Tanah Lot Temple (Pura Tanah Lot), Bali: Fee, Sunset and Tide Guide

What surprises most people is that you cannot go inside. The shrine on the rock is for Balinese Hindus at prayer, and nobody else climbs its steps. What you can do, at low tide, is walk across the wet rock to the base, take a holy-water blessing from the priests at the freshwater spring, and look into the cave where the temple's guardian sea snakes live. At high tide the sea closes that path and the temple seems to float. Both are worth seeing. Which one you get depends on the tide table, not the clock.

• Pay IDR 75,000 per adult in cash. There is no online ticket, and the 100,000 rise announced for April 2026 was postponed.

• Check the tide before you leave. Low tide in the late afternoon gives you the blessing and the sunset on one visit.

• Reach the car park about 75 minutes before sunset, between 4.50 and 5.30 PM depending on the month. The ticket queue starts building at 4 PM.

• Allow 50 to 75 minutes from Kuta and 75 to 105 minutes from Ubud in afternoon traffic.

• Choose between the cliff sunset and the 6 PM Kecak. Sunset falls during the show in every month.

Tanah Lot Temple at a glance

Tanah Lot Temple entrance fee

The Tanah Lot entrance fee is IDR 75,000 (about Rs 393) for a foreign adult and IDR 40,000 (about Rs 210) for a foreign child aged 5 to 10. Indonesian visitors pay IDR 30,000 and IDR 20,000, and children under five go free. You pay at the ticket booth beside the car park, get a paper slip for each person, and show it at the "Om Swastiastu" checkpoint a few metres on, where it is stamped.

The booth takes cash only, and there is no official way to buy a ticket online. Bring IDR 10,000 and 20,000 notes, because you will also need small change for parking, the blessing donation and a coconut on the cliffs. Most market stalls want cash as well.

The ticket covers the whole complex. That means the main rock, the cliff paths, Pura Batu Bolong to the north and the smaller shrines along the shore. It does not cover the Kecak, the snake keepers' donation box or anything at the cafés.

Why other websites say IDR 60,000 or 100,000

You will find three different prices online, and only one is at the gate today.

Tanah Lot timings and best time to visit

Tanah Lot is open from 7 AM to 7 PM every day of the year except Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence, when the whole island shuts from 6 AM to 6 AM the next morning. The next Nyepi is Monday 8 March 2027. In the days before it, Melasti processions carry temple statues down to the sea here for purification, which is worth watching but makes the paths very crowded.

The best time to visit depends on what you want. For quiet paths and soft light, come between 7 and 9 AM. For the sunset, arrive about 75 minutes before it, using the month table below. Around midday is hot and bright, but the ticket queue is short because most tour buses time their visit for sunset.

April to October is the dry season and gives the clearest sunsets. From November to March, afternoon cloud and rain are common, and a downpour can wipe out both the sunset and the Kecak. Our Bali best time to visit guide covers the weather month by month.

Piodalan and ceremony days

Tanah Lot's piodalan, the temple's anniversary, comes round every 210 days on the Balinese pawukon calendar, on the day called Buda Wage Langkir. The last one was 1 July 2026. The next falls on Wednesday 27 January 2027, followed by Wednesday 25 August 2027. Thousands of Balinese families arrive in white with tall offerings of fruit on their heads, and the festivities run for several days. Visitors are not turned away, but parking fills, the paths slow to a shuffle and the crossing to the rock may be kept for worshippers. Come if you want to see a living temple at its busiest. Pick another day if you want the blessing or a clean sunset photo.

Low tide vs high tide: can you walk to the temple?

You can walk to Tanah Lot only at low tide, and even then you reach the base of the rock, not the shrine. The rock sits about 20 metres off the beach. When the sea drops, a strip of sand and flat wet reef opens and people cross in sandals. When it rises, waves cover the whole strip and the guards whistle everyone back to shore.

Look up the tide table for Bali's south-west coast on the morning of your visit (a tide app set to Tanah Lot or Benoa will do). The lowest tides of the month come in the few days around a full moon or new moon, so check whether one of them falls in the late afternoon. If you can match it with your sunset evening, you get both halves of Tanah Lot on one ticket.

Sunset at Tanah Lot: times by month

Sunset at Tanah Lot comes between 6.07 PM and 6.45 PM, depending on the month. The table below uses the temple's exact position and Bali time (WITA), for the middle of each month. Aim to arrive about 75 minutes before sunset so you have time to park, queue, walk the market lane and find a place on the cliff.

