Bali, the temples, the volcanoes and thousands of islands: Indonesia is nature, spirituality and dream beaches.
Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world: more than 17,000 islands spread over thousands of kilometres, with hundreds of active volcanoes, jungle, coral reefs among the best on the planet and an enormous cultural and religious diversity. For most travellers it is synonymous with Bali, but that is merely the gateway to a giant country where you can trek volcanoes at dawn, dive with manta rays, see Komodo dragons and get lost on almost untouched islands.
The bulk of the tourism concentrates on the Lesser Sunda islands. Bali is the heart: terraced rice fields, Hindu temples, surf, yoga in Ubud and the southern beaches. Beside it are Lombok and the three Gili islands, a car-free snorkelling paradise, and further east Flores and Komodo, with their dragons and world-class diving. Java, the most populous island, has the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan and iconic volcanoes like Bromo and Ijen. Sumatra, Sulawesi and Raja Ampat, in Papua, are the wildest and most remote Indonesia.
The best of it is the sheer variety — in one trip you combine beach, culture, adventure and diving — and how cheap it is. What surprises you at first is how touristy and congested the south of Bali has become, with traffic and construction, a sharp contrast with the calm you still find as soon as you step off the well-worn circuit.
The local currency is the Indonesian rupiah (IDR). Prepare your brain for a lot of zeros: a plate of food runs into tens of thousands of rupiah and a cash withdrawal leaves you holding hundreds of thousands. Outside Bali and the big cities cash rules, so carry small notes, tell your bank before travelling and check the day's rate, because the numbers are impressive but worth little.
Full converter for IDR →There are direct long-haul flights to Jakarta (CGK) and Denpasar in Bali (DPS) from several European and Gulf hubs, and from North America you connect through Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Singapore or Doha; Bali is usually the more convenient gateway for tourism. Once inside, moving around the archipelago is part of the adventure: Indonesia is more than 17,000 islands spread over thousands of kilometres, so the distances are enormous. For the long hops it is best to fly with local airlines such as Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air or Citilink, which connect the main islands at accessible prices. Between nearby islands — Bali, Lombok, the Gilis, Flores — ferries and fast boats also run, ideal for short legs and for enjoying the scenery without rushing.
Indonesia sits on the equator, so there is no summer or winter but two seasons: dry and wet. The best time for most of the country (Bali, Java, Lombok, Flores) is the dry season, May to September, with clear skies, less humidity and the best conditions for volcanoes, beach and diving. July and August are the tourist peak, coinciding with northern hemisphere holidays, so there are more people and higher prices; June and September are a sweet spot with good weather and fewer crowds.
The rainy season runs from October or November to March, with heavy downpours, often in the afternoon, and more humidity; it is not a bad time to travel, with lower prices and intense green, but the sea can be rough for some crossings and diving in Komodo or the Gilis has worse visibility. One important detail: being an enormous archipelago, the climate varies between islands and regions, and places like Raja Ampat follow their own wind patterns. If the aim is diving or volcanoes, aim for the dry season without question.
Indonesian food is tasty, spiced and very cheap. The dishes to try: nasi goreng (fried rice with egg, the national dish) and its cousin mie goreng with noodles, satay or sate (meat skewers with peanut sauce), gado-gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce), rendang (a dry beef curry from Sumatra, considered one of the best dishes in the world) and nasi campur (rice with a taste of several sides). In Bali there are specialities like babi guling, roast suckling pig, and bebek betutu, spiced duck.
You eat extremely cheaply at the warungs, the local family canteens: a full plate costs USD 1.50 to 3, verified July 2026, while a fashionable café or a beach club in south Bali can charge you almost Western prices. The typical non-alcoholic drinks are fruit juice and coffee — Indonesia produces excellent coffees, including the famous and controversial kopi luwak. The local beer is Bintang. Tipping is not customary at warungs; tourist restaurants usually add a service charge to the bill.
Indonesia is generally a safe destination, with hospitable people and low levels of violence against tourists. The most common nuisances are petty theft and minor scams, above all in the tourist areas of Bali: bags or phones snatched from motorbikes, wrong change at dodgy exchange offices — use only official ones displaying an authorisation sign — and the classic scooter hire problem, where you can be charged for non-existent damage on return, so take photos and video first. The biggest real risk, and the main cause of tourist accidents, is riding a motorbike without experience and without a helmet. The sea also demands respect: there are strong currents on several surf beaches.
