Ubud
Central Bali
- Known for
- Rice fields, temples, art, yoga and very good food. No beach.
- Good for
- Culture lovers, couples, first-timers, walkers. Closest to most of our tours.
The story of Bali
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Why Bali is called the Island of Gods
Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands, and most of its people are Muslim. Bali is different. Here, nearly nine in ten people follow Balinese Hinduism, a faith that sees the divine in everything: in the mountains and the springs, in the rice fields and in the sea.
That's why Indonesians call it Pulau Dewata, the Island of Gods. There are more than 20,000 temples on an island you can cross by car in a day. Every village has its temples, every family home has its shrine, and every morning countless small offerings of flowers and incense are laid out with care.
The Balinese read their island like a sacred map. The high mountains, Mount Agung above all, are the home of the gods. The sea is the world below, and people live in between. Houses, temples and villages are arranged to keep these worlds in balance, and many Balinese even sleep with their head towards the mountain.
The gods are not far away here. They are invited in, every single day.
Where the story begins
About four thousand years ago, seafaring people arrived from the north and began growing rice in Bali's rich volcanic soil. More than a thousand years ago, farmers had already created subak, a way of sharing water from temple to temple and field to field so that everyone gets their part. It still works today, and UNESCO counts it among the treasures of the world.
Hindu and Buddhist ideas reached the island from India by way of Java. When the great Javanese kingdom of Majapahit faded around the year 1500, many of its priests, poets, dancers and craftsmen came to Bali. They brought their stories, their music and their skills, and Bali has kept them alive ever since.
Later came Dutch ships and the colonial years, and in 1945 Bali became part of the young Republic of Indonesia. In the 1920s and 1930s, painters and musicians from Europe and America fell in love with Ubud and stayed for years. Their paintings and letters made the whole world curious about a small island with a very big culture.
Why Bali stays with you
Ask people who have been here what they remember most, and they often talk about the mornings: a woman placing an offering on her doorstep, the smell of incense and frangipani, a gamelan practising somewhere behind the rice fields.
Culture in Bali is not a show for visitors. It's everyday life. Ceremonies fill the streets, whole villages dress in white and gold, and many children learn to dance and play the gamelan from a young age. You don't have to search for it. It finds you.
And then there's the island itself: volcanoes and crater lakes, rice terraces like green staircases, waterfalls deep in the jungle, black and white beaches and a sea full of life. All of it within a day's drive, and all of it looked after by people who believe it is sacred. That, more than anything, is why Bali feels like nowhere else.
You don't have to search for it. It finds you.