The obvious viewpoint is the cliff rail just above the main rock, and it is also the most crowded. Walk east along the cliff path to Sunset Corner, the café with pink umbrellas at the far end, for the widest angle on the temple. For a quieter view, go north to Pura Batu Bolong, the small temple on a rock arch, about five minutes' walk. If the tide is low, you can also sit on the beach rocks below and shoot the temple in silhouette.

What to see inside the Tanah Lot complex

Tanah Lot is not one temple but a cluster of shrines along about 300 metres of cliff and shore, and the ticket covers all of it. From the car park you walk 10 to 15 minutes along a lane of souvenir shops before you reach the sea. Most visitors follow this order.

The blessing is the part most people remember. You queue at the cave mouth, a priest sprinkles water from the spring over your head and hands, presses a few grains of rice to your forehead and tucks a frangipani behind your ear. A donation box sits beside him. IDR 10,000 to 20,000 is a fair amount, and nobody will ask for more.

The sea kraits are venomous but famously docile, and the keepers hold one up for visitors to see. Do not touch them unless a keeper offers. Separately, stalls near the market rent out a python for photos for a fee. That has nothing to do with the temple.

One name confusion to clear up. Pura Batu Bolong at Tanah Lot is a temple on an arch. Batu Bolong Beach in Canggu, 12 km south-east, is a surf beach named after a different rock. Drivers know the difference, but online maps sometimes do not.

Kecak dance at Tanah Lot

The Kecak at Tanah Lot runs daily at about 6 PM at De Jukung Resto & Bar, on the cliffs beside Pura Batu Bolong, and lasts about an hour. Tickets start at around IDR 100,000 (about Rs 524) and are sold at the restaurant, not at the temple booth. The show does not go ahead if it rains.

Kecak is a dance-drama with no instruments. A circle of bare-chested men chants "cak-cak-cak" in interlocking rhythms while dancers act out an episode from the Ramayana, the rescue of Sita, with Hanuman as the crowd favourite. Indian visitors will know the story before the first chant.

The catch is timing. Sunset comes during the show in every month, about 7 minutes after the 6 PM start in May and about 45 minutes after it in January and February. If you sit down for the Kecak, you watch the sunset from your seat at De Jukung, not from the cliff rail above the temple. Decide in advance which one matters more to you.

History and legend of Tanah Lot Temple

The name Tanah Lot means "land in the sea", which is exactly what it looks like at high tide. The story starts with Dang Hyang Nirartha, a Hindu priest who travelled from Java in the 16th century. He stopped on this stretch of shore and meditated on the outcrop where the temple now stands. When local fishermen found him there, he asked them to build a shrine on the rock to honour the god of the sea. The main deity inside Tanah Lot Temple is Bhatara Segara, the sea god. Nirartha is also worshipped here.

Local legend adds more. The village leader of Beraban, Bendesa Beraban Sakti, resented the newcomer and tried to drive him away. Nirartha is said to have shifted the rock out into the sea and turned his sash into the sea snakes that still guard its base. Before leaving, he gave the village leader a sacred keris (dagger), which was later kept at Puri Kediri. Tanah Lot is one of a chain of sea temples Nirartha's followers founded along Bali's south-west coast, each within sight of the next, with Uluwatu at the southern end.

The rock itself has been rebuilt. By the 1980s the sea had eaten so far into the soft rock that it threatened to collapse. The Indonesian government took an Rp 800 billion loan from Japan for a restoration, sank concrete tetrapods offshore to break the waves, and rebuilt the base with artificial rock carved and coloured to match the original. About a third of what you see today is man-made. You would not guess it from the cliff.

For the other temples that matter on the island, see our guide to temples in Bali, or the Wikipedia article on Tanah Lot for sources.

Dress code and temple rules

There is no compulsory sarong at Tanah Lot, because visitors do not enter the shrine. You walk the outer grounds, the beach and the cliffs. Even so, this is a working temple, so dress the way you would for any temple visit. Cover your shoulders, wear shorts or skirts that reach the knee, and leave the swimwear and crop tops in the car. Sarongs are rented near the entrance for about IDR 10,000 if you want one for the blessing.

