Travel advice for Indonesia
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Indonesia
written by Daniel Stables
updated 31.08.2021
Bali’s beautiful beaches and shimmering rice paddies have made it a justifiably famous tourist destination – but there’s so much more of Indonesia waiting to be explored.
The world's largest archipelago, with a huge 17,000 islands, Indonesia is home to ancient ruins, world-class diving and incredible wildlife, including the critically endangered orangutan and fearsome Komodo dragon. Here, we've picked seven adventures in Indonesia not to be missed.
6 days / from830 USD
Bali's Beaches and Temples
Experience Bali's brilliant beaches and temples with this stunning trip. Marvel at ancient temples like Tanah Lot and Pura Besakih, soak in stunning sunsets, stroll bare-footed along the best beaches in Bali and haggle at local markets – experience all of this, and much more, with this unique trip!
customize ⤍10 days / from1600 USD
Rest and Relaxation in Bali and Lombok
This unique trip will take you to some of Bali and Lombok's most traditional places. Look forward to driving through tropical landscapes and spending time in villages nestled in scenic spots of traditional luxury with infinity pools and stunning vistas over the ocean.
customize ⤍10 days / from2100 USD
Royal Bali - Culture & Beaches
Enjoy a luxurious stay in Bali, with hand-picked 5 Star Hotels. This trip includes privately guided tours as well as leisure time, ideal for families with kids. Highlights include sea temple Tanah Lot, Jatiluwih rice terraces and Uluwatu temple with its famous Kecak dance.
customize ⤍14 days / from4025 USD
The Best of Bali
This trip will take you from the modern-day Bali to the traditional one. Bali has many adventures to offer, tour the countryside with a Vespa or glide through the hidden canyons. You will also be able to enjoy visits to enchanting villages, where you can take in the local way of life.
customize ⤍10 days / from1783 USD
Java and Lombok - culture and beaches
Start your trip in Yogyakarta (also called Jogja) with its rich cultural past such as the Borobudur temple. From there continue to hike Mount Bromo and explore more of East Java in Malang and Surabaya. End your trip on the dreamy beaches of Kuta/Lombok, dubbed 'the next Bali'.
customize ⤍12 days / from1250 USD
Singapore & Bali - A Unique Exploration
Combine Southeast Asia's smallest country Singapore with its largest country: Indonesia. Spend a few days exploring the metropolis before flying to the magical island of Bali. Temples, volcanoes and ceremonies are part of your itinerary, as are the gorgeous beaches of Nusa Lembongan.
customize ⤍14 days / from2600 USD
Culture, volcanoes and dragons - Bali, Flores & Komodo
Combine several islands on one trip - start in Bali's cultural capital Ubud before heading to the rice fields in Sidemen. A short flight to Flores allows you to explore volcanoes and local villages before hopping on a cruise around Komodo and other islands close to Labuan Bajo. Dragons included!
customize ⤍10 days / from1320 USD
Love trip to Bali
Celebrate your love union on this magical island. Included are couples massages at relaxing spas, a blessing ceremony by a Balinese priest, an authentic cooking class and of course - a beautiful white sandy beach on Nusa Lembongan to relax towards the end of your trip.
customize ⤍7 days / from1750 USD
Bali Yoga Retreat
Discover a new you with this rejuvenating Bali-based yoga retreat. Enjoy personalised yoga and meditation classes, together with revitalising Ayurvedic treatments, all in idyllic surroundings. The cuisine is a treat for all the senses; you will also have the chance to explore the temples of Bali.
customize ⤍14 days / from1691 USD
Unknown Java and Bali - an overland adventure
A fast-paced itinerary packing plenty of highlights: discover the temples of Prambanan and Borobudur and sunrises at Mount Bromo and Mount Ijen before heading to Bali: a beautiful underwater world and the landscapes of Ubud and Sidemen await.
customize ⤍7 days / from1300 USD
Java Discovery
Experience the magic of Java, the third-largest of the Indonesian Islands, with this stunning trip! Discover stunning ancient temple complexes, ride a bicycle through idyllic rural villages, climb to Mount Ijen's crater at sunrise and laze around on palm-fringed tropical beaches!
customize ⤍10 days / from2768 USD
Nature in Borneo and Relaxation in Riau
Experience the best of both worlds with this unique trip to Indonesia. Embark on a cruise up the Rungan River, where you will discover incredible wildlife and traditional villages, before continuing on to the Telunas Resort, a deserted island paradise that will be your home for a few days.
customize ⤍14 days / from3800 USD
Indonesia Island Hop
From your base on Bali's renowned beaches you'll island hop your way round glorious Hindu temples and heritage sites. See komodo dragons, partake in a traditional Balinese ceremony, meet with a Hindu High Priest and visit local villages: this trip to Indonesia ticks all the tropical getaway boxes.
customize ⤍13 days / from1550 USD
Exploring Bali's Culture & Gili's beaches
Dive deep into Balinese culture from Ubud and Sidemen. Visits include rice field walks, the Gates of Heaven, water temples like Tirta Empul and Tirta Gangga as well as a traditional cooking class. Your trip ends with the beaches of Gili Air and Jimbaran.
customize ⤍Sumatra is a naturalist’s dream, home to innumerable creatures that exist nowhere else on earth. Sadly it also represents the last – and probably fast-disappearing – the opportunity to see many of them. The Sumatran tiger is scattered across the island, and Kerinci Seblat National Park offers the best (though still slim) chance of seeing it before it goes the way of its extinct Balinese and Javan relatives.
