How to Book an Ubud Tour in Bali

The mist comes down off the volcano just before sunrise and it sits on the rice terraces around Ubud like someone draped a white sheet over the whole valley. You can hear gamelan coming from somewhere you can’t see. A woman walks past in a white kebaya balancing a woven tray of flowers and rice on her head. The scooter behind you swerves around a stray dog that has decided the middle of the road is a perfectly fine place to sleep.

This is Ubud at 6am, before any of the tours start running. By 10am it will be something entirely different — coaches, coffee plantations crammed with people, queues at the jungle swings. Which is why the first decision you make about booking an Ubud tour isn’t which tour. It’s when you leave.

I’ve done the Ubud circuit more times than I can count now, across a handful of trips to Bali, and I’ve booked through almost every platform that matters. This is my honest take on how to book a day in Ubud that actually feels like the version of Bali people post on Instagram — not the version where you queue 40 minutes for a swing photo.

Aerial view of lush green rice terraces surrounding Ubud in Bali, Indonesia — An aerial look at the rice terraces wrapped around Ubud — the kind of scenery that makes a ten-hour day feel short.

Short on time? Here are my top 3 picks:

Best overall: All-Inclusive Ubud Private Tour with Hotel Transfer — $36. Private driver, hotel pickup, the whole Ubud circuit in one day. At this price it’s the obvious call.

Best for the jungle swing: Best of Ubud Tour With Jungle Swing — $56. Swing ticket already included so you skip the extra fee at the gate.

Best budget: Ubud Waterfalls, Water Temple and Rice Terraces Private Tour — $29. Ten hours, private guide, under thirty bucks. The math does not work and I love it.

Tegalalang rice terraces near Ubud on a bright morning — Tegalalang stops being crowded by about 9am — if your driver starts in Ubud town, you will arrive right in the window before the big coach tours roll in.

How Ubud Tours Actually Work

Here’s the thing nobody tells you before you book: almost every “Ubud tour” in Bali is structurally identical. They all visit the same four or five spots. What changes is the order, the pace, and — most importantly — whether you’re in a private car with a driver who works for you, or on a minivan with ten other people on someone else’s schedule.

The core Ubud circuit almost always includes: Tegalalang rice terraces, Tirta Empul water temple, one or two waterfalls (usually Tegenungan or Tibumana), the Monkey Forest, and a coffee plantation stop. Some add the jungle swing as a paid extra. Some add Ubud Palace at the end. That’s basically it.

So when you’re picking between twenty tours on GetYourGuide or Viator, you aren’t really picking different experiences. You’re picking between group vs private, between included lunch vs not, between jungle swing vs no swing, and between drivers with 15,000 five-star reviews and drivers with 200.

Balinese women in traditional attire carrying ceremonial offerings — You will see canang sari offerings on every doorstep in Ubud — ask your driver to stop so you can actually watch one being made. It takes two minutes and completely changes how you see the place.

Private Driver vs Group Tour — Which One to Book

I will be blunt about this because it comes up in every single booking decision. Book the private driver. Always.

Here is why. A private Ubud tour costs $29 to $36 per person if there are two of you — sometimes less if you’re a group of four. A group bus tour costs about $25 to $45 per person. The saving is tiny. In exchange for five dollars, the group tour charges you the following:

You wait at every stop for the slowest person in the group to come back to the van. Usually that’s 15 to 20 minutes per stop.
You eat lunch at a designated buffet-style restaurant that pays the driver a commission. It’s always the worst meal of the day.
You visit stops in a fixed order, which means you arrive at Tegalalang at the same time as every other group bus tour, which means the “iconic rice terrace photo” has fifty other people in it.
You get pressured to buy things at the coffee plantation and the silver workshop because the guides work on commission.
You lose about 90 minutes across the day to loading, unloading, and waiting.

A private driver skips all of that. You show up at 7am if you want. You skip the coffee plantation if you hate it. You spend two hours at the waterfall instead of 25 minutes. You decide when you eat lunch and where. And in Bali, where private tours are cheaper than half the street food in London, there is no financial reason to choose the cheaper group option.

