Our trusty review team loves getting out and about in Bali, the Island of the Gods, and the world leader of the modern beach club scene.
So, when they heard that the Sunset Beach Bar & Grill at the Intercontinental Resort, Bali had been given a makeover, they were only too happy to dust off their notebooks and head to Jimbaran for the day.
This is what they learned about the Sunset Beach Bar to help you decide if you want to visit too.
Introduction – Getting To Sunset Beach Bar
The biggest challenge with getting to this beach club will be getting to Bali in the first place. This is a low difficulty issue if you are coming from Australia or elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
However, those flying from Europe or North America will be looking at a longer journey. The good side of this is that while it may be a long flight, you will probably save enough money on your holiday compared to places like Miami and Mykonos to cover the entire cost of the flight and then some.
Once you are in Bali, then Sunset Beach Bar is relatively close to the other major tourist towns on the island and to the airport.
Assuming traffic’s not too bad, it’s probably no more than an hour away from your hotel.
Because it’s a hotel facility, you can drive here and there will be parking, and if you use the ride-sharing apps (Grab and Gojek), they can drop you at the front door.
Where Is Sunset Beach Bar? InterContinental Bali Resort, Jl. Raya Uluwatu No.45, Jimbaran, Kec. Kuta Sel., Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361, Indonesia
Online: Sunset Beach Bar
Opening Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day except Nyepi
What’s Available At Sunset Beach Bar?
This is very much a hotel beach bar and restaurant. They do have live music here every day, which offers a distinct atmosphere after the sun sets, but it’s very important to note that there is no pool at this venue.
And while you can swim in the ocean, we wouldn’t recommend doing so, not least because the venue won’t supply towels, but mainly because the current in the water here can be dangerous even to highly experienced swimmers.
Our Detailed Review Of Sunset Beach Bar
We maintain a standardised process for reviewing each beach club to ensure equitable consideration for owners, management, and staff, and to deliver reviews in a consistent format that simplifies comparisons between different locations.
The review procedure is structured as follows:
- A team is assigned to assess the venue.
- Each member must visit the beach club, with the freedom to do so independently and on separate days.
- At the venue, every reviewer fills out a scorecard, evaluating the club from 1 (least satisfactory) to 5 (most satisfactory) across designated categories, while also noting their impressions.
- After all members have completed their visits and submitted their scorecards, they gather to discuss their findings and agree on final scores for each category.
- A designated team member then writes a review that encapsulates the team’s discussions and final scores, which is subsequently shared on our website.
Reservation and Booking Process
You can reserve a seat at the Sunset Beach Bar & Grill online, but as with many beach clubs, this isn’t a particularly solid system.
While Jimbaran’s not that far from the rest of Bali, the traffic on the island can be a nightmare, and it’s super easy to set off early and still be more than 15 minutes late.
Unfortunately, in places like this where no deposit is levied against the reservation, there’s no reason for the beach club to keep your seat secured for you.
So, if you’re late, it goes to someone else. That puts us off from travelling in the first place. We think in 2025, a big brand name like the Intercontinental can do better than this and frankly, should do better.
Ambience and Atmosphere
We like the open-air vibe of this place, and there’s no doubt that it’s got that cool “beach bar by the sea on a tropical island” vibe going for it.
However, it’s a little bit spread out, and as with most places that are primarily restaurants rather than beach clubs, there’s almost no social interaction between guests.
So, if you don’t bring company with you, you might end up feeling a bit lonely at Sunset Beach Bar & Grill. It’s not a place to spend a day chilling with a book, either, so that could be a deal breaker for solo travellers.
Location And Accessibility
Jimbaran is not the most popular tourist destination in Bali, but it’s within a stone’s throw of the popular resort towns of Canggu, Seminyak, Kuta, Nusa Dua and Uluwatu, and it’s not that far from Sanur, Denpasar or even Ubud.
That makes it a pretty good place to get to, though, as always in Bali, you may have to contend with some serious traffic to get there.
It’s facing in the right direction to enjoy an awesome view of the sunset over the ocean, too.
Aesthetic And Design
The hotel’s designers were definitely aiming for the “luxe beach bar” look, and there’s no doubt that they pulled it off here.
It’s a nice place for some Instagram photos, and you can certainly give off tropical island paradise vibes without much hassle.
There is an underlying vibe of “corporate”, mind you, and that’s hard to shake in chain hotels, but overall, this is a very attractive place and one worth spending some time in.
Staff Friendliness and Professionalism (Service Standard)
This is the Intercontinental Hotel, and you can expect world-class service throughout the business. This is equally true of the Sunset Beach Bar.
Balinese people are famous for their warm and friendly demeanour, and hotel chains like this can take those raw qualities and refine them into something truly amazing.
