Denpasar: the real Bali city most visitors skip

Bali Heritage & Street Food Tour in Denpasar Badung Market

The most-reviewed tour that actually takes place inside Denpasar. A local guide leads you through the stalls of Badung Market and the old trading streets next to it, stopping to taste the things the city eats every day and explaining what you are looking at.

• Guided walk through Badung Market, Bali’s biggest traditional market
• Tastings of Balinese dishes such as babi guling and jaje Bali sweets
• Heritage streets around the market with a local guide

Denpasar: Museum, Traditional Market and Food Tasting Tour

A half-day introduction to the old centre: the square where the 1906 puputan is commemorated, the Bali Museum’s palace-style pavilions and the market on the Badung River, with food stops between them. A good choice if you want history and food in one booking.

• Starts at Puputan Square in the city centre
• Visit to the Bali Museum and Kumbasari Market
• Local food tastings along the way

Bali: Denpasar City & Museum Highlight Tour with Ticket

A full-day sweep of Denpasar’s main sights with entrance tickets included. It is a newer listing with only a handful of reviews so far, but it is the one tour that links the old centre with Bajra Sandhi in a single day.

• Bali Museum, Pura Jagatnatha and Puputan Square
• The Bajra Sandhi monument in Renon
• Entrance tickets included

Sanur Village E-bike Tour

A gentle, family-friendly ride that shows the Sanur behind the beach hotels: village lanes, a neighbourhood market, a temple and the remaining rice fields. Flat terrain and electric assistance make it suitable for almost anyone.

• Easy electric-assist ride through Sanur’s back lanes
• Local market, a temple and rice fields
• Reviewers mention a turtle sanctuary stop by the beach

Sanur: Balinese Cooking Class with Optional Market Tour

Learn the spice pastes behind Balinese cooking and make a handful of classic dishes, then sit down to eat them. The optional market visit is worth adding: it explains the ingredients you will see all over Denpasar’s markets.

• Hands-on class with a local chef
• Optional visit to a local market first
• Eat what you cook; pickup within the Sanur area

Ngurah Rai Bali Airport Private Transfer

The simplest way to deal with arrival: a pre-booked car from Bali’s airport — which is in Tuban, south of Kuta, not in Denpasar itself — to your hotel in the city, Sanur or elsewhere on the island. Works in the other direction too.

• Driver meets you in the arrivals area with a name sign
• Priced per vehicle, to or from your hotel
• More than 2,000 reviews

Bali: Private Ubud Highlights Tour with Customized Itinerary

Ubud is about an hour north of Denpasar, and this very highly rated private tour is the easiest way to do it as a day trip: you pick the stops, the driver handles the roads and the parking.

• Private car and driver for the day
• Build the day around Ubud’s rice terraces, temples and waterfalls
• Itinerary adapted to your interests

Bali/Nusa Penida: East & West Highlights Full-Day Tour

One of the best-selling tours in all of Bali, and it leaves from Denpasar’s own harbour at Sanur. A fast boat crosses to Nusa Penida, where a driver takes you round the famous clifftop viewpoints. A long day with rough roads — but the views are the real thing.

• Kelingking, Broken Beach and Angel’s Billabong in the west
• Diamond Beach in the east, depending on the option
• Fast boat from Sanur and a driver on the island

Bali: Sunrise Mount Batur Guided Hike with Breakfast

Bali’s most-reviewed activity. Pickup is in the small hours, the climb takes about two hours and you are back down by mid-morning. Check which hotel areas the transfer option covers when you book.

• Pre-dawn climb of the volcano above Kintamani
• Sunrise over Lake Batur and Mount Agung
• Local guide and breakfast included

Badung Market & Kumbasari

Bali’s biggest traditional market, on both banks of the river

Pasar Badung is where Denpasar shops: four floors of fruit, spices, offerings, meat, fish and ceremonial goods on the east bank of the Badung River, with the Kumbasari art market facing it across the water. It trades around the clock and is at its liveliest at dawn and again after dark.

Puputan Badung Square

The green heart of the city, and the place it remembers 1906

A big, shady lawn in the middle of Denpasar where the court of Badung walked out to meet Dutch guns on 20 September 1906 in a ritual fight to the death — the puputan. Today families fly kites and eat snacks under the monument, with the Bali Museum and Pura Jagatnatha along its eastern side.

Bali Museum

Palace-and-temple architecture with the island’s story inside

Bali’s oldest museum, opened in 1932 beside Puputan Square. Its pavilions are built in the palace styles of different Balinese kingdoms around gateways and courtyards, and hold prehistoric finds, ritual objects, masks, textiles and dance costumes. The architecture is as much the attraction as the collection.

Bajra Sandhi Monument

The monument to the struggle of the Balinese people, in Renon

A huge stone monument shaped like a priest’s bell, standing in the middle of Renon’s Niti Mandala park. Inside, dioramas tell the story of Bali from prehistory to independence, and a spiral stair climbs to a gallery with views over the city. The lawns around it are Denpasar’s favourite jogging ground.

Sanur Beach

Denpasar’s seaside: sunrise, a long beach path and the boats to the islands

Sanur is the city’s own beach district and Bali’s original resort. A reef keeps the lagoon calm, a paved path runs for kilometres along the shore past jukung boats and beach cafés, and the sun rises out of the sea beside Nusa Penida. The harbour at its northern end is where fast boats leave for Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida.

Serangan Island

Turtles, a sea temple and a harbour south of Sanur

Serangan — “Turtle Island” — is joined to Denpasar by a causeway. It is home to the Turtle Conservation and Education Centre, where injured turtles are cared for and hatchlings are raised for release, and to Pura Sakenan, an important sea temple that draws thousands of worshippers at Kuningan.