Canggu, Bali

Canggu is a great place to live. Im a remote worker and have lived here for most of COVID and then some. In total Im thinking something like 20 of the last 24 months! It is brilliantly priced for someone with a steady income who wants their money to go far. I spent about $3,000 USD living like a king with a prime location villa, private chef, the most expensive gym and spa membership, and eating out at least 10 times a week.

Canggu is a great place to live. Im a remote worker and have lived here for most of COVID and then some. In total Im thinking something like 20 of the last 24 months! It is brilliantly priced for someone with a steady income who wants their money to go far. I spent about $3,000 USD living like a king with a prime location villa, private chef, the most expensive gym and spa membership, and eating out at least 10 times a week.

Only cons I see is the road safety and the people who tend to come. For Road Safety, you really need to practice defensive driving here. It wont be you crashing that gets you, but some local moron tearing it up and driving into you. I recommend honking in advance and reminding them you are there.

In addition to the road safety, People from abroad here tend to be a little pretentious. People tend to be more open but you will regularly meet people who are open because they have a few screws loose. I have to be honest though, I was quite a judgmental person and after living in Bali I felt as long as the other person was happy, thats all that mattered. However, you tend to experience people who come to bali and get their "Eat Pray Love" experience by looking for healers. This then attracts people going through severe trauma like Cancer, Breakups, Divorces, and even Evading Law Enforcement back home. These people are a mixed bag, some are fragile and kind, others are malicious and in a "taking care of myself before anyone else" mindset.

The pretentious posers on the other hand are quite interesting. They tend to be extremely shallow, make sure the world knows they are living in Bali, hype it up like some new age Kool aid, but when you run into these people in real life they tend to be "posers" who lack depth and are quite toxic.

Funny mix, but in this mix also comes the cool people, which are:
- Surfers
- Remote, Established Workers
- Chefs from famous restaurants looking to retire

That being said, this place it worth checking out. Live like a King or Queen and kick up your feet.

Cons:
- Traffic was something else!
- Shiddy air quality from half the neighbors burning their trash.
- The honking was super stressful, it's so loud even when you're at home or at a restaurant.
- Many of the roads are really narrow which would've been fine if it wasn't for the congestion; crazy number of people on the roads.
- Beaches = dog crap on your shoes, every time.
- Villas get robbed super often, you read about it happening all the time on the Canggu fb page, but also saw it happen in the daytime.
- Overpriced restaurants and supermarkets.
- Staying in the overpopulated areas of Bali is necessary if you require good internet for work.

Pros:
- Surf is obviously great, the line ups can get very busy though.
- The locals are much friendlier than in Thailand (unless you plan on seeing a volcano, lol)
- Cheap grocery deliveries from market vendors!

My initial reaction wasn't great, but after a year I couldn't wait to escape Bali.

Bali is amazing, but Canggu isn't really that great -- actually there are SO MANY better places, like Uluwatu, Gili Islands or even Ubud that I can't understand the hype. As almost everyone said below, beaches are crappy, roads are terrible, sidewalks are non-existent and having a motorbike is a must. On the other side, food is great and cafes are pretty reasonable with all those incredible bowls. Anyway I wouldn't recommend it for more than a week.

Spent a few weeks in Canggu and couldn't wait to leave. Packed with hipster wannabees and douchebag surfers mixed with a few pretentious dropshipppers and the like. Roads are terrible with not lights at night and both locals and foreigners drive like crazy. Beach is pretty crap compared to say Thailand or Philippines. Local food it not very good and the hipster cafes etc are way overpriced. With so many beautiful placed in the world why anyone would spend time in Canggu is beyond me.

I've been here for 5 months and have mixed feelings about Canggu.
Weather: Since rainy season let up the weather has been exceptional. Sunny and warm with a nice breeze. I can’t say enough about how dreamy the weather is here.
Food: Food scene is fabulous. You can get like high quality food of all kinds for well under $10. Local food will run you maybe $2 if you stack your plate high. The food is a major selling point, especially in Canggu. Also, with the covid situation, GoJek and Grab have been really nice to have as the delivery prices are low.

Coworking: (sigh) I tried one coworking place, and decided my guesthouse had good enough wifi for me to work at. Plus the cafe culture here is unreal so there’s always fun places to work. BUT if I’m paying $150/month for a workspace, why isn’t the entire place temperature controlled? It is nearly 40 degrees with the heat index almost every single day here and they put fans up in a closed building? Too hot for me and too hot for my laptop! So I don’t have a great review for coworking but the speed at my guesthouse and coffee shops worked just fine.

