Taman Ayun, Ulun Danu Bratan and Jatiluwih UNESCO Sites Tour Bali

Taman Ayun Temple, the royal water temple of Mengwi

The first stop, about an hour from the south of the island, is Pura Taman Ayun in Mengwi. Built in the seventeenth century as the state temple of the Mengwi kingdom, its name means 'beautiful garden', and the whole complex sits on raised courtyards surrounded by a wide moat. Inside the low outer wall stand the tall black-thatched meru towers, stacked in odd numbers of roofs and dedicated to the gods of the mountains, lakes and ancestors.

Taman Ayun is one of the components of the UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape of Bali, because it played a central role in the water temple network that governs the island's Subak irrigation. Plan about an hour here: your guide explains the layout of the courtyards, the split gate and the shrines, and there is time for photographs across the lotus ponds. Visitors walk around the inner courtyard rather than entering it, which keeps the temple active for ceremonies.

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan on Lake Bratan

From Mengwi the road climbs for about forty-five minutes into the Bedugul highlands, where Pura Ulun Danu Bratan stands on the western shore of Lake Bratan at around twelve hundred metres. Founded in the seventeenth century, the temple is dedicated to Dewi Danu, the goddess of the lake waters, because Lake Bratan feeds the springs and rivers that irrigate the rice fields of the lowlands. Its most famous shrine, a slender eleven-tiered meru, rises from a small island so that it appears to float when the lake is high.

The gardens around the temple are open to visitors and are among the most photographed scenes in Indonesia. Mist often drifts across the water in the morning and the air is noticeably cooler, so a light jacket helps. Ulun Danu Bratan opening hours run from early morning to early evening; on this Ulun Danu Bratan temple tour you spend roughly an hour walking the lakeside lawns and shrines with your guide.

Jatiluwih Rice Terraces, UNESCO Subak landscape

The highlight of the day is Jatiluwih, about forty-five minutes west of the lake on the slopes of Mount Batukaru, the second-highest mountain in Bali. Here the terraces curve across the hillsides for kilometres, and they form the heart of the UNESCO-listed Catur Angga Batukaru Subak landscape. The Subak is a cooperative water system dating back more than a thousand years: farmers share water through canals and tunnels managed from water temples, following the Balinese idea of harmony between people, nature and the divine.

You have time to walk part of the marked trails between the paddies, past small shrines and irrigation channels, and to enjoy the panorama of green steps descending towards the sea. Is Jatiluwih worth visiting? Many travellers find it the calmest and widest rice landscape in Bali, far larger than the terraces near Ubud. Lunch can be taken at your own expense at a local restaurant overlooking the fields.

Bedugul highlands and Handara Gate

The Bedugul highlands are Bali's cool green heart: a ring of old volcanic craters holding Lake Bratan, Lake Buyan and Lake Tamblingan, with strawberry farms, vegetable markets and forest roads between them. Temperatures here are often ten degrees lower than on the beaches, and showers or mist can arrive in the afternoon, which is part of the charm of a Bedugul day trip from the south of the island.

On the way back you may choose an optional stop at Handara Gate in Pancasari, a tall carved split gate framed by forested hills that has become one of the island's favourite photo spots. The entrance fee is paid directly on site, and at busy times you may queue for your picture. After the stop the drive back to your hotel takes about an hour to an hour and a half depending on traffic and where you are staying.