High up in the mountains above Bandung City there is a stunning cascade named Curug Aseupan. It is just 1 out of other cascades all clustered in an area outside of Bandung city. And is nestled in a stunning landscape among tropical trees and vegetation.
Curug Aseupan is in a nature park known as Curug Tilu Leuwi Opat. The name of the park translates to 3 waterfalls, 1 river. So I guess the name itself sort of gives it away!
And you can expect an interesting day out if you decide to come here.
If you want to see one of the best things to do while you visit Bandung, then consider Curug Aseupan. It will most definitely be a highlight of your trip.
Information about Curug Aseupan is quite limited because it seems not so many people visit this place. And also, most blogs or any other information is in Bahasa – Indonesian.
We decided to just jump onto our scooter and go check out the place for ourselves. And we created this guide for anyone else going there later on.
So you might want to read on if you’re visiting Bandung and want to include this tourist spot in your itinerary. I say this because finding Curug Aseupan proved to be a bit more complicated than we had expected. Below is an explanation on how to find the place if you end up in the wrong place as we did.
WHERE IS CURUG ASEUPAN
Curug Aseupan is a waterfall in the Bandung regency on the west part of Java island – Indonesia.
The stunning cascade is sort of in the middle of two nature parks. One of the parks is Ciwangun Indah Camp and the other park is Curug Tilu Leuwi Opat.
If you’re in Bandung and intend to visit this waterfall or one of the nature parks, the ride will be about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Aseupan Waterfall is in the North of Bandung. So the time it will take you to get there will depend entirely on how much further South of Bandung you are located.
If you’re doing other things or have a list of attractions in North Bandung, then consider staying in an area named Lembang.
Lembang is an area in the highlands further north of Bandung City. Here you’ll be high in the mountains with a cooler climate. And some of the best tourist spots and interesting places are already somewhere in the North.
HOW TO GET TO CURUG ASEUPAN
Here is a bit of information that you should keep in mind to avoid any confusion on getting there.
If you input the name of the waterfall (Curug Aseupan) in Google.Maps, we can confirm that the location is correct. However, for some reason Google.Maps will take you to the wrong entry point.
The map will take you to the entry point of a park named Ciwangun Indah Camp (C.I.C). Although C.I.C is a nature park near Curug Aseupan it isn’t the right entry point. And makes finding Curug Aseupan a bit more complicated than it should actually be.
Therefore, instead of typing in Curug Aseupan, make sure you type in Curug Tilu Leuwi Opat because that is the official entry point. It will be a lot easier to find the cascade if you enter from the right place.
But don’t worry if you end up in the wrong place because…
…we did too and it turn out that both parks are connected.
We had no idea that there are actually 2 parks near each other. Or that google maps was going to take us to the wrong entry point.
But, as long as you know the directions, it turns out that you can actually cross from one park to the other.
If you end up at C.I.C which is the wrong park, follow the stairs inside, and at the first directional arrows, take the stairs down on the left until you see a blue bridge with a bamboo path. I’ve put a picture of the bridge below.
Basically, Curug Aseupan is at the end of a valley and the bridge is directly above the cascade. You can actually hear the raging water while standing on the bamboo bridge.
There are 2 ways from here to get to Curug Aseupan.
Either cross over the bridge, turn left and walk along the trail on that side of the valley.
Then when you see a trail down into farmland with cabbage and lettuce, follow the path. And before you reach the end of that field, you should see another, (not that well defined) path on the left.
The path crosses right through a cultivated field. So be careful not to step on the crops.
Follow that path down and you will end up near a river. Curug Aseupan is further up the river.
But the easiest option is not to cross over the bridge. Instead, on the opposite side of the valley, you’ll see a canal waterway system. What you need to do is follow that canal until you reach an open area and see a flight of stairs down.
Walk down the stairs, at some point you’ll see the beautiful cascade through the foliage and vegetation.
CURUG ASEUPAN ENTRANCE FEE
There is a fee of IDR 15,000 which will include the complete area of whichever park you go to.
Keep in mind that because Ciwangun Indah Camp and Curug Tilu Leuwi Opat are 2 separate parks, each place requires its own entrance fee of IDR 15,000.
So if you use the unofficial trail (as mentioned above) to cross over from one park to another, someone will probably ask you to pay for the ticket.
SAFETY
We rarely have a guide come with us because we always prefer to do things at our own pace.
However, this time it was a different situation. Because we couldn’t find where the cascade was and needed to ask one of the park maintenance guys for directions.
Not only did was the worker super friendly and showed us the way, but also decided to come with us.
Probably he realized that we tend to get lost very easily!
