Bash scripting: test for empty directory

if [ -z "$(ls -A /path/to/dir)" ]; then
   echo "Empty"
else
   echo "Not Empty"
fi

Also, it would be cool to check if the directory exists before.

No need for counting anything or shell globs. You can also use read in combination with find. If find's output is empty, you'll return false:

if find /some/dir -mindepth 1 | read; then
   echo "dir not empty"
else
   echo "dir empty"
fi

This should be portable.

if [ -n "$(find "$DIR_TO_CHECK" -maxdepth 0 -type d -empty 2>/dev/null)" ]; then
    echo "Empty directory"
else
    echo "Not empty or NOT a directory"
fi