Ubud

Ubud sits inland, in the Gianyar regency, in the northern part of greater Denpasar, and it is where the island’s interior is greenest. Rice fields and plantations surround the town, and rivers have cut deep gorges through the jungle below the villages. Its reputation as Bali’s home of painting and writing grew slowly. The painter Antonio Blanco settled here in the early 1950s and stayed until his death in 1999, and in the 1960s a new creative wave, led by Arie Smit and the Young Artists movement, turned the town into a meeting place for painters. The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival was first held in 2004.

A morning in Ubud begins gently. Walk the Campuhan Ridge, a ridge path of a couple of kilometres, before the heat builds, then come down through the village to the market and the cafés of the centre. The afternoon is yours: a massage, a yoga class, a long lunch on a terrace above the valley, or an unhurried drive north to the terraces of Tegallalang.

The Monkey Forest, officially Mandala Suci Wenara Wana, is a sacred sanctuary in Padangtegal village, where three temples stand among the trees and monkeys move along the stone paths. The royal palace, Puri Saren Agung, is still the official residence of the Ubud royal family. Its current form dates from the reign of Tjokorda Putu Kandel, between 1800 and 1823, and its carvings are attributed to the artist I Gusti Nyoman Lempad. The palace opened to foreign visitors in 1928.

On the terraces of Tegallalang, about ten kilometres north of town, the paddies descend the valley sides in green bands. At dusk the village of Petulu, near the centre, fills with white herons, mainly cattle egrets, which arrive in the hundreds to roost in the trees. Sit on a veranda and watch them settle.

The gorges of the Ayung River hold some of the well-known resorts of the area. Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan stands beside the river in the valley of the same name. Mandapa, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, in Banjar Kedewatan, opened with suites and private pool villas by the water. Alila Ubud is perched above the river in Payangan village. Amandari, an Aman resort, stands in Kedewatan on the edge of the gorge. COMO Shambhala Estate, in Payangan, is a retreat known for its wellness programme, and Capella Ubud is a luxury tented camp in the Wos river valley near Keliki.

Art still runs through the town. The Agung Rai Museum of Art opened in 1996, the Neka Art Museum in Kedewatan was founded by Pande Wayan Suteja Neka, and the Blanco Renaissance Museum, opened in 1998, is devoted to the work of Antonio Blanco. Northeast of town, in Tampaksiring, Gunung Kawi is an eleventh-century complex of shrines carved into the rock, and Tirta Empul is a temple built around a spring, where Balinese take purifying baths in its pools.

Evenings belong to the table. Syrco BASÈ was founded by Syrco Bakker, a Dutch-Indonesian chef who has earned Michelin stars, and inside it KU culinary atelier is a separate restaurant of twelve seats with a menu of eleven courses. At Viceroy Bali, Apéritif serves its own tasting menu, and at Mandapa, Kubu looks out over the river. Locavore NXT, in Lodtunduh, is among Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Mozaic runs a dining room and a tipple room, each on its own evening schedule. Hujan Locale, on Jalan Sri Wedari near the palace, serves lunch and dinner. After dark the centre quietens, and the sounds of the jungle take over.

New luxury is climbing the hills too. The Apurva Kempinski Ubud, a hilltop hotel on a south-facing ridge at Tegallalang with 160 rooms and villas, is scheduled to open in 2027. The design is by Rudy Dodo with Trivium Design Group. From such a ridge, the day is measured by the light moving slowly across the terraces.

Some guests arrive by air. Viceroy Bali has the only hotel helipad in Ubud, and from it helicopter tours of the island last thirty to sixty minutes, with longer flights between the islands also on offer. A helicopter flight from Nusa Dua to Ubud takes about twenty minutes.

For golf, Handara Golf & Resort Bali sits in the crater of a volcano in the mountains of Bedugul. Green School Bali, a private international school on the Ayung River at Sibang, takes children from pre-kindergarten to high school. The airport is often an hour or more away by car, depending on traffic.

Our residences in Ubud are Villa Supreme, above a jungle canyon with the valley below, and Villa Akira, with palms, rice fields and pool decks in view. Among the villas in Ubud, these two look out over the canyon and the paddies. Both are houses for slow days, with the pool and the trees in view.

Each residence offered here is handled personally by your advisor, with private viewings by appointment.