Ornate stone entrance of a traditional Balinese temple in Ubud — Bring a sarong or borrow one at the gate — most temples lend them for free but the good private drivers carry spares in the car just in case.

The Best Ubud Tours to Book

These are the three I’d actually send friends to. All three cover the same core circuit — the difference is price, platform, and whether the jungle swing is included.

1. All-Inclusive Ubud Private Tour with Hotel Transfer — $36

Aerial view of rice terraces used for the All Inclusive Ubud Private Tour — If I had to pick one Ubud tour for a first-time visitor with no patience for group buses, this is the one.

This is the most booked private Ubud tour on Viator and I understand why. $36 per person gets you hotel pickup from anywhere in south Bali, a private driver-guide for the whole day, entry fees included, lunch included, and the full Ubud circuit. Sixteen thousand five-star reviews is not a coincidence.

What makes it work is the flexibility — the driver has a default route but you can swap anything. Skip the coffee plantation if you want. Add an extra waterfall. Stay longer at Tegalalang. My pick for a first-time visitor who wants to see everything without the math on group tours.

The one caveat: hotel transfer is included from anywhere in Kuta, Seminyak, Canggu, Nusa Dua and Sanur, but if you are already staying in Ubud this tour does not really apply — you want one of the Ubud-start tours instead, since you don’t need the two-hour drive up.

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2. Best of Ubud Tour With Jungle Swing — $56

If the jungle swing photo is the whole reason you’re coming to Ubud — and no judgement, it was part of why I came the first time — this is the tour to book. $56 gets you the same Ubud circuit as the $36 tour plus the pre-paid jungle swing ticket. At the gate the swing alone runs $35 to $45 depending on which one you pick, so the math is actually better than the cheaper tour once you factor that in.

The swing stop is usually at Bali Swing in Bongkasa or one of the copycat setups around Tegalalang. Both are fine. Both have about fifteen platforms, harnesses, and a photographer who takes your photo as you swing out over the valley. If it sounds cheesy, it is. It’s also honestly fun.

One tip: wear a flowing dress or skirt if you care about the photos. Every Instagram photo you’ve seen from these swings is a dress billowing out behind. Shorts and a t-shirt work for the experience but the photos will look exactly like shorts and a t-shirt on a swing.

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3. Ubud Waterfalls, Water Temple and Rice Terraces Private Tour — $29

This is the one I use when I’m travelling on a tight budget or taking a friend who has already been. $29 for a full ten-hour private tour on GetYourGuide, with a driver who works just for you. I honestly don’t know how the pricing math works out for the driver at this rate, so tip generously — 100,000 to 150,000 rupiah at the end is standard and goes a long way.

The route is a bit lighter than the $36 version — no lunch included, no hotel transfer from the far south, and some of the entry fees are pay-at-gate rather than pre-included. But if you’re staying anywhere near Ubud or up in Seminyak, this is genuinely the best value tour I’ve found on any platform.

The only thing to watch: at this price, some drivers will push the coffee plantation and silver workshop hard because those are where their kickbacks come from. Just politely say no if you don’t want to go, and they move on. In all my trips I’ve never had a driver take it badly.

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When to Leave, and Why Sunrise Tours Win

Bali rice terraces at golden sunrise — The sunrise-departure Ubud tours are worth the 5am wake-up — by the time the standard tours arrive at 10am the light is harsh and the terraces are full.

The default pickup time for most Ubud tours is 8am to 9am. This means you arrive at Tegalalang rice terraces at around 10:30am, which is also when every other default-pickup tour arrives. It is genuinely busy. The famous “reflection” photos you see online are shot before 8am or after 4pm.

If you have the option, ask your driver to start at 6am or 6:30am. Most private drivers will do this if you ask in advance through the platform. You’ll arrive at Tegalalang at about 7:30, have the terraces almost to yourself for an hour, and then be ahead of the rush at every subsequent stop all day.

The trade-off is you skip the sunrise at Mount Batur (which is a whole separate tour) and your driver is tired. I still think it’s the right call.

