5 Best Hikes Near Ubud

Mount Batur is the only serious climb on this list, and the only one where the rules are written by a local guide association rather than a park service. The standard sunrise route leaves Toya Bungkah on the eastern shore of Lake Batur and covers 3 to 5 km return with about 500 m of elevation gain to the 1,717 m summit. Reckon on 2 to 4 hours return: roughly 1.5 to 2 hours up on loose volcanic scree in the dark, then 1 to 1.5 hours down. Difficulty: moderate on paper, harder in practice because you are doing it by torchlight on no sleep. Mount Batur is an active volcano inside a much larger caldera, and the summit still vents steam through cracks you will feel through your shoes.

Now the part most guides skip. Hiking Batur independently is not realistic. Access is controlled by the HPPGB, the local Batur trekking guide association, and hikers who have set off alone report being blocked, shouted at and in some cases physically confronted on the trail. Expect to pay IDR 400,000 to 600,000 per person, roughly EUR 20 to 29, for a group trek from Ubud including hotel pickup, a guide and a torch; private treks cost considerably more. Pickup from central Ubud falls between 01:30 and 02:30 for the 40 km, 60 to 90 minute drive, with walking starting around 03:30.

Pro Tip: Book through your accommodation the day before rather than at a roadside desk - you will pay closer to IDR 400,000 than IDR 600,000 and the pickup actually arrives. Pack a fleece: the summit sits at 1,717 m and drops to about 12C before dawn, which nobody plans for in Bali.

Jatiluwih delivers the best rice terrace walking in Bali and the shortest selfie queues. The terraces form part of the Catur Angga Batukaru area inscribed by UNESCO in 2012 as the Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the Subak System, the thousand-year-old cooperative water temple network that still decides which paddy gets irrigated and when. Five colour-coded routes fan out from the ticket office; stitching the red and blue loops together gives you about 4 km with roughly 125 m of cumulative elevation gain, and takes 1.5 hours at a photo-stopping pace. Difficulty: easy, with continuous gentle ups and downs on concrete farm paths and earth bunds between the paddies.

Entry in 2026 is IDR 50,000 per person, about EUR 2.45, plus IDR 3,000 scooter or IDR 5,000 car parking, and the gates open 08:00 to 18:00. Jatiluwih sits 40 km from central Ubud and the drive takes 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 30 by car, or a similar stretch by scooter on roads that turn narrow and steep around Petang. A one-way Grab car costs roughly IDR 250,000 to 350,000 (EUR 12 to 17) if you can find a driver willing to take the distance; most visitors hire a car and driver for the day at around IDR 700,000, about EUR 34.

Pro Tip: Walk the loops anti-clockwise from the northern car park so the terraces are backlit for your first hour. Do not stride past the small subak channels beside the path - those irrigation ditches are the reason this landscape is UNESCO-listed rather than merely pretty.

Tegallalang is genuinely beautiful and it is also the most commercialised patch of farmland in Bali. You should know both before you go. The walking loop drops from the roadside viewpoints on Jalan Raya Tegallalang down through the paddies to the valley floor and climbs the far side: about 2 km, 80 to 100 m of descent and the same again back out, and 45 to 75 minutes depending on how often you stop. Difficulty: moderate, entirely because of the surface - narrow dirt paths and steep uneven stone steps with no handrail, treacherous for hours after rain.

The money arrives in layers. Official entry at the main gate is IDR 15,000 to 20,000 (EUR 0.75 to 1.00) with parking at IDR 2,000 to 5,000. Then, on the trail itself, a run of unofficial donation posts asks a further IDR 10,000 to 20,000 each to let you cross private land, and there can be three or four on one loop. The swings and nests strung across the valley charge IDR 250,000 to 400,000 per person (EUR 12 to 19.50), with costume rental adding IDR 150,000 to 250,000. All of it is optional and none of it is signposted before you commit. Tegallalang lies 10 km north of Ubud, a 20 to 25 minute scooter ride or a Grab car at IDR 70,000 to 100,000 one way, EUR 3.40 to 4.90.

Pro Tip: Carry about IDR 100,000 in 10,000 and 20,000 notes so you can pay the donation posts without handing over a 100,000 note and waiting for change that never comes. Arrive at 06:30: the tour coaches land from 09:00 and the loop is single-file in both directions.

The Sari Organik path, properly the Subak Sok Wayah trail, is where locals send you when you say the Campuhan ridge was too busy. It leaves Jalan Raya Ubud roughly 900 m west of Ubud Palace, turns north onto a concrete irrigation-channel path and heads straight out into working rice fields: 3.5 km out and back, barely 40 m of elevation gain, and about an hour at a slow pace. Difficulty: easy and almost entirely flat, though the path is only wide enough for one person and local scooters do use it, so listen behind you.

It is free, with no gates and no donation boxes, which makes it the best-value entry on this list of Ubud hiking trails. The cafes along the way - Sari Organik itself, The Rice Joglo, Cafe Pomegranate - are why most people are out here at all. Turn around near The Rice Joglo; the trail beyond narrows and gets overgrown, and the connecting paths east towards the Subak Juwuk Manis fields are rough rather than adventurous. You can reach the trailhead on foot from anywhere in central Ubud in under 15 minutes, so no transfer and no fare is needed.

Pro Tip: Do this one at 16:30 rather than dawn. The fields face west, the light is better, and unlike the exposed Campuhan ridge you get treeline shade for the first kilometre. In the wet season, November to March, be off the path by 17:30 - the concrete channel edges turn slick and there is no lighting whatsoever.