Almost every day tour starts with the same conversation at pickup: someone has brought a suitcase of camera gear and forgotten a pair of shoes they can climb in. Here is the short version we send guests the night before.
What we ask guests to bring
Comfortable closed shoes — temple stairs are steep, wet and uneven, and flip-flops on the Tegallalang descent are how people twist ankles. A light layer for the highlands: Bedugul and Kintamani sit 1,200–1,500 metres up and are genuinely cold at 07.00, then warm by ten. Sunscreen, a hat and a refillable bottle; every car carries drinking water in a cooler.
A sarong and a sash if you plan on entering temples. We keep a few clean ones in the car for guests who forget, but they are borrowed, not tailored, and nobody wants to share a sarong on a hot day.
A thin rain jacket, or a poncho, and a dry bag. The ponchos we keep in the car are for emergencies; the ones sold at a minimart last one afternoon.
What to wear at temples
Shoulders and knees covered, for men and women both. Most temple gates rent or lend sarongs for a small donation, but the queue at Tanah Lot on a Saturday is not where you want to spend your sunset. During a ceremony, stay to the side, never step in front of someone praying, and do not photograph a priest without asking.
Money: how much cash and for what
Entrance tickets, parking, and the small donations at temple gates are cash. Budget roughly IDR 100,000–200,000 per person for a full day of stops, more if you are doing a waterfall, the Kecak dance or a boat crossing. Bring small notes — a 100,000 note at a 20,000 gate is a problem for everyone. Cards work at restaurants and in Ubud shops, not at most ticket windows.
What you can leave behind
The tripod you will use twice, the drone that is banned over temple grounds without a permit, the second pair of shoes, the beach towel for a day that never reaches the beach, and the laptop. We are happy to wait while you fetch something from the hotel, but that is an hour of your day spent on a road you have already driven.
Leave your passport in the hotel safe too, unless you are changing money or flying out that day. A photocopy or a photo on your phone is enough everywhere you will actually go.
The one thing people forget
A dry bag or a plastic wallet for the waterfall stops and the Penida boat. Phones and boarding passes survive a lot in Bali, but not a morning at Tegenungan followed by an afternoon in the rain. Cheap, light, and the single most useful thing in the car.
For photos and phones
Bring a power bank and a cloth for the lens. Humidity fogs glass every time you step out of an air-conditioned car, and more good photos are lost to a fingerprint than to any setting on the camera.
Prices, timings and opening hours in this article should be checked against the operator's current schedule before publication.