Java and Bali: Borobudur, Bromo and Ubud

1. Day 1: Arrive in Jakarta

   Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to central Jakarta, then Kota Tua

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Jakarta
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK), west of the city, where a driver meets you for the transfer into central Jakarta, usually about an hour but longer in heavy traffic. If you land by about 2 pm, join your See Sight Tours guide and the group in the late afternoon for a first walk in Kota Tua, the old town of Dutch Batavia. Fatahillah Square is at its best as the heat goes out of the day: the white former city hall on its south side, finished in 1710, is now the Jakarta History Museum, and the square fills with families, cyclists and street vendors towards evening. A short drive away, wooden pinisi schooners still load cargo at the old harbour of Sunda Kelapa. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner and a briefing on the two weeks ahead: trains, early starts, what to pack for the cold at Bromo, and how the days are paced.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)
   • Late-afternoon walk in Kota Tua: Fatahillah Square and Sunda Kelapa harbour
   • Welcome dinner and briefing with your guide

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon walk

   Activity: Land by about 2 pm to join the Kota Tua walk; later arrivals meet the group at the welcome dinner.

2. Day 2: By train across Java to Yogyakarta

   Jakarta to Yogyakarta by executive-class train

   • By train
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Yogyakarta
   Day 2 details

   After breakfast we take an executive-class train from Gambir station in central Jakarta to Yogyakarta, a journey of about seven hours. It is the comfortable way to cross Java: reclining seats, air-conditioning and a long view of the island from the window, first the flat rice country of the north coast, then the hills and volcanoes of Central Java. Lunch is a Javanese meal on board, served at your seat. We arrive in the afternoon and settle into a central hotel for three nights, so nobody repacks until day 5. In the evening your guide takes the group out for street food on foot: gudeg, young jackfruit slow-cooked in palm sugar and coconut milk, the dish Yogyakarta is known for, and a glass of kopi joss at a roadside angkringan stall, black coffee with a lump of glowing charcoal dropped into it. The walk ends near Malioboro, the city's long main street, so you can stay out or head back to the hotel.

   Included

   • Executive-class train from Jakarta (Gambir) to Yogyakarta
   • Lunch on the train
   • Evening street food walk with your guide, with dinner

   Activity: If the timetable changes, we take the nearest executive-class train; times are confirmed with your final itinerary.

3. Day 3: Borobudur at sunrise

   Yogyakarta to Punthuk Setumbu and Borobudur, then back to Yogyakarta

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Yogyakarta
   Day 3 details

   We leave Yogyakarta at about 4 am and drive an hour and a quarter to Punthuk Setumbu, a wooded hill west of Borobudur. A short climb on steps and a path brings you to the viewpoint in time for sunrise, when the temple rises out of the valley mist with the volcanoes Merapi and Merbabu behind it. Breakfast follows, then Borobudur itself as the park opens. Built in the 8th and 9th centuries and listed by UNESCO in 1991, it is the largest Buddhist monument in the world: nine stacked terraces, about 2,670 carved relief panels and 504 Buddha statues, with 72 bell-shaped stupas around the summit. Numbers allowed onto the monument are capped each day with timed tickets, so we book the earliest slot we can and walk the galleries with a local guide. On the way back we stop at the small temples of Pawon and Mendut, and lunch is a sit-down meal in a village near Borobudur. The afternoon is free.

   Included

   • Sunrise over Borobudur from Punthuk Setumbu
   • Borobudur with a local guide, including a timed ticket onto the monument where available
   • Mendut and Pawon temples
   • Sit-down lunch near Borobudur

   Easier option: Skip the sunrise climb and join the group for breakfast at Borobudur, leaving the hotel at about 6:30 am.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Yogyakarta

   Activity: A 4 am start. The sunrise path takes about 15 minutes on steps; on the monument, special sandals are handed out and must be worn.

4. Day 4: The Kraton, Prambanan and the Ramayana

   Yogyakarta: the Kraton and Taman Sari, then Prambanan

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Yogyakarta
   Day 4 details

   A slower morning in the city. Your guide walks you through the Kraton, the palace of the Sultan of Yogyakarta, whose pavilions, gamelan sets and court regalia explain why the city still has a reigning sultan, and on to Taman Sari, the 18th-century royal water garden with its bathing pools and underground passages. Lunch together, then a rest through the heat of the day. In the late afternoon we drive about 45 minutes east to Prambanan, the 9th-century Hindu temple compound listed by UNESCO alongside Borobudur. The central shrine to Shiva rises 47 m, flanked by the temples of Brahma and Vishnu, and the stone turns gold in the last hour before closing, when the day visitors have mostly gone. Dinner is nearby, then the Ramayana Ballet, danced to gamelan on an open-air stage with the floodlit temples behind it in the dry season, and indoors in the wet months.

