While most beach clubs in Bali barely advertise they exist, El Kabron shouts its name from every corner of the internet. No matter what we’re browsing, there’s an advert from this beach club begging for our attention.
That meant that sooner or later, our team had to get out to Uluwatu and find out what all the fuss was about. After all, if you’re spending that much money on bringing in customers, you must have something to shout about, right?
So, our reviewers donned their trusty swimming costumes, grabbed their notebooks and set off in a Gojek rideshare to see what they could learn about El Kabron for you, and this is what they discovered there.
Introduction – Getting To El Kabron Bali
The big challenge when getting to El Kabron is going to be getting to the beautiful island of Bali in the Indian Ocean, nestled in the heart of the Indonesian archipelago.
For Australians and those travelling from Australia or Southeast Asia, the flight will be relatively short, and Denpasar airport (Ngurah Rai International Airport) sees a lot of regional traffic.
However, if you’re making the trip from the USA, Canada, or Europe, you can be looking at a much longer flight.
We always think it’s important to note that while the journey may be long, the prices in Bali are much lower than they are in places like Tulum or St. Tropez.
That means you can save the cost of your flight on a trip to Bali when you look at your overall spending, or you could put that extra cash towards a business class upgrade to enjoy a very comfortable ride to the island.
Once you’re here, El Kabron is reasonably easy to get to. It’s at the top of the Bukit Peninsula and not too far from Uluwatu, Jimbaran, Kuta, Denpasar, Legian, Canggu, Sanur and Seminyak.
If you drive yourself, there’s plenty of parking available at this beach club, and if you come by ride-share (and most people will), you can be dropped off at the front door.
Where Is El Kabron Bali? Jl. Pantai Cemongkak, Pecatu, Kec. Kuta Sel., Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361
Online: El Kabron
Opening Hours: 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily except Nyepi, which is the Balinese day of silence, a compulsory national holiday that occurs once a year, either in March or April
What’s Available At El Kabron Bali?
El Kabron has a large swimming pool, which is reminiscent of Mickey Mouse’s ears when viewed from above.
There are a number of seating areas to choose from, as well as bar and restaurant facilities. The restaurant is the only part of this beach club where children may be admitted, and only for the dinner sitting, not for lunch.
In addition, there’s a large dance floor which is used as the sun goes down until late at night for parties.
Our Detailed Review Of El Kabron Bali
We use a uniform process to review every beach club, promoting equitable assessment for owners, management, and staff, and presenting reviews in a consistent format that makes comparing locations effortless.
The review process is outlined as follows:
- A team is selected to evaluate the venue.
- Each member must visit the beach club, with the option to visit independently and on varying days.
- During their visit, every reviewer completes a scorecard, assigning the club a score from 1 (least remarkable) to 5 (most remarkable) in predefined categories, while also documenting their observations.
- After all team members have completed their visits and scorecards, they convene to discuss their experiences and finalise scores for each category.
- A chosen team member then composes the review, capturing the team’s discussions and final scores, before it is posted on our website.
Reservation and Booking Process
There is a phenomenon known as the paradox of choice. People like options, but if you give them too many options, they find themselves unable to make a decision.
El Kabron’s booking engine is not likely to be the first time you’ve found yourself trapped in this paradox, but at least now you have a name for it.
Do you want a daybed or a VIP oceanfront daybed? What about a VIP royal sofa or a party sofa or a deck sofa, or a sofa sofa? We made the last one up, but you catch our drift, right?
And this is just the options in a single part of El Kabron; there are so many more that you can feel yourself growing old just reading their names.
Despite all these options, you can’t choose exactly which seat you want, and worse, they don’t even handle the booking on their website; they unceremoniously dump you out onto Chope.
This is an external booking app that can’t take deposits and thus leaves you with a 15-minute window to arrive and claim your seat or lose it.
Why would you invest so much money in marketing your website and bookings when you don’t even handle that process yourself? It defies all logic.
Ambience and Atmosphere
We found the door staff in El Kabron to be disagreeable, while those who booked in advance were ushered through to their seating areas without incident. Anyone who arrived without a booking was forced to choose a seat without being able to see what it would be like inside the venue.
That makes no sense whatsoever, and it puts your hackles up. So, when you do end up inside, there’s a bitter taste in your mouth rather than excitement to be there.
We also felt that when this club is busy that it’s a lively and sociable affair, but that it wasn’t anywhere near as busy as we’d expected most of the time, and then it felt a bit empty and alone.
Location And Accessibility
The location on the Bukit Peninsula means it can take a bit more time in traffic than you might like from the main part of the island.
