Where to Stay in Ubud, Provinsi Bali

What is Ubud known for?

It lies in the green hills among rice terraces and river gorges, famous for its painters, its dancers, and its temples, and a sacred forest of monkeys and shrines rests at its heart. Flowers and offerings fill the temple gates. Art and rice mark the town.

What are the main landmarks in Ubud?

The Sacred Monkey Forest lies at the heart of Ubud. A temple complex in a deep forest, alive with macaques among mossy shrines, draws crowds to the edge of the town, the emblem of the place, above a river gorge. Palaces and galleries fill the centre.

The Ubud Palace stages Balinese dance by night, while Goa Gajah, the old Elephant Cave, the Puri Lukisan Museum, and the Neka Art Museum hold the town's treasures.

What is the history of Ubud?

Ubud grew as a place of temples and healing. Its name comes from an old word for medicine, for the herbs that grew along its rivers, and for centuries the town was a seat of Balinese priests and princes among the sacred springs and shrines. Art gathered around the palace.

The ruling family of Ubud kept painters, carvers, and dancers at its court, and the town became the centre of Balinese art and craft. Western artists found the hill town. In the twentieth century foreign painters settled in Ubud and worked beside the Balinese masters, and the town's galleries and studios drew art lovers from around the world.

Then travellers came in crowds. Visitors poured in for the temples, the rice terraces, and the sacred monkey forest, and Ubud grew into the cultural capital of Bali. The old palace still holds its dances.

Ubud guards its art and its shrines in the hills.

Where is Ubud?

Ubud lies in the green uplands of central Bali. The town spreads over a ridge between two river gorges, among terraced rice fields and thick forest, in the volcanic highlands north of the coast. Deep ravines cut through the hills.

The rice terraces step down the slopes.

What is the climate of Ubud?

Ubud has a warm, wet tropical climate. Mild upland heat and high humidity hang over the hills all year, cooler than the coast, and a long wet monsoon brings the heavy rains from autumn into spring. Mist gathers in the gorges at dawn.

The hills stay green year-round.

How do you get to Ubud?

Ubud lies in the hills of central Bali, north of the coast. Roads climb to the town from the airport and the beach resorts of the south, winding up through the rice country. Drivers and scooters reach the villages around.

Most arrive by road up from the coast.