, and the beaches to avoid for each.