Updated September 2026
Bali swing
Two companies claim the name and they are on opposite sides of Ubud. Here is who is who, what each ticket actually covers, and why the cheaper gate is often the dearer day.
There is no such thing as the Bali swing. There are roughly a dozen of them around Ubud, separately owned, priced differently and scattered in three different directions out of town.
Two of them are fighting over the name. One holds the trademark and trades as the official one. The other is called Real Bali Swing and says it was first. They are forty minutes apart, in different regencies, and a ticket to one buys you nothing at the other.
That is why so many guides print an address that does not match the brand at the top of the same page. Start with the village name, not the trading name.
Who is who
Six businesses, one name between them, and no two in the same place. Pick one to see where it actually is and what its ticket covers.
Bali Swing
Holds the registered trademark and trades as the official one
Sidan, Gianyar regency, east of Ubud. About 30 minutes from the centre of Ubud. Open 9am to 5pm.
≈ $20 to $25 solo
Entry only. Roughly $38 as a couple, $65 for a family of four.
In the ticket
- Twelve named platforms rather than a field of identical ropes: flying and panoramic swings, a tandem, a bed swing, a spinning seat, three nests and a set of terraces built for photographs
- Access for as long as you want to stay, with no session slot
- Children from five upwards on the swings, under fives in free
Charged on top
- The dress, from around $14
- The photographer, from around $14 solo and more for a couple or a family, with drone shots priced per spot
- Transport, around $17 for a car of up to six
- Food, ordered from a menu rather than served as a buffet
Who holds the camera. A staff photographer, paid per party. Your own phone works on most platforms, but the shot that sells the place is taken from an angle you cannot reach without their camera.
What people get wrong. This is the business that owns the name, which is why it comes first on the search page. It is not the site most travel articles are describing when they write about the official Bali Swing, and it is not the one on the river gorge.
Price bands checked in September 2026 and quoted as ranges on purpose. Gate prices here move with the season and none of these businesses publishes a rate card that stays put.
Compare the parks before you commit
Free cancellationBali swing tickets and combined day trips
- ✓The listing names the village, which is the one detail that tells you which park you are actually buying
- ✓Transfers are usually bundled in, and the drive is the part of this day that goes wrong
- ✓Frequently packaged with the rice terraces, a waterfall or a temple on the same run
- ✓Photography and dress hire are almost always excluded, so read the inclusions rather than assuming
Affiliate link. Booking through GetYourGuide costs you nothing extra and supports the guide. Prices are indicative and vary by option and season.
What a ticket actually buys
The two big parks sell the same afternoon in opposite ways, and the gap only shows up once you add the things you were always going to want.
Sidan posts the lower number. Entry there is around twenty dollars on your own, and it buys the platforms and nothing else. The dress has a price. The photographer has a price, and a different one for a couple and for a family. The car from Ubud has a price. Lunch is ordered from a menu like any restaurant.
Bongkasa posts the higher number and then stops charging. The package runs thirty five to forty five dollars a head and the buffet lunch and the shuttle from Ubud are already in it. Only the photographer, and a dress if you want one, are still to come.
So the answer to which is cheaper depends entirely on what you intend to do when you get there, and it genuinely flips.
What it actually comes to
Set the party and tick what you want. The two parks price the same day in opposite ways, so the cheaper gate is not reliably the cheaper visit.
Bali Swing, Sidan
East of Ubud. Entry is cheap and everything else has a price.
- Entry
- ≈ $36 to $42
- Dress hire, 2 of you
- ≈ $26 to $34
- Operator photographer
- ≈ $19 to $23
- Car from Ubud
- ≈ $16 to $20
- Lunch, ordered from the menu
- ≈ $12 to $24
≈ $109 to $143
For the whole party.
Real Bali Swing, Bongkasa
South west of Ubud. One package, with lunch and the shuttle inside it.
- Package, 2 of you
- ≈ $70 to $90
- Dress hire
- Paid at the gate
- Operator photographer
- ≈ $11 to $14
- Shuttle from Ubud
- In the package
- Buffet lunch
- In the package
≈ $81 to $104
For the whole party, plus a dress fee settled at the gate.
Bongkasa wins this one. Once lunch and the drive are in the ticket, the dearer looking package costs less than the cheap gate plus its add ons. Figures are ranges checked in September 2026, converted from rupiah, and they move with the season.
The pattern is consistent. Travelling alone, wanting nothing but the ride and arriving under your own steam, Sidan is the cheaper day by a clear margin. Adding a dress each, a photographer and a car, the unbundled gate overtakes the package and keeps going. Families feel it hardest, because three of those four extras are charged per person.
The photograph is the product
Nobody queues for ninety seconds on a rope. They queue for the file afterwards, and the operator knows exactly what that file is worth.
Every park of any size employs its own photographers, sells the results by the set, and prices drone shots separately per platform. None of it is included in the entry fee at either of the big two. This is not a scam and it is not hidden, but it is consistently left out of the number people quote each other before they go.
Your own phone is welcome and does most of the job. Where it fails is the shot the whole business is built on: the wide frame looking back at the seat from beyond the drop, taken from a platform you cannot stand on. That angle is the thing being sold. Everything else you can get yourself.
