The mushroom-shaped karst islets of Wayag, Raja Ampat, ringed by pale turquoise water
Mount Bromo at sunrise, its crater smoking above a sea of cloud
The three bays of Padar Island at dawn, with dry brown ridges and a pale blue sea
The stone terraces and bell-shaped stupas of Borobudur in Central Java
The waterfront, colonial fort and volcanic cone of Banda Neira seen from the sea

The Travelsaya journal

Indonesia, one island at a time

Field notes, ferry timetables and routes that work — from the karst of Raja Ampat to the ash of Bromo.

Start with Raja Ampat
Banda Neira, Maluku Wayag, Raja Ampat Bromo, East Java

Latest from the road

Routes, written from the timetable up

No listicles. Each guide is one trip, with the ferries, platforms and park desks that make it work.

All five guides
The limestone towers and lagoon of Piaynemo in Raja Ampat, seen from the lookout West Papua

Raja Ampat without a liveaboard

Ferries, homestays and a rented motorbike: the marine park on an ordinary budget.

Guide8 min read
A white and orange Indonesian passenger train crossing a green valley Java

Six days across Java by train

Itinerary7 min read
 The three bays of Padar Island at dawn, with dry brown ridges and a pale blue sea Flores

Padar at sunrise, dragons after breakfast

Guide8 min read
Granite boulders and calm water at Tanjung Tinggi beach, Belitung Belitung

Four days in Belitung

Itinerary6 min read
 The waterfront and colonial fort at Banda Neira, seen from the sea Maluku

The Banda Islands by public ferry

Guide7 min read

Find the best of Indonesia

Visit Indonesia

Outline map of Indonesia with seven travel regions labelled Sumatra Java Kalimantan Sulawesi Bali & Nusa Tenggara Maluku & Papua Belitung & Riau

Base map: Indonesia provinces outline map — Afrogindahood, CC BY-SA 4.0. Recoloured; boundaries unchanged.

Spotlight

What postcards miss

Five observations from the road: the hour before a temple opens, the reason a ferry leaves late, the cliff that holds a family’s name.

Read the field notes
01 / 05
Mount Bromo at sunrise, with the crater smoking above a sea of cloud
East Java

Bromo at 3am is a traffic jam

Every jeep on the mountain converges on the same viewpoint. The walkers get the better sunrise.

Traditional Tongkonan houses with tall curved roofs in Tana Toraja
Sulawesi

Toraja keeps its dead close

Cliff graves, tau-tau effigies and funerals that run for days. Ask before you photograph.

The curved bay and headlands of Kuta beach on the south coast of Lombok
Nusa Tenggara

Lombok’s south coast, before the villas

MotoGP came to Mandalika in 2022. Twenty minutes west of it, the fishing bays still set their own hours.

Large granite boulders framing a quiet beach at Tanjung Tinggi, Belitung
Belitung

The boulders are the beach

At Tanjung Tinggi the granite comes right down to the water. Go at low tide, not noon.

Banda Neira's waterfront, fort and volcanic cone seen from the sea
Maluku

Nutmeg paid for these forts

Banda was the only place on earth growing nutmeg. The Dutch, the British and the Bandanese all paid for it.

Choose a way in

Six ways to travel the archipelago

All seven regions

Plan around the calendar

Events not
to miss

When to go
Borobudur temple at Magelang, Central Java Java

May · Full moon

Waisak at Borobudur

Magelang, Central Java

The Jatiluwih rice terraces in Bali Bali

March · New moon

Nyepi, the day of silence

Bali

Kuta beach on the south coast of Lombok Lombok

February or March

Bau Nyale

Kuta, South Lombok

Mount Bromo and its smoking crater at sunrise East Java

June or July · Kasada

Yadnya Kasada at Bromo

Cemoro Lawang, East Java

Tongkonan houses in Batutumonga village, Tana Toraja Sulawesi

July to September

Funeral season in Toraja

Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi

A Komodo dragon walking across dry grass Flores

August to September

Dragon mating season

Komodo and Rinca

About the journal

A working notebook, not a brochure.

Travelsaya covers Indonesia the way you move through it: the morning ferry, the second-class carriage, the warung that opens before the mosque. Five long guides so far, seven regions mapped, more islands each month.

Every photograph on this site is licensed from Wikimedia Commons and credited in full at the bottom of the page. Nothing here is sponsored.

How we travel Plan a trip