Travel guide
Featured on October 12, 2026
Bahasa Indonesia was named before the republic existed.
Places
Walk it clockwise and the reliefs resolve into ships, markets, court scenes and Buddhist stories before the upper terraces open into bell-shaped stupas. It works best as a slow climb, not a quick sunrise trophy.
Tip: If you want to climb onto the monument rather than just view it from the grounds, book the capped temple ticket ahead; give it half a day.
Use it as a base for Bali at street level: dawn offerings, small museums, temple courtyards and evening dance, with rice fields and village lanes a short walk beyond the traffic. It is where ritual life and the visitor economy are easiest to see in the same frame.
Tip: Stay just outside the center if you can; the core clogs by late morning, and the best walks are early.
Take a boat out from Labuan Bajo for ranger-led walks among Komodo dragons, then snorkel over reefs and manta sites between dry, folded islands. The scenery is all hard hills, pink beaches and very clear water.
Tip: Give it two days if you can; day trips are common but rushed, and park fees and boats are worth budgeting for.
You go before dawn, first for the overlook across the caldera, then across the ash plain, then up the stairs to the crater rim while sulfur drifts past. It feels more lunar than tropical.
Tip: Bring a warm layer for the pre-sunrise wait, and go on a weekday if you want fewer jeeps and less queueing at the viewpoints.
Go for tongkonan houses with their upturned roofs, cliff graves, hanging coffins and a highland culture that makes death public and architectural. Even without a funeral, the burial sites and villages make the beliefs legible.
Tip: Base yourself in Rantepao and give it two or three days; ask before photographing ceremonies or the dead.
Eat
Steamed rice with a spread of Minangkabau dishes such as beef rendang, curried jackfruit, cassava leaves, fried chicken and sambal, from which you pay only for what you eat.
Where: At rumah makan Padang, especially at lunch, when the small plates are carried to the table all at once.
Young jackfruit simmered for hours with coconut milk, palm sugar and spices, usually served with chicken, egg and spicy krecek made from cattle skin.
Where: At breakfast warungs in Yogyakarta, especially around Jalan Wijilan.
Boiled or fried fish-and-sago cakes, often with egg inside, eaten with dark cuko sauce made from palm sugar, vinegar, garlic and chili.
Where: At pempek shops and market counters in Palembang, where people order mixed plates to share.
A dark, spiced beef soup thickened with ground peanuts and often including offal, eaten with ketupat or rice cakes.
Where: At coto stalls in Makassar, often for breakfast or a late lunch.
Story
Stand in a Yogyakarta lane at dawn and the air smells of clove cigarettes, frying tempeh and wet stone. By breakfast you are pointing at dishes in a warung, and by noon someone is explaining why the island you are on is not like the next one over. Then the call to prayer starts, scooters keep flowing, and the idea of one country made from so many seas and languages stops being abstract.
In 671 the monk Yijing stopped in Srivijaya on Sumatra to learn Sanskrit before sailing on to India. The kingdom lived off the narrow shipping lane of the Strait of Malacca; every season brought new hulls, cargoes and prayers. In Central Java, Sailendra rulers stacked volcanic stone into Borobudur and carved ocean-going ships into its walls. In 1336, at the Majapahit court, the commander Gajah Mada made his Palapa oath and spoke of islands as if one power could hold them.
On 16 August 1945 young activists took Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta to Rengasdengklok, afraid the moment would slip after Japan's surrender. The next morning, at 56 Pegangsaan Timur in Jakarta, Sukarno stepped onto a veranda and read a proclamation that took about a minute. The Dutch tried to return. The next four years ran through ports, plantations and village roads until sovereignty was transferred in 1949.
In May 1998 students filled the parliament complex in Jakarta and Suharto resigned after three decades in power. Reformasi opened the press and pushed power outward. In 2014 Joko Widodo, a former furniture exporter from Solo, became the first president from outside the old political and military elite. Today the argument happens everywhere at once: in mosque courtyards, mall food courts, village halls and on phones.
Say hello
Permisi
Excuse me; may I get past?
Say: puhr-MEE-see
Terima kasih banyak
Thanks a lot
Say: tuh-REE-mah KAH-seeh BAH-nyak
Boleh foto?
May I take a photo?
Say: BOH-leh FOH-toh
Tidak pakai sambal
No chili paste, please
Say: TEE-dak PAH-kai SAHM-bal
Bisa kurang?
Can you lower the price?
Say: BEE-sah KOO-rang
Surprises
Mount Tambora's eruption in 1815 helped cause the 'year without a summer.' Ash and aerosols from Sumbawa cooled weather far beyond the archipelago.
The Wallace Line runs between Bali and Lombok. Cross that narrow strait and the animal world shifts so sharply that the boundary still anchors biology textbooks.
Puncak Jaya in Papua has carried tropical glaciers almost on the equator. They are shrinking so fast that scientists now study them as a vanishing archive of climate.
Quiz
Which small Indonesian island was traded away in the deal that left the English with Manhattan?
Run, in the Banda Islands, was one of the world's nutmeg prizes. The Treaty of Breda in 1667 confirmed Dutch control of Run while the English kept New Amsterdam, which became Manhattan.
3 days
Day 1
Morning at the Kraton and Taman Sari in Yogyakarta, afternoon in Kotagede for batik or silver, evening angkringan snacks and a walk along Malioboro.
Day 2
Leave early for Borobudur, stay for the reliefs rather than just the sunrise rush, then stop at Pawon and Mendut before returning to Yogyakarta for gamelan or a batik workshop.
Day 3
Morning at Prambanan, afternoon on the Kaliurang side of Mount Merapi, evening back in Yogyakarta for a last market meal or the Ramayana Ballet.
At a glance
At a glance
Member of
Neighbouring countries
Listen
The song of the day
Bengawan Solo
Gesang
Written in 1940, it became one of the country's great standards, the old song almost everyone knows.
Play a 30-second preview30-second clip via Apple Music
Before you go, watch or read
Bumi Manusia
Book
Read it in English as This Earth of Mankind if you need to; Pramoedya opens up late-colonial Java, race, schools, railways and the arguments that became nationalism.
Entry requirements
Indonesia entry requirements by passport: of 197 passports, 24 can enter without a visa, 75 get a visa on arrival, 88 apply online before they travel and 10 need a visa from an embassy or consulate.
Find your passport for the documents, the cost and how long you can stay.
Safety
Due to terrorism and natural disasters
US State Dept, updated October 10, 2025. Advisories change: check your own government's travel advice before you go.
From the community
🇮🇩 Today's country is Indonesia. Bahasa Indonesia was named before the republic existed. Stand in a Yogyakarta lane at dawn and the air smells of clove cigarettes, frying tempeh and wet stone. By breakfast you are pointing at dishes in a warung, and by noon someone is explaining why the island you are on is not like the next one over. Then the call to prayer starts, scooters keep flowing, and the idea of one country made from so many seas and languages stops being abstract. 📍 Places to…
Questions
Travel guide
6 travelers6 trips3 wishlisted
4.7(3 ratings)
See who has been there and what you need to travel.
Timor-Leste
Malaysia
Papua New Guinea
Singapore
Philippines
Australia
Thailand
India
Palau
Vietnam