By Gemma Tedaldi | Published: 13th October 2018 | Updated: 1st November 2023
From luscious green forests to stepped green rice terraces, golden sands to golden incense burners, colourful flowers to colourful sunsets, there are some truly incredible places to visit in Bali. It should most definitely be on your bucket list and if it’s not, why not?! After my first 24 hours in Bali, I was already in love with the country. See my top 10 incredible places to visit in Bali for yourself…
1 – Tamen Ayun Temple
This Royal temple for the Mengui Empire is beautiful. The stepped architecture of the monuments and buildings with Chinese influences are amazing. Most are only made up of bamboo and palm leaves too! Offerings to the gods of flowers and incense are everywhere, which make the temple smell amazing as well as decorating it with colour. There were even cats sat on top of most of the shrines.
2 – Baturiti
A coffee and tea plantation where you can walk through all the growing produce then taste it all in the end, what’s better than that?! The flavours of all the teas and coffees that are grown here are incredible, you can even try Civet coffee, (or cat-poo-chino), and meet the very cat the coffee goes through! The views are also to die for.
3 – Lake Bratan
Lake Bratan and the temples at the water’s edge are not to be missed. The beautiful buildings with an incredible backdrop of lake and mountain scenery all make this place really peaceful. The ‘natural music of the rice fields’ or frog statues guard the temples, with real frogs darting about the lake. What better place to spend a relaxing couple of hours.
4 – Jatikiuih Rice Terraces
The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Jatikiuih has rice terraces as far as the eye can see. With Mount Batur Volcano in the distance standing on the steps of the terraces completely take your breath away.
5 – Tanah Lot Temple
Tanah Lot Temple is a temple at the sea edge with enormous waves crashing all around it. Not only is the temple itself pretty impressive but the views along the coastline of Bali are as well. You have to time it right with the tides for this temple though, hit it at high tide and you might get wet!
Planning your own trip to Bali? Make sure you check out our Travelling Tedaldi Amazon Store Travel Guides for all your guidebooks and maps. (We’ve done the hard work for you and linked all the things we used to plan our trip!)
6 – La Plancha
Now this one’s a bit different to the other sights but go with it. La Plancha is a beach bar famed for its brightly coloured umbrellas, beanbags and cocktails. The perfect place to watch the sunset on a Bali beach. There are other beach bars along the coast but personally, the relaxing setting here with great food and a live DJ is not to be missed!
7 – Mount Batur Volcano
Mount Batur Volcano is the highest peak in Bali overlooking the largest lake in Bali. Arrive early just as the morning clouds lift to be treated to amazing views across the landscape surrounded by black volcanic lava.
8 – Tirta Empul
Tirta Empul or the Holy Water Temple is a temple where a natural spring bubbles up and the locals use it to cleanse and purify there karma. Don a sarong and walk through ornate doorways to explore the beautiful temple and its pools with the aroma of incense and flowers at every turn. Koi carp in one pool then flower petals in the next, this temple does not disappoint.
9 – Goa Gajah
The Elephant Cave Temple isn’t as impressive as Tirta Empul but is still worth a visit. There are beautiful elephant carvings around the cave and colourful incense baskets everywhere. There is also a relic of an old Buddhist temple with waterfalls and pools to explore.
10 – Sacred Monkey Forest
Not only is this place a serene luscious forest to walk through but it is full to the brim with monkeys! They sit chilling on statues and up in the trees, as well as on the unsuspecting visitor! Do not go in there with any sort of food, the monkeys will get it off you!
And there you have it, my top 10 incredible places in Bali you must visit. On a side note if you are planning a trip to Bali try and visit while the Bali Kite Festival is happening as we did. This festival is an international kite festival held every July, where huge traditional kites of 4 metres in width and 10 metres in length are made and flown by village teams. The kites are so big 10 people have to fly 1 kite! The kites are flown to please the Hindu gods so to create a large harvest of crops. It is an awesome sight, seeing brightly coloured massive kites everywhere!
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Gemma (i.e The Travelling Tedaldi)
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Gemma Tedaldi
Gemma is the owner and author of The Travelling Tedaldi, a travel blog helping travellers to discover the best road trips and travel itineraries throughout the UK and Europe. When she isn’t writing about her favourite travel destinations, she can often be found out exploring local hikes or planning future trips.
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