Canggu, Bali

Canggu has burst in popularity over the past few years and is now quite a popular place to visit. It's not as built up as other areas yet and still has a relaxing holiday vibe.

Fast Five Favourites:

Cafes- A major attraction staying in the area. Crate is probably the most popular and was our favorite. We also enjoyed Cafe Organic, Avocado Factory, and the Vietnamese food from Banh Mi & Beans was delicious. Coffee Cartel, Sea Circus and Kynd Community were a few places nearby in Seminyak that we enjoyed.
Sunsets- Bali generally is popular for it’s sunsets. Most nights we enjoyed beautiful sunsets on the beach in Canggu, which was a short walk from our villa.
Villa- There’s so many nice options for Villas and the price was very reasonable. We enjoyed our stay at Hidden River Cottage (on Airbnb). It was clean, spacious and had everything we needed - including a small plunge pool to cool off in. The service and staff are excellent and we were able to hire a scooter directly from the villa.
Beach restaurants/bars- La Laguna has a beautiful outdoor area on the beach with a fairytale setting. It was great to relax on bean bags with Lilah and watch the sunset. The well known beach club, Finns, was a nice way to spend the day. It’s $50 per person for a sun chair which you can then use as a tab. It was a nice place to relax with Lilah. She enjoyed a pineapple juice at the pool bar, the beach, sleeping on the sun loungers, and good music.
Kids cafes- La Casita was our favorite as it was close by and the playground was perfect for Lilah. It’s also located in a nice setting next to rice fields. The Jogolo was another one we visited. The menu was good but the playground was more suited to kids a little older.

Tips:

Many of the cafes listed above are as popular in real life as they are on Instagram. We found it to be a little less busy if we went for an early lunch or dinner.
The party vibe was turning up in the afternoon as we were leaving Finns. It felt like good timing with Lilah.
Book ahead at La Laguna, there were many tables reserved.
The popular villas on Airbnb sell out quick. We would recommend booking early, especially during the dry season. In saying that, there are many options!
We spent 8 nights in Canggu. We didn't do much in terms of sightseeing, it was more a place to chill and relax for us at the end of our summer vacation.
We are glad we found a place with the pool as we didn't find the beach to be very swim friendly, especially with Lilah.
If you didn't already know, it is a great place for a surfing holiday. We saw many people learning to surf. With reasonably priced accommodation, extended stays were popular.

Baby on Board:

If Lilah was to choose her favorite spot in Canggu it would be La Casita! She asked to go back multiple times and never wanted to leave. The waitresses are super sweet and love to play with the children when it is not busy. We met up with another family here and it was the perfect spot to chat and enjoy food while the kids played.
There were not many footpaths which was a surprise for us. This made using the stroller a struggle. After one attempt we decided to get a scooter. To be honest we felt safer driving with her on the scooter than walking with her on the side of the road. We were able to buy a small helmet for Lilah at a local shop. We chose not to drive with her at night when it is busier and a little crazier. There’s a random little road through rice paddies (although it is the main road!) that connects Canggu and Seminyak. It can get completely jammed at night and with one narrow lane.
We found the supermarket to be relatively expensive. Thankfully, it was cheap to eat out. We do like to have snacks for Lilah at home though, we wish we had a bit more of them with us as we spent a small fortune on goldfish crackers.

Five things the photos do not show:

We met up with @thejetsettingfamily and @wanderintwo while staying in Canggu. It really is something else meeting with people you are following and are inspired by on Instagram. We are excited to meet more families in the future!
Sonita had her flip flops taken within five minutes of leaving them on the sand at the beach. We have become so relaxed after living in Korea where we have left our phones on the bus and they are returned to us.
Lilah loves when we get a foot massage! She will chat away to us and play with the many extra therapists waiting for customers. At one particular spa near our home the workers really opened up to us about how tough it is for them. We always try to leave tips and love to see the smiles spread across their faces. Many of them were away from their own young children and were teary eyed watching Lilah giggle and play.
The waiters were very sweet and understanding at La Laguna. Lilah was playing for hours, getting sand all through their beautiful picnic blanket. We really should have left while the going was good as she became overtired and threw a massive tantrum just after the sunset. We left in a hurry and had to return as we left Peppa Pig behind :)
Our villa was near the water and set amongst a lot of greenery which was beautiful. We did see a few too many creepy crawlies, big spiders, a scorpion in the bathroom, and a biawak (a huge lizard related to the Komodo dragon) relaxing by the pool. This wasn't much though in comparison to our stay in Manuel Antonio where we counted seven snakes during our stay in the jungle.