Activities · Ubud
The Sacred Monkey Forest of Ubud
Seven hundred macaques who own a temple complex in the middle of town: the rules that keep the visit funny instead of bloody, and why the forest is worth seeing even if the monkeys were not there.
The Monkey Forest is the one sight in Ubud you can walk to from almost any hotel in town: a ravine of old-growth forest and moss-eaten temples run as a sanctuary by the village of Padangtegal, with hundreds of long-tailed macaques living wild inside it. The monkeys are the draw. The forest and its temples are the reason to stay an hour longer than planned.
The rules that matter
Every incident in the forest follows the same script, so the avoidance list is short and worth taking literally. Do not bring food in, at all, anywhere on you; a zipped bag is not a hiding place, it is a puzzle. Do not touch, feed or beckon the monkeys, and do not smile at them with teeth showing, which reads as a threat. Hold nothing loose: glasses, phones, bottles and dangling straps are inventory. If a monkey climbs on you, stand still and bored until it leaves; staff with slingshots patrol and intervene. The macaques are habituated, not tame, and the mothers with infants deserve the widest berth.
The temples
The sanctuary is also a working temple site, with the village's temple of the dead inside it, and the carved dragons and guardian statues under the banyan roots are some of the best temple sculpture casually available on the island. The inner courtyards open for worship rather than tourism; the forest paths and bridges are yours.
When to go
Mornings beat afternoons on both counts that matter: cooler air under the canopy and fewer people between the monkeys and their patience. An hour covers the loops without hurrying. The forest sits inside Ubud town, so it slots into any itinerary that passes through, and the rice-terrace walks start a short ride away.