Everyone has a list of their favorite destinations. Every city or town is unique and special in its own way, be we all have a short list of places that are just a little bit more special than the others. For us, one of those places is Ubud.

We first visited this Balinese town in 2009. Ren and I aren’t beach people so we skipped the coastal areas of southern Bali and went straight to Ubud. It was late at night and I’ll never forget the feeling I had when we first drove into town. We turned the corner past the sacred monkey forest to find a constellation of colorful lanterns hanging from trees and quaint shopfronts on either side of the road. We both gasped and released a collective “wow”! It was such a beautiful sight, and one we didn’t expect knowing so little about this town.

We stayed in Ubud for over a week and fell in love with every facet of this inland retreat, from its artsy shops to its Balinese bungalows to its Hindu temples and its delicious food. We knew then that we’d find our way back to Ubud at some point.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how we’d feel about Ubud the second time around because your first time is usually the best. But that wasn’t the case here.

Ubud may be more developed now than it was ten years ago, but it’s still just as magical a place as ever.