Located just 14km from Lovina in a tiny village called Ambengan, Aling Aling waterfall and its three neighbours are best explored as a day trip from North Bali mainly because you’re bound to spend hours and hours here adventuring and having fun! Read on to find out why …
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Contents
HOW TO GET TO ALING ALING WATERFALL
The waterfalls are located a short 25 min drive south of Lovina but if you’re coming from central or south Bali, it is quite a drive.
It’s about two hours from Ubud and about two and a half from Canggu. It’s doable as a day trip but if you were to come all this way, you’d want to explore other amazing places around so I highly recommend you stay up north that evening.
To get to the waterfalls, you can either rent yourself a scooter for around IDR 50k-60k a day or get a GoJek (slightly cheaper) or a Grab (both Indonesia’s scooter taxis) to take you there. The drive although windy at times is entirely on the main road so it’s well paved and without any major bumps which makes it pretty easy to DIY, but look out for the monkeys 😀
Alternatively, you can arrange this at the hotel you’re staying at but it’s likely to cost you a little bit more than if you sort it out yourself. A driver will usually charge you for a whole day and it’ll be up to you to negotiate on the price. You’re looking at at least IDR 250k for the day, excluding the waterfall entrance fees.
I personally hired a scooter for the day and drove to the waterfalls with a local friend. That way we managed to stop at quite a few other places and ended up having an adventure jam-packed day.
Once you get to the waterfalls, there is a designated parking lot where you can leave your wheels before setting off on your adventure. What’s really amazing is that the drive is worth it not only for the actual waterfalls but for the side of the road views as well. Just as we made the final turn to the waterfalls, amazing views over the rice paddies opened up so we immediately hit the breaks to snap a few shots.
ALING ALING WATERFALL ENTRANCE FEE
How much you pay will depend on what you want to do. You basically have two options, to either view the waterfalls only or do all that plus swim, jump and slide off the falls.
Just watching other people have fun would cost you IDR 20k.
But if you want to trek to all four waterfalls and actually go in, swim, jump and slide, the cost starts from DR 125k for the shortest trek and IDR 375k for the longest (prices as at Aug 2018).
I did the shortest trek with options to jump off three different heights and to me, that was perfectly sufficient.
Please be aware though that for the fun options you need a minimum of two people. That’s because in order to do any of the cool stuff, they ask you to go with a private guide and one guide is meant for a minimum of two people.
ALING ALING WATERFALL THE EXPERIENCE
Let me first make it clear that when I say Aling Aling waterfall I actually mean four different waterfalls which are scattered very close to each other so even though we all know about Aling Aling and that’s where you would trek to eventually, there are actually three other waterfalls you get to explore before getting to the famous Aling Aling waterfall.
What’s funny is that it’s the other three waterfalls where all the actual fun happens but more on that a bit later.
As soon as we parked our scooter, we headed to a little kiosk where a couple of friendly locals showed us the price list and explained that if we want to jump and slide off the waterfalls, we would need to get a private guide to come with us, supposedly for safety. We were too excited to go jump off the falls that we didn’t ask many questions, paid the entrance fee for the shortest trek, got ourselves a compulsory life vest and headed onto the trek to the first waterfall.
The trek to Kroya waterfall which is the first fall only took a few minutes. It was more of a walk as opposed to an actual trek so it was very easy and definitely suitable for people of all physical levels. When we got to the waterfall there were already a few people trying to gather their courage to jump off the 5m-high fall. We quickly took off everything we didn’t needed and lined up to make the first jump!
I gotta tell ya, IT WAS FUN! Being able to jump, let go and just let myself fly off the waterfall was liberating, slightly terrifying but ultimately a playful test for my adrenaline. After a few jumps, it was time for the next challenge, a slide down a smaller waterfall which was right in front of Kroya.
It’s crazy how much this waterfall was really like a proper slide, no bumpy bits or anything to actually make the slide uncomfortable or painful. I was positioning myself to slide down and I could feel my heart bouncing like crazy. I was excited. It was my first time sliding off a waterfall so the adrenaline was proper going to the roof 😀 I crossed my hands in front of my body and slid myself down the fall, screaming with excitement like a kid in a playground 😀 But how can you blame me, it was so much fun!
But the fun wasn’t over! There were still two more jumping spots, one at 10m at Kembar Waterfall and one at 15m at Pucuk Waterfall. Fearless people were jumping off the waterfalls, screaming as loud as they could and landing into the water splashing water all over the less courageous ones who were soaking in the fall pools. The place genuinely had a playground vibe to it which is why we easily spent hours here, just laughing, testing out our hearts 😀 and chatting away with the other jumpers.
After we eventually had enough adrenaline, we found our guide again and headed for a short trek to find the legendary Aling Aling waterfall. Just a few minutes walk from all the adventure fun, along a pretty clear path, there it was – strong, unreachable and completely mesmerising. We couldn’t go inside the waterfall even for a swim which made this the least fun when it comes to adventure but cuddled inside a beautiful canyon with rainforest surrounding it from all sides, Aling Aling waterfall truly deserves all its fame because it’s simply stunning!
WHERE TO STAY IN LOVINA
Lovina is one of my most favourite places in Bali. It’s quiet, authentic and the ratio of Indonesians to tourists is surprisingly in favour of the locals 😀
Angsoka Hotel (value) – regardless of whether you’re travelling solo, with a friend or family, this place is just perfect. This was the first place I stayed at in Bali and I just couldn’t believe how tropical, authentic and good it was for the money. The location is ideal, just a few minutes from the beach and main area, and the staff was super sweet and friendly. For some reason, this property is no longer listed on Booking.com but you can browse for other deals HERE.
Gede Homestay (budget) – located right on the beach, this is a very nice budget friendly option to base yourself out of whilst venturing in and around Lovina for a few days. Being a homestay, this place is run by a local family so it guarantees to give you a very personal local experience.
For more places to stay in Lovina you can check the latest prices here.
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