RTW Trip Day #67: The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, Ubud

andrewsco3
1 day ago
2 min read

Updated: 15 minutes ago

4 December 2025

Steps: 10,838

The family in front of the huge tree roots

Today we spent the morning relaxing by the pool at the hotel, before heading into Ubud for an afternoon at the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary to see the Balinese long tailed macaques, followed by dinner in town.

A Relaxing Morning by the Pool

After a full day of travel yesterday, we promised the girls some pool time in the morning, and it was a lot of fun.

The hotel has a few different pools, but we loved the crescent shaped infinity pool, and the water temperature was perfect since the weather was really hot.

The Ubud Monkey Forest

We caught the 3pm shuttle into Ubud and spent a few hours walking around the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary.

After some of the other experiences we have had with monkeys on this trip, seeing people being attacked at the Batu Caves and Nana and Evelyn being hissed at by one in Koh Lanta, we were a little nervous, but the kids were keen to see them and it always comes up on the best things to do lists, so we gave it a go.

We bought our tickets at the cashless booth and used a QR code to enter. It costs 100k IDR for adults and 80k for kids on weekdays, though the price goes up by 20k each on weekends which seemed a little odd!

It didn’t take long before we saw the first group of monkeys right beside the path as we entered the park. The monkeys here seem to be a lot more friendly and generally uninterested in the humans. It didn’t feel intimidating at all.

There were lots of baby monkeys and it was interesting to watch the mums comb through their fur while the little ones tried to climb up onto their heads. Cheeky monkeys indeed.

There are also some lovely temples and moss covered bridges with old stone carvings. Our favourite part of the Ubud monkey forest was the dragon bridge section, as there were some huge trees with massive vines dangling down. It reminded me a little of some of the trees we saw at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

A lovely photo of my parents in front of the roots

Afterwards we headed back to the entrance and Pops bought the girls some fish food so they could feed the koi fish, which they enjoyed!

Cafe Wayan

For dinner we found a lovely restaurant called Cafe Wayan where the tables are set throughout the gardens, with a mix of regular tables and traditional mats. The setting is beautiful and it almost felt like walking through a temple grounds!

I ordered the beef rendang and it was incredible - easily one of the best meals I’ve had on this trip! They also run cooking classes so I might look into joining one to see if I can learn how to make that rendang myself!