Best Time to Visit Canggu: Surf Season Versus Sunshine, and the March Day When Everything Shuts

Canggu is warm all year and the sea is always warm enough, so the question is not temperature. It is whether you want the biggest surf, the driest skies, or the smallest crowds, because they do not line up.

And there is one day a year when none of it matters because the entire island stops.

Nyepi, the Balinese day of silence, falls in March on a date that moves with the lunar calendar. For twenty-four hours from six in the morning the airport closes, nobody may leave their accommodation, the beaches and roads are empty and patrolled, and lights and noise are forbidden. Beach clubs, surf schools and restaurants are closed, and hotel guests stay inside the grounds.

The night before is the ogoh-ogoh parade, when villages carry giant papier-mâché demons through the streets and burn them, and it is one of the best things to see on the island. But a flight timed to land on Nyepi will not land, and a two-day stay that includes it is one day of hotel. Check the date before booking March.

This is the surf season for anyone above beginner, with consistent south-west swell, and it is also the driest and least humid stretch. Mornings are usually offshore and glassy.

July and August are peak: the town is full, prices are up, and the beginner line-up at Batu Bolong is at its widest. May, June and September have the same weather with more room.

Rain comes mostly as an afternoon or evening storm, often heavy and short, with bright mornings. The surf is smaller and cleaner early, which suits learning. Humidity is high and the beach can carry debris washed out of the rivers after big storms, especially in January and February.

Outside the Christmas fortnight it is the quietest and cheapest time to be here.