Tabanan & Jatiluwih

Tabanan is the regency west and north of Denpasar, running from Tanah Lot on the coast through the Jatiluwih rice terraces to the highlands around Bedugul and Lake Beratan, on the slopes of Mount Batukaru. Tanah Lot is an hour to an hour and a half from the airport and thirty-five to forty-five minutes from Canggu. Jatiluwih is roughly forty kilometres and an hour and a half from either Canggu or Ubud.

Jatiluwih is working farmland, not a photo stop. It lies inside the UNESCO listing inscribed in 2012 for Bali's subak system, the farmers' water cooperatives that have run the island's irrigation since at least the twelfth century. There are marked walking routes: a short loop of one to two hours on mostly flat ground, and longer ones of two to three. Walking one is the difference between Jatiluwih and a viewpoint.

Published entry prices for Jatiluwih disagree badly, quotes running from IDR 40,000 to 100,000 for a foreign adult. IDR 75,000 adult and IDR 50,000 child is the best-supported pair. Parking is IDR 3,000 to 10,000, in cash. Go early: the paths have no shade and cloud comes down later. Stay on the marked tracks, do not walk between the paddies, and ask before flying a drone. This is somebody's farm.

Tanah Lot costs IDR 75,000 for an adult and IDR 40,000 for a child, with parking at IDR 5,000 for a car and IDR 3,000 for a motorbike, and it is open seven to seven. The crowd builds from about four for a sunset falling roughly between a quarter past six and a quarter to seven. For the temple rather than the crowd, go between seven and nine in the morning or between noon and three. At low tide you can walk out to the base of the rock; the inner temple is for worshippers only. Officers check the tourist levy voucher here, so have the QR code on your phone.

Ulun Danu Beratan at Bedugul is IDR 100,000 for a foreign adult and IDR 75,000 for a child, open seven to seven and near empty at seven in the morning. It is two to three hours from Canggu or Ubud. In the wet season cloud can sit on the lake all day.

Ride-hailing does not work in much of Tabanan: no app pickups in rural Jatiluwih at all, and coverage thins as you go inland, so a car with a driver is the realistic option, about IDR 650,000 to 900,000 for a ten-hour day, with tickets and parking on top.

Most people take Tabanan as one loop: Tanah Lot, Jatiluwih, the lake temple, back after dark. That is a ten-hour day with three ticket gates in it, and we would rather do half of it properly. If the terraces are why you came, we would sleep up there and walk them before the first car arrives. What Tabanan does not have is anything to do in the evening, which is why almost nobody stays.