If sunrise is too brutal, the second-best option is an afternoon start — leave at 11am, have lunch in Ubud town, and hit Tegalalang around 3pm as the morning groups are leaving. The light is softer, the terraces are thinning out, and you can still fit Tirta Empul and one waterfall before sunset.

What’s Actually in the Circuit — Stop by Stop

Tegalalang Rice Terraces

Terraced rice paddies with coconut trees at Tegalalang — There is a donation box at the entry to each section of Tegalalang — 10,000 to 20,000 rupiah per person is standard, cash only.

Tegalalang is a working rice terrace that has mostly been turned into a photo spot over the last decade. There are three levels of terraces, connected by paths, each with a small donation box at the entrance. The further down you walk, the fewer people you’ll see. Most group tours only visit the top level.

Budget 45 minutes to an hour here. Wear shoes you don’t mind getting muddy — the stairs are slippery in the wet season and the middle of the terraces is softer underfoot than it looks. If you’ve got a good camera, this is the spot of the day.

Tirta Empul Water Temple

Devotees at a cleansing ritual at Tirta Empul — You move through the spouts in order, skipping the last two which are for funerary rites — a guide will keep you from accidentally doing the wrong pools.

This is the purification temple with the spring-fed pools and the spouts you’ve seen in every Bali video. You can actually do the ritual — called melukat — as a visitor, which means changing into a sarong and wading through a line of spouts in a specific order. It’s one of the few temple experiences in Bali where you’re not just watching.

A guide is useful here because the order of the spouts matters. The last two are for funerary rites only and you skip them. Your private tour driver will either explain it or walk you through — group tour guides usually don’t bother. Allow an hour including changing.

Bring a towel, bring underwear you don’t mind getting wet, and honestly bring a small dry bag for your phone. There’s no coat check.

The Waterfalls — Tegenungan, Tibumana, Kanto Lampo

Tegenungan Waterfall surrounded by jungle near Ubud — Tegenungan is the closest to Ubud and the easiest — a short stair walk down, and you can swim if you feel like it.

Every Ubud tour includes at least one waterfall. The three options your driver will probably offer are:

Tegenungan — closest to Ubud, widest, easiest to reach (stairs down, no hike). Usually busy by 10am. Swimmable. 20,000 rupiah entry.
Tibumana — 40 minutes from Ubud, quieter, single tall drop into a swimming pool. My favourite of the three. 15,000 rupiah.
Kanto Lampo — smaller but very photogenic, cascades over a wide rock face. Often combined with Tibumana on the same stop. 15,000 rupiah.

Tell your driver which one you want. “Take me to the less busy one” will always get you Tibumana.

Ubud Monkey Forest

The Monkey Forest is a sacred sanctuary in the middle of Ubud town — about 700 macaques, three temples, and the best banyan tree root system in Bali. Entry is 80,000 rupiah for adults. Budget 45 minutes to an hour.

The rules: don’t feed them (staff sell approved bananas if you really want to — but they’re supposed to be the only ones handing food out, not you), don’t make direct eye contact with the big males, and do not, under any circumstances, bring a bag with visible snacks inside. I watched a woman get mugged for a granola bar in a zipped pouch. The macaques knew.

Coffee Plantation

Traditional Balinese coffee roasting — Most Ubud tours include a coffee plantation stop — it is half-demo, half-sales pitch, but the free tasting tray is actually great and the luwak is optional.

Every tour will offer this and honestly, even though it’s transparently a sales funnel, I still enjoy it. You get a free tasting tray of about ten Balinese coffees and teas — ginger lemongrass, vanilla, mangosteen, coconut — and a walk through a small plantation with the guide explaining how kopi luwak works. The luwak itself is a paid extra, usually 50,000 rupiah for a small cup, and I’d skip it (ethical issues aside, it just tastes normal).

The pressure to buy at the end is real but polite. “No thank you, we already have coffee at home” works every time. Allow 30-45 minutes.

