Bali fills the first week. The other islands fill the rest.
Which Batur climb reaches the rim before the light, what a Nusa Penida boat day costs once the park fees land, and whether Borobudur is worth the flight to Java. Reviews of every tour you can book across Indonesia.
A crater at dawn, three waterfalls, a temple gate, a boat to Penida.
The four bookings a first Indonesian fortnight hangs off. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The two a.m. startMount Batur Sunrise Hike with BreakfastHead torch on at the trailhead, the rim by half past five, breakfast cooked in the steam vents while Agung comes out of the haze.
02The waterfall dayBest of Bali Waterfalls: Tibumana, Tukad Cepung and TegenunganTibumana, Tukad Cepung and Tegenungan in one run. Cepung is the one where the light drops through the gorge roof, and it only does it mid-morning.
03The east Bali dayEast Bali Tour: Gate of Heaven, Water Palace, Sleeping GajahLempuyang’s split gate, the water palace at Tirta Gangga, and a long drive that pays for itself in the first hour.
04The boat to PenidaNusa Penida day trip: boat, 4 snorkeling, Manta rays & Land tourFour snorkel stops, the manta cleaning station off the south coast, then Kelingking from the cliff top on the way back.
Ubud is the base almost every Bali itinerary ends up built on.
Everything around Ubud →
It sits an hour inland with the gorges, the terraces and the volcano road all within reach of one driver, which is why more of the island’s tours start here than anywhere on the coast. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the valley.
Three waterfalls, one driver
Tibumana is the easy one, Tukad Cepung is the cave, Tegenungan is the loud one you can reach in flip-flops. Going in that order keeps you ahead of the minibuses and puts you in the gorge when the light beam lands.
Tegallalang, early or not at all
The terraces face east, so the shape only reads before ten. After that it is coach parks and a queue for the swing. The Jatiluwih terraces an hour north are wider, quieter and a UNESCO site nobody photographs.
Campuhan ridge, then the valley floor
The ridge walk is flat, free and empty at six. Longer guided versions drop off the back into the Sayan valley, cross the Ayung on a footbridge and come back up through the coffee smallholdings.
Batur on foot, Bromo by jeep, or Ijen in the dark. Pick your crater.
Indonesia sits on a hundred and thirty active volcanoes and sells the sunrise on four of them. Three kinds of mountain morning, what it costs to join each one, and which island it is on.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring Option
Batur before dawnTwo hours up by torchlight, breakfast steamed in a vent on the rim.
Bromo and Ijen, on JavaA jeep across the sand sea, then the sulphur path down into the blue flames.
The hot springs afterLake-fed pools at the foot of Batur, an hour off the mountain and worth the stop.
Every guided walkRidge lines above Ubud, jungle in Sumatra, and the two nights up Rinjani.
All 113 sunrise climbs →
The most-booked days out in Indonesia.
Every Indonesian tour we have reviewed →More travellers take these than anything else between Sumatra and Flores, and what each one does to earn the slot.
1
All-Inclusive Ubud Private Tour
Spend 8 to 10 hours exploring Ubud with a private driver-guide, stopping at a Balinese home, Monkey Forest, Tegalalang Rice Terrace, Tirta Empul, and Tegenungan Waterfall. Lunch, bottled water, entrance fees, swing costumes, transport, and photo help are included. Guides such as Guna, Eka, Swandi, and Komang Godoh are praised for their care and local insight.
From · $100
Read our review →
2
Best of Ubud Full-Day Tour with Jungle Swing
from $56
3
Monkey Forest, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace, and Water Temple
from $31
4
️Nusa Penida by Private Boat – Snorkeling 4 spots, Swim with Mantas + Land Tour
from $100
5
Best of Ubud 1-Day Private Tour
from $54
6
Ubud Palace Legong Dance Show Ticket
from $6
7
Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran Beach
from $35
8
Tanah Lot and North Bali Tour: Scenic Journey
from $100
Six bases, and the day out each one is actually good for.
Rice valley and gorge waterfalls inland, surf and sunset beach clubs on the west coast, the quiet reef end in the south, a Javanese court city with two temple complexes beside it, and a volcano island with the Gilis off its shoulder.
Gorge waterfalls, terraced hillsides and a forest full of macaques.
Inland Bali is a wet, steep, cultivated place, and the best of it is within an hour of Ubud. Take the waterfalls early while the gorges are still in shade, the terraces before the coaches, and the forest whenever, with your sunglasses in a bag.
The reef days that make people extend the trip.
Manta cleaning stations off Penida’s south wall, a mola mola season nowhere else keeps to, turtles in the shallows at the Gilis, and a two-day boat east through Komodo. The fast boats leave Sanur early and the sea gets up by lunch, so the good version of this day starts at seven.
Java has the two temple complexes and the volcano that outranks them.
Borobudur is nine stacked terraces of carved stone with a sunrise queue and a daily cap on the upper levels. Prambanan is sharper, taller and twenty minutes the other side of Yogyakarta. Then there is Bromo, a jeep across a grey sand sea before first light, four hours east.
Every day out in Yogyakarta →
Lombok is what Bali was before the airport got busy.
