UPDATE: Rainbow Road listed below has now closed.

If you’ve travelled too light to Bali and you need a few more toys or books to keep your kids entertained while you’re here, a few excellent little toy and book shops have sprung up close to each other on Jalan Raya Kerobokan in recent years. You can tie a visit in here with a wander down Jalan Laksmana for kids’ clothes. Obviously the toy shops are more targeted at people living here (and expats at that) but you might find some interesting stuff here — and some of the larger stuff can be flat-packed for shipment home.

Did someone say princess?

Specifically, dolls houses can be a good buy at these places. I was on the hunt for a wooden garage for toy cars but it was all dolls houses, dolls houses, dolls houses, plus a few forts and castles. Do have a hunt through all of the places, as styles and prices vary. I liked the range at Rosada, which specialises in dolls houses and very cute furniture, but has a few other eclectic things on offer, such as 1.4 million piece car Lego (well, fake) sets, lovely toy vintage cars and some fake Kens. Every boy needs the latter.

Hippy haven.

Little Bohemian has very solid painted kids’ furniture, which can be made to your specs within about three weeks. It wasn’t cheap, but the place is prettily put together, with a range of baby clothes and paraphernalia like bibs as well.

Colourful and cute.

Rainbow Road has a beautifully curated collection of imported and local toys and a few homeware-ish sorts of things like stuffed alphabet letters. We nearly bought a wooden seaport set here for 950,000 rupiah — but they don’t accept credit cards, so be warned: these are all small operations, and you’ll need to pay cash at most places.

Books plus a bit of enchantment.

Enchanted Books is probably the largest toy shop in this little neighbourhood, and as the name suggests, it has an excellent range of books — for reading, colouring and stickering. A visit here before a flight home or on a rainy day will help you fill in HOURS without more screen time on the iPad or iPhone.

There’s also a great range of dress-ups here, for boys as well as girls, plus some interesting toys too.

Happy Kidz, happy parents.

Lastly, Happy Kidz has a smaller range, but is definitely worth a look in for their eclectic collection as well — you can also get lovely wooden furniture and dolls houses made to order here.

You may find toys in Bali expensive, particularly imported ones. But do remember that Indonesian import taxes are hideously high and the process of importing can be a real pain in the butt for retailers. If you’re after budget toys, it’s always worth hunting around at markets and souvenir-y trinket shops for things to keep little hands busy, as well as the malls where mainstream stuff is at Kidz Stations and department stores like Centro and Matahari.

Rosada
Jalan Raya Kerobokan 78
T: (0811) 388 082
rosada_talib@yahoo.com

Little Bohemian
Jalan Raya Kerobokan 82
T: (0361) 922 6698 and (0361) 745 3537
littlebohemian82@gmail.com

Rainbow Road
Jalan Raya Kerobokan 76
T: (0813) 378 95413, (0812) 37065 937
rainbowroadbali@gmail.com

Enchanted Books
Jalan Raya Kerobokan 69
T: (0361) 734 822

Happy Kidz
Jalan Raya Kerobokan 73
T: 0361) 735 696
happykidz_bali@yahoo.co.ik

Most places are open daily, 10:00-18:00.

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Tags: books, Kerobokan, toys