Surfing Bingin Beach in 2026: A Local's Guide After the Demolition

Is Bingin still worth surfing after the demolition? Yes. The wave did not move. Everything around it did.

If you surfed Bingin before July 2025 you remember the cliff: three storeys of warungs, homestays and board racks stacked into the rock, a Bintang at Kelly's Warung with the barrel spitting 50 metres in front of you. That is gone. All of it. What you get in 2026 is the same left, a bare cliff, a rough path down and a lot fewer people in the water.

We guide at Bingin most weeks, coach there on private sessions only, and we are 10 to 15 minutes up the road. This is what a Bingin session looks like right now, not what the 2023 blogs say.

What happened at Bingin Beach?

On 21 July 2025 the Bali provincial and Badung Regency governments demolished 48 buildings on the cliff at Bingin Beach, including the warungs, homestays and surf shops that had been there since the 1970s and 80s. The reason given was that the structures sat on state coastal land without the permits required under national coastal law and a 2020 Bali governor's regulation on cliff and shoreline building.

It happened fast. Demolition notices went out on 16 July, around 38 residents went to the administrative court in Denpasar on 22 July to try to stop it, and the case stalled because the governor's decree had not been finalised, so there was nothing final to challenge. By then the excavators were already on the cliff. A Change.org petition passed 15,000 signatures in the first week and Kelly Slater posted about it, which is why half the Bukit's surf shops still have the "Save Bingin" sticker on the door.

Officials also said foreign nationals were investors in at least 7 of the 48 businesses, with Indonesians holding the operator licences. That detail matters because it is the government's answer to the "why Bingin and not the beach clubs" question, and you will hear both sides of it from locals in the car park. The full timeline is in Honeycombers' one year on piece and Surfer's report from the week it happened.

Is Bingin Beach open in 2026?

Yes. Bingin Beach is open, free to enter and surfed every day. What is closed is everything that used to be on the cliff above it.

As of mid 2026 there are no toilets, no showers, no restaurants and no rooms on the cliff. Rubble and graffiti covered walls line the path down, and after big rain some of it ends up on the sand. The car park that used to be full of bikes by 7am held, when Tracks visited in May 2026, "maybe a quarter of the bikes the beach used to attract".

We'll level with you: the takeoff zone at Bingin is 5 to 10 metres wide, so a quieter car park is the upside. Forty people on a mid tide push in August used to mean one wave an hour if you were not a regular. It is less crowded now, but it can still get busy, so paddle out at sunrise or stay in as the sun goes down and the pack thins. This dry season has been good to us, and the 2026/27 wet season could be too: BMKG has a strong El Niño running into early 2027 with a later, shorter rainy season, and the last El Niño wet season (2023/24, our first year here) gave us not much rain and clean surf most mornings. If you are an intermediate who always got burned at Bingin, this is your window.

What's the wave like at Bingin?

Bingin is a short, hollow, mechanical left over shallow reef, and it works best at mid tide on a shoulder high to overhead swell from the SW or SSW. The barrel is the whole point: a steep takeoff, a quick pull in, four or five seconds of tube, then a shoulder with room for one or two turns before you kick out, because the inside section will dump you on dry reef if you hold on. Our Bingin surf spot page covers the wave itself; this is the planning version.

What tide is best at Bingin?

Mid tide, pushing or dropping, is the window. At dead low the inside is knee deep over coral and the wave shuts down in front of the reef. At high tide it goes fat and loses the barrel, so the pack thins out or paddles up to Impossibles, which handles the extra water better. Our rule with guests: we paddle out about two hours either side of mid tide and we do not take anyone out at Bingin on a dead low, however good it looks from the cliff. Read our tide guide if the words "pushing" and "dropping" are new to you.

How big does Bingin need to be?

Shoulder high to overhead, 4 to 6 feet, is the ideal size for most surfers and for the wave breaking properly on the reef. Smaller and it struggles to barrel; bigger and it gets heavier and less forgiving on the inside. Wind follows the Bukit pattern: it tends to pick up through the afternoon and drops out at sunrise and again toward sunset, which is another reason the dawn and last light sessions are the ones to plan around.

