Surfing at Uluwatu
A powerful reef break for experienced surfers only. The reef does not forgive: booties recommended.
Duration
2 hrs – 4 hrs
Difficulty
●●●●○
Best time
Rising tide, mornings
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
Uluwatu is a long, powerful left breaking over coral reef at the foot of the cliff. You get in through a cave: at low tide you walk out over sand, at high tide you jump from the ledge and let the water carry you.
The peak splits into sections — Racetrack, Outside Corner, The Peak — which do not work on the same tide or the same swell size. It is an experienced surfer's wave, and the reef is under a metre on the inside.
Getting there
An hour from Seminyak. The car park is on the clifftop; the cave is reached down steep steps, board under your arm.
What the price covers
the break itself is free: you pay for parking, for board hire, or for the neighbouring temple, and none of those has a published rate.
What to bring
- Board
- Reef shoes
- Sunscreen
Rules on site
Sharp coral under very little water, and a current running seaward on the north side of the bay. Booties, and never paddle out of the cave alone at high tide.
Other places in Bali
- Tanah LotA temple on a rock that the high tide cuts off from the coast, facing the sunset.
- Uluwatu TempleSet on a seventy-metre cliff, above the Indian Ocean.
- Tirta EmpulThe purification pools where Balinese pass under thirteen spouts, as they have since the tenth century.
- Mount Batur climbSet off around 3am to reach the summit at sunrise, above the sea of clouds. A guide is compulsory on the Indonesian side.