Ubud only have a few places suitable for young kids.  This however being our annual family vacation, the kids were with us.  We indulged them and went to a few kid friendly places.  On their last day, we indulged them even more and had them stay in to play and swim to their hearts desire.  I’m sure they enjoyed that the most.   😯

So if you have kids and HAVE TO bring them to Ubud with you, here are some of the places that they might enjoy.

The Sacred Monkey Forest

This place is full of long tail Macaques.  Within Balinese Hinduism, monkeys can be the embodiment of positive and negative forces, which is why the Balinese both loathe and revere these monkeys.  Monkeys that occupy sacred Balinese Hindu temple sites (such as this place) tend to be revered and protected by the Balinese because monkeys are believed to be capable of guarding temple sites against evil spirits.  They, however become a negative force once they start raiding rice fields or snatch items from souvenir shops.

Some of the trees here are likewise considered holy and are vital in various Balinese practices.

This is good information but the young ones will surely find fascination in the monkeys.  Period.

Elephant Ride

Experience sitting atop an elephant in a teak wood chair.  These trained elephants are native to Sumatra.  Apparently, there are 2 different places to see these jumbos and that is the Elephant Safari Park at Taro and Bali of Elephant Camp, where we ended up.  I didn’t realize that there were two places and when our driver/tour guide took us to the latter I just assumed it was the former.   The 30-minute ride at the camp had the kids wired and the grandfather sore.  Unfortunately, there was no elephant show much less the painting elephants as these are found on the one in Taro.