In Reply to: ?? re -balian posted by helenb on Wednesday, 26. January 2011 at 12:50 Bali Time:
Well...not much!
Balian Beach itself is a surfers beach, and over the last 5 years especially has developed with quite a few renovated or newly built accom. On a road parallel with the beach are a number of small hotels, some which have restaurants you can try. I think the most popular would be the warung on the beach, lots of seating out the front to watch the surf.
We stay at Gajah Mina which is about a 5 min walk over the hill. Gajah has a very nice little restaurant, we love it, but I have seen disappointed reviews on this forum. Gajah is beautifully landscaped, beachfront, wonderful big pool. From the hotel you can walk over to the next beach which is just miles and miles of pristine coast. Rice paddies to the beach.
We had previously only stayed a few days, worrying that we may get bored, but stayed for a week last time and still love it.
You can walk back up to the main road, there's a very decent supermarket (for snacks etc) but absolutely no touristy shops.
For a day out we drove up to Pupuan, very scenic.
We are going somewhere different this time, but I would go back to stay at Balian (esp GM) any time.