Bali runs on early starts. Here is what to set an alarm for.
Which Batur trek actually reaches the rim for sunrise. What the fast boat to Nusa Penida costs once you add the island driver. Whether the Gates of Heaven earn the drive east. Reviews of every tour you can book on the island.
- 01
Before dawnMount Batur Sunrise Hike with Breakfastfrom $30 - 02
The island dayBali Nusa Penida West Private All-Inclusive Tourfrom $80 - 03
The cliff at sixUluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran Beachfrom $35 - 04
The drive eastEast Bali Tour: Gate of Heaven, Water Palace, Sleeping Gajahfrom $100 - 05
The Ubud loopMonkey Forest, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace, and Water Templefrom $31
In Bali the big days are named places, not areas.
Nobody books “central Bali”. They book Batur before dawn, the three waterfalls above Ubud, the spring temple at Tirta Empul, the boat across to Penida. Four kinds of day, what each costs to board, and where it actually goes.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring Option
Sunrise on BaturA 2am pickup, two hours up in the dark, breakfast in volcanic steam.
Waterfall daysTibumana, Tukad Cepung, Tegenungan. Three falls, one driver, wet shoes.
Temples and water palacesTirta Empul, Ulun Danu, Taman Ujung. Sarong provided, shoulders covered.
The Penida boatFast boat out of Sanur, then Kelingking, the Billabong and the manta point.
All 566 Bali days out →
Bali sells itself by the town you sleep in.
Nearly every tour on the island is quoted with a hotel pickup from one of six bases. Rice terraces and gorges in the middle, surf and beach clubs on the west coast, flat water in the south, and the long drives east. Start with your bed.
Bali does not close when the sun drops behind Java.
The chant starts at the Uluwatu cliff as the light goes. Fire dancers take the Ubud palace courtyard at half past seven. The grills come out on Jimbaran sand about the same time. An evening here is a booking, not an afterthought.
Bali’s most-booked days out.
The whole island, reviewed →More travellers take these than anything else here, and the reason is different every time: a summit at the right hour, a boat that beats the crowd, a price nothing else touches.
1
All-Inclusive Ubud Private Tour
Review of a private Ubud day tour with monkeys, rice terraces, temple springs, waterfall, lunch, transport, and a Balinese swing.
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 day trip that behaves like an expedition.
The fast boat out of Sanur takes forty minutes; the roads on the other side take the rest of your patience. The staircase down at Kelingking is genuinely steep, the manta point is genuinely mantas, and the last crossing back does not wait for stragglers.
Every Nusa Penida trip →
The other Bali is a quad bike through a river tunnel.
Ayung rapids under the gorge carvings, quad tracks that finish inside a waterfall cave, a swing out over the treetops at Tegalalang. The island’s adventure day is cheap, soaking wet and usually done by lunch.
A day out in Bali costs less than dinner does at home.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. The cheap end is not the thin end here — temple entries, dance tickets and rice-terrace mornings all sit under fifty dollars.
Temple entries, dance tickets, waterfall mornings and the half-day rides out of Ubud.
The full-day standards: Batur sunrise with hot springs, the Penida boat, the long drive east.
A private driver for a whole day, the midnight crossing to Ijen, chartered boats and photographers.
Three things that happen in Bali and nowhere else.
Volcano hikes and beach clubs exist all over the tropics. A purification queue in a spring-fed pool, a rope seat hung over a river gorge, and a hundred men chanting a monkey army into being do not.
Melukat at the Spring Temple
At Tirta Empul a spring feeds a stone pool through a row of carved spouts, and you move along them one at a time with an offering, ducking your head under each. It is a working temple rather than a photo stop: there is a queue, a sarong, and rules about which spouts belong to the dead. A guide worth paying for explains the order before anyone gets in the water.
- 1Ubud Tour – Balinese Healing By Shaman And Self Purification★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 236 reviews
- 2Melukat Ceremony and Temple Tour at Tirta Empul Temple★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 218 reviews
- 3Purification Holy Bath at Beji Gria Waterfall★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 44 reviews
The Bali Swing
A farmer above the Ayung gorge hung a rope seat off a coconut palm, somebody photographed it, and the picture went around the world. There are a dozen now, from a single rope to multi-platform parks with nests and glass floors. The harness is real, the drop underneath is real, and the queue is shortest before nine in the morning.
- 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 Kecak at Uluwatu
No gamelan, no instruments at all: seventy bare-chested men sit in rings and chant the rhythm themselves while the Ramayana plays out between them and Hanuman kicks burning coconut husks across the stone. It runs at the cliff temple as the sun goes down, which is exactly why the tickets are gone by mid-afternoon.
- 1Ubud Palace Legong Dance Show Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,979 reviews
- 2Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,681 reviews
- 3Ubud Kecak and Fire Dance Show Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,631 reviews
Four Bali bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this island can be arranged the night before with whoever is on the front desk. These four run on tides, sunsets, temple calendars and a pickup list that closes while you are still at dinner.
- 01Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring OptionPickups start at 2am from a list that closes the evening before, and the clear-sky months fill first.
- 02Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land TourThe fast boat from Sanur runs to a timetable with a last crossing back. Miss it and you are sleeping on the island.
- 03Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran BeachOne performance a night at the cliff temple, timed to the sunset. Seats are gone by mid-afternoon in high season.
- 04Bromo & Kawah Ijen – 3-Day AdventureThe blue-fire crossing leaves Bali around midnight and the ferry, not the operator, sets the schedule.
From November the afternoon rain in Bali is a scheduled event.
It arrives hard, runs for an hour or two, then stops and steams. Put the volcano and the boat in the morning where they belong, and keep the afternoon for something with a roof over it: a kitchen, a silversmith’s bench, a hot spring that does not care either way, or a massage table.
By base — wherever you are sleeping
By kind of day — volcano, water, temple or workshop
Seminyak, Ubud, Batur, the east coast: the week almost everybody does first.
The newest reviews on the island.
Newer still, further down →
Ubud Tirta Empul Temple Tour with Purification Experience
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Bali Airport Transfers | Bali Airport Welcome pick up | Bali Airport Taxi
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Tanjung Benoa Water Sports: All Inclusive Bali Activities
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Jet Ski, Parasailing, Banana Boat and Bali Spa Packages
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