2 Days in Uluwatu Itinerary

Temple entry is 50,000 IDR (~$3.20), the Kecak fire dance is a separate 150,000 IDR (~$10) ticket bought at the gate — book the early show if you can, the later one sells out. Sarongs are handed out free at entry, no need to bring your own. Watch your belongings on the clifftop path, a monkey took my partner's water bottle right out of her hand.

Picked our own fish and prawns off the ice display, priced by weight — ended up around 280,000 IDR (~$18) per kg for the prawns, which felt a little steep once the bill came, but eating with your feet in the sand and candlelight along the shore was worth the splurge for an anniversary dinner. Ask the price before they grill it, some tables get quoted differently.

A genuine splurge — about 14,500,000 IDR (~$950) a night — but for an anniversary weekend at Bali's most photographed clifftop resort, it delivered: a private plunge pool built into the limestone, an infinity-edge main pool that disappears into the ocean, and staff who remembered our names by the second morning. Breakfast alone justified a chunk of the price. Wifi dropped a couple of times in the evening — a minor annoyance given what we paid. Book a clifftop ocean-view room specifically; the garden-view rooms don't get the same outlook and it's a meaningful difference at this price.

15,000 IDR (~$1) entry down a narrow stone staircase through the cliff. Gorgeous turquoise water and genuinely clean sand in the morning, but by 11am it was shoulder-to-shoulder and the tiny cove felt overrun. Go right at opening if you want the postcard version rather than the crowded one.

Free to walk the beach; the beach clubs charge a minimum spend of around 250,000 IDR (~$16) per person for a lounger, which basically covers two cocktails anyway so it doesn't feel like a rip-off. Sand had some washed-up debris by mid-afternoon at high tide, cleaned again by the next morning.

Free, no entry fee, and far less crowded than Seminyak or Canggu's main strip a few minutes away. The little temple perched on the black rock outcrop with waves breaking around it at sunset was honestly the most romantic moment of the whole trip — better than the paid sunset spots we'd planned around. Rock can be slippery, watch your footing near the temple base.