The best waterfalls in Indonesia

Sekumpul Waterfall is considered the largest and most spectacular waterfall in Bali.

It is not a single waterfall, but a group of 7 cascades flowing down together from a high cliff The main waterfall is about 80 meters high It is surrounded by untouched jungle, making the visual impact much more dramatic than a single waterfall Located in northern Bali (Buleleng), a relatively remote and less developed area

It is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful, most spectacular, and most worthwhile waterfalls in Bali.

On the way back from Ubud to Seminyak, our driver suddenly asked, “Have you seen any waterfalls? I know a place—it’s on the way!”

I was wondering how “on the way” it could really be, but when I checked Google Maps, it was clearly quite a detour. Still, when we arrived, I realized that this place called Tegenungan Waterfall was an absolute hidden gem.

I didn’t see a single Chinese tourist there—just lots of foreigners. It really felt like a lesser-known spot.

Tumpak Sewu Waterfall - What to Know Before You Go Go in the morning. Afternoon visits mean shooting straight into backlit sun, and by then the crowds have built up too. Morning gets you clearer photos and a quieter trail.

Get a local guide if you can. Ours turned out to be the best part of the whole visit — he sent us more than 200 photos and videos by the end, brought us fruit to try along the way, and organized everyone into an orderly line at each photo spot so nobody missed a shot.

At the entrance there are stalls renting river shoes, around $1.40 USD a pair, with plenty of styles to choose from. There's also a paid toilet, about $0.35 USD, and a paid shower for roughly $0.30 USD — though the shower is combined with the toilet in one very small space. We ended up skipping it and just leaving wet.

We were based near Seminyak and Kuta, which meant the dolphin tour out of Lovina was already a stretch, up at three or four in the morning, boat out at dawn, back on shore and fed breakfast by 9:30. Driving all the way back south afterward felt like a waste of a six-hour round trip for half a day of activity, so we did a quick search for anything nearby and found Aling Aling Waterfall, about half an hour from the same pier. That last-minute decision turned into one of the best half-days of the whole Bali trip.

Don't Come to Lovina Just for the Dolphins

If you're already making the trip north, it's worth building in an extra half day. The dolphin tours out of Lovina are genuinely short, boats leave at an ungodly hour and you're done with breakfast before most people are awake, so you're left with a full afternoon and nothing planned unless you go looking for it. Aling Aling filled that gap perfectly, and it's close enough that it barely counts as a detour.

You can skip the Tegalalang rice terraces in Ubud. Nobody will judge you. But skip Kanto Lampo and you'll be doing yourself a disservice, because this is the waterfall that keeps showing up on everyone's Bali feed for a reason.

I went in expecting a nice photo op and a quick dip. What I got was a two-hour queue, a phone that stopped working for half an hour, a power bank that never worked again, and honestly, one of the best five minutes of my whole trip. That's Kanto Lampo in a nutshell. It's stunning. It's also a bit of a mess, in the best possible way.

Here's everything I wish someone had told me before I went.

Most people build their Bali itinerary around Ubud and the south coast, and then maybe squeeze in a day trip north if there's time. If you're one of those people, let me make the case for actually setting aside a proper day for it, because Banyumala is the kind of waterfall that makes the drive worth it on its own.

I built a few days into my Bali trip specifically for the north, passing through the Munduk area, which is loaded with waterfalls if you know where to look. Banyumala was the one I picked, and it turned out to be one of the most pleasant waterfalls I saw on the whole island.

Here's what it's actually like to visit.

We were actually headed to Tukad Cepung near Ubud. Our homestay host talked us out of it and pointed us toward Sekumpul instead, on the way to Lovina to chase dolphins anyway, and it turned into the best detour of the whole trip.

Sekumpul isn't one waterfall. It's a cluster of around seven, tucked into a jungle valley in North Bali, with a main drop that most sources put around 80 metres, though a few claim closer to 100. Compared to the crowded falls further south, this one still feels like it belongs to the jungle rather than to Instagram.

Getting There Is Simple, Getting the Ticket Isn't

There's one photo that gets recycled across every "Bali waterfalls" post you'll ever see. A single shaft of light dropping through a cave, water falling through the middle of it. That's Tukad Cepung. I'd looked at that photo for probably two years before I actually went, and the place is smaller than it looks. Weirder too, in a good way.

We booked a driver for 9am. Left Ubud at nine, arrived close to eleven. Traffic wasn't even bad, the roads out that way are just narrow and slow no matter what time you go, so don't trust the "20 minutes" some blogs quote based on straight-line distance.

Tukad Cepung is technically in Tembuku, in the Bangli Regency, which is why it doesn't really count as an Ubud waterfall even though everyone markets it that way.