What to Wear and What to Bring

Balinese people in a Hindu ceremonial ritual — If you land on a ceremony day the whole tour shifts — roads close, temples fill up, and your driver will route around it. Not a disruption, an upgrade.

The Ubud circuit involves temples (sarong required), waterfalls (you’ll get wet), rice terraces (muddy), monkeys (no loose items), and a long car day (light layer for air con). The practical packing list:

Sarong and sash — most temples lend them free but good drivers carry a spare. A buck-fifty sarong from any warung is insurance.
Towel — for the waterfall and Tirta Empul.
Swimsuit under your clothes — saves changing in the car park.
Cash in small notes — donation boxes, entry fees, tips. 500,000 rupiah in 10K-50K notes covers a full day for two.
Bug spray — the waterfall stops are jungle.
A light long-sleeve — for the drive and for sun protection at Tegalalang.
Proper shoes — flip-flops are fine for temples but the rice terrace stairs will kill you. Trainers or good sandals with a heel strap.
A phone in a dry bag or pouch — especially if you’re doing Tirta Empul.

Price, Tipping, and What the Driver Expects

Aerial view of an Ubud village among rice terraces — Ubud is not a city, it is a string of villages — each with its own temple, its own rice fields, and its own traffic bottleneck at 4pm.

Tours on GetYourGuide and Viator are priced per person, but the real cost to the driver is per car, not per head. This means the math changes drastically depending on group size:

1 person: $36 feels like a steal
2 people: $36 each, so $72 total — still a good deal
3 people: $108 total — now you’re paying more than the driver’s actual day rate
4 people: $144 total — at this point you should book off-platform

If you’re a group of three or four, message a few drivers directly and negotiate a flat day rate. Expect $55 to $75 for the whole car for 10 hours. Your hotel concierge will have three numbers in their phone.

For tipping — the platforms say it’s not expected. The drivers say it’s not expected. But if you tip 100,000 to 150,000 rupiah (about $6 to $10) at the end of a private tour, you will get a genuinely grateful response and probably a WhatsApp contact for the rest of your Bali trip. Worth it.

Decorative penjor poles along a Balinese street — If the streets are lined with curved bamboo poles — those are penjor, and it means Galungan. Your tour will still run, but everything takes twice as long.

If You Land on a Ceremony Day

Bali has roughly 200 religious ceremony days per year. You’ll probably hit one. The two to watch for are Galungan (every 210 days, huge celebration, streets lined with penjor bamboo poles) and Nyepi (day of silence, every March — the entire island literally shuts down and you cannot leave your hotel).

Galungan doesn’t cancel tours but it changes them — temple visits become temple visits during active ceremonies, which is extraordinary, and traffic triples. Nyepi cancels everything. If your dates overlap Nyepi, book your tour for the day before or the day after. Your driver will know the exact timing.

Intricate stone carving of Ganesha in Ubud — The stone carving detail on every temple around Ubud is unreal — if you care about craftsmanship, ask your driver to stop at a working stonemason village on the road to Tegalalang.

The Add-Ons Worth Paying For

Every platform offers “upgrades” to the standard Ubud circuit. Most of them aren’t worth it. Two that are:

Balinese cooking class add-on. Usually $15-$25 on top of the base tour. Three hours at a home kitchen in the rice fields outside Ubud, cooking six dishes with a local family. Even if you’ve done cooking classes before, the Ubud ones are noticeably better because the ingredients come straight out of the garden behind the kitchen. If you’re choosing between this and the jungle swing, this wins.

Sunrise departure upgrade. Some tours charge $5-$10 extra to start at 6am instead of 8am. Pay it without thinking. It pays for itself in missed crowds and better light.

Not worth it: the silver workshop stop, the batik demonstration, the wood-carving village. All three are commission stops that eat 30-45 minutes each and give you nothing back. Tell your driver to skip them in advance.

Monkey on an ornate sculpture in Ubud Monkey Forest — There is a strict no-touching rule at Monkey Forest — but the monkeys absolutely have not read it.

