Indonesia
Indonesia in ten days
Two of the great monuments of Asia, an island that is four holidays at once, and a national park where the water matters more than the dragons.
Overview
Java first, Bali second, Flores last
Indonesia is seventeen thousand islands and a ten-day route can honestly cover three. The order is not negotiable. Java first, because Borobudur is a stone mound with no shade on it and you want it on a morning when you are still getting up early. Bali second, for the interior rather than the coast. Flores last, because the Komodo boats are the part of the trip that weather can move, and putting them at the end means a lost day costs you a beach afternoon rather than a temple.
Two flights hold it together and we build both of them loose. Yogyakarta to Denpasar is an hour and twenty; Denpasar to Labuan Bajo is an hour and twenty to an hour and a half. We apply two rules without exception: no boat day on the day you fly into Labuan Bajo, because the morning departures leave before the first aircraft lands, and no flight out on the day the boat comes back.
- Length
- 10 days, 9 nights
- Group
- Private, up to 12
- Starts
- Yogyakarta
- Ends
- Denpasar
- Internal flights
- Two, each about 80 to 90 minutes
- Best months
- May to September
Nights
The nights, in order
Day by day
What happens each day
Day 1
Into central Java
A first evening in a city with no traffic to speak of
Yogyakarta’s airport is forty-five kilometres west of the city, which surprises people. There is a rail link from the terminal that reaches the city in about forty minutes and beats the road at almost any hour, and we use it unless your luggage argues otherwise. Nothing else is planned. The city is flat, low-rise and built for students, and walking one evening of it is the best introduction.
Day 2
Borobudur at opening, Prambanan at the other end of the day
The upper terraces at Borobudur, on a timed slot, before eight
Borobudur first and early. It is the largest Buddhist monument in the world, built in the ninth century, abandoned, buried under volcanic ash and forest and dug out again in the nineteenth. Numbers on the upper terraces are capped and sold as a timed slot with a guide, which is booked before you fly rather than on the day. By ten the stone is unpleasant to stand on. The middle of the day is off, and Prambanan — its Hindu counterpart from roughly the same century, the Shiva temple about forty-seven metres — comes late, because it faces west and improves as the light drops.
Day 3
The sultan’s city, and the volcano if you want it
Wayang kulit in the evening, performed for nobody in particular
Yogyakarta is the one place in Indonesia where a hereditary monarch is also the provincial governor, and the kraton is a working court rather than a museum — gamelan rehearsals on set days and a household of retainers in batik. Then Taman Sari, the ruined eighteenth-century bathing complex behind it, and the batik workshops, which are an industry here rather than a souvenir trade. An optional dawn start instead: the jeep run across the southern flank of Merapi, an hour and a half of very recent history with a guide who generally lost something in the 2010 eruption. It is not a climb and the summit is not open.
Day 4
Across to Bali, and up into the middle of it
The first evening above the gorge, with the frogs starting
An hour and twenty in the air to Denpasar, then the transfer up to Ubud, which is about an hour and a half and considerably longer in the southern traffic. We put people a little outside the town — north towards Tegallalang, or west above the Ayung gorge — because the centre has been thoroughly commercialised and the ten kilometres around it have not.
Day 5
Water temples and the terraces that are not the famous ones
Jatiluwih, where the terraces go on past where you can see
Tirta Empul at opening, because the bathing there is a live rite and by mid-morning it is a queue. Then west to Jatiluwih, an hour and a half: a UNESCO-listed irrigation landscape, much larger and far quieter than the terraces on the Tegallalang road, and the place to understand the subak water-sharing system that organises Balinese farming. The swing platforms on the tourist road can be left alone without regret.
Day 6
Ubud, unscheduled
The terrace paths at six, before anything opens
No guide and no car unless you ask. The paths through the fields north of the town at six in the morning, a carver or a painter, a gamelan rehearsal, the market before the coaches. Or Mount Batur before dawn — two hours up volcanic scree in the dark with a good deal of company at the top — if that is the kind of thing you came for.
