Gunung Kawi Tampaksiring — Attraction in Bali

The ancient rock-cut shrines at Gunung Kawi are undoubtedly impressive and beautiful. However, the overall experience of visiting this temple is designed to be exhausting and unpleasant, making it feel more like a tourist money-extraction scheme than a cultural site.

The harassment begins even before you enter. In the parking lot, aggressive vendors immediately accost you, trying to sell you sarongs and outright lying by claiming you cannot enter without buying one from them. This sets a confrontational tone from the very start. It became difficult to maintain a polite demeanor, and it took several firm refusals before they finally understood they couldn't get any money from us.

Once inside, the entrance fee is 75,000 IDR per person (which, importantly, does include the required sarong). The real challenge begins immediately after. To reach the carvings, you must descend a relentless 300 steps. The climb back up is, as you can imagine, strenuous and sweaty, especially in the Bali heat.

But the physical effort isn't the worst part. The entire staircase descent and ascent is a gauntlet of even more vendors. They are positioned on both sides of the steps, and you are constantly assailed with calls and sales pitches. There is no moment of peace to enjoy the surrounding valley or mentally prepare to see the ancient site. This constant harassment makes the journey deeply unpleasant and stressful.

While the stone sculptures at the bottom are beautiful and historically significant, the site itself is quite small. The combination of the high entry fee, the exhausting staircase, and the relentless commercial pressure—both inside and outside the temple grounds—completely overshadows the cultural value.

In short, the beautiful carvings are not worth the hassle. The management of this site seems to tolerate an environment solely focused on scamming and pressuring tourists at every turn. I do not recommend it unless you have a very high tolerance for this kind of aggressive and...

A beautiful temple which rewards the curious traveller with stunning architecture and lots to contemplate. The effort and dedication it must have taken to build such a monumental temple would have been grand in scale. There are many excellent photo vantage points that don't require breaking polite requests not to scale certain monuments. And refreshingly, there was perhaps only 10 other people here, spread over sprawling complex. We felt we had the place to ourselves. Another temple famous for its bathes up the road was not so quiet.

There is a lot of steps to traverse on your descent into the ravine. Not to mention a lot of stalls, eager for you to buy anything from sarongs and intricate carvings to cold coconuts and refreshments: both before and after you pass the ticket booth. Sarongs are provided with the purchase of your ticket! Do not be conned into buying one for this purpose! Unless of course if you desire to support the local people❤️

Perhaps do your research before arriving as there is no provision of information on the history of the temples. A small amount of time doing so will absolutely transform your understanding of what you're looking at (and what you're supposed to do!!) There are toilets inside the gate and a cafe and restaurant with magnificent views over steep rice fields, irrigation channels and the rainforest. Unexpectedly, there is also a zipline park for the adrenaline junkie which looked fun. This was my favourite temple (so...

Gunung Kawi Temple is a magnificent temple built in the 11th century as a worship place and funerary complex for the Royal family of the Udayana dynasty. One of Bali's largest ancient temple complexes, Gunung Kawi Temple lies at the bottom of a lush river valley running through the little town of Tampaksiring just northeast of Ubud. ⁣ ⁣ Comprising a collection of ancient 'Candi' or shrine reliefs carved directly into the face of a rock cliff, this is definitely one of the most stunningly unique archeological sites besides being an important sacred place for the Balinese.⁣ ⁣ Overlooking the sacred Pakerisan River, which also flows by the Tirta Empul sacred Water Temple a kilometer up north, the main complex consists of 10 rock-cut candi (shrines). They stand in 7-metre-high (23 ft) sheltered niches carved into the cliff face. It’s believed each of the candi (shrines) were dedicated to different members of the ancient Balinese royal family, starting with King Udayana and his wives and sons.⁣ ⁣ Once was abandoned and only rediscovered in the 1920s by a Dutch researcher, Gunung Kawi is a neat glimpse into ancient Indonesian civilization, and the river and jungle add to an overall atmosphere that’s...