Bali: Ubud, Sidemen, Amed and Nusa Lembongan

1. Day 1: Arrive in Bali, on to Ubud

   Denpasar Airport to Ubud

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Ubud
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) in Denpasar. Your driver meets you in the arrivals hall whatever time you land, and it is about an hour to an hour and a half north to Ubud, depending on traffic, through towns of stone carvers and woodworkers before the road climbs into the rice fields. Our hotel is in central Ubud, a short walk from the royal palace and the market, so you can step out on foot as soon as you have checked in. If you land early, rest, swim or walk down Jalan Monkey Forest. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week ahead: what to wear in temples, how the snorkel days work and what to pack for the island. Then we walk to a local restaurant for a welcome dinner of Balinese dishes, with sambal matah and grilled fish or chicken satay.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner in Ubud

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Tirta Empul, Gunung Kawi and a Kecak night

   Ubud to Tampaksiring and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ubud
   Day 2 details

   We leave Ubud at about 7:15 so we are at Tirta Empul in Tampaksiring when it opens, around 8 am. The water temple is built over a sacred spring, and Balinese families come early to bathe under the spouts of the long stone pools. With a sarong on, you can join the purification ritual, your guide showing the order of the spouts, or watch from the side. A few minutes away, Gunung Kawi is a set of 11th-century shrines cut into the cliffs of the Pakerisan river gorge, reached by about 300 to 370 steps down through rice terraces. Lunch is at a warung with a view of the paddies, and we are back in Ubud by early afternoon, when the heat is highest. After that the afternoon is yours to rest or wander. In the evening we walk to a temple stage in town for a Kecak: a circle of men chanting the Ramayana, followed by a fire dance in which a dancer in trance kicks through burning coconut husks.

   Included

   • Tirta Empul at opening, with a sarong
   • Gunung Kawi rock-cut shrines
   • Lunch at a warung near Tampaksiring
   • Kecak and fire dance in Ubud

   Easier option: Skip the steps at Gunung Kawi and wait at the top of the steps.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Ubud

   Activity: About 300 to 370 steps down to Gunung Kawi and back up. If you bathe at Tirta Empul, bring a change of clothes.

   

3. Day 3: Ubud's rice terraces and a cooking class

   Campuhan Ridge and the paddies north of Ubud, then a village kitchen

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ubud
   Day 3 details

   Start at about 6:45, before breakfast is cleared and long before the heat, on the Campuhan Ridge: a paved path along a grassy spine between two river valleys, with alang-alang grass on both sides and the valleys still in shade. Past the ridge the path drops into the village of Bangkiang Sidem and the working rice paddies, where farmers are already out and the irrigation channels of the subak system run beside the dykes. Your guide explains how the water is shared between farms and temples, the system UNESCO listed in 2012. Mid-morning we drive a short way out of town to a family compound for a cooking class. You grind base genep, the spice paste behind most Balinese cooking, and make sate lilit, a vegetable lawar and sambal, and what you cook is lunch. The afternoon is yours: the Sacred Monkey Forest, the market, a massage or a nap.

   Included

   • Guided walk on the Campuhan Ridge and through the paddies of Bangkiang Sidem
   • Balinese cooking class in a family compound, with lunch

   Optional experiences

   • Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary entry
   • Balinese massage

   Easier option: Walk only the ridge, about 2 km, and take a car back into town.

   More active option: Carry on through the fields on a longer loop back into Ubud, about 7 km in all.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Ubud

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot on paved paths and narrow paddy dykes; bring shoes with grip.

4. Day 4: The Kerta Gosa, then the Sidemen valley

   Ubud to Semarapura, then up to Sidemen

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Sidemen
   Day 4 details

   A relaxed start, then about an hour east to Semarapura, the old royal town of Klungkung. The Kerta Gosa was the kingdom's hall of justice, a raised open pavilion whose ceiling is painted in the Kamasan wayang style with scenes of the punishments awaiting wrongdoers and the rewards of heaven. Across the road stands the monument to the 1908 puputan, when the court walked out to face Dutch troops. From there it is about half an hour up into the Sidemen valley, a green fold of terraces along the Unda river with Mount Agung at its head. After time to settle in and eat lunch at your own pace, a local guide leads a walk of about two hours through the paddies and villages, stopping at a family workshop where women weave endek and songket cloth on wooden looms. Dinner is at the hotel, as there are few restaurants within walking distance.

   Included

   • Kerta Gosa and the Klungkung palace grounds in Semarapura
   • Guided walk in the Sidemen valley with a local guide
   • Visit to a weaving workshop
   • Dinner at the hotel in Sidemen

   Easier option: A shorter, flat walk along the valley floor, about an hour.

   Free time: Early afternoon free

   Activity: About 2 hours on paddy dykes and village lanes, with a few short climbs.

