Nusa Dua and Tanjung Benoa by the sea: what you find there

Guide Updated 2 November 2026

Nusa Dua and Tanjung Benoa lie in the south of Bali, near the east side of the Bukit peninsula. Bali Seaside has checked 20 seafront properties in Nusa Dua and 7 in Tanjung Benoa. This guide sets out what you find at the water’s edge.

In short

• Nusa Dua is a planned tourist area of about 300 hectares. The first hotel opened there in 1980.
• They are mostly large resorts: 17 of the 27 have more than 150 rooms.
• In Nusa Dua, at 14 of the 20 properties a path runs between the grounds and the sand.
• At most of them the water is calm. Only at Pantai Mengiat and Pantai Sawangan, in the southern part, do we class it as ‘in between’.
• Where we could determine it, the sand is white or light.
• Everywhere the sun rises over the sea at least from October to February. It does not set over the sea here.
• The airport is 6 to 11 kilometres away in a straight line.

Nusa Dua: a planned area

Nusa Dua grew out of a study of tourism on Bali that the Indonesian government began with UNDP in 1969; the master plan for Nusa Dua dates from 1972. The area is managed by a state-owned company: first the Bali Tourism Development Corporation (BTDC, founded in 1973), since 2014 the Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC). The first hotel, the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel, opened in 1980. It is also in the list below.

Calm water behind the reef

A reef lies off almost the whole coast. On satellite images from Google and Esri the waves break mainly on its edge, about 270 to 600 metres offshore, and not on the beach. That is why we rate the water as calm at 13 of the 20 properties in Nusa Dua and at all 7 in Tanjung Benoa.

At Pantai Mengiat the edge of the reef is about 280 metres offshore, and one of the satellite images shows a narrow line of foam along the sand. At Pantai Sawangan, bali.com says the currents at the public part of the beach are too strong and the waves too high for swimming. There we class the water as ‘in between’ (7).

Photos: Unsplash

Sand and path

Where we could determine the sand, it is white (10 in Nusa Dua) or light (8 in Nusa Dua, 6 in Tanjung Benoa). In Nusa Dua a path runs along the beach at most resorts. At 3 the grounds lie higher than the sand.

Tanjung Benoa: water sports

Tanjung Benoa is the narrow spit of land north of Nusa Dua. According to the tourist office of the province of Bali, the water there is very calm and it is a centre for water sports, including banana boats and diving, and trips to Turtle Island. Water sports mostly run in the morning; after midday the water recedes and the boats can no longer go out.

Sun over the sea

The coast faces east. Seen from the beach in front of the property, the sun rises over the sea at every property at least from October to February; in the southern part also in March (at a few also in September), on the beach of Tanjung Benoa also in June, and in Tanjung Benoa itself also in July. It does not set over the sea here. How we calculate this is explained under Method.

All properties on this coast

Nusa Dua

Tanjung Benoa

Sources

Our own check of every property on this page; see Method.