If you’re visiting Bali with your family, no matter where you’re staying I would recommend at least a day in Ubud. We stayed in Canggu for our first family trip to Bali and even though we only had 6 nights, we were all so pleased that we took a day to visit Ubud and its surrounding sights. Here’s how we went about arranging a family-friendly day trip to Ubud and top tips of things to include in your itinerary.
Visiting Ubud for a Day
How to Get to Ubud if You’re Staying in Canggu
Getting around in Bali is actually pretty easy, despite some heavy traffic on certain days/times of the week. If you’re looking to book a day trip to Bali with your kids, there are plenty of organised tour providers that you can enlist or more simply, you could look to hire your own personal driver for the day. You could also look to use services like Grab or GoJek to get you around but I would recommend hiring one person and asking them for a price for the day.
We were able to hire a driver through the villa manager at our Air B’n’B and it worked so well for us. If you’re staying in a villa or hotel, definitely speak to your host as it is something that many can help you organise. We hired a driver for the whole day for around $60SGD/£35GBP. He picked us up from our villa, drove us to Ubud and stayed with us all day as he showed us some of the Ubud highlights making it a super family-friendly way to enjoy a day trip to Ubud. As we only had time for a day trip, it was a bit of a whirlwind but now we have a clear idea of what we’d like to do again if we return.
Family-Friendly Things to Do in Ubud
We stuck to the main tourist path this time as it was our first time visiting Ubud and we wanted to ensure it was a family-friendly day-trip. Our “wishlist” included visiting temples, waterfalls and rice terraces and we managed to see all of those. The kids also really wanted to visit the monkey forest and whilst some advised us against it, it ended up being a really fun part of our day.
Pura Puseh Desa Batuan
Despite my excitement to see some real Balinese culture and history, the kids weren’t particularly enthusiastic about visiting a temple! That’s why we asked if we could visit a temple as our first stop hoping that we would at least have energy levels on our side! We stopped off at Pura Puseh Desa Batuan as it was en-route to the rest of the Ubud sights we wanted to see. Our entrance fee included sarong rental as well as entrance into the main temple area. We didn’t have a guide and so spent a decent amount of time trying to Google what various parts of the temple were to try and understand it better but we all enjoyed discovering a bit more about Balinese heritage, even the kids!
Top Tip: Tell your driver what you really want to/don’t want to visit. I was warned that if we didn’t have any idea of what we wanted then we would just be taken to wherever the driver would get commission from taking us, but this wasn’t the case for us at all.
Tegenungan Waterfall
We were really keen to see some of the Balinese waterfalls we’d heard so much about it. Tegenungan waterfall is a great option if you’re visiting Ubud on a family-friendly day-trip and want something reliable. I don’t know that we would return to this particular area as it was super busy and felt very commercialised. Having said that, we all managed the workout to the bottom of the waterfall (and the 165 steps back up!!) and enjoyed having the time outside. There are a few “photo points” if you want to capture your favourite moments and there are also a few market stalls and a beach bar if you need to stop for a drink as we did. There’s also clean toilets!
Lunch at Bebek Joni
After visiting the temple and waterfall, our driver took us to an absolutely beautiful restaurant, Bebek Joni. Surrounded by acres of land, we were all able to stop and take a moment to enjoy a bite to eat. The food was reasonably priced and also included some Western options if you have kids who want something familiar.
Rice Terraces
Acres of tiered green rice terraces are probably one of the things I’d thought about most since we booked our family trip to Bali. No matter which travel guide or travel show features Bali, the UNESCO World Heritage Site rice terraces are always showcased. Similarly to the waterfall, I found it to be a lot more commercialised than I had originally thought but the flipside is that Balinese farmers are now having to diversify their income as more than just rice paddies, no differently than how farms and farm parks are adjusting in the UK. It certainly couldn’t detract from just how beautiful and impressive the rice terraces were. It’s an absolute must-do for any family friendly day-trip to Ubud!
We visited Uma Ceking in the Tegalalang rice terrace area. Your entrance fee allowed you to wander through the tiered rice terraces and it was of our favourite things to do with the kids in Ubud. There were also various packages you could upgrade to if you wanted to have photographs taken or try one of the infamous Bali swings. As an adrenaline junkie at heart, I couldn’t turn down the chance to get on a giant swing and asked the staff to push me as high as possible! For the Instagrammers amongst you, this is also the perfect spot for taking what has to be one of the most #forthegram moments I’ve ever seen! You can rent gorgeous, long, flowing dresses and the staff will kindly take photos/videos for you! Just Google “Bali swing flowing dress” and you’ll see exactly what I mean!!
Sacred Monkey Forest
Deciding whether or not to go to Bali’s famous monkey forest seemed to be the thing that people most wanted to share their opinion with us on. Some friends really enjoyed it and thought the monkey forest was the perfect family-friendly thing to do in Ubud, but others warned us about aggressive monkeys who would steal your stuff and ruin your day. Our girls really wanted to go, more than anything else, and after speaking to a few people, and knowing the dangers of wild monkeys thanks to living in Singapore, we decided that we would go. I’m so glad that we did.
Home to more than 1200 wild long-tailed macaques, stepping into Ubud’s sacred monkey forest is like stepping into a scene from The Jungle Book. So long as you follow the guidance, there is no reason why monkeys should even approach you, let alone steal from you and it is a very special way to see some incredible creatures close up. Whilst we were there, we did see several monkeys try and take bags from tourists but each time I have to say, it was totally the fault of the human! One person left their bag on the floor, one person was eating snacks close to the monkeys and one person was so focussed on the monkey they wanted a photo with, they didn’t pay attention to the monkey on the floor attempting to search through their bag! We were fortunate and left all of our bags in the car with our driver and I would definitely recommend doing that if that’s an option for you. Ultimately, use a bit of common sense and you will have a really enjoyable time here. In fact it was one of the girls’ favourite things to do on our whole Bali trip.
Next Time I’m in Ubud….
On the journey back to Canggu, we drove through the centre of Ubud and it looked like it would be a great base to stay for a family for a longer trip to Bali. We’ve also said we would go to Ubud for the weekend from Singapore. Some of the things we want to do in Ubud with the kids next time include:
- Enjoy a yoga class at one of the many yoga schools
- Explore further afield and find some less-busy waterfalls and rice terraces (or just get up super early to visit!)
- Discover more about Balinese culture and watch some of the local traditional dance performances
- Get our adrenaline hit with some white water rafting
- Learn more by visiting more temples including the Saraswati temple, Goa Gajah and Pura Gunung Kawi.
There is so much more to see in Bali and I’m hoping we can go back this year! What are your favourite family-friendly things to do in Bali? I’d love to know!
For more recommendations, I love following @semicuratedlife on Instagram. She’s an American Mom living in Bali and always shares incredible content. I’d definitely recommend checking her out for family-friendly Bali tips! I also used bali.com for general advice.
