Bali's Forgotten Palaces: Exploring Royal History Off the Tourist Trail

I was the only person in the courtyard. That’s the detail I keep coming back to. It was mid-morning in Amlapura, hot enough that the stone was uncomfortable underfoot, and I had an entire nineteenth-century royal palace to myself except for a woman sweeping the far corner and a cat asleep on a step that had presumably been sat on by kings.

Two hours’ drive away, several hundred people were queuing to photograph a temple gate with a mirror held under a phone.

Bali’s royal palaces are the strangest gap in how this island gets visited. They’re central to the story of the place — every regency here was its own kingdom, with its own court, its own dynastic quarrels, its own bloody encounter with the Dutch — and most of them are free or cost less than a coffee in Canggu. And they’re empty. Not neglected, exactly. Just not on the circuit.

This is a guide to the ones worth your time: what survives, what happened there, what it costs to get in, and how to visit without being the person who wanders into somebody’s actual living room.

What a Puri Actually Is

Puri means palace, and the first thing to understand is that these aren’t castles in the European sense. There’s no keep, no defensive wall, no grand staircase for sweeping down.

A puri is a walled compound organised on the same cosmological logic as a Balinese family home, only larger and grander — a sequence of courtyards moving from the most public at the front to the most sacred and private at the back, with pavilions called bale set among them, gates marking each threshold, and the whole thing oriented towards the mountains and away from the sea.

Before the Dutch took full control in the early twentieth century, Bali was not one place. It was a set of competing kingdoms — Klungkung, Karangasem, Badung, Gianyar, Tabanan, Mengwi, Bangli, Buleleng — each ruled from its own puri, each with shifting alliances and long memories. The regency boundaries on a map today are essentially the outlines of those kingdoms.

And here’s the part that catches people out: many of these palaces are still lived in. The descendants of the royal families are in there, running businesses, raising children, holding ceremonies. When you visit Puri Agung Karangasem you are walking around a home. That changes how you should behave, and it’s also what makes these places feel completely different from a preserved historic house in England where the family died out in 1912 and the National Trust took over.

Klungkung: The Palace That Was Destroyed

If you visit one, make it this one — not because it’s the most beautiful, but because of what happened here.

Klungkung was the senior kingdom, the one the other courts deferred to. The Dewa Agung dynasty moved to the site in 1710 and laid out a palace as a great square, believed to follow the form of a mandala: courtyards, gardens, pavilions, moats.

Then in 1908 the Dutch came. The fighting ended in a puputan — a fight to the finish rather than surrender — and the palace complex was almost entirely destroyed. There’s a monument on the site now commemorating it, with a diorama inside recording the war.

What remains of Puri Agung Semarapura

Almost nothing, which is the point. Three things survived:

• Kertha Gosa — the raised pavilion that served as the royal court of justice
• Bale Kambang — the floating pavilion, set in its own pond
• Pemedal Agung — the great south gate that was the royal entrance Go for the ceilings. Both pavilions are painted in the Kamasan style, in rows of panels running scenes from the Hindu epics — and, in Kertha Gosa, sequences depicting the punishments awaiting wrongdoers in the afterlife. This was a courtroom. Anyone brought before the judges sat looking up at exactly that. It’s the least subtle piece of interior design I have ever stood underneath and I found it completely gripping.

Visiting Kertha Gosa

The site sits in the centre of Semarapura and is open daily from 8am to 5pm. It’s treated as sacred, so cover your shoulders and knees; a sarong and sash can be hired at the entrance if you haven’t brought your own. The Semarajaya Museum is right there with royal artefacts, and Kamasan village — where the painting style comes from and is still practised — is a short drive on. Give the whole thing half a morning.

Puri Agung Karangasem: The Royal Palace Everyone Drives Past

This is the empty courtyard I opened with. Puri Agung Karangasem sits in the middle of Amlapura, roughly 65 km from Denpasar, 12 km from Candidasa, and — the useful bit — about 5 km from Taman Ujung and 6 km from Tirta Gangga. Thousands of people pass within a few minutes of it every single day on the East Bali circuit and drive straight by.

