Eco-Friendly Hotels in Ubud, Bali — Your 2026 Guide to Sustainable Stays

Why Ubud for Sustainable Travel

Ubud has been attracting eco-conscious travellers since long before the term existed. The town's identity was shaped by the Balinese royal family of Sukawati, who in the early 20th century invited European artists to live and work alongside local painters, woodcarvers, and dancers. That creative foundation still anchors Ubud's economy — art galleries, craft workshops, and cultural performances rather than resort mega-developments.

The sustainability infrastructure has matured significantly. The Green School — founded in Ubud in 2008 — pioneered bamboo architecture that has since influenced construction across Bali. Bamboo buildings use a fraction of the embodied carbon of concrete, and several Ubud-area resorts now use bamboo for pavilions, yoga shalas, and even multi-storey structures. The Campuhan Ridge Walk, a paved footpath along a narrow ridge between two river valleys, demonstrates how Ubud's topography naturally separates development from wilderness.

Bali's broader waste and water challenges are real — the island generates 1.6 million tonnes of waste annually — but Ubud has been at the forefront of local solutions. Community-led initiatives like Bye Bye Plastic Bags (started by two Ubud schoolgirls) helped drive Bali's single-use plastic ban. Organic farms supply a growing network of plant-forward restaurants, and the traditional subak irrigation cooperatives continue to demonstrate that sustainable agriculture isn't new — it's just been rediscovered.

Best Areas for Eco-Conscious Stays in Ubud

Sayan & the Ayung River Gorge — Jungle Luxury

West of Ubud centre, the land drops sharply into the Ayung River gorge — a deep, jungle-clad valley that several of Bali's most celebrated eco-resorts have built into rather than on top of. Properties here often descend through tropical gardens on stepped pathways, with rooms and villas perched on the gorge edge overlooking the river canopy below. The setting is extraordinary: macaques, kingfishers, and tropical butterflies are neighbours. White-water rafting on the Ayung departs from points along this stretch, and the Sayan ridge itself offers some of Ubud's best sunrise walks.

Tegallalang — Among the Rice Terraces

Fifteen minutes north of Ubud centre, Tegallalang is home to the rice terraces that have become Bali's most photographed landscape. Beyond the main viewpoint (which gets crowded midday), the surrounding villages — Cekingan, Kenderan, Sebatu — offer guesthouses and small hotels surrounded by active rice paddies. Staying here means waking to the sound of water channelling through the subak system and watching farmers work terraces that have been cultivated using the same communal irrigation methods for over a millennium. The Gunung Kawi temple, carved into riverside cliff faces in the 11th century, is a 20-minute ride away.

Penestanan — The Artists' Village

Across the Campuhan ridge west of the centre, Penestanan earned its reputation as the "Young Artists' Village" in the 1960s when Dutch painter Arie Smit encouraged local boys to paint what they saw — resulting in a vivid, naive style now recognised as a distinct school of Balinese art. Today, Penestanan is quieter than central Ubud, with yoga studios, organic cafes, and guesthouses set among rice fields and coconut palms. It's walkable from the centre (20 minutes via the Campuhan Ridge Walk) but feels rural. Many properties are Balinese-owned, small, and genuinely integrated into the village.

Ubud Centre — Culture Within Walking Distance

The town centre around Jalan Raya Ubud and the Royal Palace packs temples, museums, galleries, and restaurants into a walkable core. The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary — 12.5 hectares of ancient nutmeg, banyan, and holy fig trees sheltering over 1,200 long-tailed macaques — sits at the south end of town. Ubud Market, across from the palace, sells handmade crafts from surrounding villages every morning. Staying central reduces the need for motorbike taxis — Ubud's traffic is its biggest environmental weak point, and walkability matters.

How IMPT Makes Your Ubud Stay Carbon-Negative

An average hotel night produces roughly 35 kg of CO₂ — from air conditioning, laundry, lighting, and food service. When you book any Ubud hotel through IMPT, we retire 1,000 kg of UN-verified carbon removal credits. That's 28 times what your stay produces. Not carbon-neutral — carbon-negative.

The cost to you? Zero. IMPT funds the removal from its booking commission. You pay the standard nightly rate — often up to 10% cheaper than Booking.com on the same room. The carbon credits are tokenised on Ethereum, retired against a named project, with a public receipt anyone can verify.

• €5 free credit when you sign up — applied to your first Ubud booking
• 5% back on every stay — 3% funds carbon projects, 2% as travel credit
• 8M+ hotels worldwide, 195 countries — Ubud is just the start
• Free cancellation on most rates, typically up to 48 hours before check-in

Sustainable Things to Do in Ubud

Ubud rewards the traveller who goes slow. The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary is more than a tourist attraction — it's an active Hindu temple complex where three pura (temples) sit within old-growth forest, maintained by the local banjar (community council) as both a spiritual site and a conservation area. Entrance fees fund the forest's upkeep and the primate research programme.

The Campuhan Ridge Walk — a paved path along a narrow ridge between the Wos and Cerik rivers — is Ubud's most accessible outdoor experience: free, beautiful at sunrise, and an excellent introduction to the town's topography. For deeper immersion, hire a local guide for a walk through the rice terraces of Jatiluwih (a UNESCO World Heritage Site, about 90 minutes west), where the subak irrigation system has been managed communally since the 9th century.

Ubud's art scene is genuine and deep. The Neka Art Museum and ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) house collections spanning traditional Balinese painting to modern Indonesian art. Evening dance performances — Kecak fire dance at the Royal Palace, Legong at Pura Dalem Taman Kaja — are living art forms, not tourist simulations. Tickets fund the dance troupes directly.

Extend your eco impact beyond the hotel: Shop through IMPT's 25,000+ retail partners for up to 45% cashback on purchases that also offset carbon. Or give someone an IMPT trip credit gift — a Bali holiday that removes carbon instead of producing it.

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