Bali, Kuta Beach

it's a coral beach. it hurts!!

still beautiful though

Location: google map
Pros: busy, lots of vendors, baby sea turtle release on site, close to lots of shopping
Cons: crowded, lots of corals and hurts to walk barefoot on the beach

We went there for the baby sea turtle release and wanted to play at the beach afterwards, but geez! it hurt so much to walk barefoot on this beach!! Even my boys couldn't stand it and wanted to leave. Although I still saw plenty of family with young children running around on the beach, my boys would rather go back to the hotel and swim.

Bali (Kuta), Bali Sea Turtle Society

the line to get a ticket for a baby sea turtle

Location: right on Kuta Beach, google map

Pros: an unique experience

Cons: very crowded

If you plan on doing this, first check their Facebook page to see if they have any upcoming releases. You'll to wait in line to get a ticket to get a baby sea turtle. And they seemed to have a lot of them, so don't worry if the line seems long. 

I do have a mixed feeling about this though - on one hand it's really neat to have this experience and play a part in sea turtle conservation, but on the other hand it is kind of crazy to watch/be part of a huge group of tourists squeezing their way to the release line at the beach to release their sea turtles. On top of it, you have all these people trying to take pictures..and kids who want to get extremely close up to the sea turtles...and I was so afraid that they would accidentally step on one. The whole experience is not as chaotic as it possibly can get, but it is certainly not very peaceful.

Bali (Nusa Dua), Pirates Bay

Location: google map (in Nusa Dua), kind of hard to find - right next to Surf & Turf

Pros: right by the beach, good food, fun for kids

Cons: service a tad slow (but who cares? your kids will be having fun while waiting anyway!)

The beautiful beach is a given, food's great, fun stuff for the kids to do...what else could you ask for? They have several swings and climbing area with ropes for kids, and open spaces for the kids to run around. The whole place is very casual with lots of families with kids. Food is good and average priced. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you are in the area! (We actually went all the way from Kuta to Nusa Dua to come here and check out the beaches on this side.)