The Best Walks Around Central Ubud

One of the things central Ubud does better than almost anywhere else in Bali is reward walking. Not hiking, not trekking, just walking: at a pace slow enough to notice things, without a driver waiting and without a schedule pressing. The distances are manageable, the variety is real, and the streets reveal themselves differently on foot than they ever do from a car window.

Here are the best walks around central Ubud that are worth building a morning or afternoon around.

Campuhan Ridge Walk

The ridge walk above the Campuhan river is the most well-known and still among the most worthwhile. The trail begins at a small temple near the main road and follows a narrow path along a grassy spine between two river valleys, open on both sides, with views that expand as the town falls away behind you.

Best before 8am, when the light is low and the path is quiet. The walk takes around 45 minutes at an easy pace and can be extended further into the hills if the morning has room in it.

Penestanan Village

From the top of the Campuhan ridge, or via a steep connecting path off the main road, Penestanan is a village that moves at its own pace just minutes from the Ubud center. The lanes between the compounds are narrow and shaded, the compounds themselves largely traditional in design.

Walking through Penestanan without a destination in mind is a particular kind of pleasure. There’s nowhere specific to go, which turns out to be exactly the point.

The Monkey Forest Road and Beyond

The main Monkey Forest road is busiest mid-morning and worth avoiding then. But walked early, before the cafes fully fill and the tour groups form at the entrance, it has a different quality. The trees are dense overhead, the light comes through in patches, and the forest itself sits at the end of the road like a destination worth arriving at slowly.

Beyond the forest, the road continues into Nyuh Kuning village, quieter and more residential, where the walk changes character entirely.

The Rice Fields South of Center

Following the lane south from Nyuh Kuning, or approaching from the back roads around Pengosekan, opens into working rice fields that are quieter and less visited than the famous terraces further north. The paths between the paddies are narrow and occasionally muddy, but the payoff is the sound of the fields themselves: water moving through channels, wind across the grass, almost nothing else.

These are the walks that don’t make it onto most lists, which is often why they’re the ones people mention long after the trip is over.

Starting from the Right Place

The best walks around central Ubud are most accessible when you’re already inside them. Staying centrally removes the transit that turns a spontaneous morning walk into a planned excursion.

Rama Phala Resort & Spa sits in Pengosekan, within easy reach of the Monkey Forest road, the southern rice fields, and the lanes that connect toward the ridge. The walks described here begin close enough to make starting easy, which is often the only thing that needs to be true.

For travelers who want the best walks around central Ubud to be a daily possibility rather than a special occasion, Rama Phala Resort & Spa is worth considering.