This could easily be a 1/5, but we left with gorgeous photos which bumps it up by one. It's a long drive to get there so be prepared. On arrival, you immediately get swarmed by people trying to sell you a sarong. Be firm and decline them - you a given a sarong to wear when you buy a ticket. They also insist on a guide as well as buying a blessing, donating to the temple and tipping the guide. All these expenses we didn't know about or expect coming to the place, so be warned. We didn't have a lot of cash on us so we didn't give much, which the guide didn't hesitate to take us on a guilt trip for. It was an uncomfortable experience overall and we felt rushed through it. I would much rather be able to go at our own pace (which would've been a lot slower, but the guide needs his next of customers right?). This place comes up a lot as a "must-see" in Bali, but hard disagree from me. Give the place a miss, unless you are fully prepared to pay a lot more than they advertise.

Beautiful temple, but an awful experience overall because of all the pushy aggressive sellers that surround you once you enter the parking lot, try to sell you stuff saying it’s mandatory to access the temple while it’s actually not, wrapping you in sarongs without your consent, shouting at you. Then you are followed by very persistent “local guides” that pressure you into hiring them, even though you can just explore yourself, which is what we preferred. We were however pressured to hire this guide, that did give us some info but we could totally do without. The impression of this beautiful place is spoiled completely, I won’t recommend going there to anyone. We are happy to explore Bali temples and pay the fees, which are by the way higher for foreigners, but we don’t want to be seen as money bags. Stop harassing tourists!

The tempel itself is nice, but there is to much hustling and aggressive guides and photographers. The ticket say the guide is included, but at the end they as for 10 USD. The guide is not that knowledgeable, so I think it is a better experience walking around by yourself without guide and photographer.

I really wanted this site to be a beauty, buy was disappointed on several fronts. The actual architecture was mind blowing, but there were and exorbitant amount of wild dogs, barking, fighting, begging for food etc. It really puts a damper on the whole experience visiting the site. There is a lack of signage, so we got yelled at for accidentally entering a holy site. There was garbage and dog Pooh everywhere. Really disappointed because this site could be so much more unpleasant. Wonder why it’s not a UNESCO site…they need better management.

Disappointed with the experience - felt like I was at a small amusement park. Temple building itself is magnificent especially when Mount Agung is visible. However, it did not feel like a temple. It was loud, guides speaking very loudly, makeshift stalls littered throughout the temple complex with vendors speaking very loudly. The guide was not very informative and pressed fairly strongly for a tip. I did not feel like I was at a temple. Truly disappointing when considering what an incredible building it is.

Large and impressive temple complex but has become overly focused on mass tourism to the extent there is now a shuttle to take visitors from the ticket office up to the maon part of the temple complex and a lot of shops within the temple complex. Furthermore, the various sellers (drinks, postcards, souvenirs, etc) are probably the pushiest of any temple I have been to in Bali and and do not not seem to understand "no thank you" (even when my (private) guide repeated it in Bahasa, they still persisted). As with many temples in Bali nowadays, the main part of the various temples (including the main temple, Pura Penataran Agung) is closed to visitors (you can only go in if you are there to worship) so there is actually a lot of the complex you cannot see. There was one temple (Pura Gelap), towards the top of the complex, that was open to visitors (but I sense unofficially) and there you were met by the temple priests who showed you how the Hindus who come to the temple pray but then try get you to give an IDR 200,000 (approx. £22/US$30) "donation to the temple" and are quite insistent about it and weren't happy when I gave IDR 60,000 (which my guide felt was far more appropriate).

You can not visit the temple without a guide and guide is included with the ticket price. You need to be lucky enough about the guide delegated to you. I guess our guide had a rush and didn’t wanted to spend time under the sun. I told him that we have travelled to Bali and spend 2 hours to reach here and paid a lot of money not only to enter the temple but also to reach here. Also our guide didn’t know English all he said was Brahma right, Shiva middle, Vishnu left. So why you can not bring your own guide and have to pray for luck? You need to get in line to take a photo but paid photographers doesn’t respect the line and want to pay them even if you take the photo.