It was built in the late nineteenth century by Anak Agung Gede Jelantik, the first Raja of Karangasem, and the architecture is a genuine three-way collision: Balinese, Chinese and European elements in the same compound, which sounds like it should be a mess and somehow isn’t.

The main building is called Maskerdam — a Balinese rendering of “Amsterdam”. It was built and given by the Dutch, and the Karangasem kingdom was one of the few that survived the colonial period rather than being crushed by it. That name is doing an enormous amount of historical work in three syllables. Inside there’s a furnished living room and a royal bedroom, kept much as they were.

The front area, the bencingah, is where traditional performances were held, with the flanking sides used for receiving guests. Beyond it are pavilions set around an artificial lake, and past that, the parts where the family still lives.

Opening hours run 8am to 5pm. The entry charge is small — reports range from around IDR 10,000 to IDR 30,000 and it has shifted over the years, so carry small notes and don’t be surprised either way. It’s the best-value hour in East Bali by a distance.

The Water Palaces: Taman Ujung and Tirta Gangga

Both of these were built by the same man — Anak Agung Anglurah Ketut Karangasem — and both are water gardens rather than residences, which is why they photograph so well and why they’re the two royal sites that did make it onto the tourist trail.

Taman Ujung, properly Taman Soekasada Ujung, went up in 1909 at Tumbu in Karangasem. It’s a set of ornamental pools with a pavilion sitting out in the middle, reached by causeways, backed by a hill you can climb for the view over the whole thing. The architecture mixes Balinese, Dutch and Chinese influences. It opens daily from 7am to 7pm, entry for foreign adults is IDR 100,000 with children at IDR 50,000, and parking is a couple of thousand rupiah on top.

Honest assessment: it’s beautiful and it’s brief. Most people are done in half an hour, and the ticket is on the steep side for what you get. Worth it as part of a wider day, not as the destination.

Tirta Gangga is the better-known of the two, with its stepping stones across the koi pond and the tiered fountain. It’s about an hour and a half to two hours from Ubud. Be warned that entry pricing is genuinely inconsistent across sources right now — figures reported for foreign adults in 2026 range from around IDR 50,000 to IDR 90,000, and opening hours are variously given as 8am to 5pm or later. Bring rupiah and check at the counter rather than budgeting from a blog. Early morning, ideally before eight, is when it’s worth being there.

Ubud Palace: The One You’ve Already Walked Past

Puri Saren Agung sits on the main junction in central Ubud, opposite the market, and an enormous number of visitors walk past its gates without registering that it’s a palace at all.

It’s free to walk into during the day. In the middle of the busiest street in Ubud, you can step through the gate into a genuinely calm compound of carved stone, ornate gateways and shaded courtyards, and most of the crowd outside will never come in.

At night it becomes something else. The Legong dance is performed in the courtyard at 7:30pm, under lanterns and floodlights with a live gamelan orchestra, and tickets are IDR 100,000. Turn up early for a decent seat.

One clarification worth having, because it derails a lot of plans: Ubud Palace and the “Ubud Water Palace” are not the same place. The latter is Pura Taman Saraswati, the lotus-pond temple a short walk up the road — a temple, not a palace, with its own entry charge of IDR 60,000 for adults and IDR 45,000 for children, open 8am to 7pm. Lovely. Different thing entirely.

How to Visit Bali’s Royal Palaces Respectfully

A few things I’ve learned, mostly by getting them slightly wrong first.

Dress as you would for a temple. Shoulders and knees covered at the sacred sites, and honestly just as a default — you’re in someone’s family compound and the standard is theirs, not yours.

Watch for the boundary between the public courtyards and the private ones. It isn’t always signed. If a courtyard has laundry, children’s toys, or a shrine with fresh offerings and nobody else wandering around it, you’ve gone too far. Turn around.

Ask before you photograph people, and don’t photograph inside shrines or during ceremonies unless you’ve been told it’s fine. If a ceremony is underway, the right move is to stand quietly at the edge or leave.

Bring small notes. Several of these places run on modest entry fees or donations, and nobody has change for a 100,000.

