Amed
Where to lay your head
Where to lay your head
The area commonly referred to as Amed is actually a series of villages and bays looping along the northeast coast of Bali. Known for black-sand beaches, calm waters, fine snorkelling and impressive scenery, Amed forms a low-key counterpoint to the bustling yellow-sand surf beaches of southern Bali. With over a half-dozen beaches to choose from and plenty of places to stay, first-time visitors can... Read our full review of What is a good place to stay in 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.
Volcano Beach is a cute little beachside enclave just a little down towards Gunung Agung from Lily Amed and Kadek Homestay. They only have a handful of rooms but the setting around a compact garden with a great shade tree is a step above some of its neighbours. We were not able to see inside a room as they were full when we visited, but the friendly staffer said all rooms are fan-cooled with... Read our full review of Volcano Beach Bungalows.
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Kadek Homestay has a cluster of rooms right on the beachfront at Amed, set between Volcano Beach to the west and Amed Bulih and Lily Amed to the east. Most of the rooms are single storey but there is also one two-storey building within the compound. The setting is compact with the clean rooms organised around a small common garden. There's no restaurant on site -- nor really a reception, save the... Read our full review of Kadek Homestay.
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Set towards the eastern end of Amed village's strip of offerings, the affordable rooms at Lily Amed are spacious affairs with bright white concrete walls and plenty of solid wood on the floors. The rooms are bright and airy, with spotless bathrooms with a stone and pebble theme. The grounds are a mix of lawn and garden and open out to Amed's beachfront with a cute cafe and seating area where you... Read our full review of Lily Amed.
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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.
We don’t often use the word unique, but across the many bays collectively referred to as Amed there are really none as genuinely unique as Pondok Laut Bungalows. The quirky, beachside property boasts a Japanese theme, and offers just a handful or so of eclectically furnished rooms that make for a memorable stay. Dragons and green sunloungers. Set towards the western end of Jemeluk beach, just... Read our full review of Pondok Laut Bungalows.
This relatively upmarket and very modern-style small resort is set towards the western end of Jemeluk and offers a superior standard of lodging in an attractive beachfront location. The oversized rooms are in a cluster of two-storey buildings dotted across the lawn grounds, finishing at the beachfront with a small cafe to your right and a quaint swimming pool out front by the beach. See you... Read our full review of Casa de Amed.
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Kembali Beach Bungalows sits at the far western end of Jemeluk Bay, on the cusp of the bay before it flows into Jemeluk proper and after the final straggly stretch of Amed proper. Landmarked by a massive tree overlooking the ocean (like what would have once lined much of the coast along here), the grounds are a rambling affair of palms and frangipani with a neat row of cute wood and concrete... Read our full review of Kembali Beach Bungalows.
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Villa Coral is the easternmost of the accommodation options on Jemeluk bay and is reached by a spur that runs off the main drag just before it runs up and over the hill to Lipah. The lodgings come in two main flavours: a couple of absolute beachfront tile-roofed concrete family bungalows and a cluster of rooms in a two-storey building back off the beach. The former are the show stealers here.... Read our full review of Villa Coral.
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Warung Pantai is a restaurant first and bungalow outfit second, but the four fan-cooled chalets it offers (two in a duplex and the other two upstairs/downstairs in a separate block) are very solid value given their absolute beachfront location. The two in the duplex are the cheaper rooms while the other two are considerably larger, and also more expensive. All are fan-cooled, with four poster... Read our full review of Warung Pantai Seafood.
The star may be blue, but the main two-storey building here is lime green, with a cluster of simple but clean rooms at similar prices to the offbeach ones at neighbouring Villa Coral. The rooms in the green building are fair sized, tiled throughout, with air-con, WiFi, hot water bathrooms and a wooden four-poster bed with a decorative spread (and a mosquito net) -- the upper floor attracts a... Read our full review of Blue Star.
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Diver's Cafe offers a mix of rooms on the off-beach side of the road running up the hillside. We were shown one right near the top and it was a typical Balinese cottage (two to a block) with the decorative stone frontage, small windows, air-con and a comfortable bed. Bathrooms are warm water. The rooms are simple and no frills, but they're comfortable and the views from the ones right up the... Read our full review of Diver's Cafe Bungalows.
