Where to stay in Ubud

Bali's cultural heart, inland among jungle and rice terraces — temples, art and wellness, the monkey forest, and waterfall day trips in every direction.

Ubud is less a town than a valley of villages that grew together, and where you sleep in it changes the trip completely. The centre around Jalan Raya and the Monkey Forest road puts the palace, the market and most of the restaurants within walking distance, at the cost of traffic that barely moves between four and seven. Penestanan and the Campuhan ridge sit ten minutes west and trade that for footpaths through the rice fields. North towards Tegallalang and west into the Ayung gorge is where the jungle-view pools are, and where you will need a driver for everything.

It suits travellers who came for the island's culture and are content to make a day trip for a beach. It suits swimmers less: the nearest coast is an hour south in traffic, and each of the famous waterfalls is a 40-minute drive plus a long staircase. Anyone with small children or limited mobility should look hard at the walking, because Ubud's pavements are narrow, uneven and often simply absent.

Most trips pair three or four nights here with time on the coast. Ubud first and the beach afterwards tends to work better than the reverse, because the culture asks something of you and the beach asks nothing.

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