Bali is more than the south: why you should go east and north

Anyone who has been to Canggu lately knows the deal. An hour in traffic for ten kilometres. Villas everywhere. Beach clubs with DJs, coffee bars full of laptops, menus in English. Fine for a few days, but is this really Bali?

The answer: this is a small piece of Bali. The south and southwest, from Kuta to Canggu and Uluwatu, have been built up for tourism over the past twenty years. Most of the nearly 7 million foreign visitors a year end up there. The rest of the island sees a fraction of that.

The east: volcanoes, rice and fishing villages

Drive an hour east from Ubud and you are in Sidemen. A valley with rice terraces, a river and Mount Agung above it. No beach clubs here, but there are weaving workshops and homestays among the fields. Another hour and a half further on lies Amed, a string of fishing villages on black sand beaches. In the morning you see the jukungs, narrow outrigger boats, coming back with the catch. You snorkel straight off the beach.

On the way are the water palaces of Karangasem and the village of Tenganan, home to the Bali Aga, the island's original inhabitants, with their own traditions.

The north: mountains, lakes and coral

The north is cooler and greener. In Munduk you walk past coffee and clove plantations to waterfalls. Close by are three crater lakes, with the Ulun Danu Beratan temple on the water. Further west lies Pemuteran, a village that restores its own coral, with Menjangan island just off the coast.

And in the middle too

Even around Ubud you can still find it: the rice terraces of Jatiluwih, a World Heritage site with hours of walking, or a village temple where the gamelan rehearses in the evening. The difference is often a few kilometres, or getting up a few hours earlier.

How to get there

Public transport to the east and north is limited, and ride-hailing apps hardly go there. With your own driver it is easy: he takes you from place to place and knows where to stop. That is how we set up our trips. Take a look at Quiet Bali or North and West, or ask for a personal trip plan.