Bali’s “paradise island” appeal is very much down to the unique culture brought about by the Hindu majority. There’s no doubt that you’re going to feel special and welcome throughout your time at this place.
Service Speed and Efficiency
Similarly, the training and professionalism come through again in service speed and efficiency. The staff at this beach club are going to anticipate your needs as best as possible, and nothing is going to be too much trouble.
They will be there before you even know that you need them, and once your order is taken, the food and drinks will be brought to you with immediacy.
One nice thing about this beach club is that the bill at the end of the day arrives promptly, and so does any change that you require. This makes a very positive impression as you prepare to leave.
Food Quality and Variety
The food at this beach club is very good, and there’s no doubt that it will make you feel comfortable and relaxed in this oceanfront environment.
However, for the prices (which are, as you’d expect from the Intercontinental, on the high side) you might be expecting fine dining, and this isn’t quite it.
Overall, we were happy with the variety on the menu, and the dishes we sampled were truly delicious, but we did feel like we could get just a bit more for our money.
Beverage Selection and Creativity
The Sunset Beach Bar’s signature cocktail is worth trying, particularly if you’re not likely to be passing through this neck of Bali again anytime soon.
We also thought that the beverage selection was intelligently curated and the drinks were presented fabulously.
Our point deduction here is simply price-based. There are other beach clubs in Bali serving equally good selections that are also as photogenic, for less money.
Cleanliness and Hygiene
It’s an Intercontinental Hotel, and that means there’s an expectation of excellence in their approach to things like cleanliness and hygiene, and you won’t be disappointed in that regard.
Not only are the seating areas and dining tables kept spick and span, but the bathrooms are lovely, and we had no hygiene concerns whatsoever during our time at the Sunset Beach Bar.
Comfort of Seating and Lounging Areas
This is one of the main variations from your typical beach club. Because there’s no pool at the Sunset Beach Bar, there are no daybeds or cabanas, and that means an absence of the most comfortable seating.
Sure, the restaurant chairs that are available are very nice, and we certainly weren’t in any real discomfort while we dined, but let’s be fair about this – when we’re by the beach, we want to chill out completely.
Nothing beats slobbing around on a large daybed covered in cushions, and there aren’t any here, which made us a little sad.
Music and Entertainment
For most of the day, the music here is piped in, and there’s no entertainment, and that’s fine. It’s a bar; most bars don’t have all-day entertainment.
In the evening, they do have live music and it’s very good, but it’s very much tailored to a specific age catchment too, if you want pop/rock classics, you’re going to love it (and many of our review team felt that way), but if you’re an EDM kind of person? You’re out of luck.
In fairness to the Sunset Beach Bar, it’s impossible to be all things to all people, and it’s nice for a beach club environment to try and cater to something different and to have something other than bland chill-out tunes playing over and over again all day long.
Seasonality
This is Bali, baby! Seasonality isn’t really a consideration on the paradise island in the tropics. That’s because it’s warm and sunny pretty much all year round.
Sure, of the two seasons on the island, there’s a “wet season” and a “dry season”. But even in the wet season, they get an average of 8 hours of unbroken sunshine a day, and rain in Bali rarely lasts for more than an hour or two – this isn’t Phuket or Goa, where the downpour can last, quite literally, for weeks at a time.
The dry season, as the name suggests, is a little drier, and the air temperature is actually a little cooler at that time of year, but overall, there’s no bad time to be in Bali or to spend at Sunset Beach Bar.
There is one day off a year, it’s compulsory for every business in Bali, and that’s Nyepi (otherwise known as the Balinese Day of Silence), which is a public holiday that takes place in either March or April each year. Sunset Beach Bar is otherwise open for 364 days a year!
Pricing and Value for Money
There’s no two ways around this, the Sunset Beach Bar is an expensive joint, but if you go to a bar in the Intercontinental Hotel, what do you really expect?
We think you do get what you pay for at this place, and there’s no suggestion in this score that you’re being ripped off.
However, this isn’t fine dining, and the prices are equivalent to some serious fine dining and higher than better beach clubs in Bali, and the value for money score does reflect that.
Beach Access and Quality
Yes, you can get on to the beach from Sunset Beach Bar. But you probably aren’t going to as it’s a very narrow strip of admittedly pristine sand.
The water isn’t safe for swimming in, and the beach club doesn’t provide guests with towels or changing facilities. So, you might take a quick walk down the shoreline, but that’s about it.
It’s a great place for sunset watching, though, as it’s on the right side of the island for the evening light show.
Sustainability Practices
In keeping with many beach clubs in Bali, the InterContinental Group has a sustainability policy, it also has a dedicated manager for this.
What it doesn’t have is any public reporting on progress towards sustainability and absolutely n accountability to the community that it serves on this front.
