Mushroom-shaped karst islets covered in green forest, scattered across the turquoise lagoon at Wayag, Raja Ampat
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
Borobudur's stone stupas silhouetted at sunrise, with Mount Merapi on the horizon
Gunung Api rising from the Banda Sea, seen from Banda Neira

Travelsaya: Indonesia, one island at a time

Banda Neira, Maluku Borobudur, Java Wayag, Raja Ampat Bromo, East Java Padar, Komodo

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

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

Bromo at 3am is a traffic jam

Photograph: Thomas Fuhrmann, CC BY-SA 4.0

Every jeep on the mountain converges on the same viewpoint above Cemoro Lawang. The people who walk up get the better sunrise, and the crater rim to themselves.

Tongkonan houses at Kete Kesu in the Tana Toraja highlands

Toraja keeps its dead close

Photograph: Ansensius, CC BY-SA 4.0

Cliff graves, tau-tau effigies and funerals that run for days. Visitors are welcome at most ceremonies, but ask before you photograph anything.

The turquoise bay and headlands of Tanjung Aan on Lombok's south coast

Lombok’s south coast, before the villas

Photograph: Dhika Ayu Agustin Cahyani, CC BY-SA 4.0

MotoGP came to Mandalika in 2022. Twenty minutes west of the circuit, the fishing bays still set their own hours and sell the catch on the sand.

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

The boulders are the beach

Photograph: Raflinoer32, CC BY-SA 4.0

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

A window in Fort Belgica's wall framing Gunung Api and the ramparts below

Nutmeg paid for these forts

Photograph: Zhilal Darma, CC BY-SA 4.0

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

Six ways to travel the archipelago

Events not
to miss

Explore all events
Borobudur's stupas at sunrise, Central Java

Waisak at Borobudur

May · Full moon

Magelang, Central Java

The Jatiluwih rice terraces in Bali

Nyepi, the day of silence

March · New moon

Bali

The south coast of Lombok near Kuta

Bau Nyale

February or March

Kuta, South Lombok

Mount Bromo and its smoking crater at sunrise

Yadnya Kasada at Bromo

June or July · Kasada

Cemoro Lawang, East Java

Tongkonan houses at Kete Kesu, Tana Toraja

Funeral season in Toraja

July to September

Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi

A Komodo dragon walking across dry grass

Dragon mating season

August to September

Komodo and Rinca