Ubud is the place to stay if you’ve come to Bali hoping to experience traditional dance and ritual arts – or if you’re seriously into shopping! The town is jam-packed with absorbing little stalls, boutiques and crafts workshops where you can watch artisans at work and browse an astonishing range of quality local handicrafts, from painting to wood and stone carving, masks, and textiles made using ikat and batik techniques.

The thatched villages around it offer windows on Bali’s more traditional way of life, as well as plenty of scope for forest walks, white-water rafting, bird spotting and encounters with long-tailed macaques at the famous Monkey Forest Sanctuary. And if all that wasn't incentive enough, the town has also become a favourite among yoga aficionados, thanks to its world-renowned schools and holistic therapy practitioners.