Jet lag, a surf, a flight, a small child who has not adjusted. Most of my clients are awake at six at least once. And at six, the Bali that gets written about does not exist yet.
Of the places around here that publish opening hours, roughly a quarter are open by seven. That sounds thin until you realise it's the only quarter that matters to you that morning, and no app sorts for it.
It's mostly coffee, and that's fine
About sixty per cent of what's open early is a café or a bakery, a much higher share than the island as a whole. Early Bali runs on coffee and pastry, not on breakfast as a meal. If you want rice and eggs before seven you want a warung, and you want one near a market rather than near a beach club.
What I actually do with the hour
- Markets, which are finished by eight and are a completely different place at six than at nine.
- Beaches, which belong to fishermen and dog-walkers until about half past seven and to everyone else afterwards.
- Anything with a queue later in the day. The temple that's unbearable at eleven is yours at half six.
- The drive. Roads that take an hour at ten take twenty minutes at six, which is worth more than most people believe until they've done it once.
If I know you're an early riser I plan for it deliberately rather than treating it as a problem, and you get a version of the island most visitors never see.
Planning something like this?
Tell me the dates and roughly how you like to travel, and I'll tell you honestly what I'd do with them.