There are no compulsory vaccinations, but hepatitis A and typhoid are recommended and you should guard against dengue with repellent; in some rural areas of islands like Sumatra or Papua there can be malaria, so check according to your route. Tap water is not drinkable: always drink bottled. The famous 'Bali belly', traveller's diarrhoea, is common in the first few days, so go gently with the food at first. Remember that Indonesia sits on the Ring of Fire: there is volcanic and seismic activity. Travel insurance with good medical and evacuation cover is essential. The general emergency number is 112, verified July 2026.
Indonesia is one of the destinations where money goes furthest, though the south of Bali pushes prices up. On a backpacker profile you travel comfortably on about USD 30 to 40 a day; a mid-range profile runs USD 60 to 90 a day; and from USD 130 a day you travel with real room to spare, with good villas and activities like diving or a Komodo tour, verified July 2026. These figures exclude flights, both the international one and the internal hops between islands, which add up.
Concrete references, July 2026: a hostel dorm bed costs USD 7 to 14 and a decent private double or bungalow USD 20 to 45 — in Bali there are villas with a pool from USD 40 to 60 that are an affordable luxury. A plate at a local warung runs USD 1.50 to 3 and a meal at a tourist restaurant USD 6 to 12. Renting a scooter for a day costs USD 4 to 7 and a Grab or Gojek ride USD 1 to 4. A fast boat from Bali to the Gilis is around USD 25 to 40; an Open Water diving course USD 350 to 450; entry to Borobudur or Ijen about USD 15 to 25. The e-VOA on entry costs around USD 32 (IDR 500,000).
The official language is Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia), easy to pronounce and in the Latin alphabet, though each island also has its own language — in Bali they speak Balinese. English is handled well in the tourist areas of Bali, Lombok and Java, but the level drops sharply as soon as you move away, so Google Translate offline helps. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, but Bali is mainly Hindu, so customs change from island to island: dressing modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, matters in Muslim areas and is compulsory in temples, where you must also put on a sarong. Use your right hand to give, receive and eat, never the left.
The plug is type C/F, two round pins as in much of Europe, and the voltage is 230 V, so European devices work directly while North American ones may need a converter; check your chargers accept 220-240 V. Connectivity is good in tourist areas: buy a tourist SIM or eSIM from Telkomsel, which has the best coverage, on arrival for around USD 8 to 15 with plenty of data. Two pieces of advice from having been there: do not underestimate the distances and the traffic, since crossing the south of Bali end to end can take hours, so allow margin; and download the Gojek and Grab apps, which handle transfers, food delivery and errands at fixed cheap prices and save you haggling with taxi drivers.
No other country in the world is shaped like Indonesia: some 17,000 islands spread across more than 5,000 kilometres of ocean, between the Indian and Pacific oceans, straddling the equator. It is the largest archipelago on Earth, the fourth most populous country (more than 270 million people) and the largest Muslim-majority nation on the planet. Yet within its borders you find Hindu Bali, Christian villages on Flores and Sulawesi, animists in the mountains of Papua and more than 700 living languages. The national motto sums it up in Old Javanese: 'Bhinneka Tunggal Ika', unity in diversity. That all of this is a single country is, in itself, one of the great facts of modern history.
This is the story of how a string of islands separated by the sea ended up as one republic. The great Hindu-Buddhist maritime empires that built Borobudur passed through here. So did the merchants who brought Islam, the Portuguese chasing cloves and nutmeg, and above all the Dutch East India Company, which exploited the archipelago as its colonial jewel for three and a half centuries. It is also the story of the nationalist awakening, the Japanese occupation, independence proclaimed in 1945 and won in blood, and the two figures who dominated Indonesia's 20th century: Sukarno and Suharto. We tell it with dates, names and figures, including the darkest chapters.
Read the full history of Indonesia →Pick a region and open each destination to see what to do, prices and how to get there.
These are the sources we cite most across this country's guides, with how many times each appears. Hard data —tickets, opening hours, requirements, transport— comes from the official source and carries the date we checked it. Restaurant and hotel picks come from guides and reviews, and we say so on each page.
