Tabanan is the regency that picks up a few kilometres west of Canggu and runs inland to Mount Batukaru. Around 839 km2 of it, with 37 km of coast between Nyanyi Beach in the east and Selabih in the west, and about a quarter of the land under rice.
The coast is dark volcanic sand, exposed, and mostly undeveloped. Tanah Lot sits on an offshore rock at the eastern end and takes almost all the visitors the regency gets. West of the temple the beaches empty out quickly: Yeh Gangga, then the quiet black-sand stretches at Pasut and Kelating, then Balian at the far end, around two hours from the airport.
Inland is where Tabanan makes sense. Terraces climb from the coast up to Jatiluwih at roughly 700 m, watered by the subak irrigation system UNESCO listed in 2012, with Batukaru behind them at 2,276 m. This is farming country that happens to have a coastline.
For buyers the difference from Canggu is size and quiet. Plots run bigger, density is lower, and almost nothing is walkable.
Around Tabanan
Surf & beaches
Dark volcanic sand at a river mouth in Kediri district, roughly 20 to 30 minutes west of Canggu and a short way north of Tanah Lot, with rice fields running almost to the sand. Several peaks break over sand and rock, including a sheltered inside section learners use and an outside peak for intermediates. Most consistent through the dry season, roughly April to October.
The first Tabanan beach coming from Canggu and the eastern end of the regency's coastline, sitting between Tanah Lot and the Badung border. Black sand under grass-topped cliffs, with rock formations exposed at the western end on a low tide.
Black sand at the Gangga river mouth about 10 km southwest of Tabanan town, with sea stacks standing offshore that read like a smaller Tanah Lot. Lefts and rights for intermediates and up on a southwest swell. The current here is serious, so it's a beach to surf rather than swim.
Around 2 km of black sand at the mouth of the Balian River, on the far western side of the regency and about two hours from the airport. The river mouth throws an A-frame with lefts and rights and a deep channel beside it, which makes it usable across a wide range of ability. The final approach road is narrow and rough.
See & do
The sea temple on an offshore rock at Beraban in Kediri district, roughly 13 km south of Tabanan town and 20 km northwest of Denpasar. It's reachable on foot only at low tide, and it's the one place in the regency that draws a proper crowd, mostly at sunset.
Terraced fields at about 700 m in Penebel district, inland and uphill from the coast, fed by the subak irrigation system UNESCO listed in 2012. Mount Batukaru stands behind them. Over an hour's drive up from the Tanah Lot coast, and the reason Tabanan gets called the island's rice heartland.
Bali's second-highest peak at 2,276 m, in the north of the regency, with a temple on its slopes and rainforest above the terraces. It's the high ground the whole of Tabanan drains from, which is why the rivers down here run year round.
An 18-hole course laid out beside the temple since the late 1990s, running through rice terraces and along the sea cliffs. It keeps a wide stretch of coast either side of Tanah Lot open and green.
Properties in Tabanan
88 Ara Land in Tabanan
8800 m² · Leasehold
IDR 42,240,000,000
IDR 4,800,000 / m² land40 yr leasePink zone
1/2Freehold Land in Tabanan
2550 m² · Freehold
IDR 6,400,000,000
IDR 2,510,000 / m² landFreeholdYellow zone
12.35 Ara Land in Tabanan
1235 m² · Leasehold
IDR 2,940,000,000
IDR 2,380,000 / m² land28 yr leaseYellow zone
4.3 Ara Land near Tanah Lot
430 m² · Leasehold
IDR 1,160,000,000
IDR 2,700,000 / m² land25 yr leaseYellow zone
Why buyers look at Tabanan
The trade is distance, and it's a real one. The Tanah Lot end is a manageable drive from the south, the western beaches are not.
Yolla is based on the Bukit. We don't manage villas in Tabanan and we don't run operations here, so treat any rental projection for this coast, ours or anyone else's, with the scepticism it deserves. Any rental figure we quote comes from villas we actually manage.
Who Tabanan suits
Tabanan is land country. Plots run larger than anything left near the southern beaches, the ground is flat or gently terraced, and there's room to set a house well back from the road. If you have a design and the patience to build it, this is where the site exists.
The Kedungu and Tanah Lot end sits roughly 20 to 30 minutes from Canggu, so the schools, shops and airport runs of the south stay usable without living inside the traffic. You give up the walk to dinner and get rice fields in return.
The coast here is exposed, uncrowded and mostly sand and rock rather than shallow reef, with Kedungu at the eastern end and Balian's river mouth two hours west. It works best from April to October. Anyone who wants a world-class reef break at the bottom of the street should be looking at the Bukit.