Who should surf Bingin?

Bingin is a Level 3 and Level 4 wave. If you cannot take off late and set your line in one movement you will either miss the wave or get pitched onto the reef, and the reef at Bingin is sharper than Padang.

We'll level with you on beginners. On a 1 to 2 foot day you will see other schools out there on longboards and mid lengths, sitting wide on the shoulder, and you will see longboarders doing the same on their own. We do not do that. We take L1 and L2 guests to Baby Padang or Thomas, and we bring them to Bingin to watch from the sand and see what they are working toward. If you are an intermediate stepping up, this is where paying for a coach stops being a luxury. Bingin is a private session with us rather than a group lesson, and Boukit has coached here for 15 years and knows where to sit on a given tide, which is the difference between two barrels in a session and two reef cuts.

How do you get down to Bingin Beach, and is it safe?

Two car parks, both with stairs down, and yes, it is safe if you watch your feet. On a scooter, use the Pathway down to Bingin lot at the end of the lane past Temple Lodge. In a car, or in our van, it is Bingin Car Park North, which is the only one of the two that takes cars. Parking is 5,000 IDR for a scooter or 10,000 for a car, cash only, so bring small notes. Do not leave anything in your bike, not a towel, not a wax comb.

From either lot it is about 8 minutes down and 12 to 15 back up with a board. The stairs are a work in progress: the old concrete steps between the warungs were broken up in the demolition, the community and the Badung government have been laying new ones since early 2026, and the plan is a 3 metre wide staircase down the cliff as phase one of the rebuild. For now expect uneven steps, rubble on the edges and no handrail in places.

Wear shoes you do not mind trashing. If you are coming from Uluwatu or Padang by scooter it is 10 to 15 minutes; our guests come in the van. Everyone else, rent a scooter with racks.

Are there any warungs left at Bingin?

No. There are no restaurants or cafes at Bingin Beach in 2026. As of mid 2026 the only food and drink on the beach was a stall or two (one run by Anas, who used to work in one of the warungs) selling Bintang and coconuts, and Teko's surf shop was still standing.

So the Bingin day has changed. Before, you surfed, climbed 30 steps, ate a nasi goreng at Kelly's with the lineup in front of you and paddled back out for the second tide. Now you bring two litres of water, a banana and sunscreen, and you eat afterwards. There is no shade either, so a cheap umbrella from the Pepito in Pecatu is worth the 60k.

For food after the session we go to Satu, which is in our Uluwatu warung guide along with the rest of our picks within 10 minutes of the Bingin car parks.

Where should you stay near Bingin Beach in 2026?

Not on the cliff, because there is nothing on the cliff. Every room at beach level was cleared in July 2025, so "Bingin beach accommodation" in 2026 means the clifftop villas and homestays along the Bingin road, or a surf camp 10 to 15 minutes away with transport to the wave.

We'll level with you about the clifftop. The lineup is quieter than it was, but the road above it is not. The Bingin road has become a building site with traffic to match: Motel Mexicola opened a 350 seat venue there in July 2026, villas are going up on both sides, and most of the trees that used to shade the road have been cut down for them. A clifftop stay puts you 5 minutes from the car park and gives you the view, and that is the whole pitch. The trade is no food on the beach, a steep walk down with a board every session, a scooter crawl in and out at any hour that matters, and no one to tell you that today is an Impossibles day and not a Bingin day.

So unless you love Bingin and plan to surf nothing else, stay somewhere that gets you to the rest of the Bukit. Kala is in Uluwatu, 5 minutes on foot from the beach at Padang and 10 to 15 minutes in the van from Bingin, Impossibles, Dreamland, Balangan and Uluwatu. Two sessions a day in the van, a coach or guide picking the spot off the tide and the forecast, and a pool and a restaurant to come back to, which in 2026 counts for more at Bingin than it used to. Prices are on the packages page, Guiding for L3 and L4 is the one most Bingin surfers book, and if you stay 7 nights or more the airport transfer is free. For the wider picture of the Bukit's areas read where to stay in Uluwatu.