How to reach Tanah Lot from Kuta, Seminyak, Canggu and Ubud

Tanah Lot is 22.7 km from Kuta, about 29 minutes with empty roads, but plan for 50 to 75 minutes in the afternoon. The last stretch on Jalan Raya Tanah Lot is a single lane each way, and everyone heading for the sunset uses it at the same time. The table gives road distance to the temple and two times, the drive with clear roads and what to plan for in the afternoon.

Our separate Kuta to Tanah Lot route guide has more on the road from the south. If you are flying in from India, your arrival point is Ngurah Rai Airport (DPS), and the Bali tour packages we sell already include the airport transfer and a driver for the sightseeing days.

Driver, Grab, scooter or tour?

A private driver is the easiest way to see Tanah Lot, because getting back is the hard part. Ride-hailing apps drop you at the car park without trouble, but return pickups after sunset are scarce, and local taxi drivers at the gate charge well above the app fare.

Where to eat with a sunset view

The cafés along the cliff are the best seats for the sunset, and the food is simple Indonesian fare at fair prices. Sunset Corner, at the far east end with the pink umbrellas, has the widest view of the temple. Next to it, Bayu Pertiwi Sunset Lounge serves a meal or a drink for about IDR 40,000 (Rs 210), and Warung Sunset Bagus has a similar menu. De Jukung, the Kecak venue near Batu Bolong, is the busiest, and its Google reviews are mixed on food. Away from the cliffs, Natys in the market area has more seating but no sea view.

For vegetarian or Indian food, or for proper dinners in Canggu and Kediri, see our list of restaurants near Tanah Lot. If you want to keep the evening going, there is a separate guide to places to party near Tanah Lot.

Tanah Lot vs Uluwatu: which sunset temple?

Pick Tanah Lot if you want the temple itself in your sunset photo and a chance at the holy-water blessing. Pick Uluwatu if you want a clifftop sunset with the famous Kecak and you are staying in the south. They are 43.7 km apart, 90 to 120 minutes in traffic, so you cannot do both on one evening.

Our Uluwatu Temple guide has its fee, timings and Kecak in detail.

Half-day plans and total cost in rupees

Most people see Tanah Lot as the last stop of a day. Three plans work well.

A sunset visit for two people from Canggu or Seminyak with a half-day driver costs about this much.

That is roughly Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,500 per person for the full evening. If Tanah Lot is part of a booked trip, the driver is already paid for, and you only carry cash for the entry, parking and extras. Many of our Bali honeymoon packages and Bali family packages schedule the Tanah Lot sunset on the west-coast day.

Places to visit near Tanah Lot

Tanah Lot sits at the southern edge of Tabanan, the rice-growing regency of West Bali, so the best pairings are inland temples and terraces or the beaches just south.

For more ideas, see things to do in Canggu, the beaches in Canggu, places to visit in Tabanan, the other temples in Tabanan and restaurants in Tabanan. The lake temple has its own Ulun Danu Beratan guide. If you want to stay close enough to beat the crowds at 7 AM, our list of hotels near Tanah Lot covers the resorts on the cliffs. Most visitors still base themselves around Seminyak Beach or Kuta Beach. For the rest of the island, start with our places to visit in Bali and things to do in Bali pages, or the main Bali travel guide.

Tips for visiting Tanah Lot

• Carry rupiah in small notes. The booth, the parking attendant, the donation box and most stalls take cash only.

• Wear sandals or shoes with grip if you plan to cross at low tide. The reef is slick with weed.

• Bring a hat and water for afternoon visits. There is little shade on the cliff path before 5 PM.

• Use the paid toilets near the ticket area before you walk down. There are few near the cliffs.

• Wheelchair users and older travellers can manage the paved paths to the cliff viewpoints, but not the crossing to the rock or the steps down to the beach.

• Bargain in the market lane. Asking prices start high and come down a long way.

• Book your ride back before you arrive, or keep your driver. Grab pickups after 7 PM are rare.

• Keep children back from the water's edge. Larger waves arrive in sets and can knock an adult off the reef.

If Tanah Lot is on your list, our Bali tour packages can build the west-coast day around the right tide and sunset for your dates.

Edited by TravelTriangle. Last updated November 2026. Fee and hours checked 4 November 2026. Our Bali desk compared the entry fee across five guides updated in 2026 and The Bali Sun's report on the postponed price rise, matched the main temple and Pura Batu Bolong to their Wikidata entries, worked out the sunset time for every month at the temple's exact position, and calculated each drive time on this page on the road network from 17 starting points.