Seminyak is where you sleep. The island is the day out.
Which Penida boat actually reaches Manta Point. What a Batur sunrise costs once the hot spring is in. Whether the Kecak at Uluwatu is worth the drive south. Reviews of every tour you can book off this strip.
Batur at dawn, Penida by boat, Uluwatu after dark.
The four bookings a first week on this strip hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The two a.m. startMount Batur Sunrise Guided Hike and Natural Hot SpringJeep to the trailhead, ninety minutes up in the dark, and the caldera coming out of the cloud under you. The hot spring afterwards is half the point.
02The boat daySnorkeling 3 Spots with GoPro & West Land TourThree snorkel stops off Penida with the gear and the pictures included, then the west-coast cliffs by road before the boat back.
03The eveningUluwatu Kecak and Fire Dance Show Entry TicketSeventy men chanting on a clifftop while the sun goes into the sea behind the temple. One performance a day, and the top rows fill first.
04The inland dayBali Full-Day Traditional Village Sightseeing Trip All InclusiveWaterfall, rice terraces and a walled family compound, at the pace of somebody else driving. The day that proves the island is not a beach.
The best hours off Bali are spent under the surface.
Drift snorkels over the reef at Blue Lagoon, manta cleaning stations off Penida, dive schools on the wreck at Tulamben, soft boards in the shore break at Batu Bolong. Five ways to get wet, what each costs to board, and which coast it happens on.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · Swim with Manta Rays in Penida, Optional Lunch & Kayak
Snorkel daysReef stops, gear included, back on the sand by lunch.
Manta PointCleaning stations off Penida, mantas at arm’s length.
DivingThe Tulamben wreck and the Menjangan wall, courses from scratch.
Surf lessonsSoft boards and white water at Batu Bolong and Legian.
River raftingGrade II–III through gorge jungle, lunch at the take-out.
All 46 snorkeling trips →
The strip, the south capes, the east coast and the islands offshore.
The sand you sleep on, the surf beach ten minutes north, the seafood grills at Jimbaran, the flat bay at Nusa Dua, the cliffs across the water and the temple country east. Six places, and the best day out from each.
Bali’s most-booked days out.
Every tour we have reviewed on Bali →The tours more travellers take than anything else on the island, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Mount Batur Sunrise Guided Hike and Natural Hot Spring
Climb Mount Batur for a sunrise over Lake Batur, then soak in a natural hot spring and visit a Temen coffee plantation for $36.
From · $36
Read our review →
2
Full-Day Instagram Highlights Tour
from $36
3
Sunrise Mount Batur Hike with Breakfast
from $27
4
️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land Tour
from $100
5
East & West Highlights Full-Day Tour
from $32
6
Uluwatu Kecak and Fire Dance Show Entry Ticket
from $9
7
Ubud Gorilla Face ATV and Ayung Rafting Trip with Meal
from $19
8
Waterfall, Rice Terraces & Monkey Forest Tour
from $26
On Bali the temple is not a museum. It is still in use.
Offerings go down on the pavement at dawn, families queue at the spring at Tirta Empul with a sarong over one shoulder, and seventy men chant the Ramayana on the Uluwatu cliff every evening at six. Go late in the day, when the heat has come off the stone; a sarong is handed to you at the gate.
- 1Uluwatu Kecak and Fire Dance Show Entry Ticketfrom $9
- 2Kecak Fire Dance Show & Uluwatu Temple Entry Ticketfrom $9
- 3Bali Sunset: Uluwatu Temple, Kecak Dance and Jimbaran Bayfrom $37
Every good Bali morning starts in the dark.
The pick-up from this side of the island is between two and three, the walk up Batur takes about ninety minutes, and the caldera comes up out of the cloud somewhere around six. The waterfalls and the terraces get the same treatment: go at first light and be back at the pool by noon.
What a day out from Seminyak actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best days on this island come in under the price of dinner on the strip.
Temple entries, the Kecak ticket, a surf lesson, a spa afternoon and most of the sunrise treks.
The full-day standards: Penida by boat, a car and driver for the day, dive trips and the east-coast runs.
Private charters, photography days and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
Three things that only happen on Bali.
Beaches and volcanoes turn up all over Indonesia. A fire dance timed to the sunset on a cliff temple, a purification queue in tenth-century spring water, and a village that has hammered silver for forty generations do not.
The Kecak Fire Dance
There is no orchestra. Seventy men sit in a ring and chant the interlocking rhythm themselves while the Ramayana plays out inside it, in an amphitheatre cut into the cliff at Uluwatu, timed so that Hanuman burns at the moment the sun goes into the sea. One performance a day. Buy ahead and take the earlier seating, because the top rows go first and the cheap seats look into the light.
- 1Uluwatu Kecak and Fire Dance Show Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 5,189 reviews
- 2Kecak Fire Dance Show & Uluwatu Temple Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 3,023 reviews
- 3Bali Sunset: Uluwatu Temple, Kecak Dance and Jimbaran Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,397 reviews
Purification at Tirta Empul
The spring has run through the same stone spouts since the tenth century, and Balinese families still work along the row on a Sunday morning, ducking under each one in order. Visitors join the same queue: there is a changing room, a sarong to rent and a rule about which two spouts to walk past. That last part is the reason to go with somebody who knows.
- 1Monkey Forest, Water Temple, Rice Terrace, Waterfall★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 538 reviews
- 2Tirta Gangga, Jemeluk Bay, & Virgin Beach Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 120 reviews
- 3Lempuyang Temple, Tirta Gangga, and Temesi Waterfall …★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 120 reviews
Silver worked by hand
The village of Celuk has made silver for generations, and the workshops now clear a bench and light a torch for anybody who asks. You draw the piece, saw it out, solder it, file it down and polish it yourself over about four hours. You leave wearing something that cost less than dinner and took longer than the flight over.
- 1Handcrafted Silver Jewelry Workshop★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,214 reviews
- 2Canggu Jewelry Making Class with Creative Studio Vibes★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,003 reviews
- 3Seminyak Jewelry Making Class with Gold Plating Option★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 436 reviews
Four Bali bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged from a warung table the night before. These four run on tide charts, temple calendars and pick-up times that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land TourThe crossing runs on the swell and the season. Boats leave early, and a lumpy afternoon cancels Manta Point outright.
- 02Mount Batur Sunrise Guided Hike and Natural Hot SpringPick-up from this side of the island is around two in the morning, and the seats go days ahead through the dry season.
- 03Uluwatu Kecak and Fire Dance Show Entry TicketOne performance a day, at sunset, in a cliff amphitheatre with a fixed number of seats. Arrive at six without a ticket and you are standing.
- 04Besakih Temple & Lempuyang Temple Gates of Heaven TourThe gates sit at the top of a long climb and the queue is numbered. Get there after nine and the photograph costs you two hours.
From November Bali rains hard, then stops.
It is a schedule rather than a washout. The downpour lands mid-afternoon, runs an hour or two and clears off. Put the boat and the volcano in the morning and keep an indoor afternoon on standby — the waterfalls run at their fullest all season, which is the trade you are making.
Nusa Penida is forty minutes east, and nothing like Bali.
A limestone plateau with cliffs down three sides, one road worth the name, and the best snorkeling within reach of this coast. Lembongan next door is flatter, softer and far easier with children. Both are day trips, and both start with an early fast boat out of Sanur.
Every day out to the Nusa islands →
By place — the strip, the capes and the islands
By kind of day — water, temple, volcano or workshop
Seminyak, Uluwatu, Penida, Batur: the week almost everybody does first.
The newest Bali tour reviews.
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