And go early. Not for the light — for the quiet, and because the middle of the day in Amlapura is genuinely punishing.

Wrapping Up

The thing about Bali’s royal palaces isn’t that they’re spectacular. Some are, some aren’t. It’s that they’re the physical remains of the eight or nine kingdoms this island actually was, sitting in plain sight in ordinary towns, mostly ignored, mostly still lived in by the families whose ancestors ruled from them.

If you’re planning an East Bali day, the version I’d build is Klungkung first for the painted ceilings, on to Amlapura for Puri Agung Karangasem, then Taman Ujung or Tirta Gangga in the afternoon depending on how much you want to spend. That’s a full, unhurried day, and you’ll spend a fair chunk of it as the only foreigner in the room.

Have you found a puri I’ve missed — Tabanan, Bangli, Buleleng? Reply and tell me where. I’m collecting them.

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FAQs

What is a puri in Bali?

A puri is a Balinese royal palace — a walled compound of courtyards and open pavilions arranged from most public at the front to most sacred at the back, oriented towards the mountains. Before Dutch rule, each Balinese kingdom was governed from its own puri, and today’s regency boundaries roughly follow those old kingdoms.

Which royal palaces in Bali can you visit?

The main ones open to visitors are Puri Agung Semarapura and Kertha Gosa in Klungkung, Puri Agung Karangasem in Amlapura, the water palaces at Taman Ujung and Tirta Gangga, and Puri Saren Agung in central Ubud. Several others are still private family compounds, so call ahead rather than turning up.

How much does it cost to visit Klungkung Palace and Kertha Gosa?

Kertha Gosa is open daily from 8am to 5pm and charges a modest entry fee at the ticket booth near the Puputan Klungkung Monument. It’s treated as a sacred site, so cover your shoulders and knees; sarongs and sashes can be hired at the entrance if you don’t have your own.

What happened to Klungkung Palace?

The Dewa Agung dynasty established the palace in 1710, laid out as a great mandala square with courtyards, gardens and moats. Most of it was destroyed in the Dutch conquest of 1908, which ended in a puputan — a fight to the finish. Only the Kertha Gosa pavilion, the Bale Kambang and the Pemedal Agung gate survive.

Why are the ceilings at Kertha Gosa famous?

Kertha Gosa was the royal court of justice, and its ceiling is painted in the Kamasan style with panels from the Hindu epics, including scenes of the punishments awaiting wrongdoers. Anyone brought before the judges sat looking directly up at them. Kamasan village, where the style originates, is a short drive away.

Is Puri Agung Karangasem worth visiting?

Yes, and it’s one of the least crowded sites in East Bali. Built in the late nineteenth century by Anak Agung Gede Jelantik, it blends Balinese, Chinese and European architecture, and its main building Maskerdam takes its name from Amsterdam. Open 8am to 5pm with a small entry fee, typically somewhere between IDR 10,000 and 30,000.

How much is the entrance fee for Taman Ujung Water Palace?

Foreign adults pay IDR 100,000 and children IDR 50,000, with parking a further IDR 2,000 to 5,000. It’s open daily from 7am to 7pm. Most visitors spend 30 to 45 minutes there, so it works best as one stop on a wider East Bali day rather than a destination in itself.

What is the entrance fee for Tirta Gangga in 2026?

Reported prices vary between sources, with figures for foreign adults ranging from around IDR 50,000 to IDR 90,000, and opening hours given as either 8am to 5pm or later. Bring cash and confirm at the ticket counter. Extra charges apply for the bathing pools and fish food.

Is Ubud Palace free to visit?

Yes, Puri Saren Agung is free to walk around during the day. The Legong dance performance in the palace courtyard is ticketed at IDR 100,000 and starts at 7:30pm. Note that Ubud Palace and the Ubud Water Palace, Pura Taman Saraswati, are two different sites.

What should I wear to visit a Balinese palace?

Cover your shoulders and knees, particularly at sacred sites like Kertha Gosa where sarongs and sashes are available to hire. Many palaces are still lived in by royal descendants, so dress as you would visiting someone’s home, stay out of private courtyards, and ask before photographing people.