2019 travel costs for Indonesia, including Java, Bali, Lombok and Komodo

Having spent August and September 2019 travelling around Indonesia, I thought it might be useful to give some ideas of costs, if your travel style is similar to mine (I travel solo, and I'm more flashpacker than backpacker. I like AC. I hate share bathrooms. I don't need anything "fancy" but I try and avoid staying anyplace that is decrepit, dirty, noisy, or has a rock-hard foam mattress). 

For convenience, I've broken my Indonesia travel costs into main areas: Central and East Java, Bali, Lombok, and Komodo.

Java: average costs per day = £27.35 (493,000 IDR)

Accommodation average £14.24 per night (256,700 IDR). The more touristy places are (as you'd expect) a bit more expensive. But the towns that see few foreign tourists have very good value hotels.

• Yogya – 275,000 IDR (£15.28)
• Borobudur – 385,000 IDR (£21.39) 
• Solo – 143,000 IDR (£8) 
• Semarang – 264,000 IDR (£14.67): I picked a hotel in the business district, so not a cheap tourist hotel
• Surabaya – 264,000 IDR (£14.67): very nice, midrange hotel

Food and drink: average £5.79 per day (104,300 IDR) – mostly cheap restaurants, but no alcohol. I ate very well in Java. Sample costs might be:

• 25,000 IDR (£1.40) for a plate of noodles and a fresh guava juice
• 28,000 IDR for a bubble tea in a shopping mall, or a coffee in a Western-style cafe.
• 58,000 IDR for a nice meal in a nice restaurant

Sightseeing is mixed, WRT costs. The big famous temple sites, like Borobudur and Prambanan, are all quite expensive (350,000 IDR pp), but all that wandering around is free. I spent an average £4.37 (79,000 IDR) per day.

Transport is also very affordable, and good quality: I used a mix of trains and buses to move between towns, with city buses or just my feet to get around in town. Intercity train bus or journeys varied from 8000 IDR (train from Yogya to Solo, about an hour away) to 105,000 IDR (train from Semarang to Surabaya), and city buses typically cost around 3500 IDR (£0.19) per ride. I typically spent an average of £2.50 (45,000 IDR) on transport per day.

Bali: average costs per day = £28.12 (506,992 IDR).

Accommodation average £15 per night (270,400 IDR)

• Pemuteran – 200,000 IDR (£11.11)
• Lovina – 350,000 IDR (£19.44) 
• Tulamben – 300,000 IDR (£16.67) 
• Amed – 400,000 IDR (£22.22)
• Sanur – 250,000 IDR (£13.89)
• Padang Padang Beach on Bukit Peninsula  – 240,000 IDR (£13.38)
• Kuta  – 219,000 IDR (£12.16): I'm not a big fan of Kuta, but I'll stay in the south part of town if I have a morning departure flight or an evening arrival flight, as I can simply walk to/from the airport and avoid the airport taxi mafia.

Food and drink: average £7.56 per day (136,000 IDR). Bali has a wide range of food available, from cheap "local" restaurants and hawker stalls, to swanky beach-front bars, high-end international restaurants, and fancy coffee shops selling salted caramel brownies. I tended to not bother with the swanky bars or the high-end restaurants, but I did indulge in a few nice deserts! Sample costs (excluding alcohol) might be:

• 60,000-125,000 IDR (£3.33-6.94) for a meal at a tourist-oriented restaurant off the beach.
• 100,000 IDR (£5.50) for coffee and cake at a tourist-oriented restaurant on the beach.
• 25,000-30,000 IDR (£1.39-1.69) for babi guling (roast suckling pig and fixin's on rice) at a small, local restaurant.
• 15,000-18,000 IDR (£0.83-£1) for a veggie nasi campur (rice with assorted dished, like curries, on top) from a hawker stall.
• 25,000-30,000 IDR (£1.39-1.69) for a bubble tea.
• 5000-7000 IDR for a large bottle of water, depending on where you get it.

Sightseeing: Scuba or snorkel trips add up quickly, but apart from that sightseeing is pretty darn cheap (in most places, the beach is free). I spent an average of £2.11 (38,000 IDR) a day, which worked out as one full day snorkelling tour (500,000 IDR), and few small donations at temples during the trip. On Bukit, the beaches may have entrance fees (about 15,000 IDR pp).

Transport infrastructure is quite poor on the island; the assumption seems to be that all locals will have either a motorbike or a car, so there are few public buses, and those that do exist often run dual pricing for tourists. Where there are no public buses / bemos, you're stuck with very expensive taxis (although the gojek type taxi apps have helped reduce the prices to something more reasonable), or a few tourist shuttle buses. I spent an average of £1.56 pd (28,200 IDR) on transport, with using local buses to get between the ferry from Java and Pemuteran, or between Pemuteran and Lovina (both 50,000 IDR), bemos from Lovina to Tulamben (via a change at Singaraja) for 100,000 (tourist price), and the Perama Shuttle from Amed to Sanur (175,000 - not cheap but these shuttles tend to be safe with helpful drivers, so I regularly use them in Bali), plus taxi apps to get to and from Bukit from Kuta (about 100,000 each way).

