Sanur City

Sanur sits on the east coast of Bali and presents a quietly seaside character - less raucous than the island’s party beaches, it’s a place to pause and take in the shore. Small cultural attractions punctuate the town: the Museum Le Mayeur is a converted house and tribute to Belgian artist Adrien Jean Le Mayeur, who arrived in Sanur in the 1930s and married a local dancer, and the Bali Orchid Garden displays thousands of colorful orchids.

Practicality is one of Sanur’s main appeals. The town is well connected by road and ferry to many nearby attractions, including the Offshore Islands; it’s about a 20‑minute drive from Ngurah Rai International Airport, taxis and airport buses are readily available, and regular buses run from Denpasar (roughly 15 minutes). Boats depart for nearby islands such as Nusa Lembongan (around a two‑hour crossing).

For visitors, Sanur works well as a low‑key base - a place to recover from travel, stretch out on the beach for a few hours, visit the local gardens and museum, and organise short excursions to the surrounding islands and beaches.

Sanur stretches along Bali’s southeast shore as one of the island’s oldest resort towns, with a long, tree-shaded beachfront promenade, calm shallow waters ideal for an early-morning paddle, and traditional jukung fishing boats drawn up on the sand. It has long been a favourite of the island’s expatriate community, and the low-key hotel strip keeps a gentler pace than Denpasar or the southern beach resorts.

What Sanur lacks in nightlife it makes up for in sheer convenience. It is barely 20 minutes from Ngurah Rai International Airport, making it a comfortable place to shake off jetlag on arrival, and its harbour is the main fast-boat gateway to the Nusa islands, with regular crossings to Nusa Lembongan.

Bali Orchid Garden. A large, lovingly tended garden on the edge of town displaying thousands of colourful orchids alongside other tropical blooms.

Museum Le Mayeur. This beachfront house is a tribute to the Belgian painter Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur, who settled in Sanur in the 1930s and married a celebrated local Legong dancer; his former home now displays his work and period furnishings.

For a day trip, Nusa Lembongan is a stunning tropical island roughly two hours away by boat from Sanur’s harbour.