Ubud Temple Tour: Tirta Empul, Elephant Cave & Rice Terraces

Four temples and rice paddies in one morning, with a guide who explains what you're actually looking at.

A private temple tour in Ubud, Bali, with an English-speaking guide takes you to Tirta Empul Temple, Elephant Cave, Batuan Temple and Tegalalang Rice Terraces over 6 to 10 hours. Your guide shares stories about Balinese spiritual beliefs, the traditional compound layout and how history, religion and community shape daily life here. Hotel pickup is included; entrance tickets to each site are paid on arrival.

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Balinese culture and temples

• Watch Barong Dance performance
• Visit traditional Balinese compound
• Tour Batuan Temple
• Explore Goa Gajah Elephant Cave
• See Tegallalang Rice Terraces
• Visit Tirta Empul Temple and purification baths

The Experience

The day starts at your hotel in Ubud. Your driver picks you up and handles the route while you sit in an air-conditioned vehicle with bottled water. The first stop is usually the Barong Dance performance at Batubulan, where you watch villagers perform a live gamelan-accompanied play about good triumphing over evil—the underlying theme in most Balinese performances. Your guide explains the story as it unfolds: a mother's refusal to surrender her son to the forces of evil, and how Lord Shiva intervenes to grant the boy immortality. It's the kind of detail that makes the dance land differently than watching it alone.

From there you move through the temples themselves. Batuan Temple, an 11th-century complex, sits at the center of its namesake village with a five-tiered gate carved in relief with mythical figures and floral themes. Inside, multi-tiered shrines with wooden beams and gold gilding follow the layout typical of all large temple complexes in Bali. Elephant Cave (Goa Gajah) dates back even further—the 11th century, built originally as a spiritual place for meditation. The cave is shallow, but the stone carvings around it reveal Hindu influences from the 10th century and Buddhist elements from the 8th. Your guide walks you through what you're seeing: the restored statues, the five waterspouts shaped like Hindu angels, the black soot on the cave walls from incense burning. Tirta Empul Temple, built around 960 AD, centers on a holy mountain spring that feeds purification baths. Pilgrims approach a rectangular bath lined with 13 elaborately sculpted spouts and bow under the cold, clear water in sequence—a ritual your guide contextualizes within Balinese spiritual practice.

The Tegalalang Rice Terraces come next, a high roadside stop where the paddies spread down the slopes in front of you. Your guide explains the subak, the traditional Balinese cooperative irrigation system that makes these terraces work. The location is cool and breezy, and it's the kind of place where the landscape itself teaches you something about how Balinese communities organize water and land. Before the tour ends, your guide shares insights about the traditional Balinese compound—how it divides into three parts (mountain-ward shrines, middle living quarters, seaward kitchen and waste areas) and why that layout matters spiritually and practically. It's the difference between visiting temples and understanding why they're built the way they are.

What’s included

• Private transportation in an air-conditioned vehicle with bottled water.
• English-speaking guide for the full tour.
• sarung (temple wrap) provided.
• fuel and parking fees.
• hotel pickup in Ubud.

Good to know

Easy physical levelInfant seats availableNot for pregnant travelersNot for heart conditionsNot for back problems

Operated by Amansuka Tour - Day Tours

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you're staying in Ubud without a car and want a guide who explains what you're seeing rather than just moving you through the sites. The private vehicle and pickup mean you don't arrange transport between temples, and the guide's knowledge of Balinese spiritual beliefs and history makes the difference between visiting temples and understanding them.

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Top questions

What's the difference between the temples on this tour—are they all the same kind of site?

No. Batuan Temple is an 11th-century village temple with carved gates and multi-tiered shrines; Elephant Cave dates to the same period but was built as a meditation site and features stone carvings and a shallow cave with three stone idols; Tirta Empul Temple, built around 960 AD, centers on a holy mountain spring with 13 purification spouts that pilgrims use in sequence. Each one tells a different part of Balinese spiritual and cultural history.

Does the tour include lunch, or do I need to arrange that myself?

Lunch is not included on this tour. You'll have time at the sites, but you'll need to eat separately—either before the tour starts or at a restaurant near one of the stops.

Do I pay for temple entry when I book, or when I arrive?

Entrance tickets to all sites are paid directly on the spot when you arrive at each temple. The tour price covers transportation, your guide and the vehicle; tickets are separate.

What's included in the tour besides the guide and transportation?

The tour includes private transportation in an air-conditioned vehicle, bottled water, a sarung (the cloth wrap you wear to enter temples), fuel and parking fees. Your English-speaking guide is with you the whole time.

How long does the whole tour take?

The tour runs 6 to 10 hours depending on how long you spend at each site and traffic conditions. Your guide can adjust the pace, but plan for a full morning and early afternoon.

What happens if I'm staying outside Ubud—does pickup still work?

Pickup is included for hotels in Ubud. If you're staying outside the Ubud area, an additional pickup charge applies, and the cost depends on the distance from town.