Sanur without a scooter

The town's shape helps. The beach and its promenade run along one side, the main road runs roughly parallel behind it, and the lanes in between hold most of the places you will actually go. Walking from one to another rarely involves a hill, and by Bali standards the pavements are decent, though still uneven in places away from the beach.

Heat is the real limit rather than distance. Mornings and evenings are comfortable for walking; in the middle of the day a short Grab ride or the shuttle starts to look sensible.

The path links the beaches, hotels and beachfront cafés end to end, and since the promenade rules were tightened it is reserved for pedestrians and push-bikes: electric bikes and scooters are not allowed on it. For many guests, riding to breakfast becomes the trip's daily ritual, the sort of thing that only happens when the infrastructure makes it easy.

Renting is simple. Shops along the path and the side lanes charge around IDR 30,000–50,000 for a standard bike for the day; e-bikes cost more, around IDR 150,000–250,000, but remember they are banned from the promenade itself. Our concierge arranges bicycles on request, including sizes for children. Ride early or late: midday sun is the main deterrent, not traffic.

Sanur is easier for ride-hailing than much of south Bali: the pick-up zone battles that complicate Grab and Gojek in parts of Canggu and Ubud are largely absent here, and drivers know the area well.

The one exception is Sanur Harbour. App drivers are not allowed to collect passengers inside the port zone, so when you come back from the Nusa islands, either take one of the port's own taxis or walk a few hundred metres out of the gate and order your Grab from there.

The shuttles seat 10–12 people and run from early morning until 10 pm, with the last departure around 9 pm. Payment is cashless with a prepaid tap card, the kind sold at any Alfamart or Indomaret, so pick one up before you plan to ride.

It is genuinely useful for one-way plans: walk the promenade south to Mertasari for sunset, then ride back rather than retracing the whole path. The route is expected to grow, so it is worth asking what it covers when you arrive.

For a family or a group that maths beats scooters comfortably, and it removes the parking, navigation and rain problem entirely. Ubud, the East Bali water palaces and the temples are all straightforward day trips from Sanur; our concierge arranges drivers on request. For a simple one-way trip to Ubud a Grab car does the job just as well, and you only need the driver if you want to stop along the way.

For the Nusa islands you do not need a car at all beyond the short hop to Sanur Harbour, where the fast boats leave from.

There is also a quieter benefit: not riding means you can have a glass of wine with dinner and simply walk home. In much of Bali that is a genuine logistical problem, and in Sanur it is not.

A note on the legal side, since it decides the question for many people: riding a scooter in Indonesia requires a motorcycle licence from your home country plus an International Driving Permit with a motorcycle category, roadside checks of foreign riders are a regular feature in south Bali, and most travel insurers exclude claims from unlicensed riders. It is worth checking your policy before you assume a scooter is an option at all.