Day 7
East to Flores, and nothing else
The harbour full of wooden phinisi at dusk
An hour and twenty to an hour and a half to Labuan Bajo, which is a single road above a harbour on the western end of Flores and is not a destination in itself. It is where the boats are. The afternoon is the harbour and a hill for the sunset, and that is deliberate: the park boats leave before the first flight of the day lands, so a boat day today is not possible and we will not sell you one.
Day 8
Padar at first light, and the mantas
Mantas at Karang Makassar, which is the best hour in the park
Out before six. Padar is thirty to forty minutes up cut steps for the view over three bays that has become the image of the whole park. Then Karang Makassar, where manta rays come in over the shallow reef to be cleaned and the current does most of the swimming for you. Pink Beach in the afternoon. Park fees are collected per person per day at the gate, with ranger and activity charges on top, and they are included in your quote.
Day 9
The dragons, honestly
The reef stops, which are why people come back
Komodo or Rinca, and a short guided walk on flat ground with a ranger carrying a forked stick. There are somewhere around three thousand Komodo dragons in the wild, almost all on these two islands; they reach three metres and seventy kilograms, they are genuinely dangerous, and they are usually lying still in the shade doing nothing. Most visitors get twenty minutes out of it rather than a day, and that is not a criticism of the animal but a correction to the brochures. The rest of the day is snorkelling and the boat home in the late afternoon.
Day 10
Back to Bali, and onward
Leaving with a day of margin rather than none
An hour and twenty to an hour and a half to Denpasar and the international connection from there. We never book this flight for the day the boat comes back, which is why the boat days are eight and nine rather than nine and ten, and we keep at least four hours between the domestic arrival and the long-haul departure.
Paperwork
Entry, the arrival card and the Bali levy
Indonesia is straightforward and has three separate things to file or pay, which is two more than most people expect.
- No visa exemption for European, North American, Australian or Northeast Asian passports. Visa on arrival is 30 days, extendable once by another 30, bought on arrival or in advance through the immigration e-visa portal.
- The All Indonesia arrival card is compulsory and free, filed within 72 hours of arrival.
- Bali charges a separate tourist levy per person. It exists, it is collected, and we do not quote the amount here — your coordinator gives you the current figure and how to pay it before you fly.
- Proof of onward travel is checked. Passport valid six months, two blank pages.
- One date to know before booking flights: Nyepi, the Balinese day of silence, falls in March and closes the whole island for twenty-four hours, airport included. Nothing opens and nobody travels. It cannot be worked around and we will move your dates rather than try.
We do not publish visa fees or the levy amount. The current figures are on the official Indonesian portals, and your coordinator confirms them in writing, with the window for filing the arrival card for every traveller.
Pictures
What the ten days look like
Borobudur
Prambanan
Bali
JatiluwihPadar
RincaCost
How we quote it
| Travellers | Comfortable hotels | Boutique and luxury |
|---|---|---|
| 2 travellers | On request | On request |
| 4 – 6 travellers | On request | On request |
Bali has the deepest luxury tier in Southeast Asia and Labuan Bajo has caught up faster than its infrastructure has; Yogyakarta has neither extreme and is the cheapest three nights on this site. The boats separate the columns as much as the rooms do — a shared day boat and a private phinisi are the same itinerary with a different number of people on it. Ask and the figure comes back within a working day, itemised.
Included
What the quote covers
What the price includes
- Private air-conditioned car and driver on Java, on Bali and at Labuan Bajo, with all airport transfers.
- English-speaking licensed guides at Borobudur and Prambanan, in the kraton, at the Balinese temples and terraces, and on both park boat days. Free days have no guide, by design.
- Both internal flights — Yogyakarta to Denpasar and Denpasar to Labuan Bajo — in economy with checked baggage, and the return to Denpasar, all booked with margin rather than tight connections.
