Sacred Monkey Forest
Twelve hectares of forest and three temples, with seven hundred macaques living in them.
Duration
1 hr – 2 hrs
Difficulty
●●○○○
Best time
At opening
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
The Padangtegal forest is a twelve-hectare sanctuary holding around seven hundred long-tailed macaques, in several territorial groups. It belongs to the village and its status is religious before it is touristic: three fourteenth-century temples are in use inside it, including a funerary temple.
The banyans here are held sacred and their aerial roots vault over the paved paths. The monkeys are not tame: they are wild animals used to humans, which is a different and riskier thing.
Getting there
At the end of Monkey Forest Road, ten minutes on foot from central Ubud. Tickets are sold at the north or south gate.
What the price covers
entry charged, rate to be confirmed
What to bring
- Walking shoes
Rules on site
Do not look a macaque in the eye, do not smile with your teeth showing, and wear nothing shiny or dangling: those are aggression signals or targets. A bite means rabies treatment — the staff are trained, go to them at once.