Accommodation: I stayed at at a small guesthouse about 10 minutes inland from Echo beach. It’s cheap, but fine. Usually, the further inland, the cheaper. My only gripe is they don’t clean well, and I’ve developed an indoor dust and dander allergy since coming here. I just spend most of my time outside now, but not ideal. If I were to do it over again, I’d find a brand new place to live in. The cleaning standards are very low in bali so keep an eye out when you look at places to rent.

Availability of “home” comforts: For being a small island in the middle of the ocean, you can find pretty much anything in Canggu. You can also order stuff online from Lazada and Tokopedia. I found it really easy to find some western comforts if I really needed them.

Traffic:(another sigh) Traffic is dizzying at best. Driving a motorbike is fun for the adrenaline junkie in me and if you haven’t been in a motorbike accident before, the odds are high you’ll be in one here. If you’re in Canggu, keep Siloham Medical Center as a saved place in your google maps in case, they take really good care of people. Also, the pollution is absolutely awful. So even without covid I began wearing a mask.

Vibe: There’s good people everywhere and I’ve made friends easily as there are tons of digital nomads and just generally alot of people here. Overall though, if you’re not a trustafarian or like real into looking cool on social media, Canggu is not for you my friend. The vibe of the place is just really manufactured. Gili Islands are just a few hours out and Lombok as well, so there’s places to get away.

With all of this said, I likely won’t be back. I adore South East Asia and have traveled it extensively but Canggu just is not for me.

I don't know why everybody is so mad about Bali. There are a lot of good points here. But there are also many issues: traffic is terrible, Internet is slow, good property and healthy food is not so cheap, local governments are corrupt and will try to charge you for any small thing! Сustoms was very rude and searched me at the airport for 2 hours without even telling me a reason!

The center of nomads in the world right now. Amazing food, great cafes and pool parties. A mix of internet entrepreneurs, Instagram models and influencers living in poolside villas. This isn't a place to go for local and authentic, it's not that but that's okay in the case of Canggu, it's something else.

Way too overrated hipster central/instagram influencers ghetto.
Probably it was good 10 years ago, but once everyone and their dog is talking about a place, then it is usually time to leave.
Not my cup of rice all in all.

Spent 2 weeks here. Liked Ubud better, but if you're more of a surfer, you'll like it here, although it's a bit crowded (in terms of nomads) at this point. Food is good and cheap and so is accommodation.

It's a cool place to stay for a while, get to know people at Dojo or Tropical Nomad, work a bit, eat some good food. But it is not relaxing at all. Noisy, dirty, hot, humid. The beach is also not super beautiful or clean. If you don't surf, or are not into beach bars and party, there is not much for you there. Loved to wake up really early when the air was a bit fresher and fewer people on the streets: that was my favorite Canggu, but that is not what Canggu really is. After one month I was ready to leave.

Cons:

- Beaches are filthy
- Oppressively hot (except June-Sep)
- Unsanitary for such a popular tourist destination
- Congested traffic, small roads, constant scooter noise

Pros:
- Amazing health and wellness community
- Great healthy vegan food options
- Amazing networking. Nomad community is always #1 or #2 on Nomadlist
- Some of the best gyms in the world all within 2x2 square km

Personally I hated it. Being somewhat of a SEA vet, I found it crowded, over touristed, expensive and with too many annoying hipsters. You can't walk ten feet without a scooter blocking your path and a red eyed local going "Taxi?" Literally every ten feet in Semniyak. Canggu maybe isn't so bad, but still the traffic is annoying. The roads are super small and traffic is horrible. If you're into walking places, Canngu isn't for you. You'll get run over. So either drive a scooter or get used to dealing with the taxi mafia. There's a war between them and ride hailing apps at the moment. So when you call a grab, after he drops you off there's a chance he'll be beaten to death. But this is normal around the world at the moment, for less affluent countries anyway.

Pros? It's beautiful. Lots of stuff to see and do. Unfortunately you'll be charged money for literally everything, including walking through rice paddies. The landscapes, the architecture. I know Bali is a big island with a lot to do. You can rent a villa for $1200 usd a month and live like a drug dealer with your own indoor swimming pool. So gather four nomads and have your own gated compound. Lots of nightlife, clubs, if you're into that stuff. I'm not. For parties I'd rather go to a beach place with hippies in Thailand. The local food is good, the tourist food is amazing if you're willing to pay western prices. But the quality is very high. Overall it's not an expensive place, but it can be.