We feel that much of Bali’s “sustainability” is currently image greenwashing. It’s time that places made bigger efforts to communicate their goals and progress towards them.
This isn’t rocket science, and it isn’t hard to explain whether you’ve stopped using single-use plastics or how much of your waste is recycled and how much goes to landfill, etc.
Exclusive Perks for Guests
Without a swimming pool, you don’t even get a towel thrown in at the Sunset Beach Bar, and yes, we realise that is a little unfair when it comes to judging a place without a pool, but in the interests of broader fairness, this is how all of our beach clubs are scored.
So, if you can’t compete in an area, you’re going to get marked down for it. We’re sure resort guests get a few perks, but for those just dropping by? You’re out of luck.
Safety and Security
This is an InterContinental Hotel, and that means safety and security are paramount (corporate investors tend to prefer it when their investments aren’t newsworthy for the wrong reasons).
So, your vehicle will be discretely searched as it enters the hotel compound and there are always more than enough security staff on hand to ensure that if trouble were to start, it will be swiftly resolved before it affects any other guests.
Event Hosting Capabilities
The InterContinental can host events and even has a dedicated events team, but the Sunset Beach Bar doesn’t promote itself as an event venue, though you can almost certainly strike a deal to use the facility for an event.
Consistency of Experience
As with most hotel beach club facilities, the experience at the Sunset Beach Bar is very consistent, and you always know what to expect once you’ve been there once.
That’s a shame as to be truly excellent, we like to see constant innovation and efforts to improve as part of that consistent experience and it’s not something that we see enough of.
Additional Amenities and Facilities
This is a very nice beach bar and restaurant, and one we’d be happy to recommend to anyone seeking a meal and drinks.
However, there is no pool, no daybeds, and many of the other amenities that we associate with beach clubs simply aren’t available here.
Sure, if you’re a resort guest, you can find other amenities in the resort that will take up the slack, but casual visitors can’t, and that’s a bit of a shame.
Summary
This beach bar certainly lives up to the standards and reputation of the Intercontinental Hotel, and it’s a great place to enjoy a beach bar for a few drinks and dinner.
The evening dancing is nice, and it’s a great way for a couple to extend a romantic meal into the night.
However, this place absolutely isn’t a beach club in the traditional sense of the term, and there’s no pool, no entertainment during the day and not much incentive to hang around for longer than an hour or two, except at night.
So, while we don’t recommend crossing Bali to spend a day here, we would recommend popping in for dinner and drinks if you’re in Jimbaran.
FAQs
Can You Go Swimming At Sunset Beach Bar?
Yes, you are able to swim in the sea at Sunset Beach Bar. You should be aware, however, that they do not have a swimming pool at this beach bar, and it’s not quite a full-scale beach club.
We do not recommend swimming in the sea here as, in common with the rest of this part of the Bali coastline, the currents can be very strong and random, and they are capable of pulling even the strongest of swimmers out to sea.
It’s best to approach Sunset Beach Bar as a place to enjoy comfort food and to wash it down with cold drinks as you enjoy the incredible Balinese sunset.
What Is There To Do At Sunset Beach Bar?
You can enjoy food and drinks and chill out by the bar. They have music here on a daily basis, which provides evenings full of fun in what is definitely an upbeat, though not quite full-blown, party atmosphere.
Is Sunset Beach Bar A Child-Friendly Venue?
Yes, Sunset Beach Bar & Grill, Bali is a child-friendly venue in that the Intercontinental Bali Resort is entirely family-friendly and children are welcome in any part of the resort as long as their parents are accompanying them.
It’s worth noting that this venue has no child-specific facilities, and your kids may find that they swiftly get bored in this bar and would rather be by one of the resort’s pools or on the beach front rather than here.
Who Is The Owner Of Sunset Beach Bar?
This beach club is part of the Intercontinental Bali Resort, which in turn is part of a major international hotel chain.
The group of hotels is listed on the United States Stock Exchange and is traded publicly. Thus, its investors are mainly overseas and not from Bali or Indonesia.
Final Thoughts On The Review Of Sunset Beach Bar
The Sunset Beach Bar & Grill offers a very nice hotel beach bar and grill environment. It’s a pleasant open-air style venue, and it’s in a lovely spot on the beach with some amazing views of the sunset over the ocean.
However, it’s not really a full-blown beach club, and that means it’s not ideal for a whole day out. There’s no pool, and the seating is bar/restaurant seating; there are no daybeds to enjoy.
Sure, the resort has pools and other amenities, but they aren’t available to visitors who come to the Sunset Beach Bar, only to those who are staying in the hotel.
So, if you’re in the mood for a sunset dinner and drinks with a live band in the background, this is an excellent spot, particularly if you’re already in Jimbaran, but if you would prefer a party or a full day with a pool, this isn’t going to be ideal.
