Asia
Indonesia is an island country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Its capital is Jakarta and its official language is Indonesian.
Destinations covered
12
Published guides
29
Region
Asia
Explore Indonesia
Discover cities, regions and experiences worth building a trip around, then go deeper with practical guides and local context.
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11 destinations
Bogor is a city (kota) in West Java, governed by the Bogor city government across six districts; the State Secretariat says the colonial retreat of Buitenzorg, begun in 1745, gave its name to the settlements now known as the city of Bogor. XTOUR maps the Bogor Botanical Gardens, the Bogor Palace and the zoology museum in the city centre.
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Bukittinggi is a city in West Sumatra Province, Indonesia; its city government says it was called Fort de Kock in the Dutch colonial period and was the seat of the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PDRI) from December 1948 to June 1949. XTOUR maps Jam Gadang, Fort de Kock and the Bung Hatta Birth House in the city.
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Denpasar (Kota Denpasar) is the city whose government's history page traces it from a royal garden of the Badung kingdom to the capital of Bali Province. XTOUR maps the Bali Museum and the Bajra Sandhi Monument inside the city; Tanah Lot (Tabanan Regency) and Uluwatu Temple (Badung Regency) are outside it.
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Jakarta is a province-level special region of Indonesia, governed as a province with five administrative cities; the provincial government's history page says it grew from a small port at the mouth of the Ciliwung river, and its timeline dates Jakarta's designation as capital of the Republic of Indonesia to 31 August 1964. XTOUR maps the National Monument, the Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta Cathedral, the National Museum and the Kota Tua museums inside its administrative cities.
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Labuan Bajo is a town in East Nusa Tenggara and the capital of West Manggarai Regency, in Komodo district. XTOUR uses it as the base for Komodo National Park and its islands, which lie offshore and are not part of the town.
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Malang is a city (kota) in East Java province, Indonesia, bordered by Malang Regency, a separate regency of the same name. The Brawijaya Museum lies inside the city; Mount Bromo, Semeru, Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, Tumpak Sewu and the Singhasari and Jago temples lie outside it, in Malang, Lumajang, Probolinggo and Pasuruan regencies.
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Mataram is a city (kota) in Indonesia and the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province. Taman Mayura and the West Nusa Tenggara State Museum lie inside the city; Narmada and Lingsar (West Lombok Regency) and Mount Rinjani (East Lombok Regency) lie outside it.
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Medan is a city in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia; the provincial government's tourism page calls it a gateway to destinations across Sumatra and names Istana Maimun with the Mesjid Raya, and Rumah Tjong A Fie in the Kesawan area, among its city sights. XTOUR maps Maimun Palace, the Great Mosque of Medan, Tjong A Fie Mansion, Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni and the North Sumatra Museum in the city.
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Surakarta, commonly called Solo, is a city (kota) in Central Java whose government states its vision as making Surakarta a city of culture. XTOUR maps the Kasunanan palace (Kraton Surakarta), the Mangkunegaran palace, the Danar Hadi batik museum and Klewer Market inside the city; Sukuh and Cetho temples in Karanganyar Regency and the Sangiran museum in Sragen Regency are outside it.
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Ubud is a town in Gianyar Regency, Bali; Bali's provincial tourism register lists Kelurahan Ubud, in the Ubud district (Kecamatan Ubud), as a cultural tourist attraction. XTOUR maps the Monkey Forest sanctuary at Padangtegal and the Agung Rai Museum of Art on Jalan Raya Pengosekan in the Ubud district.
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Yogyakarta is a city (kota) and the capital of Indonesia's Special Region of Yogyakarta. XTOUR maps the Kraton, Taman Sari, the Sonobudoyo and Fort Vredeburg museums and Beringharjo Market in the city; Prambanan, Ratu Boko, Borobudur, Mendut, Merapi and Ullen Sentalu lie outside its boundary and are reached from it.
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Plan better
In 2012 the World Heritage Committee inscribed the Cultural Landscape of Bali Province, the subak system of water temples and irrigated rice terraces, as a manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana philosophy. This article sets out what the decision names, what it does not, and why familiar terraces and temples that share a name or a river with a component are not thereby part of it.
Two texts from Bali's provincial government govern who may go into a pura: a 2020 governor's regulation that, read literally, bars anyone not taking part in worship, and a 2025 circular that bars foreign tourists from a temple's inner and middle courts. This guide quotes both, shows where they differ, and shows how two temple pages apply them.
Bali's provincial government charges foreign tourists a levy for the protection of Balinese culture and the natural environment, paid through its Love Bali system. This guide sets out what the regional regulation, the governor's payment regulation and the Love Bali pages each say, including one point on which they read differently.
UNESCO inscribed the three genres of traditional dance in Bali in 2015: sacred wali, semi-sacred bebali and balih-balihan, danced for the community at large. Indonesia's nomination file names nine representative dances, ties each genre to a part of the temple, and says which kinds have been adapted for tourist audiences; this explainer sets that out and says what XTOUR cannot tell you about any particular show.
UNESCO inscribed Indonesian Batik in 2009 as a hand craft of wax-resist dyeing that runs through life from birth slings to burial cloths, and the Indonesian nomination file draws a hard line between that craft and factory-printed cloth with batik patterns. This explainer sets out what the listing covers, how the nomination describes the canting and the copper stamp, the Pekalongan schools programme UNESCO also registered, and the Yogyakarta Kraton's rules on restricted motifs.
Borobudur is built as a sequence of realms, from the world of desire at its foot to the formless realm of the circular terraces at the top. This explainer sets out the three zones as the operator describes them, what the reliefs on each show, where the operator's own figures do not add up, and how the smaller temples of Mendut and Pawon relate to the monument.
Borobudur's operator sells two kinds of ticket: one for the courtyard around the monument and one that lets you go up onto it, with obligatory upanat sandals and a list of rules. This guide sets out what each ticket covers according to the operator's own pages, where those pages disagree, and what XTOUR could not confirm.
UNESCO inscribed Gamelan in 2021 as both Indonesia's percussion orchestra and its set of instruments, played in rituals, ceremonies, theatre, festivals and concerts. This explainer sets UNESCO's account beside the Yogyakarta Kraton's descriptions of its own heirloom sets, how they are divided between ceremony and performance, and the Sekaten pair, and says where the Kraton's two pages disagree.
UNESCO's intangible heritage site lists sixteen entries for Indonesia on three lists, from wayang and the kris in 2008 to pantun in 2025, three of them shared with other countries and three in need of urgent safeguarding. This explainer says what each entry is in UNESCO's own description, which list it is on, and where UNESCO's year or wording needs reading with care.
XTOUR plans Indonesia around the towns and cities you sleep in: Yogyakarta and Surakarta in Central Java, Ubud and Denpasar on Bali, Jakarta, Malang for the Bromo side of East Java, and Labuan Bajo on Flores. This guide says what each base is for, which famous sites lie outside the town that sells them, who runs them, and which XTOUR guide takes over.
XTOUR has read the World Heritage Committee decision for ten Indonesian properties, from the 1991 inscriptions of Borobudur, Prambanan, Komodo and Ujung Kulon to the Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta in 2023. This article lists each with its year, its criteria and what the decision itself says, and states plainly what XTOUR could not check, including whether the list is complete.
Candi, pura, kraton and masjid are the words on most heritage signs in Java and Bali. This explainer defines each one only as an official page uses it: the Bali provincial regulation on temples, the Yogyakarta palace's own website, the Yogyakarta tourism office, the Bromo park authority and UNESCO's World Heritage decisions.
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