Batur at dawn, the reef by ten, the cliff at sunset.
Which sunrise trek collects from your side of the island. What the Nusa Penida crossing costs once the swell gets up. Whether the swing over the valley is worth the queue. Reviews of every tour you can book in Bali.
Batur, the Ubud loop, the Penida boat and the Kecak at Uluwatu.
The four days a first Bali trip is built around. What each one costs and how early it leaves.
01The 2am startMount Batur Sunrise Hike with BreakfastA jeep collects you in the dark and you are on the crater rim with coffee when the sun comes up behind Rinjani.
02The Ubud loopMonkey Forest, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace, and Water TempleMonkey forest, a swing over the gorge, the Tegallalang terraces and a water temple, in one long day with a driver.
03The boat dayNusa Penida day trip: boat, 4 snorkeling, Manta rays & Land tourFast boat across the strait, four snorkel stops and the manta cleaning station off the south coast. Morning crossings are the calm ones.
04The last eveningUluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran BeachKecak on the cliff at Uluwatu while the sun drops, then grilled fish on the sand at Jimbaran.
Waterfall, terrace or throttle. The valley does three kinds of day.
Everything north of Ubud is one road, a lot of steps and a driver who waits. Pick the shape of the day before you pick the tour.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Bali Instagram Tour: The Most Scenic Spots
The waterfall chaseTukad Cepung by nine, while the light still comes through the roof.
Terraces and a swingTegallalang from the top, then out over the valley on a rope.
Quad through the mudPaddy tracks, a river crossing and the tunnel under the ridge.
The Ayung runTwo hours of grade-two water between carved gorge walls.
All 250 days out of Ubud →
Bali's volcano is a two-hour walk and a two o'clock alarm.
Pickup runs between two and three in the morning, the climb takes about two hours in the dark, and the sun comes up over the lake while you eat eggs cooked in the steam coming out of the rock. Hot springs after, if you booked them.
Ubud for the valley, the south for the surf, Penida for the day off.
Bali is small on a map and slow on the road. Where you sleep decides how much of each day you spend in a car, so pick the base first and the tours after.
Uluwatu at six, then dinner on the sand at Jimbaran.
Every Uluwatu sunset →
The temple stands on a cliff two hundred feet above the water and the Kecak amphitheatre faces west, so the chant and the sun finish together. Come an hour early for a seat on the rim, and keep your sunglasses in your bag: the monkeys at the gate know exactly what they are worth.
Ticket only, or the whole evening
The dance runs once a day and the rim seats go about an hour before it starts. A ticket on its own is the cheap way in; the evening tours add the transfer down the Bukit and the table at Jimbaran afterwards.
Tanah Lot, and the tide that decides it
The temple sits on a rock that is an island at high water and a short walk at low. Low tide gets you across to the spring under the cliff. High tide gets you the photograph everybody came for.
Grilled fish on Jimbaran sand
Tables go out on the beach at dusk and the fish is picked off ice and grilled over coconut husk. Agree the weight and the price before it goes on the fire, and sit closer to the water than to the road.
The Bali days out that fill up first.
The full Bali list →More travellers take these than anything else on the island. What each one is, what it costs, and what keeps it at the top.
1
All-Inclusive Ubud Private Tour
Review of the $100 Ubud private tour, with rice terraces, temples, monkeys, waterfall, lunch, swing, transport, and practical booking advice.
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
️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land Tour
from $100
5
Best of Ubud 1-Day Private Tour
from $54
6
Ubud Palace Legong Dance Show Ticket
from $6
7
Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran Beach
from $35
8
Tanah Lot and North Bali Tour: Scenic Journey
from $100
Nusa Penida is a boat ride and a broken road, and worth both.
Forty minutes across the strait, then pickup trucks on bad tarmac to the cliff above Kelingking. Mantas hang off the south coast most of the year, and the light on Diamond Beach is best before the day boats land.
Every Penida crossing →
What a day out in Bali actually costs.
