🇮🇩Ubud
Bali's green heart: rice terraces stepping down the valleys, a temple every hundred meters, monkeys with a crime syndicate, and more yoga mats per capita than anywhere on earth.
Mid-range figures, per person · DPS is the nearest major airport
Per person, no flights — those are just below. The mid-range figure is researched; budget and comfort scale it, so treat the two as rough. The trip calculator and hotels below break the day down properly.
Fares are into Bali (Denpasar), usually with one stop — Singapore, Doha or Taipei. Ubud is a 1-hour drive from that airport; Yogyakarta adds a $40–80 domestic hop or connects via Jakarta. Ranges are typical fares booked 1–3 months out, checked mid-2026 — school-holiday peaks run higher, and patient shoppers beat the bottom end.
Prices checked · how we work these out
Is Ubud expensive to visit?
Not especially: a mid-range day in Ubud costs $40–85 per person, and its $62 midpoint is 31% below the $90 median across all 127 cities here. Within Indonesia it sits right at the $61 average of our 3 Indonesia guides. That makes it pricier than 35 of the 127 cities, with a cheap meal at $1.50–3 and a mid-range hotel at $35–80 a night.
How much does a trip to Ubud cost?
| Trip length | Budget | Mid-range | Comfort |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 days | $75–150 | $120–255 | $210–450 |
| 5 days | $125–250 | $200–425 | $350–750 |
| 7 days | $175–350 | $280–595 | $490–1,050 |
| 14 days | $350–700 | $560–1,190 | $980–2,100 |
Per person and before flights, 3 days in Ubud costs $120–255 mid-range, five days $200–425, a week $280–595 and two weeks $560–1,190; a week costs about $175–350 on a budget and $490–1,050 travelling in comfort.
Per person in US dollars, flights not included. Each total is a daily range from the band above multiplied out: mid-range is the guide's researched figure and already includes a mid-range room; budget and comfort scale it by 0.6 and 1.8, so treat those two as rough. The trip calculator lets you set your own days and group size.
Entry & visa
Same as all of Indonesia: Visa on Arrival for most nationalities, Rp 500,000 (~$32) for 30 days, extendable once — pay online as the e-VOA before flying to skip a queue. Bali's one-time Rp 150,000 tourist levy applies too (Love Bali site or app).
Visa rules turn on your nationality and change often — always confirm the current requirement for your own passport with an official government source before you book.
Quick facts
Money & what things cost
Cash for warungs, drivers, offerings-market stalls and temple donations; cards and QRIS for the café economy. The nearest reliable ATMs cluster on Jalan Raya Ubud — use bank-attached machines and refuse the ATM's own 'conversion' offer, which pads the rate.
What locals earn
| Earnings | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Average monthly salary (Gianyar regency, net) | ≈ Rp 3–4M ($190–250) | craft, agriculture and tourism |
| Minimum wage (Gianyar regency) | ≈ Rp 3M ($190) | slightly under the tourist-belt regencies |
Food & drink
| Item | Local price | ≈ USD |
|---|---|---|
| Nasi campur at a warung | Rp 25,000–45,000 | $1.50–2.80 |
| Smoothie bowl / café brunch | Rp 70,000–120,000 | $4.40–7.50 |
| Casual restaurant, per person | Rp 80,000–150,000 | $5–9.50 |
| Tasting menu at a destination restaurant | Rp 1,500,000+ | $94+ |
| Fresh juice | Rp 25,000–40,000 | $1.50–2.50 |
| Bintang beer | Rp 30,000–45,000 | $1.90–2.80 |
Transport & activities
| Item | Local price | ≈ USD |
|---|---|---|
| Gojek/Grab scooter hop in town | Rp 15,000–25,000 | $0.90–1.60 |
| Scooter rental, per day | Rp 70,000–100,000 | $4.40–6.30 |
| Private driver, full day of temples | Rp 550,000–800,000 | $34–50 |
| Drop-in yoga class | Rp 130,000–180,000 | $8.10–11 |
| Mount Batur sunrise trek (with pickup) | Rp 400,000–600,000 | $25–38 |
| Balinese massage, 1 hour | Rp 120,000–250,000 | $7.50–16 |
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Where to sleep & what it costs
| Tier | Per night | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hostel dorm | Rp 120,000–250,000 ($7.50–16) | Often with pool and rice-field views — Ubud dorms punch high |
| Family homestay | Rp 250,000–500,000 ($16–31) | The classic Ubud stay: a compound room, banana pancakes included |
| Mid-range hotel / villa | Rp 550,000–1,300,000 ($34–81) | Jungle-edge infinity pools start in this bracket |
| Luxury resort | Rp 2,500,000+ ($155+) | The Ayung river gorge resorts are world-list regulars |
Been recently? Check our prices
One tap per figure. Check-ins reset whenever this guide is re-priced, so they only ever vouch for the numbers you see here.
Trip cost calculator
$62 per person per day · 4 nights of lodging (Mid-range hotel / villa)
A rough estimate, not a quote. The daily budget already includes a room, so one traveler pays exactly days × that budget; lodging is the room’s part of it, priced from the hotels below but never more than 45% of the trip. Extra travelers share the room and add only their own spending. Flights use the midpoint of the Getting there ranges above.
Getting around
- Getting there
- No airport — Ubud is 1–1.5 hours from Ngurah Rai (DPS) by car (Rp 350,000–450,000 fixed-rate taxi, less on Grab/Gojek). Coming from the southern beaches, it's 45–90 minutes depending on traffic.
- On foot
- The center — Palace, market, Monkey Forest, Jalan Raya's cafés — is walkable, though sidewalks are an obstacle course of offerings, mopeds and gaps. The Campuhan Ridge Walk starts ten minutes from the Palace.
