We work island-wide, but most families end up in one of a handful of broad regions. Here is how we’d describe each one to a family deciding between them.

Canggu and the south-west coast

(Berawa, Seseh, Cemagi, Pererenan.) The default choice, for the right reasons. Three of the best-known international schools are here, with Green School an easy drive inland. The coast is surfable from the first week. The coffee is taken as seriously as anywhere in Asia. Cafés are full of laptops and young families. Easy access to Seminyak for shopping, Kerobokan for traffic.

The traffic, though, is real — at school pick-up time, a fifteen-minute drive can become forty-five. The villas here are the most architected on the island, the rental market the most expensive, and the year the most “Bali expat” in flavour. Families who want a year with structure, social density and easy logistics tend to settle here.

Uluwatu and the Bukit peninsula

Bali’s cliff coast — dramatic and dry. Serious surf, long sunsets, and some of the island’s finest villas. Quieter, slower, more isolated than the south-west. International options on the peninsula are growing — newer schools have opened around Uluwatu and Jimbaran — though some families still commute up to Canggu for the more established schools.

The trade-off for many families: extraordinary lifestyle, harder weekday logistics. Suits families with older children, or with one parent working remotely, who value beauty and stillness over school-run convenience.

Ubud and the central rice belt

The cultural heart of the island. Rice paddies, temples, traditional villages — the Bali of the imagination. Green School sits below it at Sibang Kaja, on the road down towards the coast, and a handful of smaller schools are here. Cooler, wetter, more contemplative than the coast.

Families who base in Ubud often describe the year as a deeply immersive one — a slower rhythm, more time in Balinese culture, and children who tend to pick up more Bahasa. The trade-off: you swap ocean for green, and the surf coast is forty-five minutes away.

Sanur and the south-east

The gentlest landing on the island. Calm, swimmable water inside the reef, a long beachfront path, an older and quieter expatriate community, and BIS — the island’s longest-running international school — at its heart. The pace suits younger children and first years abroad.

The trade-off: less of the new-build villa stock of the south-west, and a longer drive to the surf. Families who choose Sanur tend to value ease over edge — and the school run is the calmest on the island.

The quieter corridors

(North Cemagi, east of Sanur, the Sidemen valley.) Some families come for a year and want to be away from the expat density. There are beautiful traditional villages here where yours will be the only foreign family within a kilometre.

This is one of the most unusual years you can have in Bali. The children grow up in a village rather than in an expat enclave. Bahasa tends to come faster. The friendships are local. The trade-off: longer drives to school, fewer Western conveniences, more of Bali on Bali’s terms. Families who choose it tend to speak warmly of it.

“Some families want a year in paradise that happens to be in Bali. Some want the year to be specifically about Bali. Where on the island they live is the first decision that signals which.”

The questions that decide it

We work through five questions on the first call.

Ages and stages of the children. Pre-school and primary children flourish in the quieter, more nature-immersed regions. Teenagers tend to need the social density of Canggu.

The surfing question. If surf is part of why you’re coming, the south-west coast and Bukit win. If you can take or leave the ocean, Ubud opens up.

The work question. Remote work is straightforward in Canggu, fine in Uluwatu and Ubud, harder (but possible) in the deep village. If you have client calls in European time zones, your villa needs particular kit, which we arrange.

The cultural appetite. Some families want a year in paradise that happens to be in Bali; some want the year to be specifically about Bali. The first group tends to land in Canggu or Uluwatu. The second tends to land in Ubud or further afield.

The pace. Canggu is fast. Ubud is slow. Uluwatu is dramatic. The villages are silent. Choose your tempo.

What we do

We don’t show you villas first; we show you regions first. A scouting trip — three to five days, before the year — visits the two or three regions of Bali on your shortlist, sees the schools, walks the markets, eats at the warungs, watches the school pick-up. Most families know by day three.

The right region is the one that, on day three, feels like home before you’ve even moved in.

Two companion notes: choosing the school by the child, and what a year costs, in full.

Author: The Annum  ·  Published: May 2026  ·  Last updated: June 2026

— The Annum