# Ubud (Bali): map, what to do and when to go

In Ubud, temples, terraced rice fields and offerings are part of residents' daily routine, and there's a ceremony somewhere every day. A village in south-central Bali, 25 km from Denpasar, it became the island's art center in the 1930s and the hub of wellness tourism after 2010.

Canonical: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/
Language: en. Extended author commentary and itinerary notes may remain in Portuguese. Dates below belong to individual sources; this is not live availability.

## Direct answer
- **Ubud (Bali): what's the currency, and what's it worth?** The currency is the Indonesian rupiah (IDR, Rp), around 16,500 to the dollar and 19,000 to the euro in 2026, and the largest note is Rp 100,000, which means walking around with a thick wad in your pocket.
- **Ubud (Bali): what should you wear to enter a temple?** Entering any temple area requires a sarong and a selendang sash tied at the waist, for all genders, with shoulders covered.
- **Ubud (Bali): what's the biggest risk for visitors?** Motorbikes account for most foreign visitor injuries and deaths on the island, and the combination of wet asphalt, gravel, blind curves, and loose dogs explains nearly every accident.

## The Campuhan ridge walk, the palace and the monkey forest
Start at 6:30am on the Campuhan Ridge Walk, 2 km one way with no shade, and be back before 8:30am, when the heat and the tour groups arrive.
- Puri Saren Agung (Ubud Palace)
- Pura Taman Saraswati
- Museum Puri Lukisan
- Campuhan Ridge Walk

## The Pakerisan valley
Hire a driver for the whole day (Rp 600,000 to 900,000, waiting time included) and leave at 8am, before traffic builds on the Tegallalang road.
- Goa Gajah
- Gunung Kawi, in Tampaksiring
- Tirta Empul

## Craft villages
Start in Mas, 5 km to the south, where the woodcarving workshops open early and let you watch the work with no obligation to buy.
- ARMA: Agung Rai Museum of Art

## Puri Saren Agung (Ubud Palace)
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-puri-saren-agung
Ubud
Home of the princely family since the 18th century, rebuilt after the 1917 earthquake with gates and reliefs attributed to the sculptor I Gusti Nyoman Lempad. The front courtyards are open free of charge during the day, and at night the courtyard becomes a dance stage, around 7:30pm, with tickets at Rp 100,000 to 150,000.
Check access

## Pura Taman Saraswati
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-pura-taman-saraswati
Ubud · Up to half an hour
A water temple designed by Lempad in the early 1950s, with a lotus pond crossed by a central walkway leading to the gate. Dedicated to Saraswati, goddess of knowledge; the walkway is public, the inner sanctuary isn't, and there are dance performances on the side stage.
Check access

## Mandala Suci Wenara Wana (Monkey Forest)
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-mandala-suci-wenara-wana
Ubud · Up to half an hour
A reserve of about 12.5 hectares with approximately 1,200 long-tailed macaques living in groups and three 14th-century temples, among them Pura Dalem Agung Padangtegal. Open 9am to 6pm, with admission around Rp 80,000 to 100,000; it's run by the village, not the government.
Check access

## Museum Puri Lukisan
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-museum-puri-lukisan
Gianyar
Bali's first art museum, opened in 1956 by Rudolf Bonnet and Cokorda Gde Agung Sukawati, with the most coherent collection from the Pita Maha period. Four pavilions cover pre-modern painting, the Ubud style, the Batuan style, and Lempad's ink drawings.
Check access

## Neka Art Museum
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-neka-art-museum
Bali
Opened in 1982 by Suteja Neka, in Sanggingan, it organizes Balinese painting by school and sets aside rooms for foreign artists who lived on the island, such as Spies, Bonnet, Arie Smit, and Blanco. It also includes a kris collection with an explanation of the ritual metalwork.
Check access

## ARMA: Agung Rai Museum of Art
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-arma
Ubud
Founded in 1996 in Peliatan by collector Agung Rai, it brings together Balinese and Javanese painting, including work by the Romantic painter Raden Saleh and one of the few Walter Spies canvases that remained on the island. It holds gamelan, dance, and painting classes on a fixed schedule.
Check access

## Campuhan Ridge Walk
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-trilha-da-crista-de-campuhan
Bali
A paved path of about 2 km along the ridge between the Wos Barat and Wos Timur rivers, starting beside Pura Gunung Lebah. It's flat, shadeless, and free; before 8am you can walk it without heat or a line for photos.
Check access

## Goa Gajah
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-goa-gajah
Gianyar · Up to half an hour
The Elephant Cave, in Bedulu, 5 km to the southeast, carved in the 11th century: the entrance is a demon's mouth cut into the rock, and the interior is a T-shaped corridor with meditation niches. The bathing pools beside it, with female statues pouring water, were only unearthed in 1954.
Check access

## Gunung Kawi, in Tampaksiring
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-gunung-kawi-em-tampaksiring
Tampaksiring
Ten 7-meter funerary candi carved directly into the cliff of the Pakerisan river in the 11th century, associated with King Anak Wungsu. You reach them down more than 300 steps through rice paddies, which means the same climb on the way back.
Check access

## Tirta Empul
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/bali/#g-lugar-tirta-empul
Tampaksiring
A sacred spring temple founded in 962, where worshippers perform melukat under a sequence of spouts in two rectangular pools. Since 2025 entry rules have been strictly enforced: sarong, the correct order of spouts, and a ban on entering while menstruating or photographing with your body above the shrines.
Check access

**Ubud (Bali): what's the currency, and what's it worth?**
The currency is the Indonesian rupiah (IDR, Rp), around 16,500 to the dollar and 19,000 to the euro in 2026, and the largest note is Rp 100,000, which means walking around with a thick wad in your pocket.

**Ubud (Bali): what should you wear to enter a temple?**
Entering any temple area requires a sarong and a selendang sash tied at the waist, for all genders, with shoulders covered.

**Ubud (Bali): what's the biggest risk for visitors?**
Motorbikes account for most foreign visitor injuries and deaths on the island, and the combination of wet asphalt, gravel, blind curves, and loose dogs explains nearly every accident.

**Ubud (Bali): what is babi guling?**
Suckling pig seasoned with base genep (the paste of ginger, turmeric, galangal, garlic, chili, and dried shrimp) and spit-roasted for hours.

**Ubud (Bali): what time should you do the Campuhan Ridge Walk?**
Start at 6:30am on the Campuhan Ridge Walk, 2 km one way with no shade, and be back before 8:30am, when the heat and the groups arrive.


## In the Nilo app
- Plan these 3 days on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/guide/bali/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-itinerary
- Mark your hotel on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/map/bali/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-stay

## Full editorial guide (Portuguese)
https://nilopelomundo.com/llm/bali.md