Explore Ubud

Ubud Palace, officially Puri Saren Agung, is the residence of Ubud's royal family in the centre of the town, built in traditional Balinese style under Tjokorda Putu Kandel (1800–1823) and restored after the 1917 earthquake. Visitors enter its outer courtyards with stone carvings by I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, and Balinese dance is staged there in the evening.

Pura Taman Saraswati is a Balinese Hindu temple in the centre of Ubud, dedicated to Saraswati, the goddess of learning and the arts. It was built in 1951–1952 to a design by the sculptor I Gusti Nyoman Lempad for the prince of Ubud. A path lined with stone figures crosses its lotus pond to three red-brick gateways.

The Puri Lukisan Museum on Ubud's main street holds Balinese paintings and woodcarvings from the 1930s onwards, from the Ubud, Batuan, Sanur, Young Artists and Keliki schools. It grew out of the Pita Maha artists' association of Tjokorda Gede Agung Sukawati and Rudolf Bonnet and opened in 1956; four pavilions stand in a garden with lotus ponds.

The Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA) is an art museum on Jalan Pengosekan in south Ubud, founded by the art dealer Agung Rai and opened on 9 June 1996. Its galleries show classical Kamasan painting, works by Batuan artists of the 1930s and 1940s, and paintings by Raden Saleh and Walter Spies; the grounds also hold dance performances and workshops.

The Neka Art Museum on the road between Campuhan and Sanggingan, about 2 km north-west of central Ubud, was founded by the art dealer Suteja Neka and opened in 1982. Its pavilions, set around a garden like a Balinese family compound, trace Balinese painting and show works by Arie Smit, keris daggers and 1930s photographs by Robert Koke.

Pura Taman Ayun is a royal temple in Mengwi, about 10 km south-west of Ubud. King Gusti Agung Putu of Mengwi built it in 1634 as a temple for his ancestors. A wide moat surrounds three courtyards; the inner one, reserved for worshippers, holds tiered meru shrines. Since 2012 it is part of Bali's Subak World Heritage Site.

Tirta Empul is a Hindu water temple at Tampaksiring, about 12 km north of Ubud, founded around a spring in 962 during the Warmadewa dynasty and dedicated to Vishnu. The spring feeds the Pakerisan River and fills stone pools lined with spouts, where Balinese Hindus bathe in the melukat purification ritual.

Pura Kehen is the former royal temple of the Bangli kingdom, at the foot of a wooded hill about 2 km north of Bangli town and some 13 km north-east of Ubud. Copper inscriptions from the 9th to 13th centuries name it. Stairs lined with Ramayana figures climb terraces to the outer courtyard, where a banyan tree at least 400 years old stands.