- Nine nights with breakfast: three in Yogyakarta, three outside Ubud and three on the hillside at Labuan Bajo.
- Lunch on both temple days on Java, at Jatiluwih and on both boat days.
- The timed upper-terrace slot at Borobudur with a site guide, booked before you fly.
- Two full days in the Komodo national park by boat, with park entry, ranger charges and activity fees paid per person per day.
- Entrance fees to everything named above, including Prambanan, the kraton, Taman Sari, Tirta Empul and Jatiluwih.
- A coordinator on an Indonesian number for the whole trip, and a written note of the visa route, the arrival card window and the Bali levy with the current figure.
What it does not include
- International flights into the first city and out of the last.
- Visa fees and entry charges. We do not publish these figures — the current ones are on the government’s official portal, and your coordinator confirms them in writing before you travel.
- Travel insurance, which we ask every traveller to hold.
- Meals not named in the day-by-day, and all drinks.
- Tips for guides, drivers and boat crew.
- Personal expenses: laundry, telephone, spa treatments, anything bought.
Straight talk
Who should not book this route
Three islands and two flights in ten days is a schedule, not a rest. Five travellers should take the Bali week or the ten-day Java and Bali route instead.
- Anyone who wants a beach holiday. There are no beach nights here at all. Ubud is an hour and a half from the coast and Labuan Bajo is a working harbour town. If the sea is the point, the Bali week with a coast at the end is the trip you want.
- Anyone who cannot swim or does not want to be on a boat. Two of the ten days are boat days and on a boat day there is nothing else to do. Take Java and Bali alone and the route becomes seven days and a good deal calmer.
- Anyone coming primarily to see Komodo dragons. They are a twenty-minute walk with a ranger, and the animal is usually asleep. The water is the reason to go to that park, and if snorkelling is not for you, the leg is not worth two flights.
- Anyone travelling in January or February. That is the wettest stretch on Bali and the worst of the sea conditions in the Flores Sea, where boat days are cancelled at short notice. The temples on Java are fine; the rest of the route is not reliably.
- Anyone whose dates include Nyepi. The whole of Bali closes for twenty-four hours in March, airport included, and both of this route’s flights touch Denpasar. We move the dates rather than attempt it.
Two monuments, one interior, two days on the water.
Plan My Trip
Start from this route
Tell us your dates and we will tell you what the Flores Sea is doing in them. A quote and an amended day-by-day follow within a working day.
Common questions
Questions travellers ask most
Do we need to sleep on the boat at Komodo?
No. Day boats run from Labuan Bajo and this route stays ashore. Two nights aboard buys the early mornings, when the park is empty, and removes about four hours of transit a day. It is the difference most divers care about and many other travellers do not.
Could we drop Java?
You could, and Borobudur and Prambanan are the reason not to. They are two of the great monuments of Asia, an hour apart, in a country most itineraries visit only for its beaches. Drop Flores instead if something has to go, and give Bali five nights.
Why not do Bali last?
Because the boat days are the weather risk and they belong where a lost day is cheapest — at the end, next to the margin. Putting Bali last means a cancelled Komodo day eats a temple morning instead of an afternoon by a pool.
Which months?
May to September is dry across all three islands, and May, June and September are the ones we push people towards — the same weather as July and August with noticeably fewer people. January and February are the wettest on Bali and the roughest in the Flores Sea.
Journey ideas
Where a private route could take you
Example itinerary — fully customizable
Bali
Seven days: the middle of the island, then a coast you chose on purpose.
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Example itinerary — fully customizable
Bali & Java
Ten days, two islands, one short flight and no land borders.
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Indonesia
Yogyakarta
Two or three nights of Java, an hour and twenty from Bali by air.
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Indonesia
Komodo & Labuan Bajo
Three or four nights, almost all of them decided by the sea rather than the sky.
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Let’s plan your journey
Five quick questions. Your coordinator will take it from there.
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