Pura Besakih, the Mother Temple

Foreign adults pay IDR 150,000 and Indonesian visitors IDR 80,000, a price in force since 1 April 2024. Included are a guide from the village, a sarong and sash, the electric shuttle up to the temples and use of the toilets. That is well up on 2023, when the temple and shuttle cost IDR 90,000 combined. You pay separately for parking and for the IDR 20,000 ride back down.

Visitors can enter daily from 7 am to 6 pm; worshippers may come at any hour. Some listings give an 8 am start, so do not expect to get in earlier than 7. Nobody, worshipper or visitor, may enter on Nyepi (next on 8 March 2027), and visitor areas shrink during Bhatara Turun Kabeh, the three-week festival that follows the tenth full moon.

Yes, but it costs nothing extra. Your ticket includes a local guide allocated at the office, and the rules require visitors to stay with that guide inside the sacred area. Tipping is optional. If someone on the approach road or in a private car park offers to guide you, they are not part of the official system, so decline and carry on to the ticket office.

The notorious one, unofficial guides and inflated donation books, is much rarer since the ticket office opened in 2023. A few tricks remain: people near the office saying the temple is closed and offering a back way in, sellers claiming an offering is compulsory, paid mirror photos and guides who steer you into shops. Pay only at the office and say no politely.

Yes, into the complex, its outer courtyards and the stairways linking the temples, as long as you wear the sarong provided and stay with your guide. The inner courtyard of Pura Penataran Agung is reserved for Hindu worshippers, so others view it from its gateways. During major ceremonies the areas open to visitors become smaller still.

On a clear morning, and with an interest in Balinese religion, yes. For the Balinese no temple ranks higher, and the volcano looming above the meru is a striking sight in itself. It is less rewarding in heavy cloud, if you expect to walk among the inner shrines, or as a 20-minute photo stop at the end of a two-hour drive.

Cover your shoulders and knees. The ticket includes a sarong and sash, which you hand back at the end, so there is no need to buy one in the car park. Wear shoes that grip on steep stone stairs, and bring a light jacket, because rain and cool winds arrive quickly at 1,000 metres on the mountain.

Each year it starts on the full moon of the tenth Balinese month and continues for about 21 days. The 2026 festival lasted from 2 to 23 April, and the 2027 one should begin in late March. Worshippers arrive from across Bali, each regency on its allotted days, shuttles serve them first and visitor access is limited, so plan around it unless the ceremony is your aim.

The 44 km drive passes through Gianyar and Klungkung and takes 1.25 to 1.75 hours. Sidemen and Kintamani are each 30 to 45 minutes away, while Seminyak and Canggu are 2 to 3 hours. Because the morning is the best time to arrive, many visitors spend the night before in Sidemen and drive up at first light.

Hardly at all. Agung erupted in 1963 while the temple was holding Eka Dasa Rudra, a ritual meant to take place once a century, and more than 1,100 people died, with some estimates nearer 1,700. Lava flows stopped just metres from the temples, which Balinese understood as a message from the gods. The interrupted ceremony was finally completed in 1979.

It is possible, but only with a licensed local guide, a requirement since January 2025. The Besakih route is the one that reaches the true summit, taking roughly 10 to 14 hours there and back and usually starting around midnight. Climbs are suspended in bad weather and during major ceremonies at the mountain's temples, so confirm with your guide before committing.