Best Things to Do in Bali Indonesia 2026: The Ultimate List
Introduction
Bali has a reputation problem — and it's a good one to have. The island is so packed with things to see and do that most travellers land with a shortlist twice as long as their trip, only to spend half of it overwhelmed by options. Should you wake up at 3am for a volcano sunrise? Definitely yes. Should you also squeeze in a temple visit, a waterfall detour, and a beach club sunset on the same day? That's where most itineraries fall apart.
The real answer to "what are the best things to do in Bali?" isn't a single bucket list — it's knowing which experiences are worth the time, which ones are overhyped, and how to combine them without running yourself ragged. In 2026, Bali is more accessible than ever: the Rp 150,000 (~USD 10) tourist levy is now enforced digitally, a new expressway cuts travel time between the south and Ubud, and co-working hubs have multiplied across Canggu and the highlands. The island keeps changing, but the fundamentals hold.
This guide covers 15 things to do in Bali that are genuinely worth your time — with honest notes on cost, crowds, and how to do each one right.
1. Watch the Sunrise from Mount Batur
Of all the things to do in Bali, the Mount Batur sunrise trek tops most lists for a reason. Waking up at 2am is unpleasant. Standing on the rim of an active volcano watching the sun spill gold across a volcanic caldera lake is extraordinary.
The standard trek departs from the village of Toyo Baksa in Kintamani and takes about two hours round trip. Guides are mandatory and affordable (roughly Rp 150,000–250,000 per person), and they'll have hot coffee or tea waiting for you at the summit — a small luxury that makes the pre-dawn start worth it.
Budget roughly Rp 300,000–500,000 total including transport from your hotel. Go during dry season (April–October) for the clearest views. If the crowded shared-trek format isn't your style, the older Penulisan Temple route offers a quieter approach through ancient stone ruins, with views equally stunning if less photographed.
2. Temple-Hop Around the Island
Bali has roughly 20,000 temples (pura), and no Bali itinerary is complete without visiting at least a handful. The big three worth planning around are:
Uluwatu Temple — perched on a cliff above the Indian Ocean, best visited late afternoon for sunset. Stay for the Kecak fire dance that runs nightly at 6pm. Sarong rental is available on-site.
Tirta Empul — Bali's most sacred spring water temple, where Balinese Hindus perform melukat (water purification rituals). Visitors are welcome to join — bring a change of clothes and an open mind.
Tanah Lot — the iconic sea temple photographed from every angle. It's spectacular at sunset, but also the most tourist-heavy of the three. Arrive 90 minutes before sundown for a less crowded experience.
A private car with driver costs Rp 600,000–900,000 per day and is the most practical way to combine multiple temples on one circuit. Alternatively, rent a scooter for Rp 50,000–80,000 per day and navigate yourself — just budget extra time for getting lost.
💡 Tip: Carry a sarong and sash at all times. Most temples require them, and renting on-site adds up if you're visiting three or more in a day.
3. Explore the Tegallalang Rice Terraces
The Tegallalang Rice Terraces in Ubud are technically a UNESCO-recognized subak irrigation system — which is a long way of saying they're a working rice farm that also happens to be jaw-droppingly beautiful. The terraced hillside of vivid green paddies is best visited before 8am, when the morning light is soft and the tourist coaches haven't yet arrived.
The official entrance fee is Rp 15,000, though vendors along the entrance path will try to charge more for "swing experiences" and photography setups. Stick to the marked footpaths — the terraces are someone's livelihood, not just a backdrop.
Combine a Tegallalang visit with a stop at the nearby Tirta Empul (15 minutes by scooter) for a full morning of cultural and natural Bali.
4. Snorkel or Dive at Nusa Penida
A short 30-minute ferry from Sanur, Nusa Penida is the adventure diving capital of Bali. The island sits in a channel between the Bali and Indian Ocean seas, which means strong currents, cold upwellings, and some of the most spectacular marine life in Indonesian waters.
The two non-negotiable dive sites: Manta Ray Point (where you nearly always see giant manta rays cleaning stations) and Crystal Bay (classic wall dive with excellent macro life). For snorkellers, Manta Ray Point is equally accessible from the surface — most day-trip boats include a snorkel stop there.
A full-day organised tour from Bali costs Rp 350,000–600,000 including boat, equipment, and lunch. Going independently via the public ferry (Rp 45,000–65,000 each way) plus scooter rental on the island saves money but requires navigation on roads that are rougher than mainland Bali.
5. Discover the Sekumpul Waterfall
Most tourists gravitate to Tegenungan (convenient, near Ubud, crowded). The ones in the know head north to Sekumpul, widely considered Bali's most spectacular waterfall — twin cascades plunging into a lush jungle gorge, reached by a trek through rice terraces and slippery forest paths.