Lombok: average costs per day = £38.60 (695,790 IDR). Let's just get this out of the way: Lombok is considerably more expensive than Bali, and most of the time, you'll be paying more for worse quality. The Gilis have always been popular with the Bali crowd, but the rest of Lombok only got very popular a handful of years ago ("It's what Bali was like 20 years ago...."), which means a lot of tourists, but somewhat limited tourist infrastructure, and a developing industry trying to make as much money, as quickly as possible (and you can't blame them for that - if I lived in a relatively poor island, and all these rich tourists started flying in, I'd be trying to grab me a piece of that pie, too!).

Accommodation average £19.67 per night (354,667 IDR). The main Gilis (I stayed on 2 of the 3) have a mix of inexpensive bungalow joints (some more backpackery than others, normally off the beach), mid-range resorts, and expensive on-beach places. Mataram and Senggigi are big enough to have accommodation at all price points, with some good value places available. The "Secret Gilis" (and this also applies to some of the other places new to mass tourism) are still developing, and targeting a more upmarket tourist than their established northern cousins, so accommodation tends to be pricey there. Finally Senaru is still trying to recover from the earthquake, and is still fairly quiet, so hoteliers will be delighted to see you, and prices are low.

• Gili Gede (one of the "Secret Gilis") – 600,000 IDR (£33.33). Gili Gede is a very small island with a few fishing villages, obviously very poor, with a handful of not-cheap bungalow operators scattered around, and a fancy new resort and marina under construction on one side of the island. 
• Mataram – 300,000 IDR (£16.67) 
• Gili Air – 300,000 IDR (£16.67) - a decent bungalow joint with pool, just off the beach.
• Gili Meno – 250,000 IDR (£13.89) - your standard bungalow joint, just off the beach.
• Sire Peninsula – 400,000 IDR (£22.22) for an eco-lodge on the north coast.
• Senaru – 300,000 IDR (£16.67)
• Senggigi  – 210,000 IDR (£11.67)

Food and drink: average £8.90 per day (160,000 IDR). Outside of the Gilis (which has a variety of international foods), the dining scene isn't well established. I ended up eating in tourist-oriented restaurants (with identical menus) more often than I would have liked, but it was sometimes hard to find much else. I'm guessing, to be honest, that because the island has traditionally been quite poor, there often isn't much of a local restaurant scene, and I'm assuming most locals cook at home, with the exception of a few stalls selling grilled chicken and the like. So outside of the main cities, like Mataram, most restaurants and cafes you come across are predominantly for tourists. Sample costs might be:

• 40,000 IDR (£2.22) for a meal at a small local restaurant (in Mataram).
• 60,000-70,000 IDR (£3.33-£3.89) for a place of food and a non-alcoholic drink at a typical off-beach tourist restaurant.
• 85,000-125,000 IDR (£4.72-£7) for a plate of food and a a non-alcoholic drink at an on-beach tourist restaurant.
• 255,000 IDR (£14) for a three course meal (excluding alcohol) at a fancy on-beach restaurant.

Sightseeing: I spent an average of £2.07 (37,000 IDR) a day, which worked out as a cheap snorkelling tour (150,000 IDR), hiring a guide for a half-day's hiking to visit several waterfalls in the Senaru area (250,000 plus 100,000 tip) and a few small donations at temples.

Public transport is rare (there are theoretically bemos running a few routes between towns, but in reality they are quite infrequent, so you could end up standing at the side of the road for hours, trying to catch one), so expect you'll mostly be using taxis to get around. Between towns, your accommodation may be able to arrange a share taxi with other tourists. I spent an average of £5.38 pd (97,000 IDR) on transport. Sample costs include 350,000 IDR for a taxi from the airport to  Gili Gede (organised by my hotel), 24,000 IDR for an ojek trip across Mataram, 120,000 for a taxi from Mataram to the ferry port for the Gilis (booked using an app), 14,500 IDR for the ferry (including the small port fee), 210,000 IDR for a taxi from the Sire Peninsula to Senaru, and 250,000 IDR for a share taxi (shared with another tourist) from Senaru to Senggigi. From Senggigi, there is a bus to the airport (which goes through Mataram en-route) for 35,000 IDR.

Komodo: average costs per day = £51.63 (930,674 IDR) - woo-boy! 

I only spent a few days on Flores, visiting Komodo, so I only stayed at one place, right on the waterfront. It was very overpriced (£27 per night - 488,000 IDR) for a very average room, with peeling wallpaper and a damaged pipe that continually sprayed a fine mist of water all over the bathroom floor. Talking to other tourists, most of the other places in town didn't seem much better, although there were apparently some nicer places on the other side of the town (beyond the airport).

Food and drink: average £9.50 per day (171,000 IDR). The restaurants scene is very much designed for the wealthy international tourists - expect high-end Italian restaurants, coffee shops serving vegan sandwiches, and I even saw a Starbucks.

Sightseeing: The main boat tours seem to all be pretty similar in price. I paid 400,000 IDR, not including the park entry fees (which were another 350,000 IDR). I wouldn't worry too much about shopping around, or worry about where you should book, as very often (near as I can tell), everyone gets jumbled together into a handful of boats at the port. So take anything they tell you about the size of the boat, or the number of people per tour, with a massive handful of salt.

Transport: Apart from a taxi to the airport on the day I left (50,000 IDR), I didn't use any transport as Labuan Bajo is pretty small (I actually walked to my hotel from the airport on the day I arrived - I used a taxi on the way back, because the airport is on top of a big hill, and momma didn't raise no fool).