   Included

   • The Kraton (Sultan's Palace) and Taman Sari with your guide
   • Lunch in Yogyakarta
   • Prambanan in the late afternoon
   • Dinner and the Ramayana Ballet at Prambanan

   Free time: Early afternoon free to rest

   Activity: The Kraton opens in the morning only and closes on some days and for court ceremonies, and the Ramayana Ballet runs on set evenings; we schedule departures so day 4 falls on a Kraton opening day and a performance night, and confirm both with your final itinerary.

5. Day 5: East to the Tengger highlands

   Yogyakarta to Surabaya by train, then by road up to Cemoro Lawang

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bromo (Cemoro Lawang)
   Day 5 details

   A travel day, split so that no single stretch is long. We take a morning executive-class train east from Yogyakarta to Surabaya, about four and a half hours across the farmland of Central and East Java, then sit down to lunch in Surabaya. From there the road runs east on the toll road to Probolinggo and climbs into the Tengger highlands, about 145 km and three and a half to four hours in all, just inside our four-hour limit, with a stop on the way. The air cools as you climb, the rice fields give way to steep plots of potatoes, cabbages and spring onions, and by late afternoon you reach Cemoro Lawang, a village on the rim of the Tengger caldera at about 2,200 m. From the edge of the village you look straight down onto the Sea of Sand, with Bromo smoking in the middle and the cone of Batok beside it. Dinner is at the lodge, with an early night before tomorrow's start.

   Included

   • Executive-class train from Yogyakarta to Surabaya
   • Sit-down lunch in Surabaya
   • Drive with your guide to Cemoro Lawang on the Tengger caldera rim
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Activity: Cemoro Lawang sits at about 2,200 m; nights are cold for most of the year, so bring a warm layer and a hat.

6. Day 6: Sunrise over Bromo

   Cemoro Lawang to a sunrise viewpoint, across the Sea of Sand to Bromo's crater, and back

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bromo (Cemoro Lawang)
   Day 6 details

   Jeeps collect us at about 3:30 am and climb to a viewpoint on the outer rim of the caldera: Penanjakan, at about 2,770 m, or a quieter hill nearby on mornings when Penanjakan is crowded. As the sky lightens, Bromo, Batok and the sea of cloud appear, with Semeru, Java's highest volcano, smoking on the horizon on clear mornings. The jeeps then drop down onto the Sea of Sand, the flat floor of the old caldera, past the Tengger temple of Luhur Poten to the foot of Bromo. A walk across the ash and about 250 concrete steps take you to the crater rim at about 2,330 m, where you look down into the steaming vent, if access is open on the day. We are back at the lodge for a late breakfast. The rest of the day is slow: sleep, then in the afternoon walk along the rim or down through the Tengger village of Ngadisari with your guide, as the light falls across the caldera.

   Included

   • Jeep to a sunrise viewpoint on the caldera rim
   • The Sea of Sand and the walk up to Bromo's crater rim, if access is open
   • Late breakfast, lunch and dinner at the lodge
   • Afternoon walk on the rim or through Ngadisari with your guide

   Easier option: Watch sunrise from the viewpoint, then stay with the jeep on the Sea of Sand instead of climbing to the crater, or ride a horse across the sand to the foot of the steps.

   Free time: Late morning free to rest

   Activity: A 3:30 am start. Temperatures at the viewpoint can be close to freezing at dawn; the crater walk is about 2 km return on loose ash with about 250 steps. Bromo's crater can close when the volcano's alert level rises; the viewpoint usually stays open.

7. Day 7: Across Java's east end and over to Bali

   Cemoro Lawang to Probolinggo, by train to Banyuwangi, by ferry to Gilimanuk, then Pemuteran

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Pemuteran
   Day 7 details

   An early start, because the morning train east leaves Probolinggo at about 8 am. If cloud hid yesterday's sunrise, there is an optional second look: a ten-minute walk from the lodge to the rim at about 5 am for first light over the caldera, back for breakfast at 6. Everyone else sleeps until breakfast. We leave at about 6:45 and drive an hour and a quarter down to Probolinggo for the train along the length of East Java to Banyuwangi, about four and a half hours through rice and sugar-cane country, arriving around midday. The station is a short walk from Ketapang harbour; we have lunch nearby, then the car ferry crosses the Bali Strait to Gilimanuk in about an hour. The ferries run around the clock. From Gilimanuk it is about 45 minutes along the north-west coast to Pemuteran, a quiet fishing village with Hindu temples and a mosque below the hills of West Bali National Park. We arrive mid-afternoon, with time for a swim before dinner. It is the trip's longest travel day, about nine hours door to door, but only about two of them are by road.

