Bali - nice places on a swimming beach, but not trapped in resort

[beingorange]

Hello,
Can anyone help? Im looking for a mid range place in Bali, on the beach, ideally one good for swimming in. And I get a bit claustrophobic in a resort that is impossible to leave on foot, so ideally close to places to eat and drink. I was looking at Peneeda beach hotel in Sanur, but I am worried the rooms look a bit old, and the beach is mediocre. Or am I wrong about that?

Friends of mine living in Jakarta rate nusa dua .
If you want to spend some time inland then Ubud is lovely with a huge selection of great restaurants.
Kuta is a complete dump and to be avoided!

thank you. nusa dua looks amazing, but seems a bit isolated from the rest of the island. And yes Kuta looks horrendous!

Lovina Beach is nice (north island) and Candidasa (east).

We stayed at Sanur which is more traditionally Balinese. Nusa Dua is more upmarket, and I suspect it is more touristy and more expensive. We walked around Sanur with no problem, but you will be hassled by hawkers. The beach is not mediocre. It is on a lagoon which makes it very safe for swimming. You can get glass bottomed boats to the other side of the reef and you can try parasailing.

We got together with another couple and hired a taxi for an afternoon. IMO that is a really good way to see the area because you can ask the driver to take you wherever you want.

Kuta is horrible. We visited it briefly on our taxi drive and hated it. According to an Australian girl I got talking to on the flight home it is where a lot of Australian stag parties go. It sounds a bit like the Bali version of Magaluf.

Trp Advisor lists some hotels in Sanur. We stayed at the Segara Village which is very traditional, but it needed a bit of TLC when we were there. Although from reading the recent Trip Advisor reviews they may have smartened it up since we were there (in 1996)

We loved Sanur when we stayed there back in 2012. We stayed at the Puri Santrian - the spa was amazing, we were there everyday and the staff were really friendly too, couldn't do enough for us.

I stayed at the hyatt in Sanur in 2011. The beach is lovely and we walked into sanur every lunchtime and evening. There are loads of restaurants and a supermarket where you can buy whatever you need. So many places to eat you could go somewhere different every night. We were b&b at the hyatt and breakfasts were excellent, I love the fact that in Bali you can get nice bacon!!!
Towards the end of the holiday we got lazy and ate club sandwiches round the pool. You could hire bikes from the hotel but we never did...

We stayed in Sanur and ubud. Found ubud to be a little secluded where we were (suited us though as it was our honeymoon and only 4 nights) and obviously no beach. Beach in Sanur looked amazing but I don't like beaches or swimming in the sea so didn't do more than a quick walk on it in the evenings. Stayed in the puri santrian as well. It was lovely but the hotel in ubud was so amazing ly expensive that I don't think anything would have quite compared!

Thank you! We have decided to stick with Sanur, with a day trip to Ubud, then a few days on Jimbaran, for the sunsets, and to possibly have a day or night out in Seminyak