How to travel Indonesia on a budget

Getting to Asia

The expensive part of traveling in Indonesia is getting the main airplane from Europe or America to Asia. You must try to book in advance or avoid the high season if you want to find a good price.

The main and cheapest destinations to arrive in Asia are Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala lumpur. From them it will be easy to get to your destination.

    Connections between islands

    There are plenty of different ways to move between the islands, obviously the fastest are flights, and sometimes could be cheap, but if you book them on the scholar break period they will be quite expensive.

    A cheap way to travel between islands are ferries, they could be quite slow so you must have time to use this option.

    Cheap way to move in land

    The funniest and slowest are the local buses, in big cities and touristic places there are more connections. In remote islands they could take too long and be also uncomfortable in exchange they are cheap.

    For me the better way was using shared taxis, you can get to your destination in reasonable time with a reasonable price.

    Renting a motorbike, many people use the motorbike to visit all the places. You can do a loop of all the island you are interested in, or use a shared taxi between different locations and then use local motorbikes to go around the main town.

    Cheapest accommodations

    There are plenty of guest houses everywhere just be sure you have at least a fan and hot water. Hostels are common in the main towns, obviously if you are traveling alone, starting from a hostel could be the best way to find a travel buddy to share the expenditure. 

    Food

    In Indonesia you can eat even just with 10 dollars a day, I fully recommend eating street food. It is cheap, but try to go just to places where you see local people eating. There are also plenty of American or European restaurants everywhere but the price increases in these places.

    Cheap tours

    This is probably the most expensive part of the trip. So, here some advice:

      • Online booking: this is the more expensive one, because booking through a trust site is not easy, so the famous site increases the price and tends to give the more luxury experience possible, so avoid them.

      • On-site booking: ask different places, not only your hotel but also around the town. I know it will take a bit of time, but if you do it the night before you will get it right.

      • avoid agency when possible: for example, going directly to the harbor and asking the captain of the boat would save money, and also get paid much more.

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