Kuta, Bali tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 12:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Asia/Makassar local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Mon 18 May (range 2.9m). Last neap on Sat 16 May. Next neap on Fri 22 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Kuta faces the Indian Ocean directly from Bali's southwest coast, backed by the beach road and the dense commercial strip that has built up since the 1970s. The beach runs roughly 3 km from the Ngurah Rai International Airport boundary in the south to where the sand transitions into Legian beach to the north. Between those endpoints, the width of the usable beach changes by 60 to 100 m across a tidal cycle. The tide at Kuta is semidiurnal — two high tides and two low tides in each 24-hour period — with a mean range of 1.0 to 2.0 m. The Indonesian tropical regime introduces significant diurnal inequality: the morning and afternoon high tides differ measurably in height, sometimes by 0.5 m or more, and the same applies to the two daily low tides. On a day with a high morning high and a low afternoon high, the beach strip at 07:00 may be 30 m wider than it is at 17:00, even though the direction of tide change is the same. The practical consequence is that the beach conditions at a given clock hour vary substantially across the week as the tidal phase shifts. At low water, the beach at Kuta is at its widest — 80 to 100 m of firm, wave-washed sand from the water's edge to the sea wall. The breaking wave moves 60 to 80 m further offshore compared with high water, which shifts the surf zone into slightly deeper water and changes the wave shape. For families with children, low water is the safer window: the wave energy breaks further from the beach, the run-up reaches less far, and there is a wide flat sand section between the wave zone and the beach road. At high water, that buffer compresses to 20 to 30 m of sand, and the waves break closer to the populated beach strip. At peak-season high water — July and August on a high spring tide — the beach in front of the main warungs becomes genuinely crowded, with little separation between beach infrastructure and breaking waves. Kuta's position on the open Indian Ocean southwest coast means it receives consistent swell year-round, but the volume and energy shift by season. From April to October, the southeast trade wind system drives reliable 1.5 to 2.5 m swells from the south and southwest — the dry season is the consistent swell season. From November to March, the wet season brings northwest winds, reduced swell consistency, and periods of onshore chop that make the beach surface less clean. The wave break at Kuta is a beach break, meaning it shifts location with sand movement and changes character as the tide runs: the inside reform section at mid-tide is a different wave to the fuller outside section at low water. The beach at Kuta has a documented plastic debris problem. Ocean circulation patterns — specifically the Java Sea outflow and the Indonesian Throughflow — bring floating waste from across the Indonesian archipelago westward along the south Bali coast. The accumulation is seasonal: it peaks during the northwest monsoon season from November through March, when onshore winds and currents concentrate debris on the southwest-facing beaches. Kuta and Legian receive the bulk of this load; organised clean-up operations run year-round and are publicly visible in the early mornings, before beach activity peaks. The situation is tracked publicly by coastal environmental organisations monitoring the Java Sea waste load. It is context that informs when to visit (dry season reduces the visible accumulation) and what to expect. Ngurah Rai Airport's main runway approach track passes directly over the south end of Kuta beach. Aircraft on final approach to runway 09 pass at 200 to 300 m altitude directly overhead — low enough to read the airline livery clearly. This is not a hidden fact; it is one of the more unusual sensory features of the southern beach, most noticeable from late morning onward when arrival traffic is heaviest. The approach path makes the southern 500 m of beach less suited to quiet relaxation and more of interest to anyone who finds the combination of ocean and arriving aircraft compelling. Tide data for Kuta, Bali comes from the Open-Meteo Marine API, a gridded model product. Timing accuracy is ±45 minutes, height accuracy ±0.3 m — usable for trip planning, not for navigation.