Suwat Waterfall: The Ubud-Area Fall With a Bamboo Raft

A Quiet 15 Meter Drop in Gianyar

Suwat Waterfall is a single 15 meter (50 foot) drop into a green pool, sitting in Suwat Village in Gianyar Regency east of Ubud. One fall, one pool, one bamboo raft floating under the water. People come here for three things: a real swim, a raft photo, and quiet. It is the least crowded of the Ubud-area falls I guide regularly, and the pool is deep and calm enough to actually swim rather than shuffle in up to your knees.

The village location matters too. You drive through rice country before the road drops toward the ravine, so the approach feels local rather than tourist-built. If you are weighing the five falls around Ubud against each other, Suwat is the one to pick when swimming is the priority and crowds are the enemy.

How It Differs From the Falls You Have Heard Of

Each fall near Ubud does one thing well, and they are not interchangeable. Tegenungan Waterfall is wide and busy, closest to town and always crowded. Kanto Lampo Waterfall is a tiered rock face you can wade and climb on, but its pool is shallow, a wade-only pool rather than a swimming pool. Tibumana Waterfall is a single curtain with a calm pool, good for an easy swim. Tukad Cepung is a cave fall where light beams down through the gap in the rock, best in the morning. Suwat combines what Tibumana does with an extra: the raft and a pool deep enough for jumping off the boulders.

So pick by what you want. Photos in a cave, Tukad Cepung. Stepped rock photos, Kanto Lampo. A full swim with room to move, Suwat or Tibumana.

Everything at a Glance

These are the figures that decide the shape of your day. Note the cash rule, because there is no card machine at the ticket desk and no way to pay by phone. The hours matter less than they look, since the best light and the quietest pool both fall in the first two hours after opening.

Height, walk time and fee all make Suwat one of the lowest-effort waterfall visits in Bali, which is exactly why I send first-timers and families here.

What You Pay at the Gate

Entry is 40,000 IDR per foreign visitor, about $2.50, and it is cash only. Bring small notes, because the desk does not want to break a large bill. Children and locals pay less, though exact local rates were not stated in the sources I trust. Payment happens at a small desk at the parking and entrance area before you start down the stairs.

Parking adds nothing on top of the ticket. One source recorded no cost for parking on top of the waterfall entrance ticket during their visit, and the other mentions no parking fee either way, so treat parking as free but carry a few thousand rupiah in case anything changes. Compare this to the money and time you save versus the busier falls, and Suwat is one of the cheapest half-days in the Ubud area. The fee and the 7:00 AM to 6:30 PM hours come from Compasses and Quests and Megan Starr.

Opening Hours and Holidays

Suwat Waterfall opens 7:00 AM to 6:30 PM daily. It may close on some public holidays, so if your trip falls on Nyepi or another major Balinese holiday, check locally before you drive out. Two sources agree on these hours exactly, so you can plan around them.

The practical reading is simple. Arrive between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM and you will often share the pool with nobody. Arrive after 10:00 AM and tour groups start arriving with the mid-morning light. The last good window is late afternoon, when the day-trippers have gone and the light softens over the ravine. Give yourself a relaxed stretch of time on site for the walk, a swim and the raft photos.

From Ubud

Suwat sits roughly 25-30 minutes from central Ubud by car or scooter, east into Gianyar. The route runs through villages and rice country and then drops toward the ravine on a narrow local road, which is the only slightly fiddly part. A driver who knows the turn-off makes this effortless, and the private tours listed on this page handle it with hotel pickup. On a scooter, ride east with fuel topped up, park at the entrance area, and walk down. The road signs are thin on the ground, so use a maps app all the way rather than turning off the main road early.

Because it is short, most people pair Suwat with Tibumana Waterfall and Kanto Lampo Waterfall in the same morning. Suwat is described as not far from Tibumana, and visitors and multi-stop tours regularly combine all three in one day. No exact distance or drive time between the three was found in the sources I use, so plan by feel rather than by minutes.

From Seminyak, Canggu and Kuta

From the southern beaches you are looking at a longer drive, and the sources I trust do not give a firm figure for it. Two things shape the trip. First, traffic through Denpasar or the Ubud ring can add real time in the morning and late afternoon. Second, taxi and Grab pickups have restrictions in parts of Bali, so organising a private driver for the whole day is the reliable option from the south rather than hoping for a ride back from a village road.

A sensible southern-day plan is to leave early, stop at Suwat for a swim before the groups arrive, then carry on to another fall or lunch in Ubud. The Best Ubud Waterfalls Tour: Kanto Lampo, Tibumana & Suwat runs eight hours with pickup, which fits that shape without you touching a map once.

A Short Stair Path Through Bamboo

From the parking and entrance area, the path to the falls is short and easy. It runs down stairs through a bamboo-lined path, not too steep, with sections of paved path. Plan on about 10-20 minutes of walking round trip, roughly 0.3 km (0.2 miles). Sources broadly agree it is an easy out-and-back, and one describes the surface as very easy underfoot. This is a walk, not a hike, and children and older visitors manage it without trouble.