I’m glad he came because we would have missed out, and maybe even got hurt.
You have to keep in mind that getting close to the cascade is a bit challenging.
First, you need to wade through a knee-deep river on an uneven bed full of rocks and with a strong current. Then there is a steep slippery steel ladder that leads up to a narrow passage.
The ladder will be closed with a rope blocking the way*.
And once you scale the ladder and get closer to the raging waterfall, the entire place is dripping with water due to all the spray from the massive cascades.
And the path along a ridge is extremely slippery .
If you intend to get really close to the waterfall, like actually passing from behind it as Jacqueline did, then you really need to be careful because it is very easy to slip into a turbulent pool where the powerful cascade plunges.
Therefore, what I suggest is to ask one of the park workers to show you the way. A guide/worker will help you in the slippery parts and show you where to place your footing or places to avoid walking.
I’m not sure if there are any guides at Curug Aseupan or if the friendly guy that showed us the way was a worker in the park. Either way, he was very helpful and also offered to use our Go Pro to film some tricky parts.
*maybe a guide/worker is mandatory to get close to the fall since the ladder was sort of closed off. Although there may not be any fixed price for a guide we still paid/tipped the equivalent amount of somewhere with official guide prices.
HOW MUCH TIME SHOULD YOU SPEND
The time you spend is entirely up to you. Because there are so many places to wander around and beautiful cascades. You could easily spend an entire day.
Just to give you a perspective, once we arrived near Curug Aseupan, we spent about 30 to 45 minutes directly near the waterfall. Like just literally getting soaked with all the spray.
And then we stayed another 1 hour hanging out in a small hut near the cascade. In the meantime, Jacqueline was trying to dry her soaking wet clothes.
Having said that, remember to bring some extra clothes.
If you consider getting close to the cascade, bring a pair of clothes to change into. So you don’t spend the rest of the day in wet clothes.
Inside the park, there are some warungs scattered around but were closed when we were there. So I think the warungs only open on weekends and holidays when most people visit.
But there were a couple of shops open at the entrance gate from the C.I.C side and had small snacks like crisps and noodles and coffees. So probably there are a few shops at the Curug Tilu Leuwi Opat entrance too.
CURUG ASEUPAN – THE MOST STUNNING CASCADE IN NORTH BANDUNG
There is no denying that Curug Aseupan is either one of, or maybe the most stunning cascades that anyone could visit from Bandung or Lembang.
But it is surprising that there is little information about this cascade. This also means not so many people visit the place.
When we came there wasn’t a single person in the park. Besides the people working there.
So there is a good chance you’ll get Curug Aseupan all to yourself.
I only came across Curug Aseupan while scrolling through a random Indonesia feed on Instagram.
To reach Curug Aseupan we rode our scooter from Lembang where we were staying. Staying in Lembang is convenient because the ride is about 30 minutes.
Once we got there and eventually figured out where the cascade was located, we couldn’t believe our eyes.
From far away, all we could see was a narrow canyon-like creek and 3 raging cascades at the end.
Our guide [or park worker], lead us through the river and up to Aseupan waterfall.
It may not be the largest cascade but getting so close is rather intimidating.
All the rocks, the path along a ridge, and a small bridge are soaked with water and slippery which makes it even more challenging.
And then our guide came up to us and said, “let’s just pass from behind the waterfall”. At this point, I was actually trying to figure out whether he was serious or not.
It turned out to be true and Jacqueline went behind the fall getting completely soaked while I stayed filming and photographing the dramatic scene.
So keep in mind to pack an extra pair of clothes to change in so you don’t need to worry about getting too wet.
In the end, Curug Aseupan was far more than we had expected.
FINAL NOTE
In the end, Curug Aseupan turned out to be much more than we had expected. Especially the fact you can actually walk behind that flow of water and get completely soaked was something we had never imagined.
If you’re planning to go to Curug Aseupan, make sure to save the URL of this article. Or pin it to Pinterest for future reference. And if you have other travel buddies or adventurous family members, share it on your socials and get everyone inspired to visit this beautiful place.
FIND OTHER THINGS TO DO IN BANDUNG HERE
One last thingy: While you’re in Java make sure to visit the most impressive natural wonders in East Java because some are so unique you won’t find anything similar anywhere else. And if maybe you’re in Bali, it doesn’t really matter because you can cross over to East Java with a 30-minute ferry.
READ OUR EAST JAVA ROUTE GUIDE
All Our Indonesia Guides.
>>Do you want to know more about amazing places in Asia? Subscribe to our e-mail list and get your dose of travel inspiration with our itineraries, guides, and useful tips about amazing places that will help you put together an amazing trip!!