UBUD · BALI
Rice terraces, river temples, jungle mornings.
The cultural heart of Bali: the Tegallalang terraces, the Mount Batur sunrise, holy-spring temples and waterfalls hidden in the jungle. Cooking classes, river rafting and the temple day trips beyond the rice fields.
Only here
Three things that are pure Ubud.
Waterfalls and massages you can find across the tropics. The thousand-year-old rice terraces, the swing out over the gorge and the holy-spring purification belong to this valley and this culture alone.
Carved by water
The Tegallalang Terraces
The rice terraces north of town are not just scenery. They are watered by the subak, a thousand-year-old cooperative that shares a single mountain spring field by field, temple by temple. UNESCO lists the system as a living cultural landscape. Walk the emerald steps at first light, before the day-trip coaches arrive.
- 1 Full-Day Tour to Water Temples and UNESCO Rice Terraces in Bali
- 2 Ubud: Downhill Cycling with Volcano, Rice Terraces and Meal
- 3 Ubud eBikes Tour to Tegallalang Rice Terrace
Over the valley
The Bali Jungle Swing
The giant rope swing that arcs out over a palm-filled gorge began here, in the valleys around Ubud, before the whole island copied it. You are harnessed in and launched off the lip of the ravine, the Ayung river far below and the rice terraces stacked up the far slope. It is equal parts terrifying and the best photo of the trip.
- 1 Best of Ubud Full-Day Tour with Jungle Swing
- 2 Ubud Tour with Swing, Temple, Monkey Forest, and Waterfall
- 3 Bali Jungle Swing Experience Full Activity
Holy water
Tirta Empul Purification
At Tirta Empul, a spring has fed the same stone bathing pools since the tenth century. Balinese Hindus come to perform melukat, a purification ritual, moving along a row of carved water spouts and bowing the head under each one in turn. You can join the line, sarong on, and feel the cold mountain water for yourself.
- 1 Full-Day Tour to Water Temples and UNESCO Rice Terraces in Bali
- 2 Half-Day Ubud Electric Cycling Tour to Tirta Empul Water Temple
- 3 Melukat Ceremony and Temple Tour at Tirta Empul Temple
Start here
The day most Ubud trips are planned around.
If you only book one thing off this whole page, start with this one.
The classics
Ubud's Most Popular Tours
Mount Batur at sunrise, the Tegallalang terraces, the jungle waterfalls and the Ayung river. The days most travellers come to Ubud for.
Where to begin
The experiences an Ubud trip is built around.
The volcano sunrise, the waterfalls, the rice terraces, a cooking class, the jungle swing and the river. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big morning
How to climb Mount Batur for sunrise.
It is the question every first-timer asks, and the answer depends on your knees and your alarm clock. Three ways up the active volcano an hour north of Ubud, from a full dark-trail hike to a jeep that does the climbing for you.
Tegallalang
Emerald steps, carved by water.
Twenty minutes north of town the hillsides fall away in green flights of terraced paddy, fed field to field by the subak, the cooperative that has shared this water for a thousand years. Walk the ridge paths between the rice and the coconut palms, ride the jungle swing at the top, and go early, before the light goes hard and the coaches pull in.
Read the guide: the best rice terrace tours in Ubud →Jungle falls
Where the rivers fall through the green.
A short drive out of Ubud, the rivers drop into hidden gorges. Tegenungan thunders into a wide jungle pool, Tibumana slips down a single mossy curtain, and at Tukad Cepung the sun spears through a slot canyon onto the water. Most are a stepped walk down, a swim, and a climb back up through the palms.
See the waterfall guides →The Ayung
Down the river, through the gorge.
Below the rice terraces the Ayung cuts a deep jungle gorge, the longest river on the island. Rafts run its cool green water through gentle Class II and III rapids, past hand-carved stone reliefs in the canyon walls and waterfalls dropping straight into the current. It is the green, dripping heart of Ubud, seen from the bottom up.
River rafting trips →Sacred Monkey Forest
Three temples, six hundred macaques.
A ten-minute walk from the market, the lanes of Ubud run straight into a banyan-shaded ravine where long-tailed macaques scramble over moss-green temple stone. Three fourteenth-century temples sit inside the sanctuary, the river crossed by carved bridges, the monkeys very much in charge. Keep a grip on your sunglasses.
- 1 Ubud Tour with Monkey Forest Waterfalls Temples and More
- 2 Gorilla Cave ATV Bali Ubud, Monkey Forest, Temple, and Lunch
- 3 Bali ATV Quad Adventure – Ubud Monkey Forest and Waterfall
By pace
Pick your day, by pace.
Ubud does both ends of the dial. A spa-and-rice-fields kind of slow, a temples-and-waterfalls kind of full, or a rapids-and-mud kind of fast. Most trips work in one of each.
Slow it right down
Flower baths and long lunches.A Balinese massage, a soak in a jungle hot spring, a cooking class and the afternoon spent by the rice fields.
The classic day out
Terraces, temples and falls.The Tegallalang terraces at first light, a holy-water temple, the Monkey Forest and a jungle waterfall, all in one loop.
Heart racing
Rapids, mud and the long swing.White water down the Ayung gorge, a quad bike through the rice-field mud, and the swing out over the valley.
Off-road
Through the mud, the rice fields and the cave tunnel.
Quad bikes and side-by-side buggies are Ubud's muddiest morning. You blast along jungle tracks, splash through flooded paddy, then ride straight through a long carved cave tunnel and out past a waterfall. Wear what you do not mind ruining and book the gorilla-cave route if you want the photo.
See all 90 ATV & quad bike tours →By place
Ubud, and the day trips beyond.
Ubud for the temples and terraces. Kintamani for the volcano sunrise. Tampaksiring for the holy springs. Nusa Penida for the cliffs and the snorkelling. Uluwatu and Tanah Lot for the sea temples at dusk.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Up Mount Batur before dawn. Into the rice terraces at first light. Under a jungle waterfall by lunch. Cooking, cycling, rafting, or the long swing out over the valley.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Ubud? Here is a three-day run that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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