GaneshAmed sits towards the western end of Jemeluk and offers a range of options from fan-cooled smaller budget rooms towards the rear of the grounds through to larger air-con rooms in free-standing two-storey bungalows. The bungalow rooms are the better deal. They're quite spacious, with good size decks (ours comfortably fitted two deckchairs and a table setting), air-con rooms of a decent size... Read our full review of GaneshAmed.
Kubuku is the best of a cluster of budget homestays off an offbeach side road than runs off the main road through Jemeluk. It's simple, but the price is right. Rooms are clean and well looked after, with a small, well-loved garden area. Rooms have a small terrace, comfortable beds and clean bathrooms. All are fan-cooled only. If you don't mind being off the beach and not having a swimming pool,... Read our full review of Kubuku Homestay.
While Jukung Bali has just a handful of rooms enjoying a prime beachfront location, the place has a bit of an untended feel to it, which explains the lower pricepoint for such a handy seaside location. The tile roofed, concrete bungalows are pretty standard fare from the outside, with comfortable front terraces that would be good for enjoying the morning sun (do make use of those rattan blinds)... Read our full review of Jukung Bali Bungalows.
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As long as you don't mind the slightly grungy bathrooms, Teman Teman offers good value beachside rooms with more very affordable rooms back off the beach on the far side of the road. The two beachside rooms are the best value here. They're just fan-cooled with cold water bathrooms and a garden setting, but they'll do the job and are right on the beach -- one had a hammock strung as we passed by.... Read our full review of Teman Teman Cafe Bungalows.
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.
Kampung Villas is a beautiful complex set right on Bunutan beach ideal for travelling families or groups of friends. It boasts two clusters of houses, the one we were shown holding just three traditional wooden houses on lawn grounds that face onto a beachfront freeform swimming pool to one side and a dining/hangout and relax area in a joglo-style building to the other. We were told it could... Read our full review of The Kampung Villas.
Apa Kabar is a compact upmarket resort (by Amed standards) plonked right on the beach at Bunutan. Accommodation is scattered across the grounds, with the beachfront rooms having their own little sunning area right by sand. Like many of the fancier lodgings, the cottages here are spacious upstairs-downstairs affairs, with a loft-like interior hosting futon-style single mattresses on the floor,... Read our full review of Apa Kabar.
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Om Shanti looks quite small from the road but it sprawls a way up the hillside and offers a superior class of accommodation for the money with an on-site spa and small swimming pool. Rooms are very well sized with four-poster beds with draped mosquito nets and real bedding. Facilities include minibar, a water dispenser in the room, air-con and immaculate hot water bathrooms. Rooms have a... Read our full review of Om Shanti.
With its traditional wooden and rattan Sulawesi-style, high-pitched bungalows, Santai has long offered (the property was originally established in 1998) a seductive take on beachside at Bunutan, but that seduction comes with a pretty hefty pricetag for the standard. If you're familiar with Good Karma on Selang Bay, then you'll recognise the style of accommodation here, where it is in seriously... Read our full review of Santai Hotel.
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Anda Amed is tucked on a hillside, but what you lose in beachfront here is at least partly made up for by stunning distant ocean views. The 11 white, standalone rooms here feel a little more like tasteful private Mediterranean villas, set amid lush, hibiscus-dotted gardens. It's a bit of an uphill hike to get to them too, but once there they are spacious enough for you to hang about in, with each... Read our full review of Anda Amed Resort.
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Bedulu Resort sits towards the western end of Bunutan, and is divided into two sections -- a roadside strip and a far better location up on the hillside which offers spectacular views over the ocean. It is a curious layout with the simple restaurant down by the roadside, with four simple wooden and rattan bungalows running in a row just behind it. These standard rooms are the cheaper offering,... Read our full review of Bedulu Resort.
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Puri Wirata, a sprawling resort just to the west of Double One Villas I, offers three main streams of accommodation across two separate properties: -- Puri Wisata Villas to the east and Puri Wirata Dive Resort and Spa (to the west). It's confusing and difficult to understand why they've done this, but it's easiest just to think of it all as the one resort, with the villa portion just having the... Read our full review of Puri Wirata.
