Overview
Surfers arrived in the 1970s, package hotels followed, and the strip now runs several kilometres of shops, bars and rental boards. The bombings of October 2002 killed two hundred and two people on Jalan Legian; the memorial stands on the site and is the reason to walk that street rather than the shopping. Between December and March the monsoon current pushes marine plastic onto the sand, and crews clear it each morning.
Highlights
The surf schools cluster at the southern end near the airport, where the break is gentlest and the instructors are licensed by the local association. Sunset on the sand is free and is the one thing Kuta does as well as anywhere on the island. Seminyak and Legian to the north are quieter versions of the same coast if the crowd is too much.