Heart of Bali 5D4N

Day 1: Arrival at Bali International Airport and transfer to your hotel in Ubud.

Day 2: At 8.00am, get on a VW 181, a convertible jeep, for an exhilarating guided central Bali tour, exploring the region’s best sites and hidden corners. Begin with a visit to Pura Gunung Kawi. Set amid lush rice terraces in the village of Tampaksiring, the 11th century temple can only be accessed by a series of stair cases. The effort is worth it, arriving at the top to admire a series of ten shrines carved directly into a cliff face. See elements of Hindu and Buddhist architecture, learning from the guide about the significance of the temple and its carvings. Continue to nearby Pura Tirta Empul, a popular water temple for local devotees. Discover why water is such an important element in Balinese Hindu culture, hearing how it is used as holy medium at special ceremonies. Then take a soak in Tirta Empul’s cool spring water, with the water pouring from the numerous fountains that fill the pools. Return to the convertibles and take another scenic drive to the slopes of Gunung Batur. Enjoy the views as the car winds its way up to the edge of the volcano’s 12 km wide caldera. After snapping photos here, continue to a nearby restaurant for lunch that also offers sweeping views of Batur and its turquoise lake. Following lunch, drive on more scenic roads, pausing to take photos or to chat with the friendly locals. A special stop will be made in Penglipuran, a traditional countryside village well known for its typical Balinese entrance gates and unique architectural traditions. Then it’s on to Tegalalang Village for a leisurely one-hour trek through its verdant rice terraces. After a drink and a snack at a coffee plantation, return to the convertibles and cruise back to the hotel in time for sunset

Day 3: At 08.00am, depart for a full fay tour to the area of Tabanan - Marga Village, which is located. Marga is a Balinese village, offering green photographic scenes, which remains very traditional and rich in culture up-to-date. The tour incorporates a visit to the rice terraces, plantations and traditional style farming activities. Before the program starts, we will enjoy a fresh traditional welcome drink. We will begin the program with a soft trekking tour through a coffee plantation which leads to a spring water river and we will cross a bamboo bridge to the reach the field. We will have a farming activity, and we will be able to discover the traditional Balinese irrigation system (paddy planting & ploughing with cows). After a long day of new experiences and impressions, a refreshing coconut and a traditional Balinese lunch will be served for us. Back to the hotel in the afternoon.

Day 4: At 08.00am, we will first take a stroll through the lovely Bali Bird park at Singapadu, to enjoy hundreds of colourful tropical birds and a couple of Komodo Dragons (Varanus komodensis), in the beautiful botanical garden and Reptile Park. Then, we'll continue to Ubud to visit the excellent Neka Museum, containing a complete exhibition of Balinese painters representing the evolution of the styles, from the old to the modern. Finally, we'll have lunch at Puri Lukisan Restaurant that means "the temple of the painters".

Day 5: Transfer the airport according to your flight schedule.