Escape the crowds in Bali

Go on a road trip to the Indonesian island's lesser-known west coast, which gets few tourists

- Ian Lloyd Neubauer

BALI - Southern Bali's tourism hot spots attract the lion's share of the approximately 15 million holidaymakers who visit the island every year. It has been so heavily impacted by the post-pandemic travel boom that the island now holds pole position on the 2025 edition of Fodor's No List, a yearly round-up of destinations struggling under the pressure of overtourism.

"Once-pristine beaches like Kuta and Seminyak are now buried under piles of trash, with local waste management systems struggling to keep up," wrote the US-headquartered travel guide publisher.

But here is the thing Fodor's has left out. Bali is almost eight times the size of Singapore, yet vast swathes of the island receive few tourists. With that in mind, I hired a car in October 2024 for a five-day road trip to west Bali, a little-visited part of the island where the natural beauty and culture the Indonesian province is famed for remain largely intact.

SURF SPOT My first port of call is Medewi, a three-hour drive from Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. Hindu is the dominant religion in Bali, but in Medewi, Muslims are the majority. The town is speckled with colourful, aesthetically striking mosques.

With some of the best waves in Bali and a welcoming surf community, Medewi is a throwback to the Bali of yesteryear: a place of emerald rice fields, shacks where you can get a meal for a dollar or two, and long, black-sand beaches littered with coconut husks and palm fronds.

Then there are the waves: curved mirrors of water ranging in height from 1m to 3m, including the longest left-hand point break on the so-called Island of the Gods.

"When conditions are right, you can ride waves for up to 1½ minutes here," says Mr Muklis Anwar, who gives surfing lessons at boutique hotel Lost Lindenberg (str.sg/xe62) in Medewi's outskirts, where I stay.