   Included

   • Optional early walk to the caldera rim for a second sunrise, about 5 am
   • Morning train from Probolinggo to Banyuwangi
   • Lunch near Ketapang harbour
   • Ferry across the Bali Strait from Ketapang to Gilimanuk
   • Dinner in Pemuteran
   • The Bali tourist levy, paid for you

   Easier option: Skip the early rim walk and sleep until breakfast at 6.

   Free time: Late afternoon free in Pemuteran

   Activity: A 6:45 am departure, timed to the current morning train (leaving Probolinggo at about 8:00 to 8:20 and reaching Ketapang at about 12:15 to 12:45); we confirm the train with your final itinerary. If it does not run, the fallback is the road via Situbondo and the edge of Baluran National Park, about five hours with a lunch stop; we tell you before you travel.

   

8. Day 8: Through the highlands to Ubud

   Pemuteran to Munduk and Lake Beratan, then Ubud

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ubud
   Day 8 details

   Start the morning in the water if you like: Pemuteran's calm bay has a long-running coral restoration project close to the beach, and snorkelling gear is ready for an early swim before breakfast. At about 9 am we leave the coast and climb south into the hills behind Seririt to Munduk, a village of clove and coffee gardens on a ridge at about 800 m, often in cloud by early afternoon. Lunch is a sit-down meal with a view over the valley, then a short walk on the forest paths below the village. The road continues past the twin lakes of Buyan and Tamblingan to Lake Beratan, where the shrines of Pura Ulun Danu Beratan, dedicated to the lake goddess, stand at the water's edge. From there it is downhill through Bedugul and the rice country of Tabanan to Ubud, about four hours of driving, but with the swim, lunch, the walk and the lake it is a full day, six to seven hours on the move. We reach Ubud in the late afternoon, for three nights.

   Included

   • Early swim or snorkel off the beach at Pemuteran, gear provided
   • Sit-down lunch in Munduk and a short forest walk
   • Pura Ulun Danu Beratan on Lake Beratan

   Activity: Mountain roads with many bends; tell your guide if you are prone to travel sickness and we will seat you at the front.

   

9. Day 9: Ubud on foot

   Campuhan Ridge, Ubud Palace and the market, and a dance in the evening

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ubud
   Day 9 details

   Ubud is best early, before the scooters and the day visitors arrive from the coast. At about 6:30 am your guide walks with anyone who wants to go along the Campuhan Ridge, a paved path on a grassy spine between two river valleys, where farmers and joggers are the only other people at that hour. After breakfast we walk into the centre of town: Puri Saren, the palace of Ubud's royal family, with its carved gates and courtyards, and the market across the road, where the morning trade in flowers, fruit and the palm-leaf offerings you will see on every doorstep is over by mid-morning. Lunch is a sit-down Balinese meal, then the afternoon is free to wander the galleries and lanes, book a massage or sleep. In the evening we go to a dance performance, Legong or Barong, by one of Ubud's village troupes, with the full gamelan orchestra, in a palace or temple courtyard.

   Included

   • Dawn walk on the Campuhan Ridge with your guide
   • Puri Saren (Ubud Palace) and the morning market
   • Sit-down lunch in Ubud
   • Evening Balinese dance performance

   Free time: Afternoon free in Ubud

   Activity: The Campuhan Ridge walk is about 4 km return on a paved path with one short climb.

10. Day 10: Water temple and royal tombs

    Ubud to Tirta Empul and Gunung Kawi at Tampaksiring, and back

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Ubud
    Day 10 details

    We leave Ubud at about 7:30 am to reach Tirta Empul, about 40 minutes north, as it opens, before the tour buses. The temple was founded in the 10th century around a holy spring, and Balinese families come to bathe under its row of carved spouts to purify themselves; your guide explains the order of the fountains if you want to join the ritual, in a sarong provided at the gate. A few minutes away, Gunung Kawi is reached by about 300 steps down through rice terraces to a river gorge, where shrines about 7 m tall were carved into the cliff faces in the 11th century, thought to be memorials to a Balinese king and his family. Lunch is at a warung above the rice fields, and we are back in Ubud by early afternoon. The rest of the day is yours: the Sacred Monkey Forest, a cooking class or the pool.

    Included

    • Tirta Empul water temple at opening, sarong included
    • Gunung Kawi rock-cut shrines
    • Lunch above the rice fields

    Optional experiences

    • Mount Batur sunrise hike with a local guide, about a 2 am pick-up from Ubud (extra, price shown at booking). If you hike, you see Tirta Empul late in the morning on the way down, not at opening, then join the group for lunch; you miss Gunung Kawi.

    Easier option: Stay at the top at Gunung Kawi, at the café by the gate, instead of walking the steps down to the gorge and back.

    More active option: Walk on field paths between the two temples with your guide instead of taking the vehicle.

    Free time: Afternoon free in Ubud

    Activity: About 300 steps down to Gunung Kawi and the same back up.

