Kuta was once one of our favourite places in Bali to spend an evening or enjoy a day on the beach, but in recent times the beach has suffered from horrendous erosion and the nightlife has been going downhill.
So, when the Savaya Group announced that they would be opening a new beach club in Kuta, we were intrigued. Could this well-known Bali brand help to trigger a comeback for an area in decline, or were they being overly ambitious?
When we did our initial review, the beach club wasn’t fully open to the public and in its launched state, so now that it’s been “launched”, we want to check it out for ourselves and see what has changed and if Zumana could improve its original review score.
Introduction – Getting To Zumana Beach Club
Zumana is on the Kuta shoreline just next to Discovery Mall, and that means it’s in an area of intense traffic. While it may not seem too far away from your hotel or villa on Google Maps, it can take an hour or more to get there even from close by.
We often find ourselves abandoning our ride in this area and walking instead. It’s faster, though not as air-conditioned.
However, it’s fair to say that Kuta is one of the easiest areas of Bali to get to, even if the traffic is challenging and most people ought to be able to visit Zumana if they want to on a Bali holiday.
Where Is Zumana Bali? Jl. Kartika Plaza No.2, Kuta, Kec. Kuta, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361
Website: Zumana
Opening Hours: 3 p.m. – 11 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday, 8 pm. – 12 a.m. Friday, and 3 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Saturday
If it wasn’t obvious that this beach club is from the same group as Savaya, the erratic opening times ought to make it very clear, indeed.
What’s Inside Zumana Beach Club?
Zumana has an attractive pool area with lounge spaces around it, beachfront daybeds, a dance floor, an open-air performance area, a very good sound system, a restaurant and multiple bars.
There is also on-site parking, restrooms and changing rooms for use by guests. They also have a showpiece sculpture from Daniel Popper called “Zenia”, which serves as the backdrop for the main stage at Zumana.
Our Review Breakdown For Zumana Beach Club
We apply the same mindset and process to every review we carry out on Best Beach Clubs Bali. This guarantees fairness to venue owners through consistent methods.
It also ensures that readers can readily compare one place with another, thanks to the same breakdown of each business aspect, which simplifies the decision of where to go.
First, we send the entire team to the beach club under review. They may not visit together, at the same time, or even on the same day, yet every team member experiences the venue.
While on site, they must score the place from 1 (worst) to 5 (best) across the categories listed below and note anything that stands out.
After everyone has visited, the team gathers to discuss their experiences and votes on the final score for each category.
Next, one member is chosen to write the review, making sure it captures the discussion and presents the agreed scores.
At last, the review is published on this site and stays available for at least one year. We then return to the venue and raise or lower the scores and comments as needed.
Pre-Club Advertising
We thought that, being a Savaya Group property, we’d see a lot of pre-club advertising online, and we haven’t really seen any.
This seems like a peculiar decision, particularly given how absolutely empty this place was during our visits. People won’t come to a place they don’t know exists.
And it seems pretty clear nobody knows it exists. There are physical advertisements in the mall you have to walk through to get in, but incredibly, they all say “Coming Soon” rather than “Open Now”, and none of them even have a directional arrow on it to give you even a small clue as to where you might have to go.
Location
Kuta, in many ways, ought to be an ideal location for a beach club. It’s close to Seminyak, Jimbaran, Canggu, Denpasar, Uluwatu and even Sanur at a push.
However, in the last year, much of Kuta beach has been washed away, and what’s left is nowhere near as attractive as it once was. Though the area directly in front of Zumana is the most attractive bit of what’s left, thanks to the flood defences installed here.
On our visit, in fact, there were rather more people on the beach than there were inside the beach club.
There’s also the issue with very heavy traffic in this area; to endure the pain of getting into and out of this area, you’ve got to offer something very special indeed. We should note that it took almost 2 hours to get to this beach club from Canggu in pre-rush hour traffic, and that the Grab drivers we spoke to said that they regularly refuse fares to this area because of the gridlock.
Booking Process & Seating Options
The booking system is a bit of a mess at the moment. They’ve chosen to separate the beach club daybeds from the restaurant tables, and this being Savaya, they’re also selling general admission tickets.
Unfortunately, as with all events at this group’s properties, you aren’t entitled to a seat if you buy a general admission ticket. Worse, you can’t even upgrade to a seat without paying a hefty additional fee (no discount because you bought a general admission ticket).
And you can only buy a general admission ticket online; if you want furniture or a restaurant reservation, you have to fill in a clumsy online form and submit it on WhatsApp and then go through an annoying back-and-forth to get what you want.
It’s 2026, Bali leads the world in beach club booking systems, but Zumana appears to have chosen to go its own way, and sadly, it’s not for the better.
