Ubud starts at four in the morning. Or it starts with breakfast.
Whether the Batur trek is worth losing a night over. Which waterfalls fit into one loop. What a silversmith in Celuk charges to teach you. Reviews of every tour you can book around Ubud and central Bali.
The terrace loop, the swing, the volcano, the spring.
Four bookings a first week in Ubud tends to hang off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The full-day loopAll-Inclusive Tour with Optional LunchTerraces, a water temple and a waterfall in one run, with a driver who knows which gate is still quiet at nine.
02The valley swingBest of Ubud Full-Day Tour with Jungle SwingThe long rope out over the Ayung gorge, on a day that also takes in the rice fields and a coffee farm.
03The two a.m. startMount Batur Sunrise Hike with BreakfastHead-torch up the ash path on Batur, breakfast on the rim as the sun comes over Lombok, back in town by ten.
04The temple morningTemple Tour with Optional Spiritual CleansingThirteen spring-fed spouts at Tirta Empul, and the choice of watching or going under them.
Six things central Bali does better than the rest of the island.
Terraces cut by the subak irrigation guilds, a volcano you climb in the dark, ravine waterfalls east of town, spring water you can stand under, quad tracks through the jungle, and a kitchen morning that starts at the market. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
The best hours in Ubud are the ones before breakfast.
The valley is coolest and emptiest before eight, and the three things people come here for all reward getting up. What each kind of early start costs, and how much of a night it takes.
The loud half of Ubud: quad tracks, the Ayung, a rope over the gorge.
North and east of town the tracks run through jungle, a cave tunnel and somebody’s rice field. The Ayung river drops through twenty-odd rapids on the way to Payangan, and the swings hang off the ridge above both. Most of it is a half day, and you are back for lunch.
The days out more people book in Ubud than anything else.
Every Ubud tour review →The tours carrying the most travellers in central Bali, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
All-Inclusive Ubud Private Tour
See Ubud’s monkey forest, rice terraces, holy springs, waterfall, and Balinese homes on a private day tour with lunch and transport.
From · $100
Read our review →
2
Best of Ubud Full-Day Tour with Jungle Swing
from $56
3
Monkey Forest, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace, and Water Temple
from $31
4
Waterfalls, Water Temple & Rice Terraces Private Tour
from $29
5
All-Inclusive Tour with Optional Lunch
from $27
6
Guided ATV Quad Bike Jungle Adventure with Lunch
from $22
7
Best of Ubud 1-Day Private Tour
from $54
8
Ubud Palace Legong Dance Show Ticket
from $6
Tegallalang before nine, Jatiluwih for a whole afternoon.
Every terrace day →
The Tegallalang steps are twenty minutes north of town and packed from nine. The Jatiluwih terraces are an hour west, several times the size, and almost never crowded. Between the two sit the water temples the whole subak system was built around.
Tegallalang, and getting there first
Twenty minutes up the Tampaksiring road, then a walk down the far side of the valley where the tour groups do not go. Every viewing platform charges its own small donation on the way through.
Tirta Empul, Gunung Kawi and the gate east
The spring at Tirta Empul has fed the same stone spouts since the tenth century. Gunung Kawi is cut into the rock down a long flight of steps, and the Lempuyang gate is a two-hour drive further east for a photograph everyone queues for.
The Sacred Monkey Forest, on foot
Twelve hectares of banyan and three temples in the middle of Ubud, with about a thousand long-tailed macaques living in it. They are habituated, quick, and genuinely interested in anything shiny you are carrying.
Ubud itself is walkable, and most of it costs almost nothing.
The Monkey Forest at the bottom of the hill, the Campuhan ridge walk at first light, the palace courtyard at half past seven for the Legong. What you pay for inside Ubud is a ticket and a guide, not a minibus and four hours of driving.
Everything inside Ubud →
Every river east of Ubud ends in a waterfall somebody has cut steps down to.
Tegenungan is the wide one twenty minutes out, and it is always busy. Tibumana and Kanto Lampo are smaller, greener and worth the extra half hour of driving. Tukad Cepung falls inside a collapsed cave and only lights up between about ten and noon, which decides the order of the whole day.
- 1Waterfalls, Water Temple & Rice Terraces Private Tourfrom $29
- 2Best of Bali Waterfalls: Tibumana, Tukad Cepung and Tegenunganfrom $53
- 3Full-Day Rice Terrace, Monkey Forest & Waterfallfrom $23
Temple water, a mortar and pestle, and a sheet of silver.
