Bali for families
Tanah Lot is the rock-formation temple at sunset, seen from the shore at 82121 Beraban. Pura Luhur is a Balinese cliff temple at Uluwatu 80361, best in the last hour of daylight.
Bali for families with kids, in numbers
- Score for families
- 7.5 out of 10
- Picks on this page
- 28 places across 3 lists, led by Tanah Lot, Pura Luhur, Holy Spirit Cathedral
Questions families with kids ask about Bali
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Family-friendly
Bali is family-friendly, 7.5/10 (see the TTDI Family-Friendliness Index). South coast resorts in Nusa Dua and Sanur have shallow reef-protected water, kids' clubs, and poolside changing rooms. Sidewalks outside resort compounds are narrow or nonexistent, so ditch the stroller for a soft carrier. Warung kitchens will make plain nasi putih and fried eggs for 15,000 IDR without blinking.
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Is it safe?
Bali rates 7/10 on solo safety (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index), and the threats that matter are roads, not crime. Scooter crashes, methanol-laced arak, rabid dogs, and rip currents off Kuta put more visitors in trouble than thieves do, with bag-snatching from passing scooters in Seminyak and Canggu the main crime risk. Dial 112 for any emergency.
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What to pack
Pack a sarong: every temple in Bali requires one, and the 50,000 IDR rental at Tirta Empul's gate is a tourist tax. Beyond that: quick-dry clothes for 30°C heat and 70% humidity, reef-safe sunscreen, closed-toe shoes if you're riding a scooter, and a light rain shell. Skip the umbrella: buy one at Indomaret for 25,000 IDR.
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Getting around
Grab and Gojek handle most short trips: download both before landing at Ngurah Rai. For day trips to Ubud or the north coast, hire a private driver through your hotel at 500,000–700,000 IDR (roughly $30–40 USD) for eight hours. Bali has no metro, no functioning bus network, and almost no sidewalks outside central Ubud.
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Best time to visit
Go in May, June or September. Bali's dry season runs roughly April to October, and these three months give you clear mornings without the July-August and Christmas crowds that push villa rates up in Seminyak and Ubud. Skip January and February: afternoon storms flood the lanes of Kuta, and boat crossings to Nusa Penida turn rough.
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Curated for families with kids
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Must-see attractions
Bali's must-see list is mostly a list of sacred places, and this one makes no pretense otherwise. It runs from a rock formation off the island's shore to a temple that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mengwi, and also takes in a cathedral in Denpasar and two palaces, one in Semarapura and one in Ubud. The rest are Balinese Hindu temples, some famous and some you will need a map pin to find. Read it as a guide to how the island worships and governs itself, not as a photo checklist. It is for travellers willing to dress modestly, keep their voices down, and plan around opening times, which vary widely: one gate opens at 07:00, another closes at 16:00, and one simply follows the sun. Several smaller temples here publish no hours in our sources, so go in daylight and accept a closed gate as part of visiting a living place.
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Best free attractions
Free in Bali does not mean quiet corners of a temple with a donation box at the gate. The island's most honest free experiences are the forests where long-tailed macaques run the show, and Bali has more than one worth the drive. What follows is four sites, in rank order, where the entrance fee is the only line item you can skip, and where the animal, not the architecture, is the point. Two sit within striking distance of Ubud, one anchors the Bukit Peninsula in the south, and one hides in the rice country west of the capital. None of them is a secret; all of them reward a visitor who arrives early, keeps sunglasses in a zipped pocket, and treats the resident troop as the local it is. Skip the paid cultural shows that promise a curated Bali in ninety minutes; the forests below hand you the island on its own terms, and they do it before lunch.
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Best museums
Bali's museums are not concentrated in a single museum district; they sit in four quite different places, and planning around that is most of the work. Denpasar holds the oldest, the Bali Museum, which dates from 1910, as well as the Bajra Sandhi Monument, a monument that doubles as a museum. The Ubud area has the densest cluster: Puri Lukisan on Jalan Raya Ubud, the Agung Rai Museum of Art on Jalan Raya Pengosekan, Neka in Kedewatan, and Rudana in Peliatan. Beyond those, Sanur has an artist's house museum, Nusa Dua has Museum Pasifika in the BTDC complex, Klungkung Regency has Semarajaya, and Bedulu has an archaeology museum. The founding dates run from 1910 to 2006, so the list spans colonial-era institutions and private collections opened within living memory. We wrote this for visitors who want an hour indoors that tells them something about the island, and who should check the opening hours before hiring a driver, because several of these places close early on Fridays.
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