Nusa Dua – Places to Go, Things to Do
As well as all the resort pools and beaches, there are plenty of things to do in Nusa Dua. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Bali where directly across the road is the Bali Collection Shopping Centre. It’s a large open air shopping complex (like how Harbour Town Adelaide is set out) with a large SOGO department store, brand name and local boutiques, souvenir and market style shops, supermarket, restaurants, spa & reflexology salons and a Starbucks cafe.
Padi Art Market – Hair Braiding, Nail Art, Massages, Shopping
Padi Art Market is a large open department store at Bali Collection Shopping Centre selling all sorts of things including clothing and souvenirs, but it was our favourite stop for its other services too. It was top of the agenda for Miss 11 to get her hair braided – it’s the thing to do in Bali of course – so we were there on our first morning. Padi Art Market became my daughter’s favourite place.
It cost AUD$35 for her medium thickness long hair for about 40 braids. It took just over 1 hour – we were lucky, as it wasn’t busy, for some of the time there were 2 girls braiding at the same time. Otherwise it would have taken maybe 1/2 an hour longer. Miss 11 read a book while this was being done. I took advantage of the waiting time by getting a foot and leg massage (about AUD$7 to $15 for 20 to 40 minutes). The price is dependent on how much hair you have. I have heard that you can get it done cheaper on the beach but this was convenient.
The lovely girls at Padi can also do some gorgeous nail art. It was AUD $4 for the fingernail art above and $4 for toenails. Miss 11 and her Dad also tried out the fish foot spa – where you put your legs into the tank and the little toothless Garra Rufa fish nibble off the dead skin from your feet (they had a feast on my husband’s feet)!
The Padi Art Market has all the souvenirs that you will find in Seminyak & Kuta too – it is a little more expensive to buy here but easier if you don’t like the hassle of bargaining and trawling through a bunch of shops elsewhere. We also found a few nice dresses at Padi – you just need to sift through the racks to find the gems.
Bali Collection – Food & Coffee
We ate a couple of times at Tropical Restaurant (read our review in Places to Eat in Bali for Families). Like many of the restaurants at Bali Collection, there is live entertainment – often a couple of people doing acoustic versions of easy listening songs. Balmy evenings with twinkling fairy lights, music and food make for a lovely atmosphere.
For dessert you can always grab an ice-cream from the Coco Supermarket and sit on a bench to eat them while listening to the live music from the nearby restaurants.
You’ll find Starbucks coffee attached to the Sogo Department store. It’s a nice air-conditioned spot to grab a coffee and the kids enjoyed the cold frappes.
Bali Collection – Boutique Shopping
One of our favourite boutiques at Bali Collection was At The Corner. It’s an air-conditioned oasis full of bright, colourful, pretty things. Plenty of gorgeous beach coverups and kaftan style dresses in different styles and designs; lovely bright tassel key rings/bag ornaments and jewellery; scarfs; bags and shorts.
The designs seemed to be a better quality than those we’d seen at the markets in Seminyak, as such you will find they are more expensive, plus there’s no bargaining here.
At The Corner – Bali Collection – pic from Facebook page
Surf & Turf Bali – Beach Club
A short walk away from Bali Collection Shopping Centre and the Grand Hyatt Resort there is Surf & Turf – a beach club with a few big waterslides, overlooking the beach. The kids enjoyed a few hours here on the slides. We had a drink and ice creams but you can also have a meal here too.
There is also a surf rider here and a pool, plus it overlooks the beach. As most of the beaches are private along Nusa Dua, if you are not staying here and visiting from elsewhere, going to a beach club like this will give you access to the beach for the day too.
Surf & Turf in Nusa Dua Bali – pic from Facebook Page
Pirates Bay Bali
Right next door to this is Pirates Bay – an open air pirate theme cafe restaurant, complete with large wooden treehouses and a pirate ship, in a nature play space environment. Read more about Pirates Bay here.
We hired bikes for a few hours one day and rode along the path along the beach which connects all the resorts along this stretch.
You can check out what the other resorts look like, and even stop at one of them for lunch or a cool drink. There are lots of different style beach cabanas and interesting buildings to see along the route.
Blowhole Lookout
It was a short bike ride up to the Blowhole lookout. Beyond the rocky outcrop it’s a lovely view of the ocean and you can see the stretch of beach and resorts along this strip.
Here is the blowhole below. Bear in mind it will depend on the tide whether water is spouting out of the blowhole when you visit.
Nusa Dua was a great base for our holiday. It was quiet, with very little traffic compared to the city; being by the ocean gives it a lovely tropical holiday feel and there was plenty for us to do nearby. Plus Denpasar is only around 20 minutes away for visiting Seminyak and attractions such as Waterbom. We can’t wait to return again!
Click here for all our other posts about places to visit, and things to do in Bali.
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently. All photos are by Play & Go unless otherwise stated.
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