It's not easy to reach: expect a 30–60 minute walk each way, some of it on muddy inclines. Go early (arrive by 7am) and hire a local guide at the trailhead (Rp 50,000–100,000) — the path is genuinely hard to navigate alone.
The reward is near-solitude in one of Bali's most dramatic natural settings. Combine it with a stop at the nearby Banyumala Twin Waterfalls, which require an additional 20-minute trek but are even quieter.
6. Surf or Beach-Club in Canggu
Canggu has transformed from a quiet surf village into Bali's most talked-about neighbourhood, and the energy is genuinely electric. The beach breaks at Batu Bolong and Old Man's work for all skill levels, and board rental is cheap (Rp 50,000–100,000 for a half day).
If surfing isn't your thing, Canggu's beach club scene more than compensates. Finns Beach Club and Potato Head Beach Club are the landmarks — both offer pools, daybeds, and sunsets that rival anything else on the island. Entry is typically free before sunset; expect to spend Rp 200,000–400,000 on food and drinks.
For a quieter beach day, head to Balangan Beach in the south — dramatic cliffs, turquoise water, and a fraction of the Canggu crowds.
7. Wander Through Ubud's Monkey Forest
The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in central Ubud is simultaneously one of Bali's most famous attractions and one of its most misunderstood. Yes, there are monkeys — hundreds of them. Yes, they're entertaining. The deeper appeal is the forest itself: a conserved patch of thick jungle in the middle of Ubud, threaded with stone pathways and anchored by three historic temples dating to the 14th century.
Go early morning (the forest opens at 8:30am) for cooler temperatures and fewer visitors. Keep your phone, snacks, and loose items firmly in your bag — the monkeys are bold and experienced at relieving tourists of both.
The Rp 80,000 entrance fee also covers your visit to all three temple compounds within the forest. Budget an hour to explore properly, and combine it with a walk through Ubud's central market (5 minutes away) and lunch on theayam todayshopping, which sits alongside artisan boutiques and local warungs.
8. Take a Balinese Cooking Class
The best food experience in Bali isn't necessarily eating — it's understanding how Balinese cuisine works. Dozens of cooking schools operate in and around Ubud, and most follow the same format: a morning market visit to source ingredients, followed by hands-on cooking of dishes like nasi campur, lawar, and sate lilit.
The Farm Cooking School and Paon Bali Cooking Class consistently rank among the best. Expect to pay Rp 700,000–1,200,000 per person for a half-day class, which typically includes the market tour, all ingredients, and lunch.
The value isn't just the food — it's the context. Balinese cuisine uses a complex bumbu (spice paste) base that gets used across dozens of dishes, and understanding that foundation changes how you think about the food everywhere else on the island.
9. Visit a Traditional Village
Bali's resort zones — Seminyak, Kuta, Sanur — have almost no overlap with traditional Balinese life. Getting out to a village like Penglipuran in Bangli feels like stepping back several decades: immaculate bamboo-walled compounds, roosters crowing at dawn, and a community that has deliberately preserved its architectural and cultural heritage.
Penglipuran is one of the cleanest villages in Bali — literally. Residents follow strict awig-awig (traditional village laws) that prohibit garbage and require participation in communal ceremonies. It's a striking contrast to the tourist zones and a reminder of the living culture beneath Bali's resort surface.
Sidemen in East Bali offers a different experience — quieter rice terrace valleys, no tourist infrastructure, and homestays run by families who've hosted travellers for generations. It's where people who find Ubud too busy end up, and stay for weeks.
10. Dive the USAT Liberty Shipwreck at Tulamben
Tulamben, on Bali's northeast coast, is home to one of the most accessible and dramatic wreck dives in Southeast Asia. The USAT Liberty was a US Army supply ship torpedoed by Japanese forces in 1942 and pushed ashore by volcanic eruption in 1963. It now rests on a black volcanic sand slope, its hull covered in coral and populated by hawkfish, ghost pipefish, and massive gorgonian sea fans.
You don't need advanced certification to enjoy the Liberty — it's shallow enough (5–30 metres) for Open Water divers, and snorkellers see plenty from the surface. The dive site is a 10-minute walk from the shore entry point, making it one of Bali's few true shore dives.
A guided dive with equipment rental costs Rp 900,000–1,500,000. The village of Tulamben itself is quiet, with simple warungs serving fresh seafood — the kind of place where dinner costs Rp 30,000 and the view is the ocean.
