Ulun Danu Beratan Temple, Bedugul: Complete Bali Visitor Guide

Bali's 1633 lake temple in Bedugul, the one on the old Rp 50,000 note.

Pura Ulun Danu Beratan is the water temple of Lake Beratan, standing on the lake's shore at Candikuning village in Baturiti district, Tabanan regency, about 1,200 m up in the Bedugul highlands. Foreign adults pay IDR 100,000 (about Rs 530) since 1 July 2026, the gates open from 7 am to 7 pm, and the drive takes 1.25 to 1.75 hours from Ubud or 1.5 to 2 hours from Seminyak. It was built in 1633 or 1634 under the Mengwi kingdom for Dewi Danu, the goddess of the lake, and its lake shrines featured on the Rp 50,000 banknote issued in 2005.

Ulun Danu Beratan means "the temple at the head of Lake Beratan", the source of the water. When the lake is high, the reflection of the shrines falling on the holy lake gives the impression that the temple is afloat, which is why most people know it as Bali's floating temple. The mountains around the caldera make the backdrop, and the cool air is the first thing you notice when you step out of the car. Plenty of Balinese families come up here for an outing at weekends, so it is a local favourite as much as a tourist stop. Bali Live, quoting the site's figures, counted 467,895 visitors between January and November 2025, with July the busiest month at 51,107.

Jump to at a glance, entry fee, opening hours, how to reach, what to see, boats, history and meru, dress code, tips, Beratan vs Batur, nearby, itinerary or budget.

•Pay IDR 100,000 per foreign adult and IDR 75,000 per child aged 5 to 10 at the gate. Under-5s go free.

•Arrive between 7 and 9 am for mist on the lake and before the tour coaches roll in.

•Plan 1.5 to 2 hours inside, then add Handara Gate and the Twin Lakes for a half day in Bedugul.

•Pack a light jacket. Mornings at 1,200 m feel about 10 °C cooler than Seminyak.

•Don't confuse it with Pura Ulun Danu Batur, a different temple about 56 to 73 km away by road in Kintamani.

Ulun Danu Beratan at a glance

Is Ulun Danu Beratan worth visiting?

Yes, for most first-time visitors to Bali, with two conditions. Get there early, and treat it as one stop in a Bedugul day rather than a long drive for a single photo. At 7.30 am, with the mist lifting off the water and the 11 roofs of the main meru doubled in the lake, it earns its place on the banknote. By 11 am the lawns fill with tour groups, selfie frames and loudspeaker announcements from the boat jetty, and it feels more like a park.

It suits families, couples and anyone who wants Balinese temple architecture without steep steps. The paths are flat and paved, so it works for grandparents and prams. It is a weaker choice if you want a quiet, living temple where you can sit with worshippers. For that, Pura Ulun Danu Buyan and the forest temples of Lake Tamblingan are 20 to 30 minutes further along the same road. On a TravelTriangle family trip, Gaurav's group reached the lake late and missed the motorboat ride at the Bratan temple, a mistake that is easy to avoid by doing the boat first.

Ulun Danu Beratan entrance fee 2026

The Ulun Danu Beratan entrance fee for foreign adults is IDR 100,000 from 1 July 2026, up from IDR 75,000. The site management announced the change in June 2026, and I Made Sukarata, speaking for the site management, confirmed the new rates to Bali Live. Indonesian visitors now pay one flat adult rate every day of the week instead of the old weekday discount. Rupee figures below use about Rs 5.3 per IDR 1,000, so they move with the exchange rate.

Tickets are sold only at the counter by the car park. There is no online booking, and the office accepts cash, credit and debit cards. Keep small notes anyway, because the boat operators, outfit stalls and food sellers inside the complex mostly want cash. The ticket covers the gardens, the lakeshore and the views of every shrine. It does not cover boats, costume rental, koi feeding or the separate Bali Botanic Garden up the road.

Why do other sites still show IDR 75,000, IDR 50,000 or even IDR 10,000? They were written before July 2026, and the IDR 10,000 figure is older still.

Opening hours and the best time to visit

Ulun Danu Beratan is open from 7 am to 7 pm every day. Six independent 2026 guides give the same hours, which replace the 8 am to 5 pm and 8 am to 9 pm listed on older pages. Ticket hours apply to visitors. Worshippers come for ceremonies on their own schedule, and on big ceremony days parts of the lakeshore may be closed to tourists for a few hours.

By season, April to October is the dry stretch and the safest bet for clear views. November to March brings rain most afternoons, a higher lake and greener hills. The shrines look more "floating" then, but the drive up is slower in fog. Weekends and school holidays fill the lawns with Balinese families. Galungan and Kuningan, the ten-day festival that comes round every 210 days, decorate the temple beautifully but bring heavy traffic. On Nyepi, the Day of Silence, all of Bali shuts down and the temple is closed. For month-by-month weather across the island, see our guide to the best time to visit Bali.

