Regularly, in posts on this forum, people make some fairly derogatory remarks about "Kuta".
The main negative comments revolve around agressive marketeers and street traders, and the numbers of people and traffic.
This amuses me somewhat, because I have spent many many very happy weeks, days and hours in "Kuta", as has my wife, our four mid 20s and 30s daughters and my 84 year old mum and her 80 year old friend.
Some of the "anti Kuta" brigade, have no problems singing the praises of Tuban, Legian and Seminyak, whilst seeing nothing but bad around "Kuta".
Well here is my assessement.
Tuban - One way in and one way out (Jalan Kartika Plaza) narrow footpaths, with much up and down, and can't escape path side traders unless risking ones life on the street.
Option is to walk down the beach to escape.
Legian - To start with, where does it start, and where does it finish??
I assume it starts somewhere at a line drawn East-West around the memorial??
Walk up Jalan Legian, travelling north, and tell me that the trader aggressiveness diminishes or increases, or as I find,,,stays pretty much the same, anywhere around the memorial.
Poppies 1 is in Kuta, and is the epitomy of Bali tourist strips, but then to equalise this, is Poppies 2 not just the same, but in Legian??
Seminyak - Maybe starts at Jalan Melasti?? Again, if you want to walk anywhere, you have to negotiate typical street traders.
Sanur - ZZZZZZZZZ!
To be fair, quite a nice beach, and OK for a few days, but our daughters would go crazy after a short while.
Ubud - Pretty much the same as Sanur regarding length of stay.
Nice for a change, and to use as a central base.
Their market is as bad as anywhere as far as aggressive traders are concerned!
When you look at Kuta itself, it could be argued that the most aggressive market traders are those at the beach markets, which you don't have to go to if you don't want to, as it's not on the way to anywhere (many ways to get on the beach) This is not true of the other areas.
Then there's Kuta Square, which is dominated by Matahari, and plenty of "fill in survey" and "you win a prize" merchants, but generally no more of a negative experience than anywhere else.
In fact there are some parts of "Kuta" which are positively havens of peace and quiet, like beyond Bemo Corner down by "The Pub", and all that end of Jalan Singosari, not to mention the lanes and gangs that are honeycombed throughout.
The southern reaches of Jalan Legian itself is far quieter the further into "Kuta" you go in fact.
Last time I was in Seminyak, I was hassled so much (probably because I am not well known by the traders up there) that it was a relief to get back to the gentle calls of "Selemat Siang Pak" in the peaceful enclave that is "Kuta".
Obviously, this is an "each to their own" type of argument, but I am personally of the belief that if you could draw a line which measured "business", "hassle", "Noise", "Traffic", from North Seminyak to South Tuban, that line would show no upward deviation as it passed through "Kuta", and may even drop away a little.
It is probably true that these days "Kuta" has become a generic term for the general tourist areas, and those people who single it out for special negative attention probably don't know where it starts and where it ends.