11. Day 11: East to the Sidemen valley

    Ubud to Semarapura (Klungkung), then Sidemen

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Sidemen
    Day 11 details

    A short drive east, about an hour and a half in all. We stop in Semarapura, the old royal capital of Klungkung, at the Kerta Gosa, a pavilion of the old Klungkung court where justice was once heard. Its ceiling is painted in the traditional Kamasan style with panels from the Bhima Swarga, scenes of the punishments that wait in the afterlife, and the floating pavilion beside it stands in a lotus moat. Then the road turns north into the Sidemen valley, a long green trough of terraced rice fields and coconut palms, with Mount Agung, Bali's highest and most sacred volcano, filling the top of the valley on a clear day. Lunch is in Sidemen. The afternoon is free: the hotels sit among the fields, so it is easy to walk out on your own along the irrigation channels, swim, or sit with a book and watch the light change on the mountain. Two nights here.

    Included

    • Kerta Gosa in Semarapura
    • Lunch in Sidemen

    Free time: Afternoon free in Sidemen

12. Day 12: Rice terraces, weavers and Tirta Gangga

    Sidemen valley walk, then Tirta Gangga and back

    • Drive about 1.5 h
    • Breakfast and lunch
    • Stay in Sidemen
    Day 12 details

    Start with a morning walk through the valley with a local guide from the village, on the narrow dykes and paths between the terraces, while it is cool and Mount Agung is most often clear. The walk passes small family temples and the subak water channels that share water between farmers, a system recognised by UNESCO in 2012. Sidemen is also known for songket, cloth woven with gold or silver thread on hand looms, and we stop at a village workshop to watch the weavers. After lunch we drive about 45 minutes to Tirta Gangga, the water palace built in the 1940s by the last king of Karangasem: pools, fountains and stepping stones laid out among gardens, where you can walk across the water past carved statues. We are back in Sidemen by late afternoon, with the evening free.

    Included

    • Guided walk through the Sidemen valley with a local guide
    • Songket weaving workshop visit
    • Lunch in Sidemen
    • Tirta Gangga water palace

    Easier option: A shorter, flat loop through the fields close to the village, about 1 hour, in place of the full walk.

    More active option: A longer walk up the side of the valley for the view over the terraces to Mount Agung, about 3 hours.

    Free time: Evening free

    Activity: The valley walk is about 2 hours on uneven paths and narrow dykes, which can be muddy after rain.

13. Day 13: Salt makers and the sea at Sanur

    Sidemen to Kusamba and Goa Lawah, then Sanur

    • Drive about 2 h
    • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
    • Stay in Sanur
    Day 13 details

    We leave Sidemen mid-morning and drive down to the coast at Kusamba, where families still make sea salt by hand on the black-sand beach, spreading sea water over the sand to dry, then filtering and evaporating the brine in hollowed palm trunks. Close by, Goa Lawah is a temple built at the mouth of a cave full of fruit bats. From there it is about an hour along the coast road to Sanur, about two hours of driving in all. Sanur was one of Bali's first beach resorts and is still one of its calmest, with a reef that keeps the water flat and a paved path that runs for several kilometres along the shore past jukung outrigger boats and small temples. After lunch the afternoon is free to swim, walk the path or rest. In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner together. Sanur is about half an hour from the airport, so tomorrow's departure is easy.

    Included

    • Traditional salt makers at Kusamba
    • Goa Lawah temple
    • Lunch in Sanur
    • Farewell dinner

    Free time: Afternoon free in Sanur

    

14. Day 14: Sunrise in Sanur and home

    Sanur to I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport

    • Breakfast
    Day 14 details

    Sanur faces east, so the last morning can start with sunrise over the sea from the beach path, with the outline of Nusa Penida across the water and the fishermen pushing their jukung out through the shallows. Your guide walks the shore with anyone who wants to go. Breakfast at the hotel, then the morning is free until your transfer. If your flight leaves in the evening, keep the room for a late checkout, where the hotel can offer it, or spend the day on the beach and in the cafés on the path; we can hold your luggage. We drive you to I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS), about 30 to 45 minutes away depending on traffic, in good time for your flight. Your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight from about midday onwards so the last morning is not rushed.

    Included

    • Optional sunrise walk on the Sanur beach path with your guide
    • Drop-off at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)

    Free time: Morning free

    Activity: Book a flight leaving from about midday onwards.

Wildlife and weather: April to October is the dry season, with clear mornings at Borobudur and Bromo and the Ramayana Ballet on its open-air stage. From November to March afternoon storms are common, sunrise views are more often clouded, and the ballet moves indoors. Bromo's caldera rim is cold before dawn all year.

• Jakarta1 night
• Yogyakarta3 nights
• Bromo (Cemoro Lawang)2 nights
• Pemuteran1 night
• Ubud3 nights
• Sidemen2 nights
• Sanur1 night