Canggu is one of the major destinations for fans of beach clubs and The Lawn which sits next to the Indian Ocean on Batu Bolong Beach is one of many options for some beach club fun in this area.
But before you book your day bed, you might want to read what our crack review team had to say after spending some time at The Lawn.
Introduction – Getting To The Lawn
The Lawn is on the oceanfront at Batu Bolong Beach in Canggu. It’s a fairly easy location to get to and you should have no problem getting there in a Grab or Gojek.
If you want to drive to The Lawn you can use the neighbouring beach car park, which is 5,000 IDR per car and 2,000 IDR per scooter.
Traffic in this area can be pretty hectic at times, but that’s true of nearly every popular part of the island, so we’d suggest planning a longer journey than the distance might suggest if you’re trying to make a time slot for your bed.
Where Is The Lawn? Jl. Pura Dalem, Canggu, Kec. Kuta Utara, Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361
Website: The Lawn
Opening Hours: Open daily, every day except for Nyepi, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mon-Fri and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sat, Sun.
As with all beach clubs in Bali, you should prepare to be searched on the way into The Lawn this is to stop you from bringing contraband inside as well as to ensure the safety of all guests.
If you have got something they don’t allow in, you can leave it at security who will watch it for you and then collect it when you leave.
What’s Inside The Lawn?
The Lawn has a bar, a restaurant, a lawn area, an infinity pool that faces the Indian Ocean and plenty of daybeds (sun loungers) for you to relax on.
Our Review Breakdown For The Lawn
All of our beach club reviews are done in the same way to ensure fairness between venues. Our team visits and then assesses 20 different criteria for each club.
We vote on a ranking between 1 (worst) and 5 (best) for each criterion. Then, the total score is one between 100 (best) and 20 (worst) for each club. This means that 60 is an average score based on our ranking system.
The vote is to ensure that our scores accurately reflect the opinions of all of our team.
Once a review is published, it remains live for, at least, one year before we re-assess a club.
Pre-Club Advertising
The Lawn isn’t the biggest beach club and we think that reflects the underwhelming amount of advertising we see for it.
Yes, we’ve seen posters and even the occasional ad online, but nothing that really grabbed our attention and too few and far between for it to have much impact.
However, The Lawn is often very busy, so they may feel they don’t need to do much advertising.
Location
Batu Bolong Beach is a very popular spot and it’s quite easy to get to, though as with most of the island, the traffic can get pretty heavy at times – so journey times can be much longer than the “map distance” might suggest.
The club is within walking distance of other clubs, the beach, shops, restaurants and bars. If you need something, you shouldn’t find it too hard to get in this part of Canggu.
Just make sure to follow directions carefully in this area, every now and again a driver seems to mistake the steps down to the beach for access to the car park and ends up with their vehicle buried in the sand!
The Lawn is also not far away from La Brisa and it’s as close as you’re likely to get to Luna Beach Club too. (Though Luna is still quite a drive).
Booking Process & Seating Options
We were quite impressed with the initial part of the booking process online, it’s easy to pick a day and see what seats are available.
Then, things start to go wrong when the booking form asks for your credit card details without explaining any of the charges.
Call us old-fashioned but we like to know what we’re paying for and how much we’re paying before we hand over our credit card details to anyone.
This is shockingly bad, and we’re genuinely surprised that people opt to use this system at all.
Entry Fee
There is no entrance fee at The Lawn but there are very few seats available to those that don’t commit to a minimum spend. Nonetheless, this club makes our list of the best clubs in Bali without a minimum spend.
In fact, on our last visit, we counted about 12 such seats at the bar, which is quite far removed from the rest of the beach club.
This wouldn’t be too bad but this beach club gets a lot of walk-in traffic thanks to its location, and you can sometimes see a hundred people all trying to land a chair here.
We like beach clubs with no entrance fees, but we’d also like them to provide some seating options.
Minimum Spend
As with nearly all Beach Clubs in Bali, The Lawn expects you to agree to a minimum spend if you want to sit inside the venue, particularly, if you want to use a daybed (that’s a posh sun lounger).
The minimum spend starts at 1 million IDR per person on a single-day bed and goes up from there.
Given that The Lawn is quite pricey, we don’t think you will find it hard to spend 1 million IDR on food and drinks (we could spend it in about an hour on cocktails) but we still think the minimum spend is set quite high when you consider the overall facilities here.
Welcome And Security
Our arrival at The Lawn was pleasant but not particularly standout, we were greeted warmly and seated efficiently.
The security check was conducted with a minimum of fuss and we didn’t have to wait too long at any point to get in.
Inclusions
If you’ve opted for a minimum-spend seat, you will be provided with a towel so that you can swim in the infinity pool.