Every tour on the site, sorted by price. A good part of the island still comes in under the cost of a beach-club lunch.
Temple tickets, the Kecak seat, cooking classes and most of the Ubud loop.
Full days with a driver: the Penida boat, Batur with the hot springs, rafting and the terraces.
Private drivers for the whole stay, dive courses and chartered boats.
Three things that only happen in Bali.
Beaches and temples run the length of Indonesia. A hundred men chanting a monkey army into being, a rope seat hung over a river gorge, and a gate with an imaginary lake do not.
The Kecak at Uluwatu
There is no orchestra. Seventy men sit in rings around an oil lamp and chant chak-chak-chak for an hour while the Ramayana plays out in the middle and the sun goes down behind the cliff. It was assembled in the 1930s out of an older trance ritual, for visitors who had seen neither, and it is still the loudest thing on the island at six in the evening.
- 1Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,681 reviews
- 2Ubud Kecak and Fire Dance Show Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,631 reviews
- 3Private Uluwatu Temple and Kecak Fire Dance Evening Tour in Jimbaran Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,199 reviews
The jungle swing
One operator hung a rope seat over the Ayung valley near Bongkasa and the rest of the island followed within a season. You are harnessed in, the arc carries you out over a couple of hundred feet of river and palm, and somebody photographs the whole thing. Go on a weekday morning, before the coaches and the queue for the birds-nest platform.
- 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
- 3Bali Jungle Swing Experience Full Activity★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 175 reviews
The Gate of Heaven
Lempuyang sits on the shoulder of Mount Agung and its split gate frames the volcano on a clear morning. The lake in the photograph does not exist. A man at the front of the queue holds a mirror under a phone. The queue is real, ticketed by number, and by mid-morning it can run to three hours.
- 1East Bali Tour: Gate of Heaven, Water Palace, Sleeping Gajah★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,726 reviews
- 2Bali Instagram: Gate of Heaven Temple Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 737 reviews
- 3Bali Instagram Tour – Lempuyang Bali Gate of Heaven★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 149 reviews
Four Bali bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged the night before with the driver parked outside your hotel. These four run on timetables that take no interest in when you land.
- 01Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring OptionPickup is between two and three in the morning and the seats are capped by how many guides are on the mountain that night. Same-day only happens when somebody cancels.
- 02Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran BeachOne performance a day, at sunset, in an open amphitheatre cut into the cliff. It fills about an hour before the chant starts.
- 03East Bali Tour: Gate of Heaven, Water Palace, Sleeping GajahLempuyang hands out numbered queue tickets at the gate. Arrive at seven and it is minutes. Arrive at ten and it is hours.
- 04️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land TourThe fast boats cross in the morning and stop running when the swell gets up. A cancelled crossing costs a whole day, not an hour.
When the wet season empties itself over the afternoon, get good at something instead.
It does not rain all day. The cloud builds through the morning, comes down hard for an hour or two after lunch and clears by evening. Put the outdoor half before noon and keep a roof over the rest: a compound kitchen, a silver bench, a spa room, a market street.
The reef starts twenty minutes off the beach.
Blue Lagoon at Padangbai for the easy snorkel, the wreck at Tulamben for the one you tell people about, and the drift off Penida when the mantas are in. Boats leave early because the water goes choppy by early afternoon.
- 1️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land Tourfrom $100
- 2Nusa Penida day trip: boat, 4 snorkeling, Manta rays & Land tourfrom $78
- 3Nusa Penida Snorkeling Adventure (Private & All-Inclusive)from $129
Market at six, lunch you cooked yourself by one.
A class starts at the produce market while it is still dark, then moves to a compound kitchen, a mortar and a great deal of grating. Base gede is the paste almost everything on the island starts from, and you will make it by hand.
By place: the south, the valley, the islands
By kind of day: water, volcano, kitchen or throttle
Seminyak, Ubud, Batur, Penida, Uluwatu: the loop most first trips make.
Mount Batur
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