5-Day Bali Itinerary — Uluwatu Cliffs, Ubud Rice Terraces & Nusa Penida

Batu Bolong Beach

📍 Canggu

Start where Bali's surf culture actually lives — a dark volcanic-sand break with the Batu Bolong temple sitting right on the shoreline.

Crate Cafe

📍 Canggu

The Canggu brunch institution. Go early; the queue past 1pm is real.

Echo Beach

📍 Canggu

Walk the shore north to Echo Beach for the afternoon swell and a quieter stretch of sand.

Tanah Lot Temple

📍 Tabanan

Bali's sea temple on a tidal rock, 45 minutes up the coast. Arrive before 5pm to beat the sunset coach traffic.

Motel Mexicola

📍 Seminyak

Loud, technicolour and deservedly popular — an easy first dinner on the way back south.

Padang Padang Beach

📍 Pecatu

Reached through a cleft in the limestone. Small, sheltered and best in the morning before the tide swallows the sand.

Suluban Beach

📍 Uluwatu

Blue Point — a cave-mouth beach under the cliffs. Check the tide before committing to the stairs.

Single Fin Uluwatu

📍 Uluwatu

Lunch on the cliff edge, looking straight down at the Uluwatu break.

Uluwatu Temple

📍 Pecatu

Pura Luhur Uluwatu on a 70m sea cliff. Hold onto sunglasses — the macaques are practised thieves.

Menega Cafe

📍 Jimbaran

Grilled seafood on Jimbaran Bay with your table set on the sand.

Tegallalang Rice Terrace

📍 Tegallalang

The tiered valley everyone photographs. Arriving at 8am is the difference between having it and queuing for it.

Tirta Empul Temple

📍 Tampaksiring

A working purification temple where Balinese Hindus bathe in the spring-fed pools. Sarong required; a proper ritual, not a photo stop.

Goa Gajah

📍 Bedulu

The 11th-century Elephant Cave, carved as a demon's mouth, with bathing pools below.

Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary

📍 Ubud

Three temples inside a banyan forest with around 1,200 long-tailed macaques. Bags zipped, no food visible.

Campuhan Ridge Walk

📍 Ubud

An easy 2km spine of grass ridge between two river valleys — the best free hour in Ubud.

Bebek Tepi Sawah

📍 Ubud

Crispy Balinese duck at the edge of the rice fields.

Mount Batur

📍 Kintamani

A 2-hour guided climb in the dark to a 1,717m summit for sunrise over the caldera. Head torch, layers — it is genuinely cold at the top.

Toya Devasya Hot Spring

📍 Kintamani

Lakeside geothermal pools directly below the volcano you just climbed. Exactly the right thing for your legs.

Pura Ulun Danu Batur

📍 Kintamani

The second most important temple in Bali, rebuilt uphill after the 1926 eruption buried the original.

Tibumana Waterfall

📍 Bangli

A single broad curtain into a shallow pool, with a fraction of the crowds at Tegenungan.

Ubud Palace

📍 Ubud

Puri Saren Agung back in town — catch the evening Legong dance in the courtyard if you still have the energy.

Sanur Beach

📍 Sanur

The fast boat to Nusa Penida leaves from the Sanur harbour. Book the 7:30 crossing; it is about 45 minutes.

Kelingking Beach

📍 Nusa Penida

The T-Rex headland. The viewpoint is the photograph; the descent to the sand is a genuine scramble and not for everyone.

Angel's Billabong

📍 Nusa Penida

A natural rock infield pool at the cliff's edge. Only at low tide, and never when the swell is running.

Broken Beach

📍 Nusa Penida

Pasih Uug — a collapsed sea arch enclosing a circular cove. Five minutes' walk from Angel's Billabong.

Crystal Bay Beach

📍 Nusa Penida

West-facing and calm — the swim and the sunset before the last boat back to Sanur.