Rinjani is a two-night climb to a crater lake and the hardest thing most people do on this trip. Everything else is gentler: waterfalls in the north, a coastline of empty bays in the south, and three car-free islands an hour offshore where the turtles graze in waist-deep water.
- 1Learn to cook Indonesian food at Gili Cooking Classes Trawanganfrom $33
- 2Tetebatu Walking Tour – Rice Terraces, Waterfall & Monkey Forestfrom $68
- 3Gili Island Snorkeling Trip – Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, & Gili Air, From Lombokfrom $88
Indonesia, sorted by what the day costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A large share of the best days here come in under the cost of a beach-club lunch.
Dance tickets, waterfall runs, cooking classes, the coffee smallholdings and most of what leaves Ubud in a minibus.
The full-day standards: Batur with a jeep, the Penida boat, east Bali with a driver, Borobudur and Prambanan together.
Private guides for a whole day, liveaboards east to Komodo, Bromo and Ijen back to back, and the helicopter minute.
Three things that only happen in Indonesia.
Beaches and waterfalls turn up all over southeast Asia. A hundred men chanting in place of an orchestra, a lizard that hunts buffalo, and a spring you queue up to stand under do not.
The Kecak Chant
A ring of men, sometimes a hundred of them, produce the entire soundtrack with their voices while the Ramayana plays out in the middle and a fire burns down between the verses. It was pieced together in the 1930s from a trance ritual, which is why it sounds like nothing else on the island. The Uluwatu version runs at sunset on a cliff above the surf break, and the monkeys at the gate will take a pair of sunglasses given the chance.
- 1Ubud Palace Legong Dance Show Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,979 reviews
- 2Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,681 reviews
- 3Ubud Kecak and Fire Dance Show Tickets★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,631 reviews
Komodo National Park
The dragons live on two islands and nowhere else on earth, which is a long way from Bali: fly to Labuan Bajo, then a boat, then a ranger with a forked stick. The same park holds Padar’s three-coloured bays and a manta channel at Karang Makassar. Most people go for the lizard and talk about the water afterwards.
- 1Exclusive Early Bird Komodo Tour: Beat the Crowds by Speed Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,038 reviews
- 2Explore Komodo and Swim with Whale Sharks★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 138 reviews
- 3Full Day Trip to Explore 6 Destinations in Labuan Bajo and Komodo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 116 reviews
Purification at Tirta Empul
A spring has been running through the same stone basins at Tampaksiring since the tenth century, and Balinese families still queue along the wall to go under each spout in order. Visitors can join it with a sarong and a guide who explains which fountains to skip. Go at opening, before the tour buses turn the pool into a photo queue.
- 1Monkey Forest, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace, and Water Temple★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,160 reviews
- 2Full-Day Tour to Water Temples and UNESCO Rice Terraces in Bali★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,539 reviews
- 3Private Uluwatu Temple and Kecak Fire Dance Evening Tour in Jimbaran Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,199 reviews
Four Indonesian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast for the same afternoon. These four run on pre-dawn departures, park quotas and boat timetables that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Mount Batur Sunrise Hike and Natural Hot Spring OptionThe climb runs on one pre-dawn pickup, somewhere between two and three in the morning. Miss it and there is no second departure that day.
- 02Borobudur Sunrise from setumbu Hill , Merapi Volcano & Prambanan Full Day TourClimbing to the upper terraces runs on timed slots with a daily cap and sandals issued at the gate. Ground-level entry is easier; the stupas are not.
- 033Days – Tumpaksewu Bromo Ijen Adventure via Malang or SurabayaThe blue flames only show in the dark. The crater path opens around one in the morning and the colour is gone as soon as the light comes up.
- 04Exclusive Early Bird Komodo Tour: Beat the Crowds by Speed BoatBoats into the national park leave Labuan Bajo on a fixed morning departure, and the park charges its conservation fee per person on the day.
Wet-season afternoons, and the day the whole island stops.
From November to March the rain arrives in the afternoon, sits for two hours and leaves the gorges running too hard to swim in. Plan the outdoor half before lunch. Nyepi is the harder date: for twenty-four hours every March the Balinese observe silence, the airport closes, nothing moves on the roads and guests stay inside their hotels. Both have the same answer, which is a roof and something to do under it.
By place — Bali, Java and the islands east
By kind of day — crater, reef, gorge or gamelan
Ubud, a crater, Penida, the south coast, then Java if the days allow.
UluwatuJust reviewed, across the islands.
More reviews just in →
Ubud Village Sightseeing, Famous Paddy Field And Ubud Waterfall
Read our review →
Bali Sekumpul with Fiji Waterfall & Bedugul Temple (Private Tour)
Read our review →
Bali Private Car Charter with English Speaking Driver
Read our review →
Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport Pickup to Ubud Area
Read our review →
Private Half-Day Tour: Tanah Lot Sunset Trip Packages
Read our review →
Bali Tour: The Best Way to Explore The Highlight of Bali
Read our review →
Private Full-Day Tour: Waterfall, Temple, Volcano, Rice Terrace & Monkey Forest
Read our review →
Bali Day Trip to Ubud Highlight Tour and Tanah Lot Temple
Read our review →
Bali River Tubing Adventure and ATV Ride Packages
Read our review →
Private Transport With Experts Local Balinese Driver
Read our review →