Pura Ulun Danu Batur Temple, Kintamani: Fee, Dress Code and Tips

The name means "head of the lake". The temple is dedicated to Vishnu and to Dewi Danu, goddess of Lake Batur, the lake that Balinese believe feeds the springs and rice terraces across much of the island. That is why it sits inside Bali's UNESCO World Heritage listing for the subak irrigation system. Most visitors arrive straight off the Mount Batur sunrise trek, in a fleece, and find a temple wrapped in cloud with the volcano behind it.

• Carry about IDR 150,000 in cash per foreign adult. That covers the ticket, the levy, a sarong and parking.
• Arrive between 8 and 10 AM. Cloud usually rolls over the rim by late morning and hides the volcano.
• Wear a sarong and sash and cover your shoulders. Bring a light jacket, because mornings at the rim are 16°C to 20°C.
• Allow about an hour inside, and up to 90 minutes if a ceremony is on.
• Budget 1 to 1.5 hours from Ubud and 2 to 2.5 hours from Kuta, Seminyak or the airport. Book your driver for the return too.

Pura Ulun Danu Batur at a glance

Pura Ulun Danu Batur entrance fee

The Pura Ulun Danu Batur entrance fee is IDR 50,000 to 75,000 (about Rs 262 to Rs 393) for a foreign adult, paid at a ticket counter on the other side of the main road, opposite the temple gate. The most recent first-hand report we found, from July 2026, paid IDR 75,000. Older guides from 2025 quote IDR 35,000 on weekdays and IDR 50,000 at weekends. Those figures are out of date, so carry enough for the higher rate. Children pay roughly half the adult rate.

The second charge is the one that confuses people. Kintamani is a regency tourism area, and Bangli regency charges every visitor a separate levy under its 2023 regional regulation: IDR 50,000 for a foreign tourist, IDR 25,000 for a domestic tourist and IDR 10,000 for a Bali resident. Officers collect it at posts on the roads into the area, including Jalan Raya Penelokan, and you should get a ticket. Keep it until you leave Kintamani in case another post stops you. Many websites that say "the temple costs 50,000" are describing this levy, not the temple.

Some drivers and tour packages already include the levy and the ticket. Ask before you set off, so you do not pay twice. If you are travelling on a Bali tour package, the Kintamani day usually lists "entrance fees" as included or excluded in the itinerary, and that line is worth reading.

Pura Ulun Danu Batur timings

Pura Ulun Danu Batur is open to visitors from about 8 AM to 5 PM every day. The temple itself never really closes, because villagers come to pray at all hours, but the ticket counter and the sarong stalls keep those hours. On Nyepi, the Balinese day of silence, everything shuts, including the roads. In 2027 that is Monday 8 March.

Pura Ulun Danu Batur tips: dress code, etiquette and what to know

These Pura Ulun Danu Batur tips come down to five things. Wear a sarong and sash, cover your shoulders, arrive before 10 AM, carry rupiah in small notes, and book your driver for the return trip. Everything else is ordinary temple courtesy.

Dress code

As at every Balinese temple, Pura Ulun Danu Batur requires every visitor to dress modestly. Legs, shoulders and waist have to be covered. In practice that means a sarong wrapped to below the knee and a sash (selendang) tied round the waist, which is the part people forget. Sarongs are available to rent outside the temple for about IDR 20,000, and the stalls sit near the ticket counter, so you can sort both in one stop.

If you are coming straight off the volcano in trekking trousers, they count as covered legs, but you still need the sash. Bring your own sarong if you can. It is cheaper, it is clean, and it saves a negotiation at 9 AM when you are cold and tired. Men usually tie the knot at the front and women at the side.

Etiquette

Balinese custom asks women who are menstruating not to enter temple grounds. Nobody checks, and it is a matter of respect for the place rather than a rule anyone enforces at the gate. The same courtesy covers anyone with an open bleeding wound.

Inside, remove footwear where a sign asks you to, which is at the inner shrines of the main courtyard. Do not climb on the walls or the shrines for photographs, and never sit higher than the priest (pemangku) or a person praying. You are welcome to photograph the temple, the gates and the meru. Ask first before you photograph people, and do not photograph anyone at prayer at close range.

