The 11 Best Travel Experiences in Indonesia

An active, smoking crater rising from the middle of a vast ash-grey "Sea of Sand" caldera in East Java, ringed by the taller peaks of the Tengger massif.

The classic sunrise viewpoint at Mount Penanjakan looks out over Bromo's smoking cone and several neighbouring volcanoes at once, one of Southeast Asia's most celebrated views.

Horses and jeeps ferry visitors across the sand sea to the crater's base, from which several hundred stairs climb to the smoking rim itself.

Raja Ampat's four main islands and hundreds of smaller limestone islets sit at the heart of the Coral Triangle, the most biodiverse marine environment on Earth, with reefs holding far more coral and fish species than the Caribbean.

Above water, karst islands draped in jungle ring turquoise lagoons; below, divers and snorkelers find manta rays, reef sharks, and dense coral gardens largely undamaged by mass tourism.

Reaching it takes real commitment, but few marine destinations compare.

Borobudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Central Java and the world's largest Buddhist temple.

Its nine stacked platforms are decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues; the three circular upper tiers hold 72 openwork stupas, each containing a Buddha statue, creating one of the world's greatest religious monuments.

Volcanic islands rise steeply out of turquoise water in this remote Indonesian archipelago, the only place on Earth with wild Komodo dragons.

Padar Island's ridge walk looks down on three separate curved bays at once, and Pink Beach takes its colour from crushed red coral mixed through the sand.

The surrounding waters are among Indonesia's best for manta rays and drift diving.

Emerald rice terraces cascade down hillsides at Tegalalang, ancient sea temples perch on offshore rock at Tanah Lot, and Mount Agung looms over the east of the island.

Bali packs jungle, volcano, temple and coast into an island small enough to cross in a day, with a Hindu ceremonial calendar running visibly through daily life.

The southern beach strip is heavily developed; the north and east still are not.

Prambanan is Indonesia's largest Hindu temple complex, its central shrine to Shiva soaring nearly 47 meters above a UNESCO-listed field of 9th-century stone spires.

The reliefs lining its inner galleries narrate the Ramayana in stone, and the complex hosts an outdoor ballet retelling the same epic on moonlit evenings.

Less crowded and more intricately carved than its Buddhist counterpart Borobudur an hour away, it rewards an unhurried walk around all three main shrines.

Kawah Ijen's crater holds the world's largest highly acidic lake, a turquoise expanse ringed by sulfur-mining tunnels, and after dark, electric-blue flames flicker where sulfuric gas ignites on contact with air.

Miners still carry raw sulfur out by hand in baskets, a punishing job visitors pass on the trail up.

Most people climb in the dark to catch the blue fire before it fades with the sunrise, then look down into the lake itself from the crater rim.

Kelimutu volcano holds three crater lakes side by side, each a different color from mineral and gas activity below, ranging through turquoise, teal, and near-black depending on when you visit.

The lakes have shifted hue repeatedly over recorded history, a phenomenon still not fully explained.

Most visitors arrive before dawn to catch sunrise from the rim, then walk a short paved trail between viewpoints overlooking each lake.

Held over a full month each summer in Denpasar, the Bali Arts Festival gathers traditional dance, gamelan orchestras, shadow puppetry, and crafts from villages across the island into one showcase, opened with a parade of regional delegations in ceremonial dress.

Unlike festivals built around foreign headline acts, this one exists to keep Balinese Hindu performing arts alive for local audiences, with tourists welcome as spectators.

Quiet lanes and dirt tracks wind through Jatiluwih's UNESCO-listed rice terraces, a 600-hectare patchwork of paddies fed by the centuries-old subak irrigation system in central Bali.

Riders pass working farmers, fighting-cock cages and coffee laid out to dry in small villages between the terraces.

E-bikes make the gentle climbs manageable, with wide views over layered green paddies to Mount Batukaru behind.

Tanah Lot's Hindu sea temple sits on a small rock outcrop just offshore, cut off from the mainland at high tide and reachable on foot when the water recedes.

Built around a natural spring the Balinese consider sacred, it's one of several coastal temples protecting Bali from sea spirits, and among the most photographed silhouettes on the island at sunset.

The temple interior is closed to non-worshippers, so the visit is really about the setting and the ritual crowds gathering for dusk.