- Scooter, Gojek & drivers
- Same rules as the rest of Bali: ride only if licensed and experienced (jungle roads are narrow and wet), Gojek/Grab for hops — note some village zones ban app pickups; hotels arrange local drivers instead — and a full-day driver for the temple-and-terrace circuit.
- The classic day loop
- Tegallalang terraces at dawn, Tirta Empul mid-morning, lunch, Gunung Kawi or Goa Gajah after — one driver-day covers what tour buses do by noon, in reverse order and without the buses.
Map
Drag to look around, or open Google Maps ↗ · Apple Maps ↗
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Neighborhoods to stay in
- Central Ubud
- Walk to the Palace, market and Monkey Forest; hear the gamelan practice at night — and the traffic by day.
- Penestanan
- Painters'-village lanes and rice-path walks, ten minutes from the center on foot.
- Nyuh Kuning
- The quiet village on the Monkey Forest's south edge — arguably the best of both.
- Tegallalang road
- Jungle and terrace resorts north of town; you'll need wheels or a driver for everything.
- Sayan / Ayung ridge
- The luxury gorge — resorts hanging over the river, sunsets included.
Things to do
Sights & walks
Restaurants & cafés
Wellness & culture
Tipping & etiquette
- Don't step on the offerings — canang sari line every doorway and pavement each morning; walk around them.
- Temple dress is a sarong and sash, lent at every major gate; menstruating women are asked by custom not to enter temple grounds.
- Bathing at Tirta Empul is welcome but follow the sequence locals use and skip the final spouts reserved for the dead's rites — ask the attendant.
- Ceremony processions own the road. Engine off, wait, enjoy the gamelan.
- Bargain gently at the art market — it's expected — but not at warungs or for offerings.
How to spend an trip to Ubud
Ubud's sights sit out in the valleys north and east of town, and the tour buses reach them mid-morning — so nearly everything here is better at dawn, which is what shapes every day below.
One day covers the town itself plus one thing outside it. Start before sunrise: by nine the terraces have coaches in them.
- MorningThe Campuhan Ridge Walk at sunrise, coffee at the warungs at the far end, then the Sacred Monkey Forest with nothing loose on you.
- MiddayBabi guling at Warung Babi Guling Ibu Oka before 1pm, because when it's gone it's gone.
- AfternoonThe Palace and the market, then a Balinese massage through the hottest hours.
- EveningLegong dance in the Ubud Palace courtyard; buy the ticket from the sellers outside during the afternoon.
Three days is this guide's own answer, and it is the length that gets you the temple loop and one proper activity without hurrying either.
- Day 1The one-day plan above: ridge walk, Monkey Forest, the Palace and the evening dance.
- Day 2The driver loop, run in reverse of the tour buses: Tegallalang terraces at dawn, Tirta Empul mid-morning, then Gunung Kawi or Goa Gajah after lunch.
- Day 3A cooking class such as Paon Bali, or the Mount Batur sunrise trek if the forecast is clear. In the wet season, skip it rather than gamble on fog.
Five days is more than Ubud needs as a sightseeing destination, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. It is a very good place to slow down in, though — so spend the extra days staying rather than seeing.
- Days 1–3The three-day plan above: the town, the temple loop, and one big activity.
- Day 4Nothing scheduled. Yoga at The Yoga Barn, the painters' lanes of Penestanan, a long lunch, a second massage. This tends to be the day people remember.
- Day 5Out. The beaches of the southern belt are an hour away, and the standard trip is a few nights here and a few nights there.
Safety & common scams
Ubud's dangers are gentle but real: wet scooter roads, monkey bites (any bite means a rabies shot series — go to a clinic, no exceptions), and tumbles on terrace paths in flip-flops. Petty theft is rare; the monkeys commit most of it.
Scams to know
- Monkey 'rescues' — handlers near the forest sell fruit to ransom back what a macaque took. Prevention is the whole game: nothing loose.
- Fake 'closed temple' helpers — a friendly stranger says the temple is closed and steers you to his cousin's shop or a 'better' one for a fee. The temple is open.
- ATM conversion traps — always choose to be charged in rupiah, never the machine's 'guaranteed' home-currency rate.
- Taxi cartels — some streets ban Gojek/Grab pickups and the local stand quotes triple. Walk 200 m out of the zone or have your hotel call their regular driver.
Emergency numbers: 112 (general) · 118 (ambulance) · Ubud has clinics for stitches and monkey bites; anything serious means Denpasar, about an hour
Phone & internet
Telkomsel has the strongest signal in the valleys; grab a tourist SIM or eSIM as for the coast. Every café doubles as a coworking space — Ubud practically invented the laptop-with-smoothie-bowl economy — and fiber Wi-Fi is standard in guesthouses.
First-timer FAQs
How is Ubud different from the Bali beach areas?
No beach, no surf, cooler nights, greener everything. Ubud is temples, terraces, yoga and long dinners; Kuta-to-Uluwatu is waves and beach clubs. They're an hour apart and most first trips do both — the southern belt has its own guide here.
How many days do I need?
Two full days covers the ridge walk, Monkey Forest, a temple loop and the terraces; three adds a cooking class or the Mount Batur sunrise trek. Long-stayers settle in for weeks — Ubud is the kind of place that quietly extends bookings.
Is the Mount Batur sunrise trek worth the 2am start?
On a clear dry-season morning, absolutely — two hours up an active volcano to watch dawn over Agung and the caldera lake. In the wet season you may summit into fog; check the forecast and skip it rather than gamble.
Do I need cash for temples and terraces?
Yes — small notes. Entrance fees are Rp 30,000–75,000, terrace farmers ask small donations at path gates, and sarong rentals and parking attendants all run on cash. Keep a stash of 10,000s and 20,000s.
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