The temple accepts donations in a donation box in the outer courtyard. Do not hand food or money directly to a priest. If you want to make an offering (canang sari), ask your guide or the temple attendant, who will place it for you. On full moon days and during the temple festival, villagers fill the courtyards in white and yellow. Stand to the side, keep your voice down, and wait to be told where you can go.

Weather and what to bring

Kintamani is cold by Bali standards. Mornings at the rim run 16°C to 20°C, and from July to September the nights drop lower still. Cloud forms over the caldera most days by late morning, and in the wet season (November to March) it can sit on the temple all day. Bring a light jacket or fleece, closed shoes or sandals that grip on wet stone, and a small umbrella. The courtyards are paved and level, with steps between them, so the visit itself is easy on the legs.

Money

Everything here runs on cash. The ticket counter, the levy post, the sarong stalls and the car park attendants all expect rupiah, and small notes save arguments over change. Withdraw money in Ubud or at your hotel before you drive up, because ATMs in Kintamani are few and sometimes empty. A sensible float for one foreign adult is about IDR 150,000, which covers the ticket, levy, sarong, parking share and a donation. Indian UPI apps are not accepted here, and Indian debit cards attract foreign-transaction fees at Indonesian ATMs, so draw larger amounts less often.

Getting around

Grab and Gojek drivers will drop you in Kintamani, but app taxis rarely accept pickups up here, and local transport groups discourage them. Plan the return before you leave. The simplest way is a private driver for the day, which runs about IDR 600,000 to 800,000 (about Rs 3,146 to Rs 4,195) per car from Ubud and a little more from the south coast, or more again for a 2 AM sunrise-trek pickup.

If you came up on a trekking tour, the temple is often on the way back down. Check your trek booking, since some sunrise tours stop here for only 30 to 45 minutes. That is enough for a walk through the main courtyards, but not for the full complex.

How to reach Pura Ulun Danu Batur

Pura Ulun Danu Batur is on Jalan Raya Kintamani, the main road along the western rim of the Batur caldera, about 41 km north of Ubud and 74 km from the airport. There is no public bus worth planning around, so almost everyone comes by private car, scooter or a tour that combines the temple with the Mount Batur trek. From Ubud the road climbs through Tegallalang and Sebatu or through Tampaksiring, past Tirta Empul, which makes an easy second stop on the same morning.

From India, fly into Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS), Denpasar. A few Indian metros have direct flights, so check current schedules. Most other cities connect through Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok. Do not try to fit Kintamani into your arrival day. Stay in Ubud and come up the next morning. The Ubud tour packages on TravelTriangle usually build a Kintamani day around this route.

Best time to visit Pura Ulun Danu Batur

The best time to visit Pura Ulun Danu Batur is between 8 and 10 AM in the dry season, April to October. That is when you are most likely to see the volcano behind the meru towers. July to September brings the clearest skies but the coldest mornings, and the most trekkers.

For month-by-month detail across the whole island, see our best time to visit Bali guide.

History of Pura Ulun Danu Batur

The temple you visit today was rebuilt on the caldera rim after the 1926 eruption of Mount Batur. The original temple, and the old village of Batur, stood at the south-western foot of the volcano beside the lake. In 1917 an eruption sent lava down towards them and it stopped at the temple gates, which the Balinese read as a sign of divine protection. In 1926 a second eruption buried the village. The lava nearly engulfed the temple too, but the 11-tier main shrine survived.

The villagers carried what they could up to the outer rim of the caldera, including the surviving shrine, and began rebuilding temple and village together. So the stones you walk on are less than a century old, but the temple's role is far older. As the supreme water temple of Lake Batur, it is the head of the subak system, the shared irrigation that the farmers of the whole lake watershed depend on. Farmers' groups still bring offerings here to ask for water.