I know Bali is a huge island but I'm just referring to Canggu. It's just to westernized for me. Too crowded with westerners. But if you want to go meet nomads and do western priced fitness, meditation and yoga classes it's the place to be. Plus the beaches are super polluted. Argh. I couldn't wait to leave. I doubt I'll be back soon. But if I do I'm definitely renting a villa and learning to surf.

Cool place to do business. But not a place I'd want to live for long. Maybe I'll give it another chance one day.

Excellent place to start your nomadic life, very very easy living here. For example, having your laundry washed and folded for you is about $3 USD, eating out very healthy about $6-7 USD, and co-working spaces about $120 USD. It has been a very soft landing for starting this lifestyle.

+ startup event, good food, a lot of gyms, party, - pollution, and each year more expensive

Oppressively hot. Actually hard to find Balinesian food. There is a lot of overpriced, average, western, hipster food. People are incredibly kind and the Balinesian food is great when you can find it. The roads are ridiculously crowded while a lot of the restaurants, bars, and clubs were less than 30% full. Kind of sad for local business owners. Surrounding area is beautiful and relatively accessible. Aside from western food & beverage lodging, food and beverage can be very cost effective. Other parts of the island are better for experiencing the Balinesian life, but it is more of a challenge to mix socially with local people here than other places as most people work in service industries or agriculture. It is what it is. In the end, if you like oppressive heat & humidity, western millennial cuisine, crowded roads, and a small beach, this may be your place.

There are definitely much better places for digital nomads. Been in Canggu for 2 months (2019) and its turning into another Kuta since there are so many tourists and its not even high season yet. Something like Ibiza in Europe. Also Internet is NOT stable. Rented a place with 40 mbit but it was on 5 most of the time. Even the coworking spaces are not always stable although you are looking at 15 usd or more to pay there for a day. This is more a party holiday place now. Lots of rich kids aka trustafarians. Food can be quite expensive too. Many places you will easily spend 7 usd for a breakfast. Alc is expensive here too compare to most of SE Asia. Not sure how somebody can say this is the number one spot. All in all happy to leave.

The review that begins "Canggu is great. Here's some pointers you need to know before going:" is exactly 100% spot-on except... its not great. Motorbikes are dangerous and there are so many incredibly dangerous tourists on motorbikes either showing off on overpowered bikes or not knowing what they're doing and crashing. I've been crashes and near-misses almost every day. Had someone crash into me just yesterday. Walking is impossible and incredibly dangerous. Its not worth your life to be in a place with filthy beaches, filthy streets and incredible noise pollution from clubs and made-to-be-loud motorbikes. There are some incredibly, incredibly hot Western women but I don't like living like a colonialist. I've never seen an Indonesian in the same restaurant or pool or anything as me. That's creepy. If you miss The Raj, then its probably great for you but I like living among the local people. Not them being only servants with nothing about the place left to enjoy themselves.

Canggu is the best amongst other SE Asian area for chilling and working remotely.

Canggu is great. Here's some pointers you need to know before going:

1) You HAVE TO to drive a motorbike/scooter. Canggu has no sidewalks and walking on the road is very dangerous. If you ride a bicycle you're also just endangering yourself. Drive a bike. Traffic isn't necessarily safe. But if you drive 30km/h you'll be OK. Don't drink and drive, most ppl die because of that.

2) Yes it's very Western. Canggu is essentially a 2-by-2 km resort full of expats, foreigners, nomads and tourists. Locals staff the restaurants, bars and coworkings. It's not unlike a resort in Mexico in that way. Good? I don't know, but it's how it is.

3) Canggu has some of the best international food you can imagine. Italian chefs making Michelin-level food. Amazing pizzas at Crust for $5. Japanese sushi and ramen. Many chefs left their home countries to live in Bali and opened up restaurants here.

4) Canggu nightlife is improving fast. It used to be only Old Man's and then a party on the beach with the same Spotify pop playlist every night. But now we're seeing techno clubs like Volt and many more open. Very good.

5) Traffic is really annoying. There's just too many loud dangerous motorbikes and scooters on too narrow roads driving too fast. And often a giant car clogging everything up in there too. Canggu will kill itself if it doesn't fix this. Canggu needs a ban on petrol bikes, only allow electric bikes, set speed limits that are enforced and promote bicycle usage. Cars should be banned altogether, it's just too small for it.