Entry Fee
There is an entrance fee at Zumana Bali, and you won’t hear the end of it. When we arrived at this club for some mad reason, there was no clear entrance, and everything was roped off.
When we asked if we could get in, we were told no less than four times by three different people that we had to pay 300,000 IDR per person and that there were no inclusions for this sum.
It’s almost like they don’t want visitors. We also couldn’t work out why they were charging an entrance fee for an empty beach club. At sunset, there was a ratio of roughly 10 members of staff to every guest in the beach club.
And it’s true there are absolutely no inclusions with your 300K, but if you’re lucky/unlucky enough to find it as empty as we did, you can get a seat in the bar area, though there aren’t very many of them.
Minimum Spend
If you have a general admission ticket, there’s no expectation of a minimum spend, and you can pay for whatever you want as you go.
If you use a sofa, daybed or other table type, then the entrance fee is your minimum spend, and it is converted into a food and beverage credit that you can use during your time in the club.
Any credit left over at the end of the night is forfeited. So, make sure to use it up or order some takeout beers with the balance.
We should note that the minimum spends at Zumana are very much on the high side for Bali as they are at Savaya, and we do feel that they don’t consider the location very well.
Welcome And Security
The door staff are confused and disorganised, and you don’t really get a welcome until you’ve managed to work out a way to get inside and paid the actual cashier.
However, in fairness, they did at least point the way towards the free seating area. There’s also a visible security presence which scans your bags and all other stuff before they let you into the beach club.
This probably keeps trouble to a minimum, and we’re very much in favour of basic security screening; we think it keeps Bali safe for everyone.
Inclusions
You do get a towel if you book the right kind of daybed, but there’s nothing included in the general admission fee at all, not even a welcome drink.
Overall, while this is sort of standard for Bali’s beach clubs, we do feel that we have to knock off a point for charging for entry without offering anything in return.
Service
Most of our team were pleasantly surprised with the service; Savaya’s not the best place on the island for this, and we were expecting more of the same. Instead, we found attentive, helpful staff.
However, when you have 10 members of staff to each guest, you can be pretty certain that you’re going to get attentive service.
We did find it awkward that if you sit at the bar, they want you to pay as you go, but if you step 2 meters from the bar and sit facing the beach (in the same room), they’ll run a tab for you; that makes absolutely no sense at all.
Entertainment
Zumana is supposed to be a high-end dance club with a beach club adjacent appeal and yet, the DJ, though present, was one of the most anonymous and uninteresting we’ve encountered.
The club had all the energy of a graveyard, and putting the DJ booth under the cool (ish – it’s very similar to the one at Luna Beach Club) statue doesn’t change the need for some sort of vibe to flow from this.
And unlike at the undisputed king of the island’s entertainment scene, FINNS Beach Club, there are no dancers or any kind of spectacle to enjoy.
Pool Quality
Given that this beach club is brand new, it won’t come as any surprise that the pool area is quite lovely. It could, perhaps, be a little bigger, but we feel that’s nitpicking.
It also looks well maintained and the water’s clean and pleasant. So, for now, this gets nearly full marks from us. That pool is even smaller than we remembered; no wonder you don’t get a towel with general admission. Put ten people in it, and it’ll be full.
Menu/Drinks Pricing
We’re kind of outraged about this. We expected high drinks and food prices; it’s the Savaya Group after all.
What we didn’t expect was a set of add-ons that include 10% tax (it’s required by law), 7% service (collected by every business on the island)) and then an incredible rip-off of 5.5% “venue fee” as though the menu prices and the 300K extortionate entry fee don’t go to the venue?
This is a very clear attempt to withhold paying the staff a fair slice of the service and it leaves a pretty vile taste in the mouth. And yes, the prices before these taxes are very, very high when compared to most beach clubs in Bali.
Food And Drink Quality
The drinks were fine; they come cold, they are well-presented and include the right amount of alcohol.
However, while the food looked amazing, it must have been the blandest food that we’ve ever tasted. In particular, the chicken karaage came with two sauces and both of them tasted of absolutely nothing.
This was a downgrade from the pre-opening experience, where we thought the food was slightly above average; now it’s just overpriced.
Sunset View
There was a time when we’d have said that the sunset view over Kuta Beach was one of the greatest pleasures this island had to offer.
However, the erosion of the coastline has definitely dampened our enthusiasm for this view a little. If you stare out to sea, the sunset is, of course, spectacular, but closer to shore? We want the old view back, please.
However, it’s fair to say that you won’t be disappointed with the direct view of the ocean at sunset; it’s only if you turn your head to the right that you see the damage those flood defences have wrought on this coastline.
Music And Ambience
The music, as we’ve already touched on, during our visits had all the personality of beige. We figured a party venue would be aiming to get people in the mood to party, it felt more like we were preparing for a funeral.
