Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary

How to visit without a hitch

There’s nothing to book ahead and no skip-the-line tier — you simply pay Rp 80,000 (about £3.40) at the gate, usually in cash, so the only real decision is what time you walk in. The forest opens at 09:00 with the last ticket at 17:00, and the smart move is to be at the entrance on the dot: the long-tailed macaques are calmer in the morning cool, the light through the banyans is better, and you’ll have the three moss-covered temples to yourself before the Ubud day-tour coaches roll up mid-morning. Most people fold it into a day already on foot in central Ubud rather than building a special trip around it.

The mistake visitors make is treating the macaques like tame photo props. They are wild, fast and bold, and anything loose — sunglasses pushed up on your head, a water bottle, a phone held out for a video — will be snatched. Tuck valuables away, don’t carry food or rustling bags, and never offer your hand: bites and scratches happen, and because of the rabies risk any break in the skin means a clinic visit, not a plaster.

Timing it right, and is the hour worth it?

Go at opening or skip it — by early afternoon it’s hot, crowded and the monkeys are more aggressive, which sours the whole thing. Allow about an hour for the looping paved paths down to the river and the Pura Dalem Agung temple, or an hour and a half if you want to linger at the deer enclosure and the carved bridges.

At roughly £3.40 it’s one of the best-value sights in Ubud, and a real pocket of ravine jungle and working Hindu temples in the middle of a busy town, not a zoo. It’s worth the hour if you set your expectations right and keep your belongings zipped away. Pair it with the Ubud market and palace a short walk north, or save it for a quieter morning rather than stacking it onto a packed rice-terrace-and-temple driver day.