11. Experience a Balinese Purification Ritual
Tirta Empul isn't just a temple to photograph — it's a functioning Hindu water temple where Balinese come for melukat, a ritual purification using the spring water from 30 carved spouts. The practice is rooted in the Balinese Hindu belief that physical purity is a prerequisite for spiritual clarity.
Visitors are welcome to join — it's not cultural appropriation if you're invited, which you are. You bathe alongside Balinese worshippers, moving through the spouts with a local guide who explains the ritual's meaning. Bring clothes you don't mind getting wet in (or purchase a sarong on-site), and budget Rp 300,000–500,000 for the guide plus temple entry.
The experience is visceral in a way that temple visits with just a camera aren't. Standing under a cold spring spout at 8am, watching mist rise from the stone basins, you understand why this practice has persisted for a thousand years.
12. Explore the Sidemen Valley
Sidemen is what Bali looks like in your imagination before you land and discover the traffic in Kuta. A quiet valley east of Mount Agung, it stretches between rice paddies and volcanic hills, with the mountain's peak often obscured in morning cloud.
The main activity here is slow: cycling through the back roads, walking the ridge trails above the valley floor, or simply sitting in a warung watching the rice paddies shift colour with the light. The area has a small cluster of eco-resorts and homestays that cater to travellers who came to Bali to decompress, not to maximise their itinerary.
A full day in Sidemen including scooter rental, a guided rice terrace walk, and lunch at a local warung costs Rp 400,000–600,000 — significantly less than a comparable day in Canggu, and infinitely more peaceful.
13. Watch Sunset at Uluwatu
Even among Bali's many spectacular sunsets, Uluwatu stands out. The temple sits on a 70-metre cliff above the Indian Ocean, and as the sun drops toward the horizon, the sky turns the kind of orange-pink gradient that photo filters try — and fail — to replicate.
The Kecak fire dance performed nightly in the cliff-top amphitheatre is a Bali highlight: 70+ male performers chanting cak cak cak in hypnotic unison while enacting scenes from the Ramayana. It runs 6–7pm nightly. Arrive by 5pm to secure a good seat and watch the sky transform overhead.
Combine with dinner at Jimbaran Beach (10 minutes away), where the evening's catch is grilled on the sand at数理of beachfront restaurants. Seafood platters cost Rp 150,000–300,000 — the quintessential Bali dinner experience.
14. Relax on Amed Beach
Amed on Bali's east coast is the island's quietest dive and beach destination — and it's that quietness that makes it special. The beach is black volcanic sand, the snorkelling along Jemeluk Bay is consistently excellent (healthy coral, abundant fish life, accessible from shore), and the village atmosphere is village life in the best sense: fishers pulling in the morning catch, temple ceremonies audible from the main strip, zero traffic.
Amed is increasingly known for its yoga and wellness scene — several boutique resorts run daily classes in purpose-built pavilions overlooking the ocean. A drop-in yoga session costs Rp 150,000–250,000.
Accommodation here runs from Rp 150,000 per night for a beachfront homestay to Rp 1,000,000+ for a clifftop boutique villa. The value at every level is higher than equivalent options in the south.
15. Get Lost in Ubud's Campuhan Ridge Walk
The Campuhan Ridge Walk is free, requires no guide, and takes you along a ridge between two river valleys thick with jungle, grass, and the kind of silence that's hard to find in central Ubud. It's 5km return and takes about 90 minutes at a comfortable pace.
The trail starts near the Museum Puri Lukis美术馆 and follows the ridge south-west out of Ubud proper. The Instagram-famous "Instagram bridge" is somewhere along this route, but the real appeal is the walk itself — the jungle closes in on both sides, the path narrows to a dirt track, and for a stretch you're genuinely alone in the Bali landscape.
Go early morning. The midday sun on an exposed ridge walk is punishing, and afternoon cloud reduces visibility. Take water and leave your camera bag at the hotel — you'll want to travel light.
Wrapping Up: Building Your Bali Itinerary
No one does all 15 of these in a single trip — and trying to would defeat the purpose. The travellers who get the most out of Bali are the ones who pick their pace deliberately: three or four genuinely good experiences per day, with breathing room between them.
The practical framework: start with one activity that requires early morning (Mount Batur, Campuhan Ridge, the Monkey Forest). Follow with something in the late morning (a temple, a cooking class, a dive briefing). Rest through the midday heat — this is not optional in Bali's tropical sun — and come alive again from 3pm onwards for temple visits, beach time, or a sunset spot.
That rhythm, combined with a willingness to skip the overrated spots in favour of the quieter alternatives, is what separates a good Bali trip from a great one. The island earns its reputation every year. The only thing that changes is how you experience it.