But apart from that it really is one of the most ideal places to be now. I think what I like most is the people that Canggu attracts. It's creatives and entrepreneurs mostly.

Visit it, get a bike and explore Canggu. Stay for at least a few weeks before judging it. It's not the easiest place to start off and that's purposely to keep the noobs out. Enjoy!

Canggu is a hipster paradise with a vast digital nomade community, health foods, and fitness. Want to be a tourist? Go to Kuta or Seminyak. Want to surf? Go to Uluwatu. Want yoga and fasting retreats? Go to Ubud. Want to be part of a community that lives and breaths for arts, entreprenureal ideas, and a lifestyle of hitting the health foods, secret beach spots, and soul searching? Canggu is the place. Many westerners have settled here, and prices can reflect this unless you take the time to pinpoint the local warungs and guest houses. Not family friendly. CrossFit scene is epic.

Shittiest European Clique

Waves are shit, water is dirty and there's like a thousand kooks from Europe on longboards in the water fighting for that occasional 1ft mushy wave.
Better off going to Uluwatu or Padang for real waves.
Indonesia got some of the worlds best waves, but Canggu shouldn't even be regarded as a surf spot.

I have been there only one time but it was really chilly

This is really great place to be as a digital nomad. It's not insanely Thailand/Laos cheap however if you're a bit older, 30+ and have a moderately successful business its a steal. If you've done Thailand, Laos, Vietnam etc and want a professional alternative to a backpacker lifestyle then Bali is for you. Internet is great. Food is insanely good, people are very nice- expats + locals. Really glad I found this place. Dojo has awesome wifi :)

Dirty beaches, though I heard it's different depending on the time of year. Good food, lots of vegan/veg/clean options. No swimming at all, but good surfing. More expensive than I expected.

I think Canggu is a good place for working remotely.
The good points are that it is cheap to eat healthy and sleep in nice places, if you are acting ok with the balineses and majority of people living in Canggu, you will find them really nice. You can surf, hike, drive motorbike in beautiful rices fields. You might want to find peace and (for exemple) interest yourself in the meditation stuff or you can party like.. a lot !
For Digital Nomading aspects: There is a lot of coworking/coliving spaces and digital nomads to meet and discuss with around the island.
For Safety: Driving in motorbike can be tricky and dangerous in Bali but it might be the first option you'll have if you stay there (or you take motorbike-taxi everytime). BE SURE TO STAY SAFE AND INSURED - Eat in places you trust
Consider: The island just had a touristic boom in the last years and the authenticity of the island might not be preserved at this rythm. Take care of Bali if you visit it.

Vastly overrated. Infrastructure is bad, not densely populated so dating is difficult. Roads are too narrow and congested. The Internet is pathetic. Expensive beer taxed by the Muslim regime and every bill has 20% tax. Amazed this place can be so well regarded. Thailand and Vietnam are far better in SE Asia for everything. Would rather rough it in Cambodia than stay here.

I don't know why this place is ranked so high. It is not cheap, not safe, the internet is craptastic, and the beaches are filthy.

Watch out for the bag snatchers at night, it never happened to me but I've heard some stories. Better to just wear a backpack, because they won't try to snatch that.

What started out as a fishing village with just a few shacks on the beach became a surfer's hotspot around 2005. Surfers would stay in Seminyak and drive north to Canggu's Echo Beach to catch waves. Around 2008, there was the first remote working nomads arriving. Mostly Eastern European and Russian programmers who'd work from Canggu's then few cafes.

After the digital nomad explosion of 2014, many nomads sprawled to Bali and settled down in Ubud. Meanwhile in Canggu, the first coworking space there opened called Salty Volt. It didn't manage to attract many people though and finally closed down. Canggu just wasn't ready yet, with only a few cafes and restaurants, and well, people. It took 2 years for Canggu to get back on the radar and when Ubud's coworking spaces and cafes started getting crowded in 2016, people started mentioning Canggu again. In those 2 years, the Salty Volt had now become Dojo, had a new owner, there was now lots of hip cafes, restaurants with European chefs, and the vibe in Canggu was now a more ambitious and fashionable version of Ubud.

Where Ubud was for hippies, Canggu was for hipsters.

From 2016 on, every year more and more people started to move to Canggu. In late 2017, it became so popular with nomads that for the first time Dojo had to deny new memberships. At the same time, it started becoming a hotspot for Instagrammers, who'd rent luxury villas with flamingo floats and snap pictures. In turn, this started attracting more tourists and have now made Canggu the most popular spot in Bali for nomads. For now, at least.