The Ubud Jungle Swings: Which One, How High, What It Costs, and the Queue

The jungle swing is a Bali invention of the last decade: a giant swing hung from two tall posts on the edge of a gorge or a rice terrace, so the arc carries you out over the drop. The originals are along the Ayung river gorge near Bongkasa, west of Ubud, and a second cluster grew along the road above the Tegallalang terraces. Each park has several swings of different heights, plus hanging nests, a bird's-nest platform, a hanging bed and a clear-floored viewpoint, all of which exist for the photograph.

It is fun. It is also a business built entirely on Instagram, and the way to enjoy it is to know that in advance and go early.

A park will have a swing at about 10 metres for the nervous, one or two at 15 to 20, and a tallest one somewhere between 50 and 78 metres above the valley floor, which is the one on the sign. You sit in a harness clipped to the ropes, staff pull you back and let go, and the swing carries out over the gorge for a few arcs before they slow it. It is smoother than it looks and the height registers mostly on the first outward swing. Weight limits are posted and applied. Anyone with a heart condition, pregnant, or badly afraid of heights should choose the low swing or the nest.

Parks price either per swing or as a package for all of them, and the packages are the better value if you will do more than one. Photographs are separate: staff photographers sell a package, or you hand your phone to a friend. The long flowing dresses in every swing photograph are rented at the park for a few tens of thousands of rupiah, in a rack of colours, and put on over your clothes. Tours from Ubud usually include the swing entry but not the photo package or the dress; check the option.

At opening, around 8:00, you walk onto the swing. By eleven there is a line at each one, and on a dry-season afternoon the tallest swing can be a two-hour wait in the sun for thirty seconds of arc. There is no trick; go first thing, or go on a wet-season weekday. The swing parks near Tegallalang can be combined with the terraces before the coaches; see the Tegallalang guide. The Bongkasa parks combine naturally with a morning at the Ayung river.