Jimbaran Fish Market

The fish market sits at the northern tip of Jimbaran Bay, on the beach at Kedonganan, where the bay’s fleet of brightly painted outrigger boats (jukung) and larger fishing craft land their catch. It is a working market rather than a tourist sight. Before dawn and through the early morning, crates and baskets of tuna, snapper, squid, prawns and crabs are hauled up the sand, sorted and sold, then loaded onto trucks bound for restaurants and markets across the south of the island.

For visitors it is a vivid, noisy and very wet scene, and a good place for photographs, both in the covered market hall and on the beach where the boats unload. Wear shoes you don’t mind getting dirty. Many people buy fish here and take it to one of the grills nearby to be cooked, and the seafood restaurants that set their tables on the sand along the bay at sunset buy much of their stock here too.

Go early, ideally soon after dawn; by late morning the market is winding down. The calmer, cleaner stretch of the bay to the south is better for a swim.

Kedonganan is on the north side of Jimbaran Bay, just south of the airport and about 15 minutes by road from Kuta. Follow Jalan Pantai Kedonganan to its end at the beach.