Ubud
The most recognised retreat town on earth, and the one whose global fame is traceable to a single book.
Why here
The case for Ubud
- The concentration of experienced international teachers is genuinely unmatched. The Yoga Barn, open since 2007, runs more than twenty classes a day and anchors an economy that keeps twenty-year teachers in one place.
- Underneath the pop-culture layer sits a genuinely old system: Balinese usada, a herbal and spiritual medicine recorded on lontar palm-leaf manuscripts, with a balian usada defined specifically as a healer literate in those texts.
- Bali has begun to regulate traditional practice at provincial level, which is more than most of Southeast Asia has attempted — though the specific regulation number that circulates online could not be substantiated against an official text, so we do not cite one.
- It is the easiest immersion to say yes to: warm, affordable, well connected, and forgiving if it is your first retreat.
Checkable, not adjectival
- Provincial rules on Balinese traditional health create registration for practitioners; the regulation number widely quoted online could not be verified against an official text, so we do not repeat it.
- Balinese usada medicine is recorded in lontar palm-leaf manuscripts; a balian usada is defined as a healer literate in those texts.
- Eat, Pray, Love was published in 2006; the film released in 2010 and was shot partly in Ubud. Academic work identifies the book as the trigger for the town’s wellness economy.
- The Yoga Barn opened in Ubud in 2007 and runs 20+ classes a day.
- Since 14 February 2024 every foreign tourist pays a IDR 150,000 levy, once per stay, via the provincial Love Bali portal.
- Nyepi, the Day of Silence, closes the whole island for 24 hours including the airport — the only airport in the world that shuts annually for a religious observance.
The houses
2 houses in Ubud
Retreat
Begawan, Payangan, above the Ayung river · Indonesia
COMO Shambhala Estate
The property that made Bali a serious wellness destination rather than a yoga town — a residential health retreat in jungle above the Ayung.
FromUS$3,700Bookable with usRetreat
Mambal, on the Ayung river · Indonesia
Fivelements Retreat Bali
The property that built itself explicitly around Balinese healing rather than importing a wellness concept — and the one most engaged with the balian tradition.
FromUS$2,070Bookable with us
When to come
The months that actually work
April to September is the dry season and the only period we quote for. Ubud sits inland at elevation in jungle and catches noticeably more rain than the coast; December to February is the wettest stretch, and mould is a genuine consideration in an open-sided hall over a month-long stay.
Book: April, May, June, July, August, September.
| Destination | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UbudIndonesia | Jan: we would talk you out of it | Feb: we would talk you out of it | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: book this | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: book this | Aug: book this | Sep: book this | Oct: perfectly good | Nov: perfectly good | Dec: we would talk you out of it |
Average daytime high, °C
- 30J
- 30F
- 30M
- 31A
- 30M
- 29J
- 28J
- 28A
- 29S
- 30O
- 30N
- 30D
Ubud sits about 200 m up and is a degree or two cooler and a good deal wetter than the coast. The dry season, May to September, is the season.
Getting there
Flights, routings and the transfer
Getting there
Ngurah Rai International DPS
Denpasar — Ubud is inland and uphill from it
- Singapore, Kuala Lumpur & Bangkok
Direct, hourly.
2.5–4 hours - Australia
Direct from every east-coast city.
6 hours from Sydney - London & western Europe
One stop through a Gulf or Asian hub.
17–19 hours door to door - India & the Gulf
Direct from Mumbai and Delhi seasonally; otherwise via Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.
7–9 hours
- Transfer
- 90 minutes to two hours to Ubud, and it can be three in the afternoon traffic through Denpasar. Included, and we schedule around the jam rather than pretending it is not there.
- Worth knowing
- Visa on arrival for most passports, payable in the hall, and the queue is long behind a wave of arrivals — the e-VOA applied for beforehand skips it and we send the link. Bali also levies a tourist entry fee, paid online before you land.
On request
What else there is in Ubud
Arranged on request and quoted separately. Each one carries when to take it — because a good day out on the wrong day of a treatment course is not a good day out, and no excursions list anywhere else will tell you that.
- CultureHalf day
A water purification at Tirta Empul
The melukat ritual at the eleventh-century spring temple. Go at seven in the morning with a guide who can explain the sequence, or it is a queue and a photograph.
Any time - NatureHalf day
Tegallalang and the subak
The rice terraces, and better, the thousand-year-old irrigation democracy that made them — UNESCO-listed as a cultural landscape and far more interesting than the swing.
Before the programme - ActiveHalf day, very early
Mount Batur before dawn
A two-hour walk up an active volcano for sunrise over the caldera. A 02:00 start, and genuinely strenuous — never on a treatment day.
After the programme - FoodHalf day
A Balinese cooking morning
Market first, then the base gede spice pastes that underlie everything. The best of the day trips and the one guests actually use at home.
On a rest day - Culture2 hours
Legong at Ubud Palace
Every evening in the palace courtyard for a few hundred thousand rupiah. Touristic and still the real dance, performed by the village troupes in rotation.
Any time
Add nights either side
The half of the trip a wellness agency cannot sell you. These are booked on the same invoice as the programme, with the flights routed to suit them.
- The east coast — Amed or Sidemen3 nights · After
The Bali the Ubud road no longer is: black-sand fishing villages, Agung above you, and nobody at all.
- Nusa Penida & the islands2 nights · After
A fast boat off the southeast corner for cliffs, manta rays and a very different landscape.
- Borobudur & Yogyakarta3 nights · Before
A short flight to Java for the greatest Buddhist monument in the world at sunrise, and Prambanan the same afternoon.
What you can book
2 programmes here
COMO Shambhala Estate · 7 nights
The residential week
A consultation, then an assigned programme in steep jungle above the Ayung — the model that made Bali serious.
US$3,700moderateFivelements Retreat Bali · 5 nights
The Balinese healing week
A respectful, well-mediated encounter with a living tradition — and honest that it is not medicine.
US$2,070gentle
Practical
The unromantic part
- Airport
- Denpasar (DPS). Ubud is ninety minutes by road and can be two hours in traffic.
- Visa
- Visa on arrival for most passports, extendable once. Longer trainings need the extension arranged in advance.
- Levy
- IDR 150,000 tourist levy, paid once per stay through the official portal before you arrive.
- Nyepi
- Check the date. The island — and the airport — closes completely for 24 hours, and you may not leave your accommodation.
- Level
- All levels genuinely welcome. This is the destination we suggest when somebody has never done a retreat.