How much does a surf lesson cost in Canggu?

Why "a surf lesson in Canggu" has two price lists

Canggu does not have a beach-school strip the way Kuta does. The learner breaks (Batu Bolong, Berawa, Old Man's) are worked by camps and academies that sell coaching as part of a stay, so a lesson-only price is the exception, and when it exists it is a half-day session with a coach, a board and often a car to whichever break is working, not a 60-minute push into whitewater. That is Mondo's 475,000: a coached day session, 950,000 if you want the instructor to yourself.

Twenty to thirty minutes south, Kuta beach is lined with schools that sell exactly the opposite product: an hour or two on a soft-top in waist-deep water, 150,000-200,000 in a group, 200,000-325,000 private, book today surf today. Up2U and Chandra's publish full price lists, which is why Google puts them at the top of this search even though neither is in Canggu.

Neither list is wrong. They answer different questions: "can I stand up on a board this afternoon for the price of lunch" (Kuta) versus "will I actually learn to surf in a week" (Canggu).

What the price depends on

• Group size. Up2U's ladder is the clearest: 325,000 private, 250,000 semi-private (two people, one coach), 200,000 standard group, 190,000 each from three people. Chandra's charges 150,000 per hour in a group of two or more and 200,000 for one-on-one.
• Duration. Beach schools sell by the hour or two-hour block; a two-hour block is rarely double the hour (Chandra's: 150,000 and 200,000). Camps sell a session, usually a dawn or late-afternoon slot of two to three hours including the drive.
• Multi-lesson cards. Up2U's five-lesson card is 960,000 for the group format (192,000 a lesson against 200,000 single) and 1,585,000 private. Chandra's takes 20 percent off a week. The saving is modest; the real value of a card is that the same coach sees your progression.
• Level. Beginner rates are the headline; Chandra's charges 400,000 for a two-hour intermediate private session against 300,000 beginner, because the coach goes out the back with you.
• What is included. Board and rash vest are always in. Transport to the break, video analysis and theory are camp inclusions (Mondo's private session includes a car; Soleia's academy is built on daily coaching plus video). A beach school includes the beach you are standing on.
• Season. Published prices hold year-round, but the camps' per-night rates are "from" figures that climb in July, August and over Christmas, when the dry-season swell and the crowds arrive together. Up2U ran a 150,000 promo in the December low month, which tells you where the slack is.

Camp packages: when bundling beats buying lessons

A camp night in Canggu starts at roughly 486,000 (Kima) to 1.24 million IDR (Mondo), with lessons, breakfast and usually yoga inside the number. Against Mondo's own 475,000 lesson-only rate, a 1.24 million night that includes the session, the bed and the yoga is buying the room for about 765,000; against a separately rented Canggu guesthouse at 400,000-700,000 a night plus a 475,000 lesson, the package is roughly break-even and the logistics are solved for you. That is the camps' actual pitch, and it is honest.

Where it stops making sense is the surfer who wants one or two lessons in a two-week trip spent mostly elsewhere. For that reader, two beach-school sessions in Kuta at 200,000 each, or one Mondo day session at 475,000, is the whole budget, and the villa can be wherever it was going to be.

Not for

Skip the Canggu camp session if your goal is a single hour of standing up for the photo: that is a 150,000-200,000 Kuta product and the camps are not trying to compete with it. Skip the Kuta beach schools if you are a second-week surfer who wants to be taken to a green wave: their published menus are beginner menus, and the intermediate upgrade (Chandra's 400,000) is the exception. And skip any package at all if you have not yet checked the season: a wet-season week (November to March) on the west coast is onshore and messy after late morning, which the camps handle by driving to the east coast but a beach school cannot.

Booking and paying

Beach schools book by WhatsApp or a web form, usually with a deposit (Chandra's asks for 50 percent) and the rest in cash or card on the beach. Camps run booking engines (Mondo and Surf & Yoga use Bookinglayer) and price in euro or rupiah with the conversion shown. Three practical checks: whether the quoted price is per person or per group (Mondo's 475,000 is per day session, the private 950,000 is per person); whether tax is inside the number (the beach schools quote inclusive, the camps mostly do too); and the cancellation window for a session the swell ruins, which the better schools move rather than charge.

Prices here are what the schools publish and we re-read them on 17 October 2026. If a desk quoted you something else, tell us through the Ask box below and we will check and correct.