As if Bali weren’t magical enough, the waterfalls add to the mystique. Each one is unique and has a certain charm to it. With the number of waterfalls in Bali, it’s best to do your research to prioritize your visits. In this post we detail five great options for you.
Overview
Due to the distance between each waterfall, we highly recommend using the trips you take between cities to explore some waterfalls along the way. Unfortunately, there is typically only one main road with some small supplementary roads to take you from one city to the next, so you will most likely run into traffic. Expect your trip to take much longer than Google might tell you.
We had two days on our trip full of waterfalls – one day on our route from Nusa Dua to Lovina, and one day on our route from Lovina to Ubud. We hired drivers for both days of our travel. Keep in mind that hiring a driver to and from the Lovina area may cost an extra fee because it usually has to include a hotel expense for the driver. We used the same company for both of our waterfall days as well as for a day exploring around Ubud – Your Bali Driver, which we highly recommend. The cost for 10 hours of driving starts at $40 USD, but Putu (the owner) will work with you based on your itinerary if you want more or less time.
On our route from Nusa Dua to Lovina, we stopped at the Tegenungan, Nungnung, and Banyumala waterfalls. On our route from Lovina to Ubud, we stopped at the Gitgit and Sekumpul waterfalls. See below for our overview of each of the waterfalls we visited.
Tegenungan (approximately 1 hour visit)
Tegenungan is one of the most visited waterfalls in Bali due to its proximity to both the Ubud and Nusa Dua areas. Even though it was our first stop of the day, Tegenungan was by far the most crowded waterfall we visited. We left our hotel in Nusa Dua around 9AM on a Sunday, but traffic was quite heavy. It took us approximately two hours to drive to Tegenungan.
Upon arrival we were greeted by a kiosk and parking area. Past the kiosk where you pay for entrance into the park area, there are a number of shops and restaurants with paid bathrooms. However, once you make your way down the hill past the kiosks and restaurants and a few photo opportunities, there is a restroom you may use for free or for a donation if you’d like.
Unfortunately, when we visited the falls, the swimming pools around the waterfall were too muddy, so we weren’t able to swim. In addition, the photos weren’t as picturesque. Needless to say, we didn’t spend as much time as we may have in more ideal weather conditions.
After taking a picture at the bottom of the waterfall, you have the opportunity to go up the right side of the waterfall for a small fee. Since this was our first waterfall visit, we decided to seize the opportunity and explore more spots for photo opportunities. It was definitely interesting and worthwhile to explore the falls for the small fee. However, we don’t think this is a must.
Nungnung (approximately 1-2 hour visit)
Our second stop during our first day of waterfalls was Nungnung waterfall, which is just over an hour drive from Tegenungan waterfall. If you take a vehicle to the waterfall, you will incur a parking fee on top of the entrance fee per person. When we visited the parking fee was 5,000 per vehicle, and the entrance fee was 10,000 per person. There is only one kiosk in the parking area of this waterfall, so we definitely recommend bringing snacks if you get hangry.
The path down to the falls is more well-paved than a couple of the other falls we visited, but we definitely think some sort of shoe with a good grip (we had our hiking shoes) would be best for hiking up and down the steps. The steps can be quite challenging, so the trek may take more or less time depending on how fit you are.
Overall, this was one of the most fun waterfalls to visit. It was exhilarating, beautiful, and refreshing. There were quite a few visitors once we reached the bottom of the trail, but it definitely wasn’t as crowded as Tegenungen. Fortunately, we were able to get quite a few good photos, and you don’t have to wait too long (no more than five to ten minutes) to get a picture by yourself with the waterfall. Just a warning that a waterproof backpack is very helpful when visiting all the waterfalls, but this waterfall especially. The area around the waterfall is enclosed, and the waterfall is powerful. Really powerful. You will get soaked before even stepping foot in the water. Because of this, the waterfall pool isn’t the best for relaxing, but it is refreshing and is about waist to ankle deep at different points. Also, you have to get in the water to get the best photos of you with the waterfall. It will be glorious.
Banyumala (approximately 1-2 hour visit)
Our last stop of our first waterfall day was our favorite – the Banyumala twin waterfalls. However, it was perhaps the most challenging for us to get to from a driving perspective. Upon your arrival at the waterfalls, you will not be greeted by much other than a dirt road, which may be too muddy to drive down. We had our driver stop before the trailhead, and we decided to hike down from there. After walking for about a quarter mile or so, you will approach a kiosk at which you will be requested to pay an entrance fee (15,000 per person) if you arrive during business hours. Based on the fact that the kiosk was closed on our hike back to the car, we believe they do not collect fees after a certain hour (probably about 5pm).
