Are you thinking about going to Indonesia and you're not sure for how long and what route? Well, maybe here's your solution. In this blog post you're going to read about my personal travel itinerary and with my experience, I created two options as well: Travel through Indonesia in either 14 days or 21 days, you decide.
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My Travel Route
I spent almost two months in Indonesia and hadn’t rushed for anything. That’s not the most common way to travel, most people will spend 2 or 3 weeks in a country. Anyways, spending that much time in Indonesia puts me in a great position to tell you exactly how many days would be enough.
Let me tell you about my travel route first:
After a long flight from Switzerland, we arrived in Denpasar (1), where our Airbnb host organized transportation to Canggu (2) for us. The transportation took us around 90 minutes and is depending on the traffic. The traffic in Bali, especially around Kuta, Seminyak, and Canggu is crazy! It was our first time in Canggu (2) and stayed there for 7 nights and headed to Uluwatu (3) next.
We stayed in Uluwatu (3) for 5 nights, in my opinion, that was one night too much. Because if you’re not very into surfing, visiting one beach after another is almost the only thing you can do here. Great for relaxing and just having a good time.
Afterward, we headed all the way up to Ubud (4), where we spent 3 days discovering waterfalls. We could have stayed here longer, but 3 days were fine as well. From Ubud (4) we went all the way back to Canggu (2) because we both wanted to work on our projects and Canggu offered the best co-working spaces and the perfect environment for it.
We stayed in Canggu for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks of being fully focused on our projects, we needed a break and we were ready to travel again. Full of wanderlust.
We decided to head towards Lombok and made a stop at Nusa Penida (5), where we spent 2 nights (in my opinion the perfect amount) and took another boat ride to Gili T (6). We stayed there for 5 nights, but I personally could have stayed longer in Gili T.
From Gili T, we took the public boat to Lombok and took directly a Taxi to Kuta (7). We had 7 nights in Kuta but could have definitely stayed longer there as well.
14-Day Bali Itinerary
I definitely recommend staying at least 2 weeks in Indonesia, so you won’t have a rush and have enough time to visit everything.
You’ll probably arrive at Denpasar (1), as we did, and from there you can order a Grab or take a Taxi, that drives you directly to Canggu. The transportation costs around 250’000 IDR, taking a Grab Bike for example, would be cheaper (around 50’000 IDR) and faster, but with luggage renting a car is the more convenient way. In Canggu (2), I’d recommend staying 5 nights, just to arrive in peace and get your first insight into Bali/Indonesia. Canggu doesn’t offer lots of sightseeing, but the town itself has a lot going on. Try out the best restaurants, walk around, enjoy the beach, or even take your first surf lesson, or if you’re already a surfer, catch some waves, it’s a great place to do so. Canggu is also a good home base for visiting Seminyak or Kuta since they’re not too far away (just be aware of the traffic).
From Canggu you can either decide to travel to Uluwatu or Ubud, depending on your mood. If you’re in the mood for another beach town, head South to Uluwatu. For the sake of less traveling, I’d recommend visiting Ubud (3) first and heading towards Uluwatu afterward. Ubud is located in the middle of the island and is perfect for discovering waterfalls and doing some yoga or meditation. Just suits perfectly for winding down from the trouble of Canggu. Stay there for 3 nights and head down to Uluwatu (4), where you can discover beaches, or dance the night away in one of the many beach clubs. You can easily spend 4 nights here.
Now you need to get another drive to the harbor Sanur, where you must take a boat to get to Nusa Penida. You could do Nusa Penida (5) in one day, there are some one-day tours you could book. However, I’d recommend staying on the island for 2 nights, so you can see everything on your own and don’t be in a rush. Afterward, you need to head all the way back to Denpasar, because your time here is over and you have to catch your flight back to your home country.
21-Day Indonesia Itinerary
If you can spare another week, then the following route could be yours. Well, for the first two weeks, I’d follow the same route as above. Arrival in Denpasar (1) heading directly to Canggu (2) for 5 nights. Then next to Ubud (3), where you spend 3 nights and afterward go to Uluwatu (4) for 4 nights and then from Uluwatu to Nusa Penida (5) for 2 nights.
Now it’s getting interesting again for you. You must (there's no alternative way) take another boat ride to Gili T (6), this boat ride takes a bit longer - approximately around 2 hours and can get wild depending on the conditions of the ocean. Probably, you’ve heard lots of horror stories about this route, and I’ve heard them too. But let me tell you this; every experience is different! I traveled with Wijaya Cruise and had a good experience with it. I must say, that we were very lucky, hence that the sea was quiet, it definitely could have turned out differently.
In Gili T (6) I would recommend staying at least 3 nights. It's such a tiny island, but you can do a lot on it. Plus, if you choose Gili T as your home base, you can just add the other Gili Islands to your itinerary,.
The next and last stop is the island of Lombok. From Gili T (6) take another boat (the cheapest option is the public one and takes around 45 minutes) and head towards the harbor of Lombok, located in Bangsal. From there take a taxi to Kuta (7), which is known as one of the best places to stay in Lombok. I’d recommend staying 4 nights in Lombok before heading back to Denpasar, Bali.
If you’re asking yourself now, how do I get back from Lombok to Denpasar, then you have two options:
Take a boat ride back to Bali, which takes around 3 hours (and face your sea sickness again)
Or check flights from Lombok to Denpasar, they’re sometimes even cheaper though.
Of course, Indonesia has even more places to offer, and you could also spend fewer days at the recommended places and add more to your itinerary. Personally, I don’t like to be in a rush, and exploring the vibe of the town itself is one of the reasons I like to travel. It’s more important for me, to travel to fewer places in a country, but have the chance to experience the vibe.
If you’re having your route, and you’d like to explore those places, don’t miss my blog posts about each of them, I’ll link them down below, so you just need to click on the destination you’d immediately like to know more about:
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