Aside from the workshops, one of the two outdoor activities that Hannah was especially looking forward to was the visit to Bali’s Treetop Adventure Park. The park comprises 7 adventure circuits and 72 challenges spread among them to suit all ages and ability levels. H has gone up heights before, including the children’s trapeze in Club Med Bintan a few years ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly. So, we figured she’d be right at home with this one!
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The park opens at 9:30AM and offers a discount if you book the early-programme online too. We booked the family package online at USD65 for the four of us.
The Adventure Park is situated inside Bali Botanical Gardens in Bedugul, and it took about two hours for us to get there from our villa – slightly longer than earlier expected as we were stuck in traffic at various spots. We got there just a shade before 10AM, and park was relatively free of congestion and crowds for the first 90 minutes of our stay there. At 11:30AM though, the tourist hordes descended and turned what was a serene experience among very tall trees into something akin to a fish-market with all the screaming and shouting we’ve come to expect from visitors who’re social awareness-deficient.
The experience begins with a demonstration on how to use the two safety ropes and pulley that’s attached to each participant’s harness. The most important rule being that you must at all times have at least one safety rope secured to the circuit cables at all times.
Each of the seven circuits are color-coded to show their challenge level, and it’s progressive. The circuit legend also clearly marks out its minimum height requirement too.
There are numerous roaming adventure guides around who ensure that safety rules are adhered to at all times. But no, they’re on the ground and will not accompany you up once you get onto a circuit! One thing though: as the park got significantly more crowded later in the morning, their attention also got divided as there were more participants to supervise. If safety is utmost in your mind and you want to be able to call for help and get it promptly, seriously consider visiting the park when there are no crowds around.
We did witness one rather heavy-weight adult participant lose balance and while he was secured by his safety ropes, he couldn’t get back up the rope ladder on his own. The adventure guide got up in a jiffy and shimmied him down.
Towards the end of our two hour stay, another adult participant went up and didn’t want to continue past a somewhat scarier segment of his circuit (Hannah actually waltzed through it just an hour ago LOL), and practically pleaded for a ground guide to help him down. The guide snarled back “NO – YOU TRY!!!!”, eliciting a lot of chuckles from this participant’s friends who were with him haha.
H and P both bravely attempted all the circuits that they were tall enough for, though at various points, both whimpered a little at the more scary bits!
Oh yes: to address the elephant in the room: I didn’t try any circuit as I’m too chicken! But I had the best excuse possible: I remained on the ground to take pictures haha. Thankfully, both of our kids have not inherited their daddy’s Fear Of Height gene!
In all, the Bali Adventure Park gets our solid recommendation for visitors who do not have fear heights. And even if you do as an adult, there are some very gentle circuits that you can attempt that are really safe!
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