Understand
Jimbaran is just south of Kuta. It was formerly just a village of fishermen, but is now home to a couple of five-star beach resorts. Two dozen seaside grilled seafood restaurants are a major tourist draw, as are the beautiful sunsets.
Jimbaran has little shopping or night-life of its own, but has the advantage of being closer to Kuta and Seminyak (and the cultural highlights of central Bali) than Nusa Dua.
Get in
Jimbaran is between Kuta and Nusa Dua, only 10 minutes south of the airport. A fixed-price airport taxi costs about Rp 50,000, and if you walk 300 meters to the airport entrance to find a meter taxi, the ride costs about Rp 35,000.
See
The beach is mostly calm, so it's suitable for swimming, but not for motorized water sports.
Eat
Jimbaran is home to about two dozen grilled seafood restaurants, packed together all in a row along a stretch of beach. The tables are set up right on the sand, and if you sit in the lowest tables near high tide, you can find your feet getting wet. The sea breeze is cool, and the sunsets are beautiful. The area is lit by torches after dark.
The restaurants all serve essentially the same menu with one basic dining format: fire-grilled seafood (your choice of various fish, crab, squid, shrimp, lobster, and shellfish); a local vegetable known loosely as water spinach, steamed with garlic; rice; and local sauces. You can go up to the seafood tanks near the kitchen and choose the number and type of creatures you want to eat, paying by wieght, or just order from the menu and they will serve up a typical amount.
Prices are reasonable. Dinner for two, with local Bintang beer or soft drinks, costs in the range of Rp 120,000 - 250,000 depending on quantity and type of seafood selected. The crab and red snapper are especially good.
The combination of atmosphere and good food make this a memorable and delightful place to spend an evening.
Stay safe
Jimbaran was the site of a terrorist bombing in 2005, but the sand and airy construction of the restaurants kept casualties much lower than in the previous Kuta attack.
Sleep
Jimbaran has many boutique and five star hotels.
A large, five-star hotel in grand Balinese style, with lovely architecture, beautiful gardens and extensive ponds and swimming pools. The resort also has a nice stretch of sandy beach on Jimbaran Bay. Rooms are spacious and nice, with plenty of closet space and large marble bathrooms. Rates are surprisingly affordable for a high-end resort on Bali, starting at about $140 per night (including the ubiquitous plus-plus, the 21% surcharge for tax and service) for a pre-paid, non-refundable online booking. Prices for food and drink within the resort, however, are exhorbitant, with a pool-side cocktail running nearly US$10 and dinner items mostly above US$25 including the ++. Fortunately, the resort is directly next to the delightful beachside seafood restaurants of Jimbaran.
Jimbaran is a fishing village and tourist resort in Bali, Indonesia. Located just at the south of Ngurah Rai International Airport, the beach is cluttered with hotels from inexpensive homestays to five stars hotels. Tourism in Jimbaran has increased rapidly that has boosted local economy, but it suffered by the 2005 Bali bombings where the bomb exploded in one of the restaurants in Jimbaran.
Jimbaran lies on the 'neck' of the southern peninsula in Bali and is widely known for the fresh seafood kiosks that litter the beach. Diners select the seafood live that they wish to eat and it is prepared immediately. More recently, Jimbaran has become a popular location for foreigners to build villas.