How to reach Ulun Danu Beratan

Ulun Danu Beratan sits right on the main road between Denpasar and Singaraja, so every route from the south climbs through Mengwi and Baturiti to the lake. A private driver is the easy answer from any base, because public transport up here is thin and a return ride from Bedugul is hard to find.

Distances are road kilometres measured from each town centre to the temple car park. The times are what our drivers plan for, not the free-flow figure a map app shows, because the last 20 km wind uphill behind trucks.

A private car with driver for a full Bedugul day costs about IDR 700,000 to 900,000 per car (Rs 3,700 to Rs 4,800), fuel and parking included, and this is how most of our travellers do it. Grab and Gojek will bring you up from the south, but finding a ride back from Bedugul is hard, so book a return or keep the same driver. Riding a scooter is possible for experienced riders only. The road is steep, wet and often in cloud above Baturiti, and it gets cold. There is no tourist bus worth relying on. Flying in from India? Our how to reach Bali guide covers flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, and Indian passport holders should read the Bali visa guide for Indians before booking.

What to see inside the Ulun Danu Beratan complex

The complex is a walled garden on the lakeshore with shrines spread along the water. As soon as you enter, you will see lawns and flower beds, with a giant banyan tree to the left. A Buddhist stupa stands just outside the main temple area, facing south, a sign of the long religious harmony around the lake. You walk the paths and lawns. The courtyards with the main shrines are closed to visitors, so you view them from the shore or a boat.

•The lake shrines. Two small islets just off the shore carry the shrines everyone photographs. The tallest has 11 thatched roofs and the smaller one 3. They stand in the water only when the lake is high, and in a dry spell you can see the ground beneath them.

•The temple courtyards. The complex holds several temples, each with its own deity, and the four main ones are on the table in the history section below. Look for the split gates and the carved guardians on the walls.

•The Buddhist stupa, a white bell-shaped monument with Buddha figures in niches, near the south side of the gardens.

•The gardens and koi pond. Feeding the koi costs about IDR 10,000, and the beds of marigolds and cannas are at their best in the dry months.

•Balinese outfit stalls near the entrance. Renting a traditional costume for photos costs about IDR 90,000 to 150,000 per person (Rs 480 to Rs 800).

•Dance performances. Barong and Kecak shows now run about twice a month, as part of the dance programme the management added with the 2026 price change. Ask at the ticket office for that month's dates.

•The management also holds the Ulun Danu Beratan Festival, with a parade of gebogan fruit-tower offerings, on dates it announces each year.

Boat rides and things to do on Lake Beratan

A boat is the only way to see the shrines from the water, and from the lake the meru line up against the hills in a way you cannot get from the lawn. Boats leave from the jetty under the "Wahana Air Ulun Danu Beratan" sign inside the complex. The site management runs rowing boats, speedboats and paddle duck boats. Swimming in the lake is not allowed, and older claims about parasailing or jet-skis here are wrong. Neither runs on this sacred lake.

Agree the price and the time before you step in, and settle whether it is per person or per boat. The last boats go out in the late afternoon, and they stop in heavy rain, so do the boat first if you arrive after 3 pm.

History, architecture and the meaning of the meru

The temple was built in the 17th century under the Mengwi kingdom. Wikipedia gives 1633, and the Babad Mengwi palm-leaf chronicle quoted by the temple management records 1556 Saka, which is 1634 AD, naming the Mengwi king I Gusti Agung Putu as its founder. The management also counts it among Bali's Kahyangan Jagat, the temples that protect the whole island, and four satakan, or community groups from the surrounding traditional villages, look after it today. You may read that it is the oldest temple in Indonesia, but nothing in the temple's own records supports that. The 500 BC date belongs to something older than the temple: Indonesia's tourism ministry notes a sarcophagus and a stone slate dated to around 500 BC beside the temple, a sign that people worshipped at the lake long before the 1630s.

The goddess here is Dewi Danu, who rules the lake, rivers and water. Lake Beratan is considered holy because it feeds the irrigation of the land below, and downstream there are many smaller water temples, one for each subak, the farmers' irrigation co-operatives that share the water. Farmers still bring offerings to ask for a good flow. A local story says Lake Beratan was once the biggest lake in Bali until an earthquake split it into three, Beratan, Buyan and Tamblingan. Geologists describe all three as filling one old volcanic caldera, which is close to the same idea.

A Balinese meru is a shrine tower with a stone base and a stack of thatched roofs. The roofs always come in odd numbers, from 1 up to 11, and the more roofs, the higher the status of the deity. The 11-tier meru at Ulun Danu Beratan, the highest count used in Bali, is dedicated to Shiva and his consort Parvati. Some guides name Vishnu instead, and local accounts differ. Colours carry meaning too. Balinese tradition pairs red with Brahma, black with Vishnu and white with Shiva, the same three colours of the tridatu thread worn after prayers. You can read that in two of the temple names. Petak means white, and Bang means red.