Ubud vs Kuta Pickup — Where You Stay Changes the Tour

Almost every Viator and GetYourGuide Ubud tour is priced assuming you’re staying in south Bali (Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Canggu, Nusa Dua, Sanur). These are the areas where the tour includes hotel transfer, and the drive up to Ubud takes about 90 minutes to two hours each way.

If you’re staying in Ubud itself, two things change. First, you don’t need the hotel transfer at all, so some tours technically don’t apply to you (book the Ubud-start versions instead, usually filtered as “Ubud starting point”). Second, your day is four hours shorter because you skip the round-trip drive, which means you can add a second cluster of activities — waterfall plus jungle swing plus Tirta Empul plus cooking class is genuinely doable from an Ubud hotel.

My recommendation for first-time Bali trips: split your stay. Three nights in Ubud, three nights in Seminyak or Canggu. Do the Ubud tour on your first day in Ubud so you don’t burn transit time, and do the south Bali tours from your beach base later.

Lush tropical rainforest landscape in Bali — The jungle around Ubud is where the air actually cools down — bring a light layer for the waterfall stops, it is genuinely cold in the spray.

Common Questions People Actually Ask Me

Do I need a guide or just a driver? A driver is fine. Most Ubud private “tours” on the big platforms are actually drivers who know the circuit, speak good English, and can explain things if asked — but you’re not getting a licensed guide with a history degree. The extra cost for an actual guide is 2x-3x and not necessary unless you really want the history angle.

Can I do this in a day from Nusa Dua? Yes, but it’s a long day. Drive up at 7am, back by 7pm, about 11 hours total. Doable but tiring. If you’re in Nusa Dua and have flexibility, an overnight in Ubud is the better call.

Do I tip at each stop or at the end? End of the day. Cash. Rupiah preferred over dollars.

What if it rains? November through March is the wet season, but rain is usually afternoon thunderstorms rather than all-day drizzle. The tours still run. The waterfalls are fuller. The rice terraces are slipperier. Bring a poncho.

Can I bring a baby or small kid? Yes, and private tours are actually great for this because you can bail whenever you need. Skip the jungle swing (obviously), keep Monkey Forest short, and plan around nap windows.

Person on a jungle swing above rice terraces in Ubud — The jungle swings are tourist theatre and I know it — but standing up there looking out over the valley I absolutely did not care.

What I’d Actually Book If I Were You

If you’re reading this as a first-time Bali visitor and you just want the answer: book the $36 All-Inclusive Private Ubud Tour. Ask for a 6:30am start. Skip the silver workshop. Tip the driver 150,000 rupiah at the end. Eat satay in a warung on the way home instead of at whatever tourist restaurant they try to take you to. You’ll be done by 5pm, sunburnt, muddy, and convinced Bali was the best decision you ever made.

If the jungle swing photo is non-negotiable, book the $56 version with the swing included and save the gate fee argument. If you’re counting every rupiah and already in central Bali, the $29 GetYourGuide tour is unreasonable value and I’d be shocked if you had a bad day on it.

Holy bathing pools at Tirta Empul Water Temple — Tirta Empul has changing rooms and sarongs on site — bring a towel and something to wear in the water that is not white, since it goes see-through fast.

Other Guides You Might Find Useful

Indonesia is the first country we’ve covered in this new series, so the rest of the tour-booking guides on this site skew to Vietnam and Thailand — both worth pairing with a Bali leg if you’re on a wider Southeast Asia trip.

If you’re continuing north from Bali, the Halong Bay cruises and Ninh Binh day trip from Hanoi are the two Vietnam stops that feel most complementary to Ubud — same jungle, same terraces, less swing-photography. For the food side, the Hanoi street food walking tours and the Hoi An cooking classes are both in the same price range and pair well with a Bali cooking-class add-on.

If Thailand is on the route instead, the Bangkok bike tour is the fastest way to shake off jet lag after a beach week and the Krabi Tiger Cave and Emerald Pool day trip is the closest Thailand equivalent to an Ubud nature circuit. And if you need a rest day in between, the Hanoi water puppet show is indoors, air-conditioned, and strangely moving.