Eula Esguerra Uluwatu Temple Bali Indonesia

Where To Go in Indonesia – 3 Awesome Destinations For a One Week Trip

January 16, 2023 / 36 Comments
[Read in 4 mins.]

I spent one week in Indonesia as one of the first out of the country travel after the pandemic. The main reason of going to this country was because one of the island ended up being the destination for a reunion with my friends. One friend from Australia and another one from the Netherlands flew out of their countries like me to meet up. Yes, we’re all over the world because they are my exchange friends when I studied abroad in Leeds, England. I did the same thing and flew out of Canada to meet up with them!

Originally planned to only go to Bali in Indonesia then fly to Korea and spend time there because of the reward air miles I thought I would have to use this year because they expire at the end of the year. It turns out they expire next year. The airlines extended the expiry because of the pandemic so guess where I’m going next year lol. When I was looking into staying in Korea, there were still some entry requirements needed which was not worth it if I’m only staying for a few days. I ended up dismissing the idea and stayed in Indonesia. Good decision I made because there were more awesome places to see and stretched out my Canadian dollar for more value lol!

Hindu Temple Bali Indonesia
Many many Hindu temples in Bali, Indonesia and looking awesome!

Indonesia turned out to be a great destination for affordable travel. It’s just the flights to get there are the most expensive and it takes a long time to get to Indonesia coming from the West. I would say that your dollar will go a long way there and can even feed you a meal. This post just lists the places I’ve been in Indonesia and more post coming up for the highlights and food!

1. Bali – 3 Days

I spent 3 days in Bali where I met up with friends and did some Eat, Pray, Love. Lol jokes. Bali, known as the Island of the Gods, is the most visited island in Indonesia. Also, it is one of the top tourist destinations in the world. The island offers so much fun activities, awesome picturesque landscapes, and amazing food!

It was honestly the best three days of travel for the past two years of my life hanging out with friends like it was not pandemic at all. Probably the place where you can eat babi (pork) since most of Indonesia is Muslim-majority while Bali is majority-Hindu. We stayed in Ubud and explored area as well as Kuta area. We visited many temples, the famous Tegallalang Rice Terrace via e-bikes tour, the monkey forest, and ate a lot of Balinese food.

Uluwatu Temple Bali, Indonesia
Bougainvillea blooming on the cliffs of Uluwatu Temple Bali, Indonesia

2. Yogyakarta – 2 Days

Yogyakarta is another tourist destination in Indonesia famous for being the gateway to two ancient temples that are UNESCO World Heritage Site. They are the Borobudur Temple and the Prambanan Temple. To be honest, Yogyakarta was kind of out of the bloom and one of my good friend who’s Indonesian recommended I check it out because of the heritages sites. And yes. I went to those two, ate Yogya local cuisines, stayed at a 5 star resort and lived like a queen haha.

Candi Sewu Yogyakarta, Bali
Candi Sewu, one of the many temples in the vicinity of Candi Prambanan in Yogyakarta, Bali

3. Jakarta – 2 Days

Since I was already in Indonesia, I might as well stop at Jakarta, its capital city. It was more of a long layover before my flight back to Canada with via Seoul. I just did city things to do like shopping, drink Starbizzies reserve coffee (they gets beans from Indo so why not get it straight from the source), and ate Indo Mie.

Starbucks Reserve Grand Indonesia Jakarta Indonesia
It’s not an Indo trip without this coffee experience. They get majority of their coffee in this country. A Reserve cafe in Grand Indonesia

What Actually Happened Was…

Actually, before this awesome week happened to me, I was pretty stressed trying to get to Bali. My flight from Canada was delayed for more than 3 hours that gets me to San Francisco and I ended up missing my connecting flight to Incheon where I was going to catch a flight to Jakarta, Indonesia. Was going to stay overnight in Jakarta because the flight from Incheon lands at night. Then I would fly to Bali the next day arriving Monday morning.

Well, that didn’t happen. I ended up cancelling and asking for refund for everything Jakarta and Seoul. Instead, I booked a flight straight to Bali with a layover in Manila for three hours which actually gets me to Bali Monday midnight which means I would be there earlier than planned. Actually, that also didn’t happen because when I arrived in Manila Sunday night, there was a typhoon and PAL cancelled all flights leaving at night. I ended up staying overnight in Manila with a flight leaving the next day so I ended up arriving in Bali Tuesday midnight.

Manila layover turned out to be better than expected because I got to hangout with my best friend for lunch and afternoon stroll before leaving! Ate and bought some nostalgic Filipino food that I missed so much for low low prices.

All my Indonesia travel went by smoothly and I was scared I would not able to take my flight from Jakarta to Incheon but that also went well. I love Incheon airport and its lounges <3 Layovers are worth it when it’s in Incheon then I flew to LA for a layover and caught a flight back to Toronto, Canada.

At Asiana Business Lounge at Incheon Intenational Airport.

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