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Coming from the west, Warung Ary is the first of a clutch of simple and moderately priced bungalow operations on the off-beach side of the road almost opposite Bali Dream House. There are just a few free-standing white concrete and mostly glass-fronted bungalows here, immediately behind the friendly warung that shares the same name. Bungalows are moderately sized, with a bamboo blind and... Read our full review of Warung Ary and Homestay.
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Rising Star is opposite the clutch of off-beach places towards the centre of Bunutan and is reached via a steep set of stairs beside the small restaurant that leads to a tree-filed narrow run down to the beach. Rooms come in a couple of flavours, but the most appealling are in a two-storey building that houses four rooms (two up, two down) and overlooks the small swimming pool and out to the sea.... Read our full review of Rising Star Beach Resort.
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Waeni's offers rooms in a couple of tiers overlooking Bunutan Bay with absolutely spectacular views. The views are so great that the open-air restaurant and bar does a roaring trade come sunset, when the views across the bay with Gunung Agung in the distance are just breathtaking -- this is THE viewpoint for Bunutan. The rooms, it must be said, are not nearly as breathtaking as the views -- not... Read our full review of Waeni's Sunset View Bungalows.
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With no contact details to speak of -- the staffer who showed us around couldn't even tell us their phone number -- it's a bit difficult to recommend, but Sun Shine Bunaglows had some of the cheapest beachfront rooms we saw in all of Amed -- and they can be booked easily through online travel agents. Yes, they're basic and fan-cooled, and the hotel is very aged, but there's a swimming pool and... Read our full review of Sun Shine Bungalows.
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.
On the off-beach side of the road, near Griya and almost opposite Bukit Segara, Anugerah doesn't look like all that much from the street, but the rooms struck us as pretty good value for its locale along this strip. You're definitely a step up from Acarya or Beten Waru (both of which are 100 or so metres down the road to the west). They call the rooms here villas, but they're more the standard... Read our full review of Anugerah Villas.
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Bo's has just a few simple Balinese-style cottages on the hill behind their cute blue-themed restaurant on the road between Bunutan and Lipah. Aside from Bintang Homestay, these were the cheapest rooms we saw along this stretch and at not much more than Bintang Homestay, we'd say worth the extra money. Facilities are simple -- fan-cooled bungalows with cool water showers and WiFi – and there's... Read our full review of Bo's Bungalows.
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Villa Bukit Segara is a sprawling luxurious private villa just to the east of Wawa Wewe II. It is a private residence, but when the Dutch owner is out of town there are a selection of private guest rooms that can be rented on an individual basis. The rates might seem high, but you may well have the entire complex to yourself, which makes this a far grander deal. This was the case when we... Read our full review of Villa Bukit Segara.
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Wawe Wewe II is the best of the midrange properties along the rocky headland that stretches between Bunutan and Lipah, with two rows of comfortable bungalows running down to a seaview freeform swimming pool and restaurant. The ocean is perhaps a five-metre drop from the pool but is easily reached via a flight of stairs for the more determined swimmers or for low-tide fossickers. Now that is a... Read our full review of Wawa Wewe II.
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Set right in Lipah village, on the off-beach side of the road, Alung Bungalows has a single row of concrete bungalows running back from the road overlooking a lawn garden. The tile-roofed bungalows are solid and built to a good standard, with terraces out front and enough space inside to swing a cat. Most rooms are fan-cooled but there is one room with air-con which costs a little more. Bathrooms... Read our full review of Alung Shop and Bungalow.
Set towards the eastern end of Lipah, Double One Villas II offers decent flashpacker rooms with a small pool in an off-the-beach location. The resort may not look like much from the street, but the rooms are quite smart and come with a simply fitted out kitchenette, which may appeal to travelling families (as will the small pool). The air-con rooms are very generously sized, with the quietest... Read our full review of Double One Villas II.
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Rooms at Acarya are a mix of freestanding cottages and rooms in blocks scattered across the hillside, with the blocks having one room upstairs and one down. The upper rooms obviously have the better views while the lower ones have easier access to the mid-sized swimming pool that sits just behind Acarya's small restaurant. Decks are a decent size and the room we were shown was very clean. All... Read our full review of Acarya Bungalows.
