Family

Our top 13 tips for Waterbom Park in Bali

By Kelly Noble

Posted on April 23, 2023

With stacks of us in Bali for the school holdiays, we thought it would be a great time to throw some helpful tips your way, if you’re thinking of heading to the ever-popular Waterbom Park.

Bali is back on the menu, and Aussies can’t get enough. With stacks of us over on the tropical island for these school holidays, we thought it would be a great time to throw some helpful tips your way, if you’re thinking of heading to the ever-popular Waterbom Park.

It’s pricey. Go prepared. A family pass will set you back around $170 (2 adults, 2 kids) plus towel hire, food, drinks, and other additional expenses once you’re inside. It’s not your usual “cheap” Bali experience, but don’t worry, it’s a good one.
You can’t take food and drink from outside in, however you can take one bottle of mineral water per person. Don’t bring a bag full of snacks and have to ditch them all.
If you’re wearing board shorts with little rivets in the back pocket, you either have to let the staff cut those out or turn your shorts inside out (which can be quite the spectacle if you have “underwear” built into the shorts). Better to plan ahead. This also applies to bikini tops with metal clasps at the back, and Rashies or bathers with zippers. They won’t let you on the slides wearing them.
Book the cabanas ahead. Even if you get in early, you won’t get a cabana. We learnt this the hard way.
Check out Groupon deals and other online discounts ahead of going. You can save a bit of coin this way. If you don’t plan ahead you can always buy tickets at the door.
When you buy your tickets, they give you a “splash band” which is a spending wrist band, and suggest you load with $50 cash. This is the only way you can buy things in the park like food and drink. Any unused money can be refunded at the end of the day. Keep in mind though, if you’re hiring towels, it’s only $2 per towel but there’s also a $6 deposit each, so for a family of 4, you can quickly eat into the suggested $50 loading on your cash band. If you intend on getting towels, load up your band with $100 at the start to save having to almost immediately reload it.
There’s plenty of cruisey spots for parents to hang while kids go on the rides. I had a nice calm “resort” style experience at their relaxing pool, while the kids went from slide to slide having a ball. You wouldn’t have even known there was a water park raging around you. If you’re going down the chill parent road, bring a book and plenty of sunscreen. Not everywhere is shaded.Setting up a spot as your home base is always a good idea in case anyone gets lost or separated.
As nobody will have phones on them it’s easy to lose each other. There’s also a site wide broadcast system which regularly reunites families who have strayed from each other so don’t worry if you can’t find each other. You will.
Bring a waterproof pouch for your phone if you want to film on some (not all) of the slides. If you buy them there, it will set you back $20-$30 whereas you can buy them on the beach for a 10th of the price.
Expect to stay longer than you planned. It’s a massive place and the kids love it. We’ve never left early. It’s usually 5+ hours… luckily there’s lots of places to eat and drink, swim up bars, places for massages, hair braiding, manis and pedis and more.
Get in early. While the cabanas book out, the banana lounges are free to grab but there’s only limited numbers so when they’re gone, they’re gone as most people stay all day. Earlier in the day is better for the lines as well.
There are roaming photographers throughout the park snapping you all day. While there’s a set price to print each photo, if you go down the digital route you can get pretty much unlimited photos for $35, so make the most of it and get posing! May as well get bang for your buck as they charge the same whether you have 2 photos or 20.
If you and your family are all planning on going on the slides, make use of the lockers to keep your gear safe.