Bali is sold as a waterfall island and technically that is true — there are more than sixty mapped falls. What the brochures skip is that roughly forty of them are a paid car park, a concrete staircase, and a twenty-minute queue for the same photo everyone else is taking.
I have ridden to most of them since moving here in 2023. These five earn the day.
Prices below are what I paid in 2026. Entry fees in Bali get revised without notice, so treat them as a range rather than a promise.
1. Sekumpul — the one that ruins the others for you
Where: Buleleng, north Bali · From Canggu: 2h45m · From Ubud: 2h · Entry: ~125,000 IDR including the mandatory local guide
Sekumpul is not one waterfall, it is a cluster of them dropping into the same valley, and the walk down is a genuine 40-minute descent with river crossings. That is the filter. Most tour groups look at the stairs, take the viewpoint photo, and leave.
Go down. The base of the main fall is loud enough that you stop talking, and by 8am you may have it to yourself.
Honest note: the climb back up is brutal in humidity. If you have knee problems, this one is a viewpoint visit, not a descent.
2. Banyumala Twin Waterfall — the swimming one
Where: Wanagiri, near Lake Buyan · From Canggu: 2h15m · Entry: ~40,000 IDR
Two parallel falls landing in a shallow, clear pool you can actually swim in — which is rarer in Bali than you would expect, because most falls land in a churning plunge pool that will happily hold you under.
The descent is fifteen minutes on a proper path. Pair it with Sekumpul: they are 40 minutes apart, and doing both in one north-Bali run is the single best waterfall day on the island.
3. Tukad Cepung — the light beam, and the truth about it
Where: Bangli · From Ubud: 50m · Entry: ~25,000 IDR
This is the cave waterfall you have seen on Instagram, with a shaft of light hitting the water. The light beam is real. It is also only there between roughly 10am and noon, only in dry season, and only when the sky is clear.
Arrive at 9:30 and you get the beam plus a manageable crowd. Arrive at 11 and you get forty people queuing on a rock for a turn under it.
Wet season warning: the approach is a walk up the riverbed. After heavy rain it closes, and when it does not close it should have.
4. Nungnung — the loudest one
Where: Petang, central Bali · From Canggu: 1h20m · Entry: ~20,000 IDR
A 50-metre single drop with a volume of water that generates its own weather. You will be soaked at the base whether or not you go in.
The price is 500-odd concrete steps down and the same back up. It is the closest serious waterfall to Canggu, which makes it the best half-day option when you do not have a full day to give north Bali.
5. Tibumana — the easy one that still feels remote
Where: Bangli · From Ubud: 40m · Entry: ~25,000 IDR
A single curtain of water into a wide, calm pool, reached by a five-minute flat-ish walk. No stairs to speak of, no scramble, no guide.
This is the one I send people to on their first week, with kids, or when the group has mixed fitness levels. Get there before 9am and it is quiet and cinematic. By 11 it is a photo queue.
What a waterfall day actually costs
For two people doing the north Bali run (Sekumpul + Banyumala):
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Private driver, full day | 700,000–900,000 IDR |
| Entry fees, two people | ~330,000 IDR |
| Petrol if self-riding instead | ~60,000 IDR |
| Lunch, two people | ~150,000 IDR |
| Total with driver | ~1,200,000 IDR (≈ $73) |
Scooter halves it, but five hours of round-trip riding on mountain roads is a real day of work. If you have not ridden in Bali before, do not make north Bali your first long ride.
Practical kit
- Dry bag. Not a plastic bag. Spray at the base of Nungnung will find your phone.
- Shoes with grip. Sandals are how people leave Bali in a cast.
- Cash in small notes. Most entry booths do not take card, and nobody has change for a 100k.
- Leave by 6:30am. Every single one of these is a different place before 9am.
The part people plan last, and pay most for
Here is the pattern I see every week: someone plans the waterfall route down to the entry fee, then books a villa two months out at the rate the platform showed them on day one — and pays 40% more than the same villa went for the week they arrived.
Bali runs on last-minute inventory. Villas and hotels here would rather fill a room at a discount tonight than hold it empty, and the closer you get to the date, the softer the price gets. That is the whole reason we built Last Call Bali: we watch unsold nights across Canggu, Ubud, Uluwatu and the north, and surface the ones that just dropped.
A quiet week in Munduk near the north Bali falls has gone for under $30 a night on our feed. A pool villa in Ubud, twenty minutes from Tibumana and Tukad Cepung, regularly lands 35–50% under its listed rate inside the seven-day window.
Browse tonight's Bali deals → — and if you are reading this before your first booking, use code WATERFALL at checkout for an extra 10% off any stay of three nights or more.
Plan the waterfalls early. Book the bed late. That order saves you more than any other decision on this trip.
