Cycling Routes in Bali

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Bali has three distinct cycling experiences and they suit completely different people. The tourist standard is the downhill village tour — a van up to the Batur caldera rim at 1,500 metres and a long, mostly downhill roll back through villages and rice terraces. The second is flat, family-friendly riding on Sanur's traffic-free promenade and the lanes around Ubud. The third, largely invisible to visitors, is a serious road-cycling scene that climbs the volcanoes at dawn before the traffic starts.

The Kintamani downhill

The most popular organised ride on the island: transfer from Ubud or the south to the Batur caldera rim, breakfast with the volcano view, then twenty-five to forty kilometres of predominantly downhill riding on back roads through Bangli and the villages north of Ubud. Good operators stop at a family compound, a school, a coffee smallholding and a temple, and the guiding is what separates a good tour from a coasting exercise. Expect 500,000–900,000 rupiah including bike, helmet, transfer, guide and lunch, and about four to five hours.

Riding around Ubud

The lanes north and west of Ubud — through Penestanan, Sayan, Kedewatan and up towards Payangan — are quiet, scenic and rolling rather than flat, and can be ridden independently on a hired hybrid for 50,000–100,000 rupiah a day. The Sari Organik track and the paths around Keliki are more mountain bike than road. Be realistic about the gradients: the river gorges either side of Ubud mean any loop involves a serious climb out, and the humidity makes a twenty-kilometre ride feel like forty.

Flat and family riding

Sanur's beachfront promenade is five kilometres of paved, traffic-free path along the sea and is the best family riding on Bali by a distance — bikes rent from stalls along it for 30,000–60,000 rupiah a day. Nusa Dua has a similar path within the resort enclave. The back lanes around Sanur and Ketewel are flat and quiet. On the Nusa islands, Lembongan is small and gentle enough to cycle end to end, though the hills on Ceningan are steeper than they look.

Serious road riding

There is a real road-cycling culture here, mostly Indonesian and expatriate riders leaving at five in the morning to be off the road before the traffic. The classic climbs are the ascent to Kintamani from the south, the road up to Bedugul and the lakes, and the long grind to Munduk. Several shops in Seminyak, Canggu and Sanur rent proper road and gravel bikes at 200,000–500,000 rupiah a day and run group rides. Ride at dawn, use lights, and treat every scooter as unpredictable, because it is.

Cycling Routes at a glance

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