One flag for accuracy. AllTrails lists a Suwat Waterfall trail as 1 mile round trip with 72 feet of elevation gain, taking 0.5-1 hour. That is considerably longer than the access-path figures above, and AllTrails could not be checked in full, so treat its numbers as likely describing a different or longer trail. For a visit from the entrance, the 10-20 minute stair path is the practical guidance. Sources differ, so plan around the short version and you cannot go wrong.

The Pool Is Genuinely Swimmable

Yes, you can swim at Suwat Waterfall, and this is its single best feature. The pool at the base is deeper and calmer than Kanto Lampo's wade-only pool, so it earns its place on the short list of Ubud falls where a real swim is possible. Sources describe it as a great pool for swimming, and some visitors jump from the boulders under the falls.

On the jump, keep some caution in the picture. The boulder jump is mentioned by only one source, so treat it as possible rather than guaranteed, and check depth and footing with your own eyes before going off anything. Water levels change with the season, which changes the pool. Life vests were not stated in the sources, so swimmers who are less confident should stay near the edges and away from the base of the falls where the water pushes down.

The Bamboo Raft Photo

The thing everyone photographs at Suwat is the bamboo raft. It floats in the pool below the falls, and you can rent it for about 25,000 IDR, roughly $1.50. You paddle it a few meters out, sit or stand, and get the shot with the full 15 meter drop behind you. Payment is in cash, so keep small notes on you even after paying the entrance fee.

Two practical notes from the pool. First, the raft is popular, so on busy days there is a short wait, one more reason the early morning wins. Second, the raft sits over deep water, so non-swimmers should think twice before climbing on. The raft is stable, but it is still a raft in a pool at the base of a waterfall, not a photo studio prop.

Dry Season Versus Wet Season

Bali's dry season runs April to October and the wet season runs November to March, and Suwat changes with them. In the dry season the flow is lighter, which makes the pool calmer and the raft photos cleaner. In the wet season the fall is fuller and more impressive, but the ground around the pool turns slippery and muddy, and the water carries more sediment.

There is no wrong season, only different trips. Photographers who want the raft shot with a tidy curtain of water should aim for the dry months. Travellers chasing volume and drama after rain should go wet season but wear shoes with grip and take the stairs slowly. Within any day, the hours before 9:00 AM give you the quietest pool and the best chance of the raft to yourself, and the light over the ravine is kind early.

What Is at the Entrance Area

The parking and entrance area has a changing room, toilets and a warung, the small Indonesian stall selling food and drinks. Two sources confirm the same set of amenities independently, so you can rely on them. Payment at the warung is cash only, the same rule as the ticket desk, so bring small rupiah notes for a coconut or a bag of arak tea after your swim.

What this means practically is that Suwat is an easy family stop. You can change into swimwear on site, use proper toilets rather than the bushes, and buy water without carrying it down the stairs. There is no mention of lockers in the sources, so leave valuables in your driver's car or carry a dry bag. Eat light before swimming, and remember the warung closes with the site at 6:30 PM.

Which Fall Is Right for You

The five falls around Ubud are close enough to combine but different enough that you should choose with intent. The table lines up the key facts. Suwat and Tibumana are the swimmers' falls.

Kanto Lampo is the climbing-and-photos fall. Tegenungan is the closest and busiest. Tukad Cepung is the cave with the light beam, and it rewards an early start more than any of the others.

Pick two, not five, if you want time in the water at each.

What a Tour Costs Versus Doing It Yourself

Doing Suwat yourself costs the 40,000 IDR entrance fee, the 25,000 IDR raft if you want it, scooter fuel and your time finding the road. Doing it with a private tour costs more but removes the driving, the parking and the cash queues, and groups it with the neighbouring falls in one day. Here is how the two tours on this page compare.

The first is the straightforward three-falls day from Ubud with all fees included. The second adds snorkeling at Blue Lagoon by boat and lunch in Padangbai before the falls on the drive back. Both are private with hotel pickup. If you are building a wider Bali waterfall trip, our waterfall guide and pages for Sekumpul Waterfall and Leke Leke Waterfall cover the bigger northern falls too.

When to Choose Which

Choose independent if you ride a scooter confidently, carry cash, and want to linger as long as you like. Suwat rewards that freedom, since the site is small and the fee is small. Choose a tour if you are staying in the south, travelling with children or parents, or simply want all three east-Bali falls without a single navigation decision.

A middle path many visitors miss is to do Suwat independently and book a tour for a different day, since the tours cover ground Suwat does not. Compare before you commit. Our pages on the Tegenungan, Tibumana and Tukad Cepung private tour and Aling Aling Waterfall and Nungnung Waterfall show what the other half of the island offers.