Why You Should Head To Bali Zoo - International Traveller

Encountering exotic flora and fauna is a fascinating element of any visit to a foreign country.

Bali Zoo, home to over 500 animals of more than 60 species, is set amidst 10 hectares of cooling, verdant tropical gardens. We’ve come up with 11 reasons why you should visit on your next trip to our nation’s favourite holiday destination.

1. Free-ranging animals

The roaring of a lion echoes in the air as we wander through the entrance gate. The small herd of deer who greet us are unperturbed by the roar or by our attention. Even when we stroke their fur they stand still, accepting the pats. A lone albino peacock strides along, cool as a cucumber, without displaying its tail feathers. A wallaby with a joey in her pouch stares at us (almost doe-eyed), calm and observant, while the baby crawls in and out of his cosy home. The animals are healthy and content; a fabulous welcoming committee.

deer bali zoo — Feed some of the free roaming deer

2. Orangutan breakfast

When we arrive at the breakfast pavilion, we have a dozen options: mee goreng, croissants, fruit, eggs, coffee, tea. It’s the usual high standard breakfast buffet fare but, although we are hungry, we’re not really there to eat. We’ve come for an orangutan encounter.

A keeper brings out Dara at 8am on the dot. Apart from the snacks she receives from her trainer, she is not eating breakfast. Her job is to entertain us while we do. And entertain us she does. There are ropes leading from the platform to trees and poles around the area.

As we approach her, the keeper warns us to remove our sunglasses and hats. “She’s cheeky. She’ll take them," he laughs. As the kids hang back, the orangutan reaches for my hand and before I know it she’s pulling me close to her and holding both my hands with her leathery palms, her feet resting on my stomach gently before she pushes off and swings along the rope a little.

At one point she breaks away, darting over to the nearest table scattered with someone’s breakfast remains, and grabs a croissant. The keeper moves quickly to reign her in; this kind of monkey business is not allowed.

Slowly, the kids edge forward and take hold of her leathery hand too. Their faces beam, filled with wonder at being able to touch this animal with which we share 97 per cent of our genes.

3. Feed the elephants

Two Sumatran elephants arrive in the courtyard. For a few dollars, we purchase some nutritious snacks to feed them: corn, bananas and carrots. The guides counsel us to hide them behind our backs, then stand up straight with the food in our hands high above our heads and open our palms.

Quick as a flash, the food has been retrieved and deposited into their mouths and we are left with the thrill of having been so close to such a huge animal. Elephant rides are still very popular with the Asian market here, but the zoo is phasing them out over the next few years, to come in line with the worldwide push to refrain from animal tourism of this kind.

Elephant bali zoo — Feed a Sumatran elephant

4. Lush gardens and locals

Shelter from the sun in the pretty green gardens maintained by locals. The zoo is built on land belonging to Singapadu village, and the management committee is committed to providing jobs for members of the community. Over 70 per cent of staff comes from the local village, and all food for the animals is purchased from the fields belonging to the villagers.

5. Water fun park

Kids can break up the day with a splash around the water fountains of the aquatic playground. When the sun is high overhead, you’ll be grateful for a pair of swimmers and a rest under the umbrellas while the kids frolics under the spray.

6. Savannah in 2020

The road takes us past the site of the new Savannah enclosure which is due to open in 2020. Giraffes, bears and tigers have been located and will be delivered to the zoo in time for the opening. It’s quite cool for the kids to see that, like any garden, the habitat required for zoo animals can be created from nothing more than a bare patch of earth.

snake encounter bali zoo — Get up close with a snake encounter

7. Spa

Wildlife and wellness make a perfect match in Bali. There’s never a time when a massage is not a good idea so the Bali Zoo has an onsite day spa, The Sanctoo, to encourage wellbeing and relaxation. Enjoy a massage treatment or soak in the spa and rest your eyes on the verdant jungle which surrounds the sanctuary.

8. Stay the night

The one-bedroom Sanctoo Villas are popular with honeymooners due to their idyllic location. Choose from a garden or river view and wake up to the sounds of lions roaring, birds screeching, tigers growling and orangutans laughing in the jungle. It is surely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

9. Food

The zoo has three restaurants and a snack bar, and visitors will definitely not go hungry here. The Wantilan seats up to 300 guests and the Wana bar, restaurant and lounge is also an expansive space. Adjacent to the lion’s den, it offers observers a unique vantage point for watching lions at play as well as some yummy local food. The Gayo has a simple international menu with some interesting options; tacos, chilli dogs and even Canadian poutine grace the menu alongside more traditional Indonesian dishes.

wana restaurant Bali zoo — Wana restaurant offers a unique perspective

10. Meet the ‘Tiger Mommy’

The day we visit, my guide introduces herself as “The Tiger Mommy" and invites me to feed the Sumatran tiger. I immediately decline. I have images of people patting sedated tigers and my mind skips ahead to game hunting and the awful trophy photographs that poachers/hunters will take post-kill. Obviously, my tiger is alive but I am scared and definitely not thrilled at the prospect of being in a tiger’s lair.

The Tiger Mommy laughs at me. She’s brought an esky containing chicken carcasses and spears one on to the end of a steel pole for me. “Just hold it up," she says, pointing it to the high bars of the cage. I do as I’m told and the tiger leaps at the meat. The carcass remains so he jumps a little higher, his whole body pressing up against the fence in front of me. It’s thrilling and scary in equal measure and I can’t wait to get away.

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11. Support the rehabilitation programs

In the years since the zoo opened in 2002, many species have been studied, nurtured and rehabilitated on the grounds of the Bali zoo. 50 Oliver Ridley sea turtles were released into the ocean in 2016, and nine Javan porcupines were also released in Pura Batu in Silakarang, Tabanan. Five Javan deer have been released in West Bali National Park and, in July 2019, two silvery gibbons, endemic to West Java, were let back into the wilderness after being acclimatised and educated at the zoo. Conservation is always part of the zoo’s agenda.

The facts:

Getting there: Transport is available and included in some ticket packages. Otherwise, ask at your hotel for a taxi service.

Tickets: General admission is IDR 355,500 (AUD $37).

Spa and wellness treatments at the Sanctoo Spa start from IDR 605,000 (AUD $63).

Animal experiences are extra. Breakfast with Orangutans is IDR 720,000 (AUD $75). There are a range of packages available. See website for details.

What to bring: Sunscreen, hats, water bottles.

Address: Jl. Raya Singapadu, Sukawati, Gianyar, Bali.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

11 reasons to visit Bali Zoo