Best hotels in Ubud, Bali: staying close to the palace gate

Searches for the best hotels in Ubud, Bali start with names, but for an evening at Ubud Palace the area decides more than the building does. We sell no rooms, so this page measures Ubud's stay areas against the palace gate and leaves the booking to you. Which hotel is best is a matter of taste and budget; the choice that matters for the palace is the area. The distances come from OpenStreetMap points and are straight lines, not routes.⁷

The ministry offers one framing. If your priority is the nature of Ubud, it suggests accommodation off the heart of town, among greenery and the sounds of nature, while for staying close to the action it says there are numerous choices in the city center.³ Everything else on this page is a variation on that choice.

The palace sits in the middle of the center option. The tourist information point is 55 m from its gate and Pura Desa Ubud 94 m.⁷ From a room in that core you reach the show on foot in minutes; from the green edges you ride.

Hotels near Ubud Palace fall into distinct groups by side of town. The central lanes put the tourist information point, Pura Desa Ubud, Taman Saraswati, Museum Puri Lukisan and Pura Dalem Ubud between 55 m and 515 m from the gate.⁷ The Ubud Art Market is at Jl. Raya Ubud No. 35, a morning stroll the ministry recommends.¹³ Choose this core if you want to walk to the show and back, and accept that central streets are the busy ones. Expect shops, cafes and traffic by day, and quieter side lanes once the market closes.

The Campuhan side begins at the Campuhan Ridge Walk, 910 m from the palace.⁷ The ministry says the ridge takes about 15 to 20 minutes to the peak with no eateries on the way.⁹ It suits walkers who like green views at breakfast and don't mind a longer stroll or a short ride to the courtyard.

The Monkey Forest side lies 1.4 km from the palace at its main entrance, and the forest holds Pura Dalem Agung Padangtegal.^7,10 The Peliatan side centers on Puri Agung Peliatan, also 1.4 km away, a royal house that often stages Legong and gamelan of its own.^11,7 On both sides plan a ride at night.

Australia's Smartraveller advises a high degree of caution in Indonesia overall due to security risks.⁵ It says petty and violent crime occurs and advises being alert in taxis and rideshares, public transport, crowds, bars and nightclubs.⁶

The UK government says bag-snatching is often reported in Bali and advises concealing your bag and carrying only essential items.²⁰ It also says reported cases of rape and sexual assault are high in Bali and Lombok, and urges care when out at night.⁸

None of this is specific to Ubud, and an evening at the palace follows ordinary travel sense: carry little, keep your phone away from the roadside, stay with your group and watch your drink. Smartraveller lists local emergency numbers: fire services 113 and ambulance and rescue services 118.¹⁹

For a first evening in Ubud, centrality wins. A room in the lanes near the palace turns the show into a stroll, leaves the mornings for museums and avoids a late ride home. Art stops named by the ministry, among them the Neka Art Museum, ARMA, Museum Rudana and the Blanco Renaissance Museum, fill a daytime easily.¹⁸

For a nature-first stay, take the ministry's advice and look off the heart of town, then budget for a ride to the palace each evening.³ Compare two things before booking: the distance to the gate and the final stretch of road, which a map cannot show you. A quiet room that needs a long ride after every show is a different purchase from a lively one next door to the gate.

For families or anyone with limited mobility, note that the show ticket is wheelchair and stroller accessible and charges children and adults the same rate, and that Ubud's hills favor a room on the central stretch.²