Bali is home to a lot of places with “club” in the name and while everyone knows what a nightclub is, you might not be as familiar with terms like “beach club”, “pool club” and “jungle club”.
So, we’ve put together a quick guide to help you understand these places better, so that you can choose the right club for you and your friends and family during your holiday on the island.
What Is A Beach Club?
“Beach club” is not a well-defined term. FINNS is the world’s best beach club and it’s a glamorous destination with fine dining restaurants, dance floors, infinity pools, bars and amazing sunset views.
But Flamingo Beach Club is also here in Bali and it’s got a very different vibe to FINNS. This is a much more family-friendly venue with an emphasis on play equipment and sun loungers by the beach. It’s much less glitzy and more laid back.
In essence, a beach club is simply a place for relaxing by the beach which is a step up from the standard beach bar. The key part of this is “by the beach”.
It’s not a beach club unless there’s a beach by the club – some beach clubs include the beach area, others provide access to the beach but aren’t on the beach itself.
Some beach clubs charge an entrance fee, some do not, most of them have a “minimum spend” requirement for you to access the sun loungers – this charge varies depending on the location and facilities and can be used to buy food, drink and sometimes tobacco and other products in the venue.
You can find beach clubs around the world, not just in Bali, including in places where you might not expect to find them such as on beaches in the Netherlands on the coast facing the chilly North Sea.
However, there’s no doubt that Bali has the best beach clubs on Earth with FINNS leading the charge and it’s not really a trip to Bali without a trip to, at least, one beach club.
How Do Beach Clubs Work?
You bring your swimsuit, sunglasses and anything else you need with you and the beach club does the rest. They will normally provide towels and lockers, as well as free Wi-Fi.
Some beach clubs, like FINNS, can offer a whole menu of extra services such as phone charging, sun cream and more, others do not.
Do You Need To Book At A Beach Club?
It depends on the beach club, most beach clubs allow walk-in guests, but you may find that you can’t get a daybed if you haven’t booked in advance.
You may also find that booking in advance means you qualify for a lower level of minimum spend in the club. However, if you don’t show up at the time you booked, you will lose the deposit you paid.
What Do You Do At A Beach Club?
Within reason, anything that you might do by the pool or at the beach. You can read a book, take a swim, sunbathe, eat and drink at all beach clubs.
At some beach clubs, you will find they have entertainment and dancing, particularly after a beautiful Bali sunset.
And at other beach clubs, you may find they offer access to sporting activities such as yoga or watersports.
How Much Do Beach Clubs Cost?
This can vary quite a bit. Some clubs charge an admission fee which can be around 150,000-300,000 IDR ($10-$20 USD or $15-$30 AUD) per person, but the majority or beach clubs do not.
However, if you want to use the furniture (daybeds/sunbeds) then you will normally be required to commit to a minimum spend in the venue.
This can vary too and at some of the most basic beach clubs this can be as little as 100,000 – 200,000 IDR (that’s about $6-$12 USD or $10-$20 AUD) per person.
At the more premium clubs it can be as much as 1-2 million IDR ($65-$130 USD or $100-$200 AUD) per bed (which can typically accommodate 4-6 people).
We find that while a minimum spend can seem a bit scary, it’s usually exhausted pretty quickly because these are premium venues. 1 million IDR sounds like a big number, but when split between four people at a big beach club, it’s a drink each and some food.
Can Children Go To Beach Clubs?
Some beach clubs are family-friendly (in fact, we have a list of those beach clubs here) but others are not. It’s always important to review a beach club’s website and determine if it’s appropriate for children.
Places like FINNS are great places for families most of the year, but on New Year’s Eve, the party can start very early and younger children might find it a bit overwhelming.
Other places, such as Azul Beach Club are only family-friendly during major holidays and festivals and are otherwise geared towards an exclusively adult audience.
What Is A Pool Club?
A pool club is very much like a beach club and they often have very similar facilities. An example of a pool club in Bali is Mrs. Sippy.
These clubs will offer access to, at least, one swimming pool and often a wide variety of different pools. Some will have infinity pools, others will not.
However, a pool club doesn’t have access to a beach and therefore doesn’t qualify as a “beach club”.
This can mean that the pool clubs are easier to get into at the busiest times of year, as most people would prefer access to a beach and particularly, for that spectacular sunset over the Indian Ocean that Bali is famous for.
In our experience, pool clubs in the beach towns are a little less exciting than the beach clubs are often used by groups of younger people taking advantage of cheap happy hour drinks.
Outside of the beach towns, the standard of pool clubs in Bali goes up and they are more likely to rival the beach clubs for quality of service, food, drinks, etc.
What Is A Jungle Club?
Jungle clubs seem to be unique to Bali and they are really pool clubs that are in the central region of Bali where the clubs are in the jungle/rainforest and use the natural environment to highlight their value to visitors.
Many of the jungle clubs are quite upmarket and cater to a crowd seeking a chilled out environment away from the big parties in the beach towns.
Junglefish is one of the best Jungle Clubs in Bali which is near Ubud.
Which Is Best A Beach Club, Pool Club Or Jungle Club?
It really depends on what kind of day out you’re looking for. Each club in Bali is unique and each of them has something to offer their visitors.
If we had to pick just one place to go – we’d always choose FINNS Beach Club. It’s our best reviewed beach club, it tops out our charts and frankly, the visitors to the island agree with us – it’s the busiest and most successful beach club in the world.
However, if you’re here on the island for a week or two, you might want to try several venues or you might be staying in more than one part of the island. In that case, you’re probably going to experiment with a beach club, a pool club and a jungle club.
We’d strongly recommend that you do your homework before you visit any club in Bali.
Read our reviews on this site, read the Google reviews (FINNS, for example, has over 20,000 Google Reviews, whereas the recently opened Luna Beach Club has less than 1,000 reviews by way of comparison), and ask around.
Nobody can decide what your idea of a good time looks like for you, there are days when we all want to party until dawn and others where we all just want to chill in the sunshine and enjoy good food and drink.
Choosing the right club is going to ensure that you have the best time on any given day.
Final Thoughts On Beach Club vs Pool Club Vs Jungle Club
Bali has some amazing clubs for you to choose from and the beach clubs are the finest in the world. Pool clubs and jungle clubs are simply variants on this theme without access to a beach.
If you can only choose one beach club on your visit to the island, we’d recommend that you check out the best beach club in the word, FINNS Beach Club but if you’re here for a longer stay, you will find that you’re never far away from a beach club, pool club or jungle club.