Two practical consequences. Travelling with someone, one of you on the ground with a phone covers most of what you want and you can skip the package. Alone and there for the picture, buy the photographer rather than the extra swings, because a second ride adds nothing you will keep.
How safe is it, honestly
The gap between the big parks and the roadside platforms is wider here than anywhere else on this page.
At a proper park the sequence is the same every time. You buy at a desk, you sign a waiver, somebody runs through the rules, and a member of staff straps you in and does the pushing.
Weight limits are posted at each platform, commonly around two hundred and fifty kilos on a single or tandem swing, more on a bed swing and less on a tree nest. Children are generally taken from five upwards.
The restraint is not the same everywhere and it is worth knowing which you are getting. Some sites use a full harness worn under your clothes, which is why they ask you to arrive early enough to put it on. Others use a lap strap, which is quicker and holds you in the seat rather than to the rigging. Both are a great deal better than the third option.
The third option is the roadside swing: a plank, two ropes over a branch, a man to push you and no paperwork at all. Some are perfectly well built. You have no way of telling which, because there is nothing to inspect and nobody to ask.
Which one suits which traveller
Once the names are sorted out the choice is straightforward, because these places are genuinely different from each other.
| If you want | Go to | Because |
|---|---|---|
| The whole day handled, with lunch and a lift | Real Bali Swing, Bongkasa Pertiwi | One package covers the swings, the buffet and the shuttle from Ubud, so nothing else is negotiated on site. |
| The most platforms for the lowest entry | Bali Swing, Sidan | Twelve named installations and a cheap gate, as long as you genuinely skip the dress and the photographer. |
| The drop over a river gorge | Real Bali Swing, Bongkasa Pertiwi | The rigging hangs over the Ayung valley rather than over a field, which is a different sensation entirely. |
| Rice terraces in the frame | Aloha or the Tegallalang rim | Both sit in terrace country north of Ubud and pair with a terraces morning without any doubling back. |
| A swing for the price of a coffee | The Tegallalang rim swings | A few dollars a ride, the attendant shoots it on your phone, and you keep the file at no extra cost. |
| Quiet, and the volcano behind you | Zen Hideaway | It is a property rather than a park, so in practice you are booking a room to get the picture. |
| Lakes rather than jungle | Wanagiri Hidden Hills | Two hours north above Lake Buyan, and only sensible inside a day already heading that way. |
Getting there, and when to go
The drive is the part of this day that goes wrong, mostly because people pick the swing after they have booked the car.
From central Ubud, Bongkasa Pertiwi is about twenty five minutes south west and Sidan about thirty minutes east. Those are opposite headings, so a driver hired for one is no use for the other, and the two are the better part of an hour apart from each other. North towards Tegallalang is a third direction again, roughly twenty minutes.
Coming from Seminyak, Canggu or the airport rather than Ubud, add an hour and a half each way in traffic and treat the swing as the anchor of a full day rather than a stop. The Bongkasa shuttle only runs from Ubud, so from the south you are paying for a car regardless.
Timing matters less than at the terraces, because none of this is about light. It is about queues. The parks open between eight and nine and the first ninety minutes are the quiet ones. By late morning a popular platform can hold you up longer than the drive did. If you are combining the swing with anything else, do the swing first.
Bring cash. Card acceptance at the desks is patchy and every extra, from the dress to the photographer, is settled on the spot. Note too that Bali charges arriving visitors a tourist levy that has nothing to do with any of these gates and is paid once, on arrival.
The swings at the rice terraces
The cheapest swings on the island are the ones nobody markets, strung along the rim north of town.
Walk the rim at Tegallalang and you pass a run of swings, nests and photo frames, each a separate business with its own attendant. A few dollars gets you a ride, sometimes a costume, and the attendant shooting it on your own phone. You keep the file, which at the parks is the expensive part.
What you do not get is any of the rigging or the paperwork. These are the swings the safety section above is about. They are also entirely separate from the terrace entrance fee, which is one more payment in a place already known for asking several times.
As a plan this works well. Terraces at opening while the light is still low, a swing on the rim on the way back up, and you are finished before the parks have filled. It also leaves the rest of the day for the Monkey Forest or a temple, neither of which is in the same direction as either famous swing.
Bali swing questions
The ones that come up before booking, answered without the brochure language.
Which is the real Bali Swing?
How much does the Bali Swing cost?
Do you need to book Bali Swing tickets in advance?
Is the Bali Swing safe?
What should you wear to the Bali Swing?
Are the photographs included in the ticket?
How long do you need at a Bali swing park?
Can you do the Bali Swing and Tegallalang on the same day?
Is there a weight limit for the Bali Swing?
Is the Bali Swing worth it?
Where is the Bali Swing located?
Can you use your own phone for photos on the swing?
Read next
Tegallalang rice terrace
Every payment on the way down decoded, and the months the valley is actually green.
Ubud
What the town is worth, and how to spend two days there without wasting one.
Ubud Monkey Forest
Wild macaques, not an attraction, and the rules that follow from that.
Bali tourist levy
What arriving visitors pay, when, and what happens if you skip it.