Ubud, Uluwatu, Borobudur, Komodo. One country, four completely different days.
Which Mount Batur trek actually reaches the summit before the light. What the Nusa Penida boat costs once the pickup is in. Whether Borobudur is worth the flight to Java when Bali already has temples. Reviews of every tour you can book in Indonesia.
The Ubud loop, the volcano, the Penida boat, the cliff at sunset.
Four bookings a first Indonesian fortnight hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The Ubud dayMonkey Forest, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace, and Water TempleMonkey forest, a water temple, the Tegalalang terraces and a swing over the gorge, in one minibus loop.
02The three o’clock alarmMount Batur Sunrise Hike with BreakfastHead torches up the ridge of an active volcano, breakfast steamed in the vents at the top.
03The boat to PenidaNusa Penida day trip: boat, 4 snorkeling, Manta rays & Land tourFour snorkel stops, manta rays when they show, and the Kelingking clifftop after lunch.
04The last eveningUluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran BeachKecak on the Uluwatu cliff as the sun drops, then grilled fish on the sand at Jimbaran.
Pick the base first. Indonesia rewards staying put.
Bali alone runs to five towns that feel nothing like each other, and the good day trips are the ones that start at your own door. Yogyakarta and Labuan Bajo are separate trips with their own flights. Here is what each base puts within an hour.
Ubud is the base almost everybody gets right.
Everything in Ubud →
An hour inland from the airport and in the middle of everything worth driving to. The palace and the monkey forest are in town. The terraces, the waterfalls, the Ayung gorge and the road up to Batur all start at the edge of it.
Tegalalang, a water temple and a swing
The minibus loop every Ubud hotel sells. Terraces at Tegalalang, a spring temple, a waterfall and a swing out over the gorge. Leave at eight, before the other four minibuses reach the same viewpoint.
The Sacred Monkey Forest, done early
Three temples inside a ravine of banyan roots, with roughly a thousand long-tailed macaques living around them. They will lift a water bottle straight out of your hand. The gates open at nine and the first hour is the calm one.
A market run, then a lunch you cooked
The good classes start at the market at dawn for the shopping, then work through a base gede spice paste, sate lilit and two or three sambals in a family compound. You eat what you made and it is a full meal.
Volcano before dawn, reef after lunch, river in between.
One small island packs three different adrenaline days, and none of them ask for a licence or a fitness test. Here is what it costs to get on each one.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring Option
Mount Batur at sunriseUp in the dark, summit for first light, hot springs after.
Reefs and manta raysBlue Lagoon off Padangbai, or the crossing for the Penida mantas.
The Ayung riverTwo hours of easy water through a jungle gorge, lunch at the take-out.
Quad bikes and mudRice-field tracks, a cave tunnel and a waterfall you ride straight through.
All 146 active days in Bali →
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Indonesia.
Every Indonesian tour we have reviewed →The tours carrying more travellers than anything else on the site, and what earns each one its slot.
1
All-Inclusive Ubud Private Tour
Review of Ubud’s private day tour, with rice terraces, temples, monkeys, a waterfall, lunch, a swing, and hotel pickup.
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
Bali keeps its temples working, not preserved.
Uluwatu still holds a fire dance on the cliff at every sunset. Tirta Empul still has a queue for the spring. Families still walk into Besakih in ceremonial white on an ordinary Tuesday. You are visiting a religion in daily use, which is why the sarong at the gate is not a souvenir.
What a day out in Indonesia actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best Balinese days come in under the price of the taxi from the airport.
Temple tickets, the Kecak show, rafting, quad bikes and most of the Ubud loops.
The full-day standards: the Nusa Penida boat, Batur with hot springs, Borobudur and Prambanan together.
A private driver for a whole day, the Komodo speedboat, dive liveaboards and the multi-day Java runs.
Java is the other country inside this country.
Two hours in the air from Denpasar and everything changes. Borobudur stacks nine hundred years of Buddhist stonework into one hill. Bromo puts a volcano inside a volcano and lights it at dawn. Nobody is on a beach. Give it four days and fly home out of Yogyakarta.
- 1Borobudur Sunrise from setumbu Hill , Merapi Volcano & Prambanan Full Day Tourfrom $105
- 2Borobudur Temple Climb To The Top & Prambanan Temple – 1 day tourfrom $105
- 3Menoreh Village Cyclingfrom $22
Three things that only happen in Indonesia.
Beaches and massage tables exist all over Asia. A hundred men chanting on a cliff at sunset, breakfast steamed in a live crater, and a nine-hundred-year-old Buddhist mountain do not.
The Kecak at Uluwatu
No instruments at all. Seventy or more men sit in rings around a fire and chant one syllable in interlocking rhythm while the Ramayana is danced inside the circle. It was built in the 1930s out of an older trance ritual, and at Uluwatu it is staged on a clifftop terrace timed so the sun goes into the Indian Ocean behind the dancers. Tickets are per seat and the upper rows sell out first.
- 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
Breakfast on an active volcano
Pickup is between one and three in the morning, the walk up the black ridge takes about two hours by head torch, and you arrive in the dark to wait. When it comes, the light hits Abang and Agung across the lake first. Guides steam eggs and bananas in the vents at the summit, which is not a gimmick: the ground up there is genuinely hot.
- 1Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring Option★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,927 reviews
- 2Mount Batur Sunrise Hike with Breakfast★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,757 reviews
- 3Mount Batur Sunrise Jeep Tour with Optional Activities★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,555 reviews
Borobudur at first light
Two million blocks of andesite laid as a single Buddhist mandala you walk clockwise and upward, past three kilometres of carved relief, to seventy-two bell-shaped stupas at the top. It was abandoned for centuries under volcanic ash and jungle. Climbing onto the upper terraces now runs on a separate capped permit, so the top is quiet even when the ground level is not.
- 1Borobudur Sunrise from setumbu Hill , Merapi Volcano & Prambanan Full Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,030 reviews
- 2Borobudur Temple Climb To The Top & Prambanan Temple – 1 day tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 638 reviews
- 3Borobudur Top Access & Prambanan Temple Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 390 reviews
Nusa Penida is a day trip that behaves like an expedition.
Forty minutes on a fast boat from Sanur, then two hours of jeep on roads that are still being built. The cliff at Kelingking is worth all of it. Go with a group that puts the snorkel stops first, before the afternoon swell gets up.
Every Nusa Penida day →
Four Indonesian bookings that will not wait.
Most of Bali can be arranged the night before from a warung table. These four run on permits, boat timetables and pickup times that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Borobudur Sunrise from setumbu Hill , Merapi Volcano & Prambanan Full Day TourGround-level entry is easy. Climbing onto the stupa terraces runs on a separate timed permit with a daily cap, and it goes early.
- 02Exclusive Early Bird Komodo Tour: Beat the Crowds by Speed BoatThe speedboats out of Labuan Bajo leave once, at first light. Miss the departure and the dragons wait until tomorrow.
- 03Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring OptionPickup is between one and three in the morning, so the driver needs your address the day before, not on the morning itself.
- 04️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land TourThe fast boats out of Sanur fill through the dry season, and the crossing is cancelled outright when the swell gets up.
What to book when it rains every afternoon from November to March.
The rain arrives after lunch, hard and short, and it does not cancel a holiday. It cancels the volcano and the open boat. Move the outdoor day to the morning and put a kitchen, a massage table or a covered pavilion in the slot after it.
By place, Bali and beyond
By kind of day, temple, reef, ridge or kitchen
Ubud, Batur, Nusa Penida, Uluwatu: the fortnight almost everybody does first.
Rice terraces and waterfalls
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