Filming locations in Bali

Visiting Bali: a set-jetting guide. The Indonesian island of rice terraces, temples and surf beaches is the soul-searching final chapter of Eat Pray Love, the journey drawn from Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir. Ubud is the green, spiritual heart of the Balinese reawakening, framed by emerald rice terraces, while a cliff-ringed cove to the south offers the calm the heroine is chasing. Two real, very different landscapes anchor the film, and both are easy to fold into a wider island trip.

Begin around Ubud at the Tegallalang Rice Terraces, the sculpted emerald valley whose tiers frame the film's Balinese reawakening. It is a working farming valley with a small entry fee and donation points along the paths, not a manicured park, so go early to beat the tour buses and the heat. Sunrise gives the softest light on the terraces, and Ubud's own monkey forest and markets are close enough to round out the morning.

South on the Bukit Peninsula lies Padang Padang Beach, the cliff-framed cove reached through a cleft in the rock, where the heroine finds her calm. There is a modest entry fee, and you descend a staircase squeezed through a rock crevice to reach the sand. It is popular with surfers and busy at midday, so an early visit is kinder, and the famous Uluwatu temple, with its sunset kecak dance, sits close by along the same dramatic coast.

The two spots pull in opposite directions, lush green inland around Ubud and surf-washed cliffs in the south, which makes splitting your stay the natural move. Base yourself in or near Ubud for the terraces and temples, then head down to the Bukit for the coves and the surf. Go early everywhere to dodge crowds and heat, and let the contrast between calm rice valley and cliff-framed beach carry the trip, exactly as the memoir's Bali chapter intended.