Planning a visit to Melasti Beach in Bali, but not sure where to start? You’ve come to the right place!
In this article I have outlined everything you need to know about visiting this beautiful Bali beach. Including how to get there, entrance fee, what to expect, the best tours to get there and more.
Melasti Beach is by far my favourite beach in Bali. It’s easy to get to, there are loads of beach clubs, restaurants and bars for every budget, and the water is incredibly clear and turquoise.
What’s not to like?! I couldn’t believe I had to wait until my third trip to Bali to find this hidden beauty.
So what are you waiting for? Let’s dive in, and discover everything you need to know about visiting Melasti Beach in Uluwatu!
Table of Contents
What is Melasti Beach in Bali?
Melasti Beach (or Pantai Melasti in Indonesian) is a beach in Bali (as you might have guessed from the name). This is my personal favourite beach anywhere on the island.
It has just about all the elements you need for a paradise beach kind of experience. It’s got white sand, crystal clear water and an amazing reef for some snorkel exploring.
It’s not just about the setting though. There are also lots facilities, like bars, restaurants and several hotels (i.e. Bali Melasti Beach Resort).
Melasti Beach, like many Bali beaches, has a few fancy beach clubs with pools. There’s the cool Palmilla Bali Beach Club and White Rock Beach Club to name just a couple.
Where Is Melasti Beach?
You’ll find Melasti Beach in the southern region of Bali, on the Bukit Peninsula. It’s not too far from the Uluwatu area, specifically in the administrative neighbourhood of Banjar Kelod in the district of Ungasan, South Kuta.
Melasti Beach is to the east of Uluwatu, more or less in the centre of the southern coast of the Bukit Peninsula. It’s actually a stone’s throw from the southernmost point of Bali.
How to Get to Melasti Beach
If you’re coming from Uluwatu, getting to Melasti Beach is pretty simple.
The distance between the two places is 11.4 kilometres (seven miles) away, which should take around 25 minutes to drive by scooter but can be longer (30 minutes or so) if there’s traffic.
Plus, I like that you can just drive down directly to the beach — you don’t have to walk down a million steps like other Uluwatu beaches (I’m looking at you Green Bowl Beach).
While I’d say the easiest way to get there is just by renting a scooter, it’s also possible to see Melasti Beach by taking yourself on a tour.
This means a more hassle-free day, and not having to rent a scooter to navigate the (sometimes hectic) Bali roads and traffic.
Here are some tours of Bali beaches you might want to try out:
Bali: Hidden Beach Tour & Seafood Dinner with Sunset View
With pick-up available from a number of locations including Nusa Dua, Ubud, Canggu and Kuta, this private tour whisks you around the various beaches of southern Bali.
Being a private tour, you can customise where you stop, but generally it will include the stops at some beautiful beaches like Padang Padang Beach, Bingin Beach and Suluban Beach.
It ends up at Jimbaran for a sunset dinner of seafood.
Click here to join a hidden beach & sunset seafood dinner tour in Bali!
This is another private tour that basically involves a car rental with a driver. It’s less of a guided tour, and more a private way for you to get wherever you want to go.
This way you can totally personalise the experience and simply head to Melasti Beach or add in some others too.
Check out prices & availability for a private car with driver in Bali!
Bali: Full-Day Private White Sand Beaches and Sunset Tour
This is another private tour, but it’s a bit more comprehensive in the beaches it stops at (i.e. not just southern beaches). It also includes a visit to Uluwatu Temple as well as beaches.
Click here to book your private beaches & sunset tour in Uluwatu!
Bali’s Top Southern Beaches Day Tour
This private tour is specifically geared towards Bali’s best southern beaches, and includes stops at Melasti Beach, Pandawa Beach and Padang Padang Beach. Like others, it finishes with a free seafood dinner at Jimbaran.
Check out prices & availability for your Bali southern beaches tour!
Best Time to Visit Melasti Beach
It kind of depends what you want the beach to look like.
Medium-low tide is my personal favourite time, because the waves break far on the reef, and it creates a beautiful lagoon between the reef and beach with super clear and turquoise water. It doesn’t get more picturesque than this.
But even if you come at high tide, there is more beach than Green Bowl (which pretty much disappears at high tide), so you can still chill on the beach — it’ll just be more choppy if you want to swim.
Then again, it won’t really matter that much if you’re here all day as the tide will change.
And if you’re at a beach club, it may not make much of a difference at all whether it’s high or low tide, since many of the clubs like White Rock have pools to swim in.
It’s a super long beach – two kilometres (1.2 miles) long, to be exact, with plenty of room to fit a bunch of beach clubs and pools along it. That means the time of day you visit doesn’t matter too much, as there’s always space.
