In the hills just north of Bali's cultural heart.

Where you are

Ubud has been a town of painters, carvers, dancers and healers for hundreds of years.

In the 1930s, artists from overseas came to live here alongside Balinese masters, and the town became famous for painting, music and dance. Much of that is still alive. You can watch traditional dance most evenings near the palace, and hear gamelan from the village halls at rehearsal. Each nearby village has its own craft — wood in one, stone or silver in another.

The rice terraces are farmed using Subak — a thousand-year sharing of water, run by village councils and water temples. UNESCO has named it a World Heritage site. Those green steps may look as if they were made for photographs. They are the result of centuries of careful balance between people, water and land.