Trekking With Kids in Bali: Routes That Actually Work

I take families out more often than solo walkers, and the pattern is the same every time: the parents have read about a sunrise climb, the child is six, and nobody has discussed how far a six-year-old walks before breakfast. Children are brilliant on these trails when the route is chosen for them, and miserable when it is chosen for the photograph. Here is what works.

Routes I will actually book

1. Coffee and rice terrace loop near Ubud. Three kilometres, ninety minutes of walking, mostly flat, and it passes a working plantation where the kids can see beans in a hull. Best first outing for ages four and up. No entry fee, but bring 20,000 rupiah for the warung at the halfway point.
2. Gunung Kawi temple steps. Not a mountain walk, but two hundred stone steps down into a valley and a set of shrines cut into the rock. Forty-five minutes each way with a rest. Ages six and up, and the walk back up is where you find out who has been training.
3. Mount Batur lower rim, non-summit. The classic climb to the crater gate and the first fumaroles, done as a morning walk instead of a sunrise dash. Two hours up from Serongga with a child who is used to walking, back before lunch, entry 150,000 rupiah. Ages eight and up, and only in dry weather.
4. Munduk waterfall loop. Forty minutes of forest track, two falls, a shallow pool for a paddle and a coffee for the grown-ups at the end. Ages five and up. The path is rooty rather than steep, which suits short legs better than the stone steps at Sekumpul.
5. Jatiluwih lower terraces. One hour of level walking along the subak channels with the rice at your knee. Entrance 50,000 rupiah. Ages four and up, and the only route on this list where nobody has ever asked me how much longer.
6. Sekumpul steps, upper platform only. Twenty minutes down and twenty minutes up from the parking area, with the fall in view the whole way. No swimming, no scrambling, and ages six and up. Go before 08:00, because by ten the steps are a line of people waiting for one photograph.

The three mistakes I see most

Booking the sunrise climb. A 01:30 alarm is a novelty for about ten minutes and then it is a grumpy hour in the dark with a torch. Do the Batur rim in daylight instead, or save the volcano for a trip without children.

Packing for adults. Children need a change of shirt, a hat that stays on and more water than feels sensible. I carry a spare pair of socks for every child on the list because wet feet end a walk faster than tired legs.

Treating the guide as a driver. Tell them the ages before the day, not at the gate. A good guide adjusts the pace, finds the interesting beetle, and knows which path has the rope to pull yourself up on. Ours are used to it and they charge the same 550,000 rupiah for the day as they do for a silent adult group.

Timing, food and quitting well

Start at 07:00 and be back at the car by 10:30. That beats the heat, leaves the afternoon free and means you are walking on a full stomach rather than on one banana. Snacks matter more than lunch: carry something salty and something sweet, and eat them before anyone says they are hungry. A thermos of warm water beats a shop stop, because every stop costs ten minutes of walking pace.

Walk until the child asks to stop, then stop. Turning around half a kilometre early costs you nothing and buys you a family that will do it again. The route that finishes with everyone still talking to each other is the one that worked.

If it rains, do not push on to see the waterfall at the end. The forest track turns slick in ten minutes, the steps at Gunung Kawi become a stream, and a wet six-year-old carried down the last section is a memory nobody wanted. Turn around, get into the car, and do the coffee. The rain usually stops by ten, and there is always tomorrow.