Your driver arrives at six. The question is where he takes you.
How long the run up to Ubud really takes. What a Nusa Penida boat day costs once the transfers are in. Whether the Batur sunrise is worth a two in the morning pickup. Reviews of every tour you can book out of Seminyak.
Four days out that decide the shape of a Bali week.
The village circuit, the waterfall, the volcano before dawn and the boat across to Nusa Penida. What each one costs from a Seminyak hotel, and what the people who took it say.
01The one everyone starts withBali Full-Day Traditional Village Sightseeing Trip All InclusiveVillages, a temple, rice country and lunch, in one loop with the driver waiting at every stop. The day most people book before they land.
02The day for the fallsBali Secret Waterfall Tour – Private and All-InclusiveTwin falls in the north, an hour past Ubud on roads that stay green the whole way. Go early, before the tour vans reach the steps.
03The two a.m. oneSmall Group Mount Batur Sunrise HikePickup in the dark, an hour of loose scree, then the sun comes up over Abang and the crater fills with cloud. Nothing else in Bali is worth losing that much sleep for.
04The boat morningSnorkeling In Nusa Penida Departing From Bali IslandFast boat to Nusa Penida, then manta rays at Crystal Bay. Rougher water than the brochures suggest, and still the best thing you will do all week.
Every good Bali day is a drive out of Seminyak.
Nothing worth seeing is walking distance from the beach clubs. Four directions leave town, they cost different money and they eat different amounts of your day. Here is what each one is actually like.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Ubud Hot Springs and Waterfall Private Guided Tour
North to UbudNinety minutes each way. Monkeys, terraces, a waterfall, back by dark.
East to the boatsSanur pier at seven, Kelingking by ten, manta rays after lunch.
Over the ridgeLake temples in the cloud, Sekumpul falls, the long way home.
Twenty minutes up the coastBeginner surf, a jewellery bench, dinner and a drag show.
All 173 day trips out of Seminyak →
Bali gets better once you are off the sand.
The Blue Lagoon at Padangbai is calm enough for a first snorkel and busy with fish by eight in the morning. Nusa Penida has the manta cleaning stations. Tulamben has a wrecked cargo ship you can reach from the beach. All of it is a boat or a van ride from your hotel.
Ubud, Uluwatu, Penida, the north road, Canggu, the volcano.
Bali is small on a map and slow on the ground. These six are the places a Seminyak base can reach and come back from in a day, and the best thing to book in each.
The Bali days out that fill up first.
Every Bali tour we have reviewed →These carry more travellers than anything else on the island, and no two of them earn it the same way.
1
Bali Full-Day Traditional Village Sightseeing Trip All Inclusive
Spend 10 hours with a private Balinese guide such as Arya, Agung, Pakis, or Margot, visiting craft villages, temples, Ubud, rice terraces, Mt. Batur, and Tegenungan Waterfall. Lunch, entrance fees, water, and hotel transport are included.
From · $68
Read our review →
2
Bali Hai Sunset Dinner Cruise
from $82
3
Ubud Hot Springs and Waterfall Private Guided Tour
from $18
4
Bali Secret Waterfall Tour – Private and All-Inclusive
from $109
5
Bali Instagram Tour: The Most Scenic Spots
from $68
6
Uluwatu Sunset Tour: Kecak and Fire Dance with Jimbaran Dinner
from $65
7
Bali Blue Lagoon Snorkeling – Lunch and Transport All Inclusive
from $39
8
Half Day Bali Tour
from $40
Bali keeps its best temples pointed at the sea.
Tanah Lot sits on a rock the tide cuts off. Uluwatu hangs two hundred feet over the surf and empties into a fire dance at dusk. Ulun Danu floats on a lake in the cloud forest, and Lempuyang frames Agung between two split gates. Sarong provided, shoulders covered, and go late in the day.
What a day out of Seminyak costs, top to bottom.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. A driver, a guide and a full day of Bali still comes in under a beach club lunch at the low end.
Shared minibus circuits, temple runs, the Blue Lagoon snorkel and a car with a driver for the day.
Private drivers, the Penida boat with lunch, ATV and rafting, the Batur climb with a guide.
Small group Penida charters, diving days, spa and dinner packages, the once a trip splurges.
Three Bali mornings that exist nowhere else.
Volcanoes, dance and jungle swings are not unique on their own. A crater rim at first light, a hundred men chanting at a clifftop temple and a rope seat swung out over a river gorge are.
The climb up Batur
The van collects you in the dark and drives ninety minutes to Toya Bungkah. The path is loose volcanic gravel and takes about two hours in head torches. You reach the rim as the sky goes orange behind Abang and Rinjani shows above the cloud on Lombok. Guides cook eggs in the steam vents at the top. Most groups are back at the hotel before eleven, which leaves the whole afternoon.
- 1Small Group Mount Batur Sunrise Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 308 reviews
- 2Mount Batur Jeep Sunrise Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 257 reviews
- 3Private Mount Batur Sunrise Trekking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 132 reviews
The chant on the cliff
No instruments at all. Around a hundred men sit in rings around a fire and chant the same interlocking rhythm for an hour while the Ramayana plays out in front of them and the sun drops into the Indian Ocean behind. The amphitheatre seats fill from five, tickets are numbered, and the monkeys on the wall will take your sunglasses.
- 1Uluwatu Sunset Tour: Kecak and Fire Dance with Jimbaran Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 597 reviews
- 2All Inclusive Kecak Dance and Uluwatu Temple Admission Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 127 reviews
- 3Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance and Jimbaran Seafood Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 92 reviews
The Bali swings
A single rope seat and a long push out over the Ayung valley, with terraces stacked up the far side. It started as one farmer with a swing near Tegallalang and became an industry with nests, glass floors and a photographer on the platform. Go at opening time. By ten there is a queue and the light has gone flat.
- 1Bali Jungle Swing and White Water Rafting All Inclusive★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 65 reviews
- 2Bali Swing Hot Spring And Waterfall Private Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 50 reviews
- 3The Best of Ubud Tour and Jungle Swing★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 36 reviews
Four Bali days you cannot arrange over breakfast.
Most of this island can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on boat manifests, one performance a night and a queue that starts before sunrise, and none of them care what time your flight got in.
- 01Small Group Mount Batur Sunrise HikePickup is around two in the morning and guides cap the group. The dark hours fill first, and a day booked on the day is a day spent asleep.
- 02️ Nusa Penida Instagram Tour: The Most Famous Spots (Private All-Inclusive)The fast boats run to a manifest and the crossing is cancelled outright when the swell comes up. Seats on the calm morning departures go days ahead.
- 03Uluwatu Sunset Tour: Kecak and Fire Dance with Jimbaran DinnerOne performance a day, starting as the sun goes down, in an amphitheatre with a fixed number of seats. Turning up at six and hoping is how people end up watching from the path.
- 04Tukad Cepung Besakih Lempuyang Temple Best of East Bali TourEntry is by numbered ticket and the queue for the gate photograph forms before six. Groups that leave Seminyak at three are the ones in the frame.
What to do with a Bali afternoon the sky has taken.
From November the rain arrives in the middle of the afternoon, hard, for an hour or two, then stops. It does not ruin a day, it just moves it indoors. Book the outdoor thing for the morning and put a kitchen, a massage table or a hot spring in the slot after lunch.
By the direction you are driving
Seminyak, then five days out and back without changing rooms.
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