Due to its remote location, the Banyumala waterfalls can be a private sanctuary if you’re lucky. The main waterfall has a delightful pool to refresh in that isn’t very deep – maybe about waist-high at most. The secondary waterfall also has a pool, but the access is not as inviting. Therefore, we decided to stick to relaxing in the pool of the main falls. Because we arrived towards the end of the day, many of the other waterfall enthusiasts had already finished touring and exploring for the day, and we had the waterfalls to ourselves for about 15 – 20 minutes before another party joined us.
Banyumala is definitely worth the drive if you have the time and ability to access it. Such a beautiful and relaxing place.
Gitgit (approximately 45 minute visit)
Our first waterfall stop on our trip from Lovina to Ubud was Gitgit. The waterfall is very close to Lovina town, so only about 30-45 minutes from The Damai hotel (where we stayed during our time in the Lovina area). We arrived fairly early in the morning, so we only passed a couple other groups going to or from the falls. When we got to Gitgit, we were the only ones down by the waterfall. This is a pretty visited waterfall, so if you would like to be alone or close to alone, we highly recommend going earlier in the day – plus it won’t be as hot!
Because this waterfall is easily accessible and touristy, there are a ton of stands and people who will ask you to purchase goods from their shops. Luckily for us there weren’t too many shops open when we were going through, but more started opening up on our way back to the car. Please note the access point from the road to the trail head is very interesting. There isn’t really parking at all except for the side of a curving road, so be careful if you happen to be driving yourself. Overall, there is a long, very accessible path to use to walk to the waterfall. However, be careful because we slipped a few times because the path was slippery, and we are clumsy.
Unlike the first day of waterfalls, our driver accompanied us down to this waterfall to show us the way and take pictures for us, which we found very helpful. His name is Barong if you have the opportunity to request a certain person and would like this perk.
This waterfall doesn’t have a pool to cool off in, and there are signs at the bottom asking you not to get in the water. Therefore, we just went to the bottom, took a few pictures from the left/center and right sides, and went back to the car.
Keep in mind that if you go during peak hours, the waterfall will be much more crowded, parking may be difficult to come by, and many more shops will be open (which could be a good or bad thing depending on who you ask).
Sekumpul (approximately 2-3 hour visit)
While the water surrounding these waterfalls wasn’t necessarily a rapid, the trail between the two areas of the falls is quite challenging, so you need to be careful. We highly recommend hiring a guide if you are worried about falling and/or getting through the waterfalls safely. To be honest, we are not really sure if you are required to have a local guide take you through the waterfalls, but we don’t think you technically have to have one. We did have a guide (story will come shortly), and I will say it was much easier to go through the falls with a guide as some of the path is not structured. However, having a guide is much more expensive than visiting some of the other waterfalls. We paid 200-250k per person.
When we were on our way to the waterfalls, our driver was stopped by a local guide and asked to pull over the car. We were then escorted out of the car to choose which waterfall tour package we wanted to do. Prior to going to Sekumpul, we had done a lot of research and saw that guides were not required to take you through the waterfalls, so this really irked us. However, this group insisted that we were required to have a local guide take us to the falls, and our driver agreed with him, so we chose one of the four to five packages they offered. The two packages we considered were walking ourselves down to the waterfalls and back up with a guide or taking motorcycles down to the waterfall path and back. Walking yourself takes much more time, so we opted for the motorcycles, which were not very comfortable but seemed safe enough. To be clear, safe enough is holding on to the back of a bike while going down a very narrow path and not wearing a helmet.
If you expect a cornering like this to happen to you and would like to have control over the tour guide you hire, I’m sure there is an ability to book a tour ahead of time and have more control over the situation.
Overall, the waterfalls were beautiful, and our guides were very nice. The guides recommended different spots for photos and took many photos for us, so we didn’t have to take GoPro selfies. They also walked us through the various areas and helped us in spots where the ground or rocks weren’t as steady. There were many times where we slipped or lost our footing, and one of us (guess who) banged a knee off a rock in a ‘recommended’ photo op place.
While getting down to the waterfalls isn’t very challenging, walking between the two areas may cause some issues. However, we highly recommend exploring the entire area if you are able to because the waterfalls are amazing. It’s very difficult to describe how great it feels to stand under something so beautiful – a picture can’t do it justice.
Other Tips & Tricks
- Get a waterproof backpack
- Wear hiking shoes
- Pack water shoes
- Wear sunscreen
- Prepare to get wet
Happy traveling!
Kitrina & Jordan
