Introduction

Amed

Amed is the first village on the ocean when arriving from elsewhere in Bali and taking the sideroad at Culik. It’s not as much a snorkelling destination as the villages further on (though there is diving offshore), but offers some reasonable deals for accommodation on the beach, but without a swimming pool or lush garden setting. Note there is a lot of construction going on along the beach side of the road as more "homestays" are added. The following is just a selection -- of all Amed’s bays, this strip has the largest selection of very small (that is, one- or two-room) homestays.

Jemeluk

Jemeluk is one of Amed’s most photographed bays thanks to its eastern lookout, which shows the perfectly curved bay with Gunung Agung’s smooth Jurassic lines rising behind it. The bay is also home to a popular snorkelling spot, the Coral Garden, where, while much of the coral is dead, there are still plenty of fish. Jemeluk offers a reasonable range of accommodation, and it is also from here that the speedboats to the Gili Islands off Lombok leave (weather permitting). To the west the beach curves around and runs into Amed proper -- it is all the one strip of sand if you’re beach walking.

Bunutan

A rambling curved bay with a hump in the middle, Bunutan is one of Amed’s longer bays and hosts a full range of accommodation, from simple homestays through to eye-catching traditional wooden houses. The middle of the bay is little developed, with most of the accommodation towards the eastern or western extremes. The eastern end has an excellent sunset viewpoint (a part of Waeni’s Sunset View Bungalows) while the western end finishes with an equally spectacular viewpoint over Jemeluk bay. Both have Gunung Agung beyond. There are a clutch of places on the strip between Bunutan and Lipah to the east and anything after Waeni’s we cover in the Lipah section.

Lipah

From Lipah on to the east, Amed starts to quieten down. There’s still a solid range of places to stay, but it tilts towards the more sleepy. Snorkelling isn’t bad. The beach is mostly a grey to black fine sand, with some rocky patches. Some of the accommodation here is on the headland road between Lipah and Bunutan to the west.

Lean

Lean sits midway between Lipah and Selang and has snorkelling offshore along with plenty of fishing boats. The beach proper is home to just two places to stay, mid-range Life in Amed and the more expensive Palm Garden Amed Resort at the eastern end of the bay. A third place to stay, Imbuh Bali, is perched on the eastern headland viewpoint which separates Lean from Selang - it is a good spot for a sundowner.

Selang

Selang is a tiny fishing village in a small bay which has some very good snorkelling right off the beach in front of the very popular and long-running Good Karma.

Banyuning

Pebble-strewn Banyuning is home to the Japanese shipwreck which draws crowds from across Bali. It’s pleasant, though a little isolated. While little is walking distance from here though, the snorkelling is good -- you can see the wreck even without diving.

Aas

Aas feels like the end of the world and is situated at the far east of the string of villages that make up Amed. There’s apparently good snorkelling out from Meditasi, but the beach is otherwise mostly covered in shiny, smooth black pebbles.