Other critically endangered inhabitants include the Sumatran elephant, Sumatran rhinoceros and Rafflesia arnoldii, the largest flower on Earth, whose putrid stench has earned it the nickname "corpse flower".
© NataliaVo/Shutterstock
Kalimantan, the Indonesian lion’s share of the huge island of Borneo, promises wild adventure like nowhere else in Southeast Asia. Borneo is the only home of the critically endangered Bornean orangutan, and Tanjung Puting National Park offers unrivalled opportunities to see these "people of the forest" up close.
You’ll take a cruise on a traditional klotok riverboat, an impossibly romantic way to make your way through the jungle, stopping off at feeding stations and viewing platforms. While the orangutans are the stars here, they’re joined by an impressive supporting cast of clouded leopards, long-snouted gharial crocodiles and gibbons.
© Sergey Uryadnikov/Shutterstock
Of Indonesia’s thousands of islands, few are as beautiful as the Togians, 56 perfect dots of rock, beach and jungle rising from the Gulf of Tomini in central Sulawesi. It’s not easy to get there – a good three days on buses and ferries from Tana Toraja – but determined travellers will get their reward.
The diving is first-class, with a sociable scene on the island of Kadidiri, and the snorkelling’s pretty spectacular too. At Jellyfish Lake, you can enjoy the therapeutic, if counter-intuitive, experience of swimming with thousands of non-stinging jellies, while the volcanic island of Una-Una makes for a picturesque day trip.
Discover more attractive island destinations in Indonesia with our guide to unforgettable Indonesian islands to visit.
© ludo/Shutterstock
Indonesia has no shortage of world-class dive sites, and the likes of Crystal Bay and Tulamben are a big draw for many visitors to Bali. The best of all, though, lie way off the beaten track: the islands of Raja Ampat, off the coast of Papua.
With pristine coral reefs home to thousands of fish species, this is the most biodiverse marine environment in the world, and you’ll spot kaleidoscopic nudibranchs, huge manta rays and "walking" epaulette sharks, among many others. It’s still largely free of the crowds, but tourists are very well catered for, with plenty of dive resorts and liveaboards.
© Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock
Most tourists make only a passing visit to Java, the most populous island on the planet, in the form of a stopover in the polluted smog-bowl that is the capital, Jakarta. However, further to the east lie some truly remarkable ancient treasures.
Chief among them is Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world, which was covered by thick jungle until the nineteenth century – it’s 1200 years old, but it looks brand new. A similarly remarkable Hindu temple complex, Prambanan, lies nearby.
World biggest Buddhist temple Aerial view at sunrise, Borobudur, Indonesia © Shutterstock
Few creatures exert such a grip on the Western imagination as the fabled Komodo dragon. The world’s largest lizard has been the subject of many myths since Dutch colonisers sent tales of "land crocodiles" back to Europe in the early twentieth century.
Up to 3m long and 80kg in weight, their toxic bite can fell prey as large as water buffalo, with the dragons stalking their victims for weeks as they slowly die. They live only on a small group of islands off Flores, easily reachable from the charming port town of Labuanbajo.
© GUDKOV ANDREY/Shutterstock
The spectacular highlands of South Sulawesi are a picture of serenity: water buffalo graze and goldfish bob in tumbling rice paddies, overlooking colourful villages with soaring horn-shaped roofs. It’s somewhat surprising, then, to learn that this is a land obsessed with death.
Most Torajans are nominally Christians, but their long-held animist traditions abide, centred around elaborate funeral rites in which hundreds of pigs and buffalo are sacrificed over several days. Foreign visitors can attend these ceremonies that, though graphic, are a vital part of Torajan tradition.
Cave style burial sites in Tanah Toraja © Ade Lukmanul Hakimmm/Shutterstock
Explore more exciting attractions Indonesia has to offer with our guide to the best things to do in Indonesia.
Top image: Buddist temple Borobudur, Yogyakarta, Indonesia © Pambudi Yoga Perdana/Shutterstock
written by Daniel Stables
updated 31.08.2021
Daniel has authored, co-authored or contributed to more than 30 travel books for Rough Guides, Insight Guides, DK Eyewitness and Berlitz, on destinations as far afield as Indonesia, Nepal, Oman, Mexico, Tokyo, Thailand and Spain. He regularly writes articles for a variety of travel publications, online and in print, including BBC Travel, The Independent, Lonely Planet, and National Geographic Traveller. Read more of his work at danielstables.co.uk.
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