Suluban is not a beach in the usual sense. It is a sea cave with a sand floor under the cliffs of Uluwatu, in Pecatu village, reached by walking down from the clifftop and out through the rock. Its other name is Blue Point. Most of the people here are surfers heading out to the Uluwatu reef, and everyone else comes for the cave, the rock pools at low tide and the sunset from the bars on the cliff.
You pass under the rock to get in
The name explains the visit. Suluban comes from the Balinese mesulub, which means to walk underneath or pass through something. You park on top of the cliff, then follow a maze of alleys and steps down the slope, with cafes, bars and shops on either side. It takes about 10 minutes. At the bottom you enter the Suluban cave, which faces straight out to sea and has sand underfoot, and that cave is already part of the shoreline. There is no wide strip of beach beyond it.
There is no entry ticket, only a parking charge for scooters and cars. Facilities at the bottom amount to the stairs; toilets, surf shops and places to eat are all along the way down.
Five waves off one reef
Uluwatu became a surf destination because of a film. Morning of the Earth, made by Alby Falzon and David Elfick, set out to show the waves around Kuta, and after a few days there the crew found Uluwatu. There were no roads to the beach then, so surfers walked in carrying everything they needed. Steve Cooney, aged 15, rode the first wave on film, and after the film’s release on 25 February 1972 surfers arrived from all over the world.
The reef here holds five named breaks. From the top they are The Bombie, Temples, Outside Corner, Racetracks and The Peak. The Peak sits right at the base of the cave and is the entry and exit point for the whole system. Bombie, on the outer reef, is an extremely powerful wave known for breaking boards and snapping leashes, and on big swells it can reach 20 feet. Racetracks is fast and very shallow at low tide, to the point that surfers often end up dry-docked on the reef. Temples takes its name from an old temple on the cliff.
The best conditions come with a south-west groundswell: mid to high tide for the inner peaks, low tide for Outside Corner. The season is the dry months from May to October. None of this is beginner surf, and watching from the cave mouth or the ledges above is a perfectly good way to spend an hour.
When the tide comes in
The tide changes the place completely. At low water you can explore the cave and the rock pools, and the reef is visible through clear water without a mask. As the tide rises the sea pushes into the cave, and at its highest the water can reach the bottom of the stairs.
Swimming is not what Suluban is for. If you want to get wet, sit in one of the natural pools between the rocks and leave the open water to the people with boards.
Sunset from the cliff bars
The beach faces south-west with nothing between it and the horizon, which is why the sunsets here are so well known. The cliff above is lined with cafes and bars with outdoor terraces, and the most famous is Single Fin, right at the cliff edge on Jalan Labuan Sait.
Suluban is about 30 minutes from Ngurah Rai airport and roughly an hour from Denpasar. It pairs naturally with Uluwatu Temple and its 6pm Kecak dance, about 10 minutes away by scooter, and with the cove at Padang Padang Beach. For the rest of the peninsula, see our guide to Uluwatu, the list of things to do in Uluwatu and where to stay in Uluwatu.