There are no other inclusions, which is standard for beach clubs in Bali, and there is no option for a higher tier of service with extra perks.
Service
We were reasonably impressed by the service at this beach club and the bar staff, especially, put on a good show while mixing their very Instagrammable cocktails.
Drinks orders and food orders were taken quickly and we didn’t have to wait too long for things to be delivered.
Entertainment
It’s probably due to the small scale of the property but apart from a DJ there isn’t any real entertainment at this beach club.
Pool Quality
The infinity pool faces out over the Indian Ocean and it’s clean and pleasant if a little small. There aren’t any other pools to choose from though as this is a very small beach club.
Menu/Drinks Pricing
We found The Lawn to be one of the most expensive beach clubs when it came to food and drinks and we’re not sure that they do enough to justify the price tags.
We’ll explain why in the next section.
Food And Drink Quality
The cocktails we had at The Lawn were among the most beautiful drinks we’ve had in Bali, they looked amazing when they were presented to us and we felt awesome about them.
Until we drank them and realized that they were nearly all ice and very little cocktail.
The food was better but it wasn’t quite good enough to justify the premium pricing. It was tasty but it wasn’t a memorable meal.
Sunset View
Watching the sunset over the ocean in Bali is one of life’s greatest pleasures and the sunset at The Lawn is as good as any on the island.
However, there are parts of the venue that make it hard to enjoy the sunset fully as your view is often partially obscured.
Music And Ambiance
Bland beach club tunes is the name of the day and that’s fair enough. You won’t leave many of Bali’s beach clubs wanting a copy of the setlist but they do the job of creating a relaxed atmosphere.
They do up the tempo a little after sunset for more of a party vibe, mind you.
Payment Options
You can pay with cash or card in this venue, though we found it took a while for them to process our check and bring the bill.
There are no QRIS signs or other more advanced forms of payment like Bitcoin (BTC).
Exit Process
This isn’t a big beach club and it takes less than a minute to walk out from any part of the venue. The door staff are friendly in waving a cheery goodbye.
Transportation
The taxi mafia have cornered this part of the island and it’s very irksome. It means if you want to go home by car, you will either need to pay a grossly inflated charge for your ride or walk a few hundred meters to hail a Grab or Gojek. We recommend walking a bit.
If you parked your car or scooter at the beach car park it won’t be hard to pick it up and leave though.
Social Media Presence
They’re definitely putting in some effort on social media at The Lawn, we just question whether it’s worth it.
A lot of the shots are of surfers rather than the club, many show the place as empty when in our experience it’s usually quite a busy place and so on…
We like social media to reflect what’s going on in the beach club, rather than to showcase Bali’s surf scene.
Other/General Comments
We’d like to see more emphasis on value for money in what is otherwise a stylish and relatively well-polished beach club.
Our Overall Opinion Of The Lawn
Overall, The Lawn is nice enough but it’s poor value for money and given the number of amazing places to visit in this part of the island, it means we won’t be back very often.
If you found this review helpful you may also appreciate our round up of the best clubs in Canggu and our feature on the best clubs in Bali.
FAQs
Can You Swim At The Lawn?
Yes, you can swim in the pool as long as you have a daybed booked at The Lawn. There is also access to Batu Bolong Beach but this is really a place for surfers rather than swimmers.
The current can be quite dicey at Canggu’s beaches and a riptide could drag you far out into the Indian Ocean, it’s best to swim in the infinity pool rather than in the sea.
What Can You Do At The Lawn?
As with most beach clubs, you can drink, eat, swim and sunbathe at The Lawn and even enjoy a prime position for a Bali sunset. However, as one of the smaller beach clubs in Bali, there’s not much beyond cocktails and chilling out by the beach.
Is The Lawn A Family-Friendly Venue?
Yes, children are welcome to hang out at The Lawn and there is a pool and some lawn space for them to play on.
However, there are no special facilities for kids at this beach club and later on in the day when people start to party into the night, you might not want your children to be at The Lawn anymore.
Who Owns The Lawn?
Tai Graham or “Tai Buddha” as he is often known is a founder and owner of The Lawn and he’s also involved with Single Fin (though not with Ku De Ta as some reports suggest).
Tai is a former professional surfer and he tries to bring a little of the cool surfing scene with him to his ventures on the island.
Final Thoughts On The Lawn
The Lawn is one of several beach clubs in Canggu but while it’s worth visiting, we wouldn’t put it at the top of our list for beach clubs in that area. FINNS is, by far, the best beach club that Canggu has to offer.
Sure, it’s in a prime position by the Indian Ocean and it has a nice infinity pool but it’s very small which limits the party vibe and worse, the cocktails, while beautifully presented, are expensive and weak.