Entrance Fees and Opening Times
There is an entrance fee for Melasti Beach. You’ll see a ticket office at the top just before you drive down to the beach itself. It costs 10,000 IDR per person.
There are no opening times really. Technically the beach is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but you probably want to visit during daylight hours.
Infrastructure and Services
Bali’s Melasti Beach has plenty of this. There’s a whole lot of beach clubs with sunbeds, sun umbrellas, restaurants, bars, warungs, pools…the list goes on.
Thankfully there’s something for every budget (it’s not only fancy stuff). If you want to splurge, you can go to White Rock like we did, where the minimum spend is 1 million IDR for two people with sunbeds and umbrella.
If you’re on a budget, you don’t need to pay anything beyond the entrance fee to the beach and parking, you can just chill on the beach without a sun bed or umbrella.
There’s parking too — 3,000 IDR per car, or 2,000 IDR for a scooter.
What is There to do at Melasti Beach?
Whatever you like to do at the beach! That means swimming and snorkelling (you can’t snorkel with turtles here, but there’s still lots of coral and fish to see), or just chilling out and tanning on the sand.
Unfortunately, unlike other Uluwatu beaches, you can’t try out the famous Bali surf here. But that doesn’t mean you can’t keep active.
If you’re feeling restless (or hungry), a wander along the beach will reveal plenty of places to eat and drink.
There are also plenty of beach clubs like White Rock, which throw parties in evenings, and Palmilla puts on DJ sets to soundtrack the sunset.
Is Melasti Beach Worth Visiting?
Yes, definitely. Melasti Beach is a very beautiful Bali beach. It wasn’t too busy when we visited, and even then, it’s so big that people are well spread out.
There’s also lots of services, making it convenient for all types of travellers, not to mention the ease of actually getting to the beach itself (no stairs!).
The biggest plus of all for me was the beautiful water, it’s without a doubt one of the best beaches in Uluwatu. Until I visited Melasti Beach, I didn’t understand how people could visit Bali just for the beaches.
I’ve always said that the best things to see in Bali are its stunning natural landscapes, like Tegalalang rice terrace in Ubud, or Kawah Ijen volcano (even though this is in Java, the same island of Borobudur and Prambanan Temples), but not its beaches.
Well I had to visit Bali a third time and add Uluwatu to my Bali itinerary to be proved wrong.
Where to stay to visit Melasti Beach Bali
The best area to stay to visit Melasti Beach in my opinion is Uluwatu, but you could stay anywhere in the Bukit Peninsula really. Here are some great places to stay for every budget.
Budget: Ancala Uluwatu – For a budget price, you get rooms with minimalist design, cool artwork, and a private veranda leading out onto a lush tropical garden. Plus in the common areas a pool and bicycle rental.
Click here to book your stay at Ancala Uluwatu!
Mid-range: Bingin Garden Uluwatu – Located just a few hundred metres from the beach, here you will find clean and spacious rooms, with a minimalist decor accented with natural wood in one of the best locations to stay in Uluwatu.
Check out prices & availability at Bingin Garden Uluwatu here!
Luxury: Umana Bali – If you’re looking for luxury, then this resort definitely delivers. This five-star resort sits atop a cliff overlooking the ocean, and offers four dining options, iconic Bali private pools, hot tubs and a shared infinity pool.
Don’t miss out, click here to book your stay at Umana Bali!
Do you need travel insurance?
After my personal experience spending two nights in a private hospital in Tenerife, and having to pay for it out of pocket (it wasn’t cheap), I always recommend getting travel insurance.
You might not end up needing it, but for a small fee you can travel without worries. Personally, I suggest getting your travel insurance with Heymondo.
Heymondo offers tailor made travel insurance, providing the best value for money for your specific trip. You can also buy it once you’re already abroad and have forgotten about it before flying (which, if you’re anything like me, is quite likely).
Besides the usual cancellation, medical expenses, luggage coverage and general travel insurance services, Heymondo also has a 24/7 doctor chat and instant assistance through their app.
Plus, as a Greta’s Travels reader, you get 5% off your Heymondo travel insurance!
Click here to get your 5% off Heymondo travel insurance!
Final thoughts on visiting Melasti Beach in Bali
There you have it, the ultimate guide to Melasti Beach in Bali! Have you been to Melasti Beach before? How did you find it? Let me know in the comments below!
I’ve already mentioned that Melasti Beach is my favourite beach in the whole of Bali, and I hope by now you will understand why. With such clear water, what’s not to like?
I was also very happy to see that it wasn’t too busy. Unlike some areas of Bali that are overrun with tourism, Melasti Beach and Uluwatu more widely still felt fairly chill (check out here the areas of Bali to avoid).
I hope you found my Melasti Beach guide useful! If you have any questions, just drop them in the comments below!
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