Ubud as a base in Bali: what is in the town and what is not

The short answer

Ubud is a base for the culture of Bali's Gianyar hills, not a container for it. XTOUR's reviewed records place two sights inside it, the Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA) and the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary; XTOUR has not finished checking other places in the town, such as Ubud Palace and Ubud Market, and does not describe them here. Choose Ubud if those, and a stay among them, are what you want, and treat the temples and terraces described below as trips out of town: Bali's provincial tourism office places several of them in other districts or other regencies, and XTOUR has no evidence that the rest are inside Ubud.

XTOUR gives no travel times from Ubud to anything, because it has no routing source to check them against. It also has no source that compares Ubud with Bali's southern beach areas on terms it can verify, so it does not make that comparison.

Ubud town and Ubud district

The name covers two things. Ubud is a town and also a district (kecamatan) of Gianyar Regency; Bali's tourism office, for example, describes Mas, a village known since the 1930s for its woodcarvers, as "salah satu desa di kecamatan Ubud", one of the villages of Ubud district.[7] XTOUR's destination is the town, and a place counts as inside it in XTOUR's records only where it falls within the town or the district; ARMA and the Monkey Forest meet that test on reviewed evidence, and XTOUR has not assessed Mas.

The Monkey Forest, by its own account

The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, also called Monkey Forest Ubud, gives its address as Jalan Monkey Forest, Padangtegal, Ubud, and describes itself as "a nature reserve and temple complex in Ubud".[1] Its Visit page says the village's residents regard the forest as an important spiritual, economic, educational and conservation centre for the village.[3] Inside are three temples: Pura Dalem, the Holy Water temple and the cremation temple, Pura Prajapati. The sanctuary's About page says visitors "are not permitted to enter some sacred temples" and can observe from outside, and its FAQ answers "Can visitors enter the temple?" with "The temple is only for prayer in the Balinese traditional means".[2][4]

Its guidelines, in its own words, ask visitors not to touch the monkeys, to leave feeding to staff, to avoid direct eye contact, not to bring food or drinks into the forest, to dress respectfully, to keep out of areas signed as sacred, and not to bring plastic.[4] The Visit page says entry is through a lobby that provides ticketing and information, and it publishes hours, last entrance and fees, which XTOUR does not repeat; the site's booking buttons link to a ticketing page on a third-party platform, which XTOUR has not opened.[1] The same page lists Balinese dance performances every Saturday and Sunday.[3]

The sanctuary's own pages give different numbers. Its home page says "over 1054" long-tailed macaques, its FAQ "approximately 1.054" in seven groups, its About page "over 1000" and its Visit page "around 1.030".[4][1] For trees, the About page says 115 species identified with Udayana University, the Visit page 186. The three pages that give an area all say about 12.5 hectares.[4][3][2] XTOUR reports these as the sanctuary's statements, not as verified counts.

Do not confuse it with Sangeh, which Bali's tourism office lists under Badung Regency, in Sangeh village, Abiansemal district, and which is also known for its monkeys.[13]

ARMA, by its own account

The Agung Rai Museum of Art gives its address as Jalan Raya Pengosekan, Ubud, the same address its website gives for the ARMA resort.[6] Its museum page says it was founded by Agung Rai, a Balinese who has devoted his life to Balinese art and culture, opened officially on 9 June 1996, and is administered by the ARMA Foundation. The collection it describes runs from classical Kamasan painting to contemporary work, including Batuan painters of the 1930s and 1940s, I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, the 19th-century Javanese artist Raden Saleh and Syarif Bustaman, and the German painter Walter Spies; the museum also lists temporary exhibitions, performances and dance, music and painting classes.[5] XTOUR does not state ARMA's hours or admission terms.

Gianyar sites outside the town

Bali's provincial tourism office lists these under Gianyar Regency, the regency Ubud is in. Its pages place Goa Gajah and the Ceking terraces in other districts; for Gunung Kawi and Tirta Empul they name no district, and XTOUR does not describe either as inside Ubud:

• Goa Gajah, the Elephant Cave temple, "located in the west of Bedahulu Village, Blahbatuh Subdistrict, Gianyar Regency", in the valley of the Petanu river. The office traces its name to Lwa Gajah, a Buddhist hermitage named in the Negara Kertagama of 1365, and describes a T-shaped cave with a statue of Ganesha.[9]
• Gunung Kawi, which the office calls "a unique archaeological site" of shrines carved into a rock cliff above the Pakerisan River, reached by walking down "hundreds of steps".[10]
• Tirta Empul, a temple whose spring water, the office says, locals believe has the power to heal and cleanse.[11]
• The Tegallalang terraces. The office's page on the Ceking terraces gives their location as Jalan Raya Tegallalang, Tegallalang, Gianyar.[12]

The office's Gianyar list also includes the Keliki terraces and the Tegenungan waterfall.[8] XTOUR treats Ubud as a base for Goa Gajah, Gunung Kawi, Tirta Empul and the Tegallalang terraces, not as their container. Each of the first three is a temple, and the provincial government's rules on entering a pura are set out in Bali temple rules as the provincial government states them.

Further afield: other regencies

Other sites on the provincial office's lists are in other regencies altogether. The provincial tourism office lists Pura Taman Ayun under Badung and places Pura Uluwatu at Pecatu, South Kuta, Badung; it lists Tanah Lot, the Jatiluwih terraces (in Penebel) and the Ulun Danu Beratan temple under Tabanan.[15][14][13] None of them is in Ubud, and XTOUR does not place any of them inside Denpasar or any other destination. Pura Taman Ayun is one of the sites named in the World Heritage decision on Bali's subak landscape;[16] what that inscription covers is in Bali's subak cultural landscape: what UNESCO inscribed.

Rules that travel with you

Three island-wide matters apply whether you stay in Ubud or anywhere else on Bali:

• the provincial levy on foreign tourists, paid through Love Bali: Bali tourist levy guide;
• the provincial rules on entering temples: Bali temple rules;
• Nyepi, the Balinese day of silence: Nyepi in Bali: planning around the day of silence.

What XTOUR does not know

• Travel times, transport options and road conditions between Ubud and any site above.
• XTOUR does not know the opening hours, fees or dress rules at Goa Gajah, Gunung Kawi, Tirta Empul and the terraces.
• How Ubud compares with Sanur, Kuta or other parts of Bali as a place to stay.
• How many macaques live in the Monkey Forest; the sanctuary's own pages give four different figures.

Indonesia's other bases are set out in the Indonesia travel guide: where to base yourself, and the country overview is at Indonesia.