Penataran Pucak Mangu ties the lake temple to Pura Pucak Mangu on the summit of Mount Catur, the peak north-east of the lake, which local tradition links to the fertility of the soil. The layout follows the usual Balinese plan of three courtyards. The outer one is for gatherings and music, the middle one for preparing offerings, and the inner one for the shrines. The temple holds two major ceremonies. One follows the 210-day Balinese calendar, so it comes round roughly every six to seven months, and a larger one comes round at longer intervals, with extra rites when the lake or the harvest calls for them.

Dress code and temple etiquette

Ulun Danu Beratan has a gentler dress rule than most Bali temples because visitors stay outside the worship areas, and no sarong is checked at the gate. Wear modest clothes anyway, as this is a working place of faith and dressing with care is a sign of respect. Shoulders and knees covered is the safe standard. If you are wearing shorts or a short dress, tie a sarong over it so your knees are covered.

•Keep your shoes on in the gardens and on the paths. Remove footwear only if you are invited into a shrine courtyard or a sign asks you to.

•Do not climb on shrine walls, statues or the boat jetty railings for photos.

•Do not step over offerings (canang sari) on the ground, and walk around them.

•By Balinese custom, women who are menstruating are asked not to enter worship areas.

•Fly a drone only with permission from the management, and never over a ceremony.

•If a procession passes, stand aside and let it go by before you take photos.

Tips for visiting Ulun Danu Beratan

•Be at the gate at 7 am. You get the lakeside almost to yourself and the softest light of the day, which is as close to sunrise as the opening hours allow.

•Pack a light jacket or fleece. Bedugul sits at about 1,200 m and the temperature is usually 15 to 22 °C, so mornings feel cold after the coast.

•Carry a rain shell between November and March, and allow extra time for fog on the drive up.

•Do the boat ride first if you arrive after 3 pm, before the jetty closes or rain stops the boats.

•Wear non-slip shoes. The paths are flat but mossy and slick after rain.

•The main paths are flat and paved, which suits prams and older travellers, and there are toilets near the gate.

•Combine it with Handara Gate, the Candikuning market and the Twin Lakes, all within 15 km.

•Vegetarian travellers will find fried rice, corn, strawberries and fruit at the Candikuning market stalls. For sit-down meals, see our list of restaurants in Bedugul.

Ulun Danu Beratan vs Ulun Danu Batur

Ulun Danu Beratan and Ulun Danu Batur are two different temples, and mixing them up is common because both names mean "head of the lake" and both honour the lake goddess. Beratan is the one in the water in Bedugul. Batur is the large hillside temple in Kintamani with views over the Batur volcano. They are about 56 to 73 km apart by road depending on the route, a 1.75 to 2.5 hour drive, so few people do both in one day.

Our Pura Ulun Danu Batur guide covers that temple's fees, dress code and the Kintamani viewpoints.

Places to visit near Ulun Danu Beratan

Bedugul packs a lot into a few kilometres, which is why Ulun Danu Beratan works best as the first stop of a highland day. These are the places our drivers pair with it most often, nearest first. Distances are by road from the temple car park. For the full list, see our guides to places to visit in Bedugul and places to visit near Lake Bratan.

Handara Gate is the split gate at the entrance of the Handara golf resort, and the queue for the photo can run to 30 minutes by mid-morning. Our Handara Gate guide has the details. The Twin Lakes viewpoint sits on the Wanagiri ridge road, where small platforms charge a few thousand rupiah for the view. Lake Tamblingan is the quiet counterpart to Beratan, with rowed canoes and forest temples. Jatiluwih is the best way to see the subak system that Ulun Danu Beratan blesses, and Sekumpul Waterfall or Gitgit Waterfall make sense if you are carrying on to the north coast. Taman Ayun, the royal Mengwi temple, sits on the way back to Seminyak. For every temple in the area, our Bedugul temples guide covers eight, and things to do in Bedugul adds strawberry farms and the Bedugul waterfalls.

Half-day Bedugul itinerary from Ubud or Seminyak

This is the loop our drivers run most often. It starts at Ulun Danu Beratan while the lake is still calm and ends back in the south by late afternoon. From Seminyak, leave 30 minutes earlier and stop at Taman Ayun in Mengwi on the way home.

Cost of visiting Ulun Danu Beratan in rupees and rupiah

A morning at Ulun Danu Beratan with a private driver costs a couple about Rs 2,900 to Rs 4,250 each, including the car, tickets, a boat and lunch. Most of that is the car, so sharing it across four people brings the per-head figure down quickly.

Bali's IDR 150,000 tourist levy is paid once per trip, online before you fly or on arrival, never at the temple. The easiest way to see the highlands is as part of a planned trip with a driver already included. Our Bali tour packages can add a Bedugul day with Ulun Danu Beratan, and there are family packages and honeymoon packages that build in Ubud and the hills. For more of the island's temples, start with our guide to Bali temples, or browse every place to visit in Bali.

Edited by TravelTriangle