Best Time to Visit Uluwatu: Dry Season Surf, Wet Season Calm, and the Cliff Sunsets Either Way

The Bukit peninsula is the driest part of Bali, a limestone plateau that catches less rain than the volcanic interior, so the wet-season difference here is smaller than in Ubud. What changes more through the year is the sea: the dry season brings the big swell that makes the surf famous, and the wet season brings calmer water that makes the coves swimmable.

Which is better depends on whether you are here to ride the waves or to sit in the sea beneath them.

Nyepi is the Balinese day of silence in March, on a date that moves with the lunar calendar. For twenty-four hours from six in the morning the airport closes, everyone stays inside, roads and beaches are empty, and lights and noise are forbidden. The temple, the dance and the beach clubs are all closed. The parade of ogoh-ogoh demon effigies the night before is spectacular and worth being here for; a flight timed to land on the day itself will not. Check the date before booking March.

Clear skies, low humidity, and the swell that draws surfers from everywhere. Sunsets at the temple are at their sharpest. The coves are for surfing and spectating rather than swimming when the sets are running, and July and August fill the peninsula's villas and the Kecak amphitheatre.

May, June and September are the best of it: same weather, more room.

The Bukit gets afternoon storms rather than all-day rain, and fewer of them than the rest of the island. The sea calms, the coves at Padang Padang and Balangan become swimming beaches on many days, and outside the Christmas fortnight the villas and the dance are quieter and cheaper. Cloud can take the sunset some evenings; the Kecak runs regardless.