If La Bianca belongs to sunset, Agung Beach Club belongs to the morning: breakfast on the sand, Mount Agung across the water and the easygoing island world of Papa Louis and Yanti.

Created by Fanny and Morgan, La Bianca is a beachfront Lembongan restaurant where chef Nicolas Codani’s Mediterranean cooking meets one of the island’s great pleasures: dinner beneath the trees at sunset.

A modest burger joint in Jungut Batu, an excellent homemade bun, a perfectly smashed patty and one dangerously subjective conclusion: JJ’s may serve my favourite burger in Bali.

Looking for an object genuinely made in Bali, I found Kala Hats: Sastrajiwa’s extraordinary Canggu atelier where merino felt, fire, engraving and craftsmanship turn a hat into something entirely personal.

Between the sea and Lembongan’s mangroves, this simple family-run guesthouse is less about luxury than waking beside the water, slowing down and becoming temporarily part of Dipa’s island family.

Hidden beneath the cliffs of Pecatu, Nunggalan is the Bali beach you have to earn: a steep walk down to sand, open ocean, grazing cows, hammocks, reggae and the wonderfully improbable Bikini Bottom.

Just thirty minutes across the water from Sanur, Nusa Lembongan offers mangroves, beaches, marine life and something increasingly difficult to find on mainland Bali: a slower rhythm.

My first real escape into Bali’s nature began at Nienté, a quiet guesthouse hidden near the jungle in Tabanan, where Italian food, good wine and silence make the rest of the island feel wonderfully far away.

Part ceramic store, part workshop and part refuge from Jimbaran’s traffic, Jenggala is one of those rare places where shopping can quite happily turn into an afternoon.

I thought the demolition of old Bingin Beach had taken Lucky Fish with it. Then the team, the smiles and, most importantly, that extraordinary grilled squid reappeared in Uluwatu.

Behind one of Berawa’s busiest roads survives a quiet Japanese garden, a home kitchen and pottery studio where Yumiko has created something increasingly rare in Canggu: a place that asks you to slow down.

A little corner of France in the heart of Seminyak. Chef François is where I go when Bali suddenly makes me miss proper cheese, charcuterie, homemade French classics and the kind of sandwich that tastes like home.

High in the cool Bedugul mountains, Bali Botanical Garden offers 157 hectares of extraordinary vegetation, open space and something increasingly precious on the island: silence.

A charming roadside café on the climb towards Bedugul where Ibu Kadek’s homemade food, preserves and wonderfully warm hospitality have become reason enough for me to take the road north.

A tiny noodle warung on Batu Bolong, a food-obsessed founder and bowls of homemade Sichuan-style noodles that have developed an inconvenient tendency to appear in my dreams.