North Bali Waterfall Treks Worth the Drive

The north of the island keeps its water in the forest, which means the best walks here are the ones that end somewhere loud and wet. I drive up from Canggu most months, and over three years I have stopped counting the waterfalls that turned out to be a car park with a railing. These are the seven I still go back to, with the walking part written honestly, because the road is only half the story.

What the drive is actually like

From the south the crossing takes two and a half hours to Munduk and more like three and a half to Sekumpul, most of it on a road that switches between village speed bumps and blind corners. Leave at 05:30 if you want the forest to yourself by eight. Fuel up before Bedugul: the stations thin out above the lake, and the warungs near the falls take cash only.

It is also a motorbike road first. Trucks take the corners wide, the surface changes twice, and the map lies about arrival times in a way that no other part of the island manages. I budget three and a half hours from the south to Sekumpul with one stop, and I have never once wished I had left later.

1. Sekumpul. The one everybody has seen in photographs, and it earns it. The walk from the upper parking area is twenty minutes down stone steps to the viewing platform, then a further ten to the pool. Entrance is 50,000 rupiah, and the steps down are the hard part, not the steps up. Go on a weekday morning; the pool holds forty people comfortably before it stops being a swim.
2. Gitgit. Easiest of the seven: fifteen minutes from the main road, a proper path, a fee of 20,000 rupiah and a shallow pool at the base. Good for a first north-Bali walk or a wet afternoon when you do not want to commit to an hour of forest.
3. Munduk. Two waterfalls on one loop, about 40 minutes of walking with a short steep section between them. The coffee plantation at the start sells bananas for the walk back, and the view over the twin lakes from the ridge above the second fall is better than either fall on its own.
4. Lauk. Forty-five minutes of walking from the village, mostly through clove and cacao, and almost always empty because there is no sign at the turn-off. Ask at the warung where the path starts; the answer is usually a hand gesture and a dog that walks ahead of you.
5. Banyumala. A twin fall on the Munduk side with a wide pool you can stand under. Twenty-five minutes down, and the entry is 30,000 rupiah. The path is cut into the bank, so keep your pack on your front when you pass someone coming the other way.
6. Aling-Aling. The one where people jump. A short walk from the village, 30,000 rupiah entry, and three separate pools: the slide, the jump pool and the quiet one below. Life jackets are handed out at the gate, and I take one every time, because the water is deeper than it looks from the rock.
7. Belimbing. A longer day, around an hour of walking from the road, through rice terraces that are worked rather than staged. Entrance is 20,000 rupiah. Go in the dry season: after a week of rain the track becomes a stream and the reward at the end is the same water, only angrier.

How to choose on the day

Ask yourself two questions at breakfast. How much driving do I want, and do I want to swim? If the answer to the second is no, take Munduk or Lauk and turn it into a proper half-day with lunch. If it is yes, drive to Sekumpul early, accept the steps and give yourself the whole morning. Either way, check the rainfall for the last three days: a waterfall that is spectacular after rain is also a waterfall with the worst approach track on the island.

And carry cash down with you. Every one of these takes its entrance fee at a wooden hut, none of them take a card, and the nearest ATM is in Singaraja, which is forty minutes away from the best of them.