Kuta first. Then all of Bali.
Sunset on the Uluwatu cliff, the 2am climb up Batur, Nusa Penida by fast boat, Tegenungan before lunch: what each day costs, how long the drive really takes, and which one to book first.
Seven days out worth the drive.
Nothing famous in Bali is walking distance from Jalan Legian, so the day you book is the day you get. These seven are the ones travellers keep coming back from happy: the Ubud run, the volcano dawn, the island boat, the cliff at sunset.
Best of Ubud Full-Day Tour with Jungle Swing
Full-day Ubud tour with Monkey Forest, Tegalalang rice terraces, jungle swing, Tirta Empul, and Tegenungan waterfall, markets and palace.
From $56 per person
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The volcano is a two hour drive and a two hour climb.
Pickup outside your Kuta hotel somewhere around 2am, a driver who does this road every night, then head torches up the black sand of Gunung Batur. You reach the rim at 1,717 metres in time to watch the sun come up over Lake Batur and Abang, eat a banana-sandwich breakfast steamed in a volcanic vent, and be back on Poppies Lane before the pool bar opens. Hot springs on the way down if your legs ask for them.
How far from Kuta do you want to go?
Kuta is a base, not a sight. Everything else on the island is a drive, and the length of that drive is the only decision that really shapes your day. Three honest distances; pick the one that suits your week, and every option behind it comes with its price.
Under an hour
Stay on the peninsula
from $35 · 3,681 reviews
South of the airport the roads stay short. Uluwatu on its limestone cliff, the kecak circle at sunset, grilled snapper on the sand at Jimbaran afterwards. You leave Kuta mid-afternoon and you are back for a nightcap on Jalan Pantai. The easiest first day in Bali, and the one people wish they had booked sooner.
See the Uluwatu evenings →
Ninety minutes north
Go up to Ubud
from $100 · 14,344 reviews
The classic Kuta day out: monkeys at the Sacred Forest, the rice terraces at Tegalalang, a jungle swing over the Ayung gorge and a waterfall stop before the drive home. Traffic through Denpasar decides everything, so the tours that leave at eight get twice as much done as the ones that leave at ten.
Compare the Ubud days →
Pickup at 2am
Take the night drive
from $33 · 1,927 reviews
The long ones start while Kuta is still out: the Batur summit for sunrise, or the fast boat from Sanur to Nusa Penida for Kelingking and the manta bay. Both cost you a night of sleep and give back the photographs you actually came for. Book them for the middle of your trip, never the morning after you land.
See the early starts →
Fire, gamelan and a hundred voices.
Bali does not do quiet evenings. A hundred men chant chak-chak-chak in a ring while Hanuman burns at the centre; the Legong girls at Ubud Palace move only their eyes and their fingers; down at Jimbaran the tables go straight onto the sand and the boats come in behind you. Every one of these starts after the light drops, and most include the ride back to Kuta.
The reef starts an hour east.
Kuta Beach is for surfing, not for looking down. The clear water is at Padangbai and Blue Lagoon, off Nusa Penida where the mantas cruise the cleaning stations, and over the Liberty wreck at Tulamben. All of it is a morning pickup and a boat.
Waterfalls, swings and the Ayung river.
Tibumana drops into a pool you can stand under, Tukad Cepung comes through a cave roof in a single beam, and the rafting run below Ubud finishes at a set of carved cliffs. Bring a dry bag and shoes you do not mind soaking.
Offerings go down before the shops open.
Step over a canang sari on the pavement outside your hotel and you have already met Balinese Hinduism. The temple days take it further: the split gate at Lempuyang with Agung framed in the gap, holy water at Tirta Empul, Ulun Danu sitting out on Lake Beratan in the cloud. Wear a sarong, they are handed out at the door, and go early while the courtyards are still cool.
Pick the corner of Bali, then the day.
Ubud for the jungle and the monkeys. Nusa Penida for the cliff everyone photographs. Batur for the sunrise. Uluwatu for the fire dance. Tegalalang for the terraces at eight in the morning, before the buses.
By boat, by bike, by quad.
Twelve ways to fill a day out of Kuta, from a mask and fins to a river tunnel on four wheels. Everything behind each tile is priced, rated and bookable.
Where the boats and the long roads go.
East to Padangbai for the reef, north over the pass for the twin waterfalls, or all the way across the strait to Lombok and the Gilis. These want a whole day, and a couple of them want two.
Three days, done right.
Land at Ngurah Rai, stay in Kuta, and you are ten minutes from your bed and ninety from most of the island. This is the order that works: short first day, big middle day, early finish.
Day 1
Stay south, watch the sun go
A surf lesson on Kuta Beach while the jet lag is still useful, an afternoon nap, then the drive out to Uluwatu for the kecak and seafood on the sand at Jimbaran.
Plan day one →
Day 2
North to the jungle
Out by eight to beat the Denpasar traffic: the Monkey Forest, Tegalalang, a swing over the gorge and a waterfall on the way back. Eat in Ubud before you drive south.
Plan day two →
Day 3
The volcano, then nothing
Bed at nine, up at one, on the summit for sunrise and soaking in a hot spring by ten. Keep the afternoon completely free; you will sleep through it and that is the plan.
Plan day three →
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