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Bintang Homestay offers a clutch of rooms atop a same-named shopfront on the road between Bunutan and Lipah beaches. The rooms are simple (and a bit stuffy) but the views out and over the ocean are great and totally unobstructed (no power cables!) and each room has a small veranda to enjoy the views from. Facilities are simple: there's a comfortable bed, four walls and a cool water bathroom. All... Read our full review of Bintang Homestay.
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You can't get more beachfront than Pondok Vienna, and while the squat two-storey stone finished buildings don't exactly blend in with the surrounds, the pricetag is very reasonable. Rooms are old school, air-con and have plenty of space to swing a cat, but are fitted out with simple bedding and an equally plain and musty bathroom. Free WiFi is available. The main selling point here is the... Read our full review of Pondok Vienna Beach.
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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.
Life in Amed is a small oasis tucked between the black sand beach of Lean village and dramatic inland hills. Choose from their small cottages, with downstairs double beds plus upstairs singles, two medium-sized beachfront villas, or a large and lovely three-bedroom villa. There's also a moderately-sized free-form swimming pool, a large lawn area, lovingly tended gardens and a restaurant back... Read our full review of Life in Amed.
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Palm Garden Amed boasts just 10 rooms set amid coconut-palm dotted, carefully clipped lawns and gardens, with a decent sized pool set right on the black-sand beach. Three attached bungalows, five villas and two oceanfront villas are offered, with all in pristine condition -- the hotel opened in 2011 but we would have believed the professional staff if they'd said it opened last week. The feel is... Read our full review of Palm Garden Amed Resort and Spa.
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.
Spread along the majority of Selang's bay, Good Karma offers characterful Sulawesi-style beachside bungalows made in natural bamboos and woods, ranging from small and basic through to large with great holiday-worthy verandas. Of everywhere that is still standing in Amed, Good Karma is the second oldest according to the characterful and hospitable Baba, who runs this relaxed low-key retreat,... Read our full review of Good Karma.
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Blue Moon Villas is set on a headland separating two of the bays at Selang and is spread both on the beach and hill sides of the main road. While a touch dated in style -- with towel elephants and flower petals on the bed -- rooms are very well kept. There are no fewer than 16 different accommodation types on offer, starting with standards for US$75 and moving up to a four-bedroom villa for 515... Read our full review of Blue Moon Villas.
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.
Eka Purnama is perched on the off-beach side of the road as it curls around Banyuning's western headland, so while you don't have direct access, you do have spectacular views out and over the Japanese wreck and the bay beyond. The views from the aptly numbered #1 room are especially noteworthy, as you'll barely need to crane your neck to see the ocean from your bed. The fan-cooled bungalows are... Read our full review of Eka Purnama.
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Set midway between Eka Purnama and Selang Dive Resort, Paradise Bungalow offers spotless concrete bungalows scattered across the hillside on the off-ocean side of the road. Rooms are very clean and well looked after and offer great views out and over the sea. There is a swimming pool on site, but it is on the small side for this many rooms, and, given there is no beach here (Banyuning is closest,... Read our full review of Paradise Bungalows.
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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.
The bungalows here are reminiscent of old beach shacks on a breezy isolated coast and if that is what you are after, this is the real deal. The elevated bungalows run in a row off to the west of the broad, over sized and very welcoming restaurant, the frames are solid, but the bungalows are mostly bamboo, with large decks overlooking the ocean. The beds are large and have good, clean linen. The... Read our full review of Meditasi Bungalows.
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Golden Rock is pretty much last off the block as far as Amed's accommodation scene goes. It calls itself an innovative detox and healing centre and as such offers a range of cleanse programmes (the two main ones appear to be a four- and seven-day cleanse) along with longer retreats. Importantly, Golden Rock does not accept walk-in traffic, so if you're in the market for a spur of the moment... Read our full review of Golden Rock.
Another of the Wawa Wewe properties, number three is also referred to as Wawa Wewe on the Rock and when you see it you'll understand why. It is on a rock. Well, more boulders to be exact. Set on the headland that separates Banyuning from Aas, the boulders feature in almost all of the resort, popping out of the restaurant, poolside and, in the room we were shown, straight out of the floor. This... Read our full review of Wawa Wewe III.
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