That role is why, in 2012, UNESCO listed Pura Ulun Danu Batur and Lake Batur as two of the five components of the World Heritage Site "Cultural Landscape of Bali Province". It is also one of the Kahyangan Jagat, the directional temples that guard Bali, and Balinese regard it as second only to Besakih. Shrines in the complex also honour the gods of farming, masonry, the arts and carpentry.

Inside the temple: what to see

There are nine main temples inside the compound, with about 285 shrines and pavilions between them. Pura Penataran Agung Batur is the main temple, with five courtyards. The others are Pura Taman Sari, Pura Padang Sila, Pura Sampian Wangi, Pura Gunarali, Penataran Pura Jati, Pura Tuluk Biyu, Pura Tirta Bungkah and Pura Tirta Mas Mampeh. Most visitors only see Penataran Agung, and that is enough for an hour.

Look at the dark volcanic stone in the outer walls and at the colours inside. The meru roofs are thatched in black sugar-palm fibre (ijuk), and on ceremony days the shrines are wrapped in yellow and white cloth with tall bamboo penjor arching over the road.

Odalan: the Ngusaba Kedasa festival

The temple's main festival, Ngusaba Kedasa, peaks on Purnama Kedasa, the full moon of the tenth Balinese month, which usually falls in late March or early April. Purnama Kedasa is the first full moon after Nyepi. With Nyepi on 8 March 2027, the next peak falls around 22 March 2027. Ceremonies run for days either side, with processions from villages across Bali, gamelan through the night and courtyards full of offerings.

Visitors are welcome to watch from the outer courtyards if they are dressed correctly. Expect heavy traffic on the rim road, longer queues at the levy posts, and parts of the temple closed to non-worshippers. If you are in Bali that week, it is the single best day to see why this temple matters, as long as you arrive early and stay out of the way of the processions.

Pura Ulun Danu Batur vs Ulun Danu Beratan vs Segara Ulun Danu Batur

Pura Ulun Danu Batur is the large temple on the Kintamani rim road. It is not the famous floating temple on a lake, which is Pura Ulun Danu Beratan in Bedugul, 56 km away. It is also not Pura Segara Ulun Danu Batur, the smaller temple down on the shore of Lake Batur. Many tours, maps and photos mix the three up.

Can you do Batur and Beratan in one day? Only if you accept five or six hours in the car. They sit on opposite sides of central Bali. Most travellers do Batur with the trek or with Tirta Empul, and keep Beratan for a separate north-west day.

A half-day plan and what it costs

Most travellers combine the temple with the Mount Batur sunrise trek or with Tirta Empul. Here are both, with what you will spend on the ground.

A couple sharing a car will spend about IDR 840,000 to 1,090,000 (about Rs 4,400 to Rs 5,720) on the temple morning before food. TravelTriangle's Bali honeymoon packages and family packages can fold Kintamani into the itinerary with the transfer already arranged.

Nearby: Kintamani and Lake Batur

Penelokan, 3 km south along the rim, is the viewpoint where the Kintamani lunch buffets look straight across the caldera at Mount Batur. Below it, the lake road runs to Toya Bungkah, where the trek starts and where hot-spring pools sit at the water's edge. Trunyan, across the lake by boat from Kedisan, is a Bali Aga village with its own customs and a cemetery that charges visitors and draws mixed reports. Decide on that one with care.

For the full list, our places to visit near Pura Ulun Danu Batur guide maps the stops with drive times, and there is a year-round list of places near the temple too. For a meal with a view, see restaurants in Kintamani. To plan the wider area, read things to do in Kintamani and places to visit in Kintamani. Temple lovers can work through our list of Bali temples, and the Bali places to visit hub covers the rest of the island. Base yourself in Ubud, and use places to visit in Ubud for the days you are not up the mountain. Our Bali travel guide has the visa, money and transport basics.

Edited by TravelTriangle. Last updated November 2026. Fees checked 4 November 2026. Our Bali desk compared the temple ticket across six guides dated 2025 and 2026, took the Kintamani levy from the Bangli regency rules, matched the temple to its Wikidata and UNESCO entries, and worked out each drive time on this page on the road network from the temple gate.