However, it’s not Ungasan, and it is near the top of the peninsula, which helps. Though in order to be certain of making that 15-minute window for your seat reservation, we’d recommend that you leave for this club earlier than you might otherwise.
We’d also note that if you get there early, there’s not much within walking distance of El Kabron, so you might need to get a ride elsewhere and then back again.
Aesthetic And Design
This was a very attractive beach club when it opened, but it’s definitely showing some signs of wear and tear, and there are parts of the club that could use a lick of paint.
You will get some nice Instagram photos here, which is always important for a beach club day out.
The tinfoil used to provide reflections on the walls and surfaces, however, gets pretty annoying by the end of the day.
Staff Friendliness and Professionalism (Service Standard)
While we were not best impressed by the welcome and door staff, there’s no doubt that things improve inside the venue.
It’s not the best ever service in a Bali beach club, but it is good, and you will be treated with kindness, respect, and the staff know what they’re talking about.
Overall, we felt that the staff at El Kabron were doing a great job and that their employer could be proud of their contribution to people’s experiences here.
However, we’ve removed some points for the incredible situation of the staff refusing to show a potential customer what the seats were like until after they had paid a minimum spend. There’s really no excuse for this.
Service Speed and Efficiency
It wasn’t inefficient or slow, but the service at El Kabron lacked a certain level of urgency that we expect when we’re paying the kind of prices they charge at this beach club.
Sure, it’s Bali and things are always a little laid-back here, but some of our team felt that they’d gone from laid-back to positively horizontal between taking orders and delivering them.
It wasn’t quite enough to force us into full Karen-mode and start complaining to the management but it wasn’t great, either.
Food Quality and Variety
The variety is a little limited at El Kabron, but that’s probably because they’re targeting a Spanish vibe.
The quality of the food is good, though, and we thought most of what we ordered was genuinely delicious.
So, why the low score? We’ve got to take pierce into account, and once you factor in the tax and service charge, they want 200,000 IDR for some potato croquettes!
We felt that we could fly to Europe and enjoy authentic Spanish cuisine in Barcelona for not much more than a meal costs in El Kabron.
Beverage Selection and Creativity
The same goes for the cocktails. They’re good and strong enough. They’re beautifully presented and will look great on your Instagram feed.
But they are also too expensive for Bali. Their prices are 20-30% higher than in most beach clubs in Bali, and there’s nothing we could find that would justify this kind of uplift.
This is a nice beach club, but it’s not the kind of next-level experience that would make us happy about these kinds of prices.
Cleanliness and Hygiene
Overall, we felt that they had the cleanliness and hygiene aspect down pat at El Kabron. The toilets, changing rooms and shower facilities were just fine.
But, there’s no doubt that the water in the pool was, well, a little murky. Probably not a hazard to anyone’s health but definitely not as clean and clear as we’d have expected, particularly not at a beach club this expensive.
Comfort of Seating and Lounging Areas
The seats at El Kabron were something of a mixed bag, though given the incredibly high minimum spend that they levy here, they were also somewhat of a disappointment.
The sofas are very comfortable, the daybeds are just OK, and the other seating is actually not all that comfortable.
Sure, you don’t spend all day on a restaurant seat, but the time you do spend on it should be comfortable and enjoyable.
Music and Entertainment
There are almost two clubs at El Kabron when it comes to music and entertainment. There’s the sunset and onwards club, where the music is varied, exciting and gets people moving.
And then there’s the rest of the day, where the music may be the least interesting that we’ve heard in any beach club and there’s some pretty stiff competition for that title in Bal.
Seasonality
There is no real seasonality in Bali. It’s one of the most appealing things about the island, in fact. This location in the tropics may have a wet season, but it’s not the endless monsoon rain of Goa, Phuket, Lagos, etc.
Instead, you get a couple of hours of rain (at the most) every other day and otherwise, it’s just hot and sunny. The island averages 8 hours of sunshine a day in the rainy season.
The dry season is slightly cooler, has even less rain and more sunshine. So, you can book a holiday in Bali at any time of the year and expect the beach clubs to be open and in full form.
The only exception is for a single day of the year, Nyepi, which is the Balinese Day of Silence. This occurs in March or April each year and is a mandatory public holiday for all businesses, even the airport.
Pricing and Value for Money
We would dramatically revise many of the scores in our review of El Kabron if the pricing were more reasonable.
But this is a beach club that feels like it sees every guest as a personal ATM to extract as much money from as possible.
350,000++ IDR as an entrance fee if you want to use the pool? That feels like highway robbery. The mandatory minimum spend on every seat is a cheek too. It’s just an entrance fee by the back door. And that minimum spend is levied per person, not for the actual furniture, this means that the minimum spend at El Kabron is far higher than at most beach clubs.