Of course, it’s not helped by the fact that around sunset, there are about 7 people in the venue, and two of them walked out in disgust at the menu prices without even buying a drink. We simply can’t rate Zumana for ambience. We would note that the interior is attractive and compact, but it would still take a few hundred people to give this place any kind of vibe.
Payment Options
They’re happy to take your money in any way they can at Zumana Bali, and they accept all major cards, cash and even QR (which is a local Indonesian payment system supported by the cash apps on the island and the local banks).
We also found they were good at getting the payments processed and the bills resolved, which is a pleasant surprise.
Exit Process
Where do we start with this one? Firstly, we go to the door marked “Exit”. It’s locked. Then, we follow another series of exit signs down a long, winding back-door pathway to reach a barrier they’ve erected in front of the door. Fortunately, we’re strong enough to shove it out of the way and leave; we’re not sure everyone would be. This kind of lack of attention to detail is inexcusable and potentially dangerous if someone has a motion impairment of any kind.
Then, you can slog your way back through the mall (yes, this club is at the back of the Discovery Mall, which adds to the challenge of finding it in the first place), to find that you’re going to be waiting a while for a Grab thanks to that traffic we mentioned earlier.
Transportation
This part of Bali has an unofficial taxi mafia, which can make it difficult to get a Grab to pick you up, and the local taxis are going to rip you off to get anywhere.
And given that most of Zumana’s potential customers are unlikely to be staying in Kuta itself, that means nearly everyone who leaves Zumana is going to be frustrated with this experience.
Social Media Presence
This part of Bali has an unofficial taxi mafia, which can make it difficult to get a Grab to pick you up, and the local taxis are going to rip you off to get anywhere.
And given that most of Zumana’s potential customers are unlikely to be staying in Kuta itself, that means nearly everyone who leaves Zumana is going to be frustrated with this experience.
Other/General Comments
Overall, it’s clear that they have some real ambition for Zumana and some of our lower marks are simply a facet of the fact it’s just opened and having some teething troubles to go through.
However, we think it’s going to be an uphill challenge to persuade people to come to Kuta and spend their time here. Its ambition doesn’t really match the reality of the area.
And while we thought that after their pre-launch period things would be better, in our opinion, things actually became worse. Nobody comes to party in a club with nobody in it, that charges a steep entry fee and then takes a 5.5% venue fee out of sheer greed on top.
Our Overall Opinion On Zumana Beach Club
We’ll be blunt here: the Savaya Group’s decision to take a gamble on the regeneration of Kuta is an admirable one, but at this point in time it doesn’t feel like they’ve done nearly enough to merit a repeat visit.
It’s expensive, the venue fee is a rip-off, getting in is hard and getting out is harder, the traffic to get here is a nightmare, and the entrance fee to sit in an empty venue just isn’t a good deal.
There are so many better beach clubs in Bali than this one. It’s pretty but it lacks substance.
FAQs
What Can You Do At Zumana Beach Club?
You can eat and drink, relax on comfortable seating (as long as you agree to a very substantial minimum spend), listen to music, dance and swim (but only if you have paid for a daybed, not if you are on the sofas or using a general admission ticket) at Zumana Bali.
It’s a party-focused beach club catering to an adult crowd.
Who Owns Zumana Bali?
Zumana Bali is owned by Savaya Group and was developed by PT Kharisma Anugrah Jawara Abadi – KAJA Group.
Savaya Group manages various hospitality venues in Bali, including the well-known Savaya Beach Club in Uluwatu.
Is Zumana Bali Family-Friendly?
No, this property is not family-friendly. It’s an adults-only party venue, and you will be expected to provide ID on entering the venue.
Is There A Dress Code At Zumana Bali?
Yes, though it’s “smart casual”, which doesn’t mean an awful lot in Bali. So, really the dress code at Zumana Bali is more of a list of what not to wear than what you should wear.
You will be denied entry if you wear alcohol-branded tank tops or singlets, ripped or cut-off clothes, anything that seems like sportswear, particularly if it carries team branding, flip-flops/thongs or casual sandals, swimwear (outside of the pool and beach areas where it’s appropriate to wear it) and backpacks of any kind.
Final Thoughts On Zumana Beach Club
Zumana Bali is the Savaya Group’s big new venture outside of Uluwatu, and we thought that they really meant business here.
However, the high cost of entry, the ridiculous “venue fee”, the dreadful booking system, the general inaccessibility, the lack of care when it comes to things like a clear exit, etc. make it a very hard proposition to spend a lot of time and effort in Bali traffic to reach.
We will pop in from time to time to see if things have improved, but at the moment, we’d strongly recommend heading somewhere else. FINNS in Canggu is always a good time and there’s no mandatory entrance fee and no sneaky venue charge either.