Half of what people come to Ubud for happens sitting down or standing still. A purification at a tenth-century spring, a class that starts in the market and ends as your lunch, a morning learning to solder a ring on the road through Celuk.
What a day out from Ubud actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. A good number of the best days in central Bali come in under the price of the taxi from the airport.
Temple tickets, the Monkey Forest, waterfall loops, cooking mornings and most of the quad tracks.
A private car and driver for the whole day, Batur with the hot springs after, the long run east to Besakih and Lempuyang.
- 1All-Inclusive Ubud Private Tourfrom $100
- 2Best of Ubud Full-Day Tour with Jungle Swingfrom $56
- 3Best of Ubud 1-Day Private Tourfrom $54
Private guiding for a group, multi-day routes across the island and the once-a-trip splurges.
Three things that only happen in the Ubud valley.
Waterfalls and yoga studios turn up all over Asia. Queueing barefoot under thirteen spring spouts in a tenth-century bathing shrine does not, and neither do the other two.
Melukat at Tirta Empul
A spring pushes up through the sand at the bottom of the pool and has been doing it since 962. Balinese families queue along thirteen carved spouts, dip their heads under each one in order, and skip the two reserved for funeral rites. Visitors join the same line with a sarong and a guide who tells you which two to walk past. Go on a weekday morning; on full moon the courtyard belongs to the people it was built for.
- 1Temple Tour with Optional Spiritual Cleansing★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,257 reviews
- 2Half-Day Ubud Electric Cycling Tour to Tirta Empul Water Temple★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 315 reviews
- 3Ubud Tour – Balinese Healing By Shaman And Self Purification★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 236 reviews
The swings above the Ayung
Somebody at Bongkasa hung a rope seat off a tree on the lip of the valley, and within a few years the whole ridge above the Ayung had them: single swings, tandem swings, nests, a glass platform, a bicycle strung across the gap. Harnesses are standard and the good operators clip you twice. Morning is when the gorge still has mist in it, which is the entire point of the photograph.
- 1Best of Ubud Full-Day Tour with Jungle Swing★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8,571 reviews
- 2Monkey Forest, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace, and Water Temple★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,160 reviews
- 3Gorilla Face Quad Bike, Jungle Swing, Waterfall & Meal★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 580 reviews
Soldering your own ring
The road south through Celuk and Mas has made silver and wood for the palaces for generations, and a good number of the workshops now teach for three hours instead of just selling. You draw the piece, saw it out of a sheet, file it, solder it and polish it, and you keep about five grams of it. The clasps beat you. The ring is fine.
- 1Hands-On Silver Jewelry Making Near Ubud’s Monkey Forest★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,789 reviews
- 2Ubud Silver Class Jewelry making in bali★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 978 reviews
- 3Bali Turtle Silver & Gold Workshop★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 643 reviews
Four Ubud bookings that will not wait until the morning.
Most of central Bali can be arranged over breakfast for the same day. These four run on ceremonies, timetables and pickups that happen in the dark.
- 01Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring OptionPickup is around two in the morning and the guided groups are put together the day before. Same-day is not really on offer.
- 02Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran BeachOne performance a night at a fixed hour, in a courtyard with a set number of plastic chairs in it.
- 03Temple Tour with Optional Spiritual CleansingThe bathing pools close to visitors whenever a ceremony is running, and the line is longest from mid-morning on.
- 04Ubud Cooking Class Bali with Balinese ChefThe market half of the morning starts at dawn, and the kitchens take small numbers at a time.
Ubud sits at 600 metres, and most afternoons the valley clouds over.
From November to March the rain keeps a schedule: bright until lunch, an hour or two of it after, then a clear evening. It costs you an afternoon, not a day. The answer is the same one the midday heat wants — do the outdoor thing early, then put something with a roof on it after.
By place — the valley, the caldera, the drive east
By kind of day — early, wet, loud or slow
Monkey Forest, terraces, volcano, waterfalls: the week most people end up doing.
Ubud PalaceThe newest Ubud tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Private Bali Tour: Kintamani Volcano and Besakih Temple
Read our review →
Besakih Temple Tour – Traditional Bali Village – All Inclusive
Read our review →
Zip-line Adventure, River Rafting & Rice Terraces Tour
Read our review →
Tirta Empul Water Purification Ritual, Private Tour
Read our review →
Regular or Vegetarian cooking class with market visit
Read our review →
Kanto Lampo Waterfalls, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace
Read our review →