And then, on top of that, the food and drinks are hugely overpriced. They’re not bad, they’re just not value for money in the slightest.
Beach Access and Quality
This is a clifftop club, and that means that while there is an attractive beach down below El Kabron, accessing the beach is simply not practical.
You do get a nice view out over the Indian Ocean, though.
Sustainability Practices
El Kabron seems to have made some very basic and vague sustainability commitments, but has never reported any progress against its goals.
It has no sustainability reporting and doesn’t seem particularly interested in this area of social responsibility. We feel that they could do much better than this.
Exclusive Perks for Guests
Normally, we’d rank a towel and a daybed as 3 out of 5, as it’s pretty standard for Bali when you agree to a minimum spend, but given El Kabron’s greedy extraction of 350,000++ IDR as a usage fee? It’s not as good a deal as you get at most beach clubs.
We’d also note that we are actually glad they don’t offer VIP or Premium perks, as they’d probably require you to take out a mortgage on your home to pay for them.
Safety and Security
We approve of the bag checks at this beach club as we feel they help to keep guests safe. We also think that they have enough security inside the club to ensure things stay sane.
However, there are taxi mafia outside of this club, and El Kabron won’t do much to help you avoid them. We’d recommend booking your ride-share before you leave the club and only leaving when it’s about to arrive.
Event Hosting Capabilities
You can book out the whole of the beach club, and they cater to a wide range of events at El Kabron. But they don’t give out any details on their website, which means you’re going to have to enter into a quotation process to get even basic information.
Consistency of Experience
El Kabron is consistent in the main, but being consistently overpriced and delivering under value isn’t necessarily something to be proud of.
Additional Amenities and Facilities
El Kabron has all the basic facilities that you should need from a beach club, but if you need anything else, there’s nothing much within walking distance. You’ll need to drive for a while to find it.
Summary
We felt that we had a nice day out at El Kabron, and that normally we would recommend a beach club like this, but there was a real sticking point, and that’s the pricing.
The entrance fee is steep. The minimum spend is steep. The prices of the food and drinks is excessive. And you start to feel more like a money tree than a customer because you’re being shaken down so often in El Kabron.
Given how many amazing beach clubs there are in Bali, we find ourselves struggling to recommend travelling to El Kabron when clubs like FINNS are better and much better value for money.
FAQs
Can You Go Swimming At El Kabron Bali?
Yes, you can swim at El Kabron, Bali. The club is home to a single large pool, which has enough room for some people to chill in the water, drinking cocktails, while others opt to swim laps or lengths without annoying the drinkers.
The infinity pool here looks like a pair of Mickey Mouse ears if you get up high enough, and makes for interesting photography.
However, one thing we do have to note is that during our time at this beach club, the pool water can end up a little murky, and while we don’t think it’s hazardous to human health, we would still be careful not to swallow any of it.
What Is There To Do At El Kabron Bali?
El Kabron offers Spanish-themed food (including tapas), a pool to swim in, drinks from the bar, and various seating areas where you can relax or enjoy time with friends. In the evenings, they provide a DJ, and you can use the dance floor to whatever extent you enjoy.
Is El Kabron Bali A Child-Friendly Venue?
El Kabron Bali is a semi-child-friendly venue. That means that kids are only allowed inside the restaurant at this beach club, and they are not permitted to enter any other part of the venue.
The Hedonism Lounge, in particular, is entirely off-limits to kids (and any sensible adult will immediately understand why from the name). It’s an adults-only party zone where some of the behaviour is not going to be a good thing for young eyes.
You should also know that they are only allowed to attend the dinner seating in the restaurant, and there are several reports of guests with children being turned away during the lunch hour.
In short, while El Kabron does allow kids inside, it might be more effort than it’s worth to take your kids to this beach club.
We also feel that places that have an emphasis on partying can often have incidents in other areas of the beach club that might make children (or their parents) uncomfortable.
Who Is The Owner Of El Kabron Bali?
This beach club is owned by Anna Maria G. She’s a well-known figure in Bali who is a Spanish national. She’s also the founder of the beach club.
Final Thoughts On The Review Of El Kabron Bali
El Kabron has invested a lot of money into advertising and trying to incite travellers from all over the island to come to the beach club.
Sadly, it’s put much less effort into making time at this beach club memorable for the right reasons. There’s a distinct feeling that they’re constantly reaching for your wallet, and the prices are distinctly higher than average for everything.
There are 100 beach clubs in Bali, many of them very good (like FINNS, the world’s best beach club, which is in Canggu). Why would you opt to overpay for a day out by the sea?
That’s not to say we had a bad time at El Kabron, we didn’t. We just all felt that we wouldn’t be rushing back until they make it much better value for money.