When is the best time to surf Bingin?

May to September. Bingin needs SW swell and it needs the dry season trades, which blow offshore on the Bukit, and both line up in those months. Expect head high or better most weeks, with the biggest swells in June, July and August pushing it past the size where it is any good.

October and November still produce, with lighter crowds and the odd onshore afternoon. December to March is the wet season, the wind swings west and Bingin is mostly a morning only wave on the days it breaks at all. Our Bali surf seasons guide has the month by month detail.

This year is the exception worth planning around. BMKG has a strong El Niño running from June 2026 into at least the first quarter of 2027, with the rainy season starting late, in November or December, and running shorter than usual. We cannot promise you what that does to Bingin, but we can tell you what the last one did: the 2023/24 wet season, our first here, gave us weeks of light rain and clean surf most mornings right through January. If you have been putting off a December or January trip because of the rain, this is the year to stop.

What is the plan to rebuild Bingin?

Badung Regency announced a two phase redevelopment in May 2026. Phase one, in 2026, is clearing, the new 3 metre wide staircase, a clean water network, showers and public toilets, and preparing land for wooden stalls and a performance stage. Phase two is 2027: a detailed engineering design, then a tender, then physical construction, which the regency says will likely start in June or July, so mid 2027 at the earliest. Its own words are that the area "will not be fully completed in 2026".

So for the 2026 and 2027 dry seasons, expect a building site above the wave. Bingin Boardriders say the comps come back once the basics are in, and the basics start with a toilet. What comes after, warungs run by the same families or something more polished, is the question nobody in Pecatu can answer yet. The Bali Sun has the official version.

FAQ

Q. What happened to Bingin Beach?

On 21 July 2025 the Bali provincial and Badung Regency governments demolished 48 buildings on the cliff at Bingin Beach, including every warung, homestay and surf shop, because they sat on state coastal land without permits. The beach and the wave were not touched and remain open. A government rebuild with new stairs, toilets and wooden stalls is under way, with the main construction expected from mid 2027.

Q. Is Bingin Beach closed?

No. Bingin Beach is open and free to visit in 2026. The cliff above it is a building site, so there are no restaurants, toilets or rooms at the beach, and the stairs down are new and still rough. The surf break is unchanged.

Q. Why was Bingin Beach demolished?

The government said the buildings breached Indonesia's 2007 coastal management law and a 2020 Bali governor's regulation banning construction on coastal boundaries and cliffs. Residents filed a case in the Denpasar administrative court on 22 July 2025, but it stalled because the demolition decree had not been finalised.

Q. Can you swim at Bingin Beach?

Only at high tide, in the sandy channels close to the cliff. Bingin is a reef beach: the inside dries out at low tide and there are sea urchins in the rock pools. For a proper swim, Padang Padang or Dreamland are 10 minutes away.

Q. Is Bingin Beach in Uluwatu?

Bingin is in Pecatu village on the Bukit Peninsula, the area most travellers call Uluwatu. It sits between Dreamland and Impossibles on the west coast, 10 to 15 minutes by scooter from the Uluwatu surf break and the temple.

Q. Is Bingin good for beginners?

No. Bingin is a fast, hollow wave over shallow reef for confident intermediate and advanced surfers (Level 3 and 4 in our system). Beginners on the Bukit should learn at Baby Padang, Thomas Beach or Dreamland, and come to Bingin to watch.

Q. Is Bingin Beach safe?

Yes. The beach and the wave are as safe as any reef break on the Bukit. The cliff is the risk: the stairs are new and uneven, and loose rubble from the demolition can come down after heavy rain, so watch your feet and do not sit directly under the cut faces. Do not leave anything in your bike up top, and we would not leave a bag unattended on the sand either. Bring what you need for the session and nothing you would miss.

Q. Where do you park at Bingin Beach?

Two lots on the cliff. Scooters use the Pathway down to Bingin lot at the end of the lane past Temple Lodge. Cars use Bingin Car Park North, the only one of the two that takes vehicles. Parking is 5,000 IDR for a scooter and 10,000 for a car, cash only, and both lots have stairs down to the beach.