5. Day 5: Tirta Gangga and the reef at Jemeluk

   Sidemen to Tirta Gangga, then to Amed

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Amed
   Day 5 details

   Look out at first light: on a clear morning Mount Agung stands over the valley before the cloud builds. After breakfast we drive about an hour and a quarter through the hills of Karangasem to Tirta Gangga, the water palace built by the last raja of Karangasem in the mid-20th century. Stepping stones cross ponds of koi, and spring water runs from a tiered fountain and carved spouts. We are there mid-morning, before most day trips from the south arrive. Lunch is at a warung above the rice terraces next to the palace. Then it is half an hour to Amed, a string of fishing villages on black-stone beaches where jukung outrigger boats are pulled up on the shore. Mid-afternoon a local snorkel guide takes us into the water at Jemeluk Bay, where coral gardens start a few metres from the beach. The evening is free; sunset is over Mount Agung, behind the coast.

   Included

   • Tirta Gangga water palace
   • Lunch near Tirta Gangga
   • Guided snorkel from the beach at Jemeluk Bay, with mask, snorkel, fins and a life vest

   Easier option: Snorkel in a life vest near the shore with the guide, or stay on the beach.

   Free time: Evening free in Amed

   Activity: About an hour in the water in calm conditions. Reef shoes help on the stony beach.

   

6. Day 6: The Liberty wreck at Tulamben

   Amed to Tulamben and back

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Amed
   Day 6 details

   We leave at about 7 am for Tulamben, about 20 km up the coast, to be in the water before the dive groups arrive mid-morning. The USAT Liberty was a US Army cargo ship torpedoed off Lombok in January 1942 and beached here; the 1963 eruption of Mount Agung pushed it off the shore, and it now lies on its side on a sandy slope a short swim from the stones. The shallowest parts of the hull are only a few metres down, so from the surface you look straight onto coral-covered plates, the old gun platform and schools of jacks and parrotfish. Your snorkel guide leads the way from the beach and keeps the group together. We are back in Amed by late morning for a slow brunch, and from there you choose how to spend it: swim, read, book a massage, or walk up to a viewpoint for the late light over the bays.

   Included

   • Guided snorkel over the USAT Liberty wreck at Tulamben, with gear

   Optional experiences

   • Introductory dive on the Liberty wreck with a dive centre (price at booking)
   • Balinese massage

   Easier option: Snorkel only the shallow end of the wreck in a life vest, or stay in Amed for a slow morning.

   More active option: An introductory dive on the wreck with an instructor, booked through us at a price shown when you book.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Amed

   Activity: About an hour in the water; the beach is large smooth stones, so wear reef shoes.

7. Day 7: Fast boat to Nusa Lembongan

   Amed to Sanur, then by fast boat to Nusa Lembongan

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Nusa Lembongan
   Day 7 details

   This is the longest drive of the trip, about three hours and 100 km, so we leave Amed at about 8 am and follow the coast south past Candidasa and Padang Bai, with a coffee stop on the way. From the beach at Sanur a public fast boat crosses to Nusa Lembongan in about 30 to 40 minutes. There is no pier on most of the island's beaches, so you step off into shallow water while the crew carries the bags. Lunch is near the hotel. After a morning on the move we keep the afternoon open on purpose: the pool, a walk past the seaweed plots at Jungutbatu, or the Yellow Bridge over to Nusa Ceningan with your guide. The snorkel boat waits until tomorrow morning, when the water is usually calmer. Before dark we head to the west coast to watch the sun go down, then sit down together for a farewell dinner by the water.

   Included

   • Fast boat from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan, with luggage
   • Lunch on Nusa Lembongan
   • Sunset on the west coast
   • Farewell dinner

   Easier option: Rest at the hotel after lunch and join the group for sunset and dinner.

   More active option: Walk across the Yellow Bridge to Nusa Ceningan with your guide.

   Free time: Afternoon at leisure on Nusa Lembongan

   Activity: If the sea is too rough to cross, we wait for a later boat, and your guide keeps the group together.

   

8. Day 8: Mangrove Point and the mangroves, then home

   Nusa Lembongan by boat to Sanur, then Denpasar Airport

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   We start at about 7 am, while the water is flat and before the day boats arrive. A local boat takes us along the north-east coast to Mangrove Point, where the current carries you gently over coral slopes, with your snorkel guide in the water. Then, in the channels behind the point, a boatman poles us through the mangrove forest in a flat wooden boat: roots in clear water, small fish and crabs, and herons on the banks. Your guide talks about the seaweed farming that kept Lembongan's families going before tourism, still visible on the flats at low tide. We are back at the hotel by about 10 for a late breakfast and a shower, then take a late-morning fast boat to Sanur. From the beach it is about 30 to 45 minutes to Ngurah Rai International Airport, arriving in the early afternoon, and your guide sees you to the terminal. Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm; if yours is earlier, we skip the boat morning and take an earlier crossing.

   Included

   • Snorkel boat to Mangrove Point, with gear
   • Poled boat through the Lembongan mangrove forest
   • Fast boat from Nusa Lembongan to Sanur
   • Drop-off at Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)

   Easier option: Stay on the boat while the others snorkel.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 4 pm to include the boat morning. Pack the night before; the bags go to the boat while we are on the water.

   

Wildlife and weather: April to October is the dry season, with calmer seas and clearer water for snorkelling. From November to March expect afternoon downpours and rougher crossings; the trip still runs, and the boat days move if the sea is too rough.

• Ubud3 nights
• Sidemen1 night
• Amed2 nights
• Nusa Lembongan1 night