Beyond Bali: discover seven of Indonesia’s lesser-known gems

There are so many things to love about Bali. From rice paddies to world-class restaurants, there’s no wonder it has become a rite of passage for so many Australian Travellers.

And although this tropical paradise may be the most well-known of the Indonesian islands, the beauty of this spectacular country goes far beyond the braids, Bintangs and Bounty nightclub.

As the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia is home to thousands of islands – more than 17,000 to be exact. Each one is more exciting than the next, packed with things to do, see and explore.

From white-sand beaches to urban jungles, here are seven Indonesian alternatives that will more than satisfy your travel bug.

1. Lake Toba

Located in North Sumatra, Lake Toba is one of the most incredible natural wonders on our planet. A caldera lake sitting at 1145 square kilometres, with a depth of 450 metres, its crystal clear waters measure almost twice the size of Singapore. At its centre sits Samosir Island.

Here you’ll find breathtaking views of a super volcano that has been dormant for the past 74,000 years. And although the idyllic landscapes have given Samosir quite the celebrated reputation amongst tourists, the island still remains untouched in all its nature and greenery.

And as far as your itinerary is concerned, there will never be a dull moment at Lake Toba. Swim and fish around the Binangalom waterfall, or hike up the Pusuk Buhit volcano for spectacular views. On a rainy day, get your Indonesian history and culture fix at the Batak museum.

When taking the trip, Samosir Island is where most tourists choose to unpack. Stay in the vibrant Tuk Tuk area, where many popular restaurants, bars and guesthouses are located.

Large shot of Lake Toba. — Lake Toba’s waters measure twice the size of Singapore.

2. The Gili Islands

Given Bali’s popularity as a tourist destination, wanderlusters have long dubbed The Gili’s as its superior, less-crowded neighbour.

To access these white-sand beaches, visitors must drive 45 minutes west of Denpasar and catch a 2-hour speedboat to the cluster of islands.

Stepping onto the sand, visitors are quick to notice the lack of motorised vehicles. Tourists and residents rely on bicycles or a traditional horse and cart as the main means of transportation – a welcome addition for those looking to escape the urban chaos.

Due to each island’s minuscule scale, most accommodation is considered in a prime location. However, Lombok’s most developed and populated island, Gili Trawangan, has long-served tourists on their quest for restaurants, bars and quaint shops.

Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan Islands. — On the Gili Islands, tourists and residents rely on bicycles or a traditional horse and cart as the main means of transportation.

3. Kalimantan

Often neglected when discussing the ‘best of’ Indonesia, Kalimantan is located in the country’s southern portion of Borneo. Dense greenery and tropical jungle make up this wildlife paradise, which is so undiscovered that it has been relatively untouched by tourism.

Animal lovers will embrace the once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit the Tanjung Puting National Park, home to the critically endangered Bornean orangutan.

Take a cruise on a traditional klotok riverboat, stopping at feeding stations and viewing platforms along the way. And while the orangutans are the main attraction, they are joined by an extensive list of other native wildlife, including clouded leopards, long-snouted gharial crocodiles and gibbons.

After a day in the jungle, you will welcome the chance to unwind in paradise. Accommodation highlights include the Hotel Gran Senyiur, Merabu Homestay and the Nunukan Island Resort.

Kereng Bangkirai Village, Kalimantan, — Kalimantan is located in the country’s southern portion of Borneo.

4. Raja Ampat

If diving is your thing, we’re almost sure you’ve heard of Raja Ampat. This turquoise paradise is one of the most isolated group of islands in the world, making it a hot spot for those seeking to explore the deepest waters.

With its location in the Coral Triangle, north Papua, the island’s diverse and unique marine biodiversity is often looked at as one of the best on Earth. And with over 530 species of coral and 700 species of mollusc to explore, it’s a dream destination for divers.

Because of this, there are a number of diving (and snorkelling) spots to choose from, with the most popular spots being the Kabui Passage, Sawandarek, Yenbuba, Friwen Wall, and many, many more.

The attractions of Raja Ampat don’t stop there, however, with many activities happening above sea level. Views from the Piaynemo homestay offer spectacular scenery, as well as bird watching, island hopping, kayaking and hiking.

Aerial view of Raja Ampat islands. — Raja Ampat’s diverse and unique marine biodiversity is often looked at as one of the best on Earth.

5. Komodo National Park

The Komodo National Park, located in East Nusa Tenggara, is the only place on Earth where you can get up close and personal with the infamous Komodo Dragon.

At least 2500 dragons call this area home, and every day, visitors are toured by locals throughout their jungle habitat in the hope of catching a glimpse of the largest lizard species in the world.

They share the space with a number of other animals including wild buffalo, horses, deer, snakes, monkeys, birds and other wildlife.

Aside from dragons, the Komodo National Park also features those outstanding Indonesian landscapes – including Pink Beach, or Pantai Merah,, which is one of only seven pink beaches in the world. Away from the sand, the island offers a snorkelling paradise, featuring crystal clear water home to coral reefs and exotic marine life.

Sunset on Padar Island, Komodo National Park. — At least 2500 Komodo dragons call Komodo National Park home.

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6. Pulau Seribu – Thousand Islands

If you’re spending time in Indonesia’s capital, it would be rude not to check out Pulau Seribu, aka the Thousand Islands. Although there are only 150 of them, these island chains provide some of the most beautiful scenery less than three hours by boat from Jakarta.

Tourists are able to visit just 45 of the 150 islands that make up Pulau Seribu, with only six having overnight accommodation available. Bidadari, Ayer, Kotok, Putri, Sepa and Pantara are all equipped with options, ranging from luxury guest villas to simple homestays.

While visiting the thousand island cluster, you will find plenty to do. Diving and snorkelling are two of the most popular pastimes, with boats available for rent from most ports.

7. Yogyakarta

If you’re looking to step back from the beaches and get your city fix, Yogyakarta is your best bet.

As the focal point of Javanese culture, this friendly city is home to some 500,000 people and the site for the two UNESCO World Heritage temples of Borobudur and Prambanan.

You’ll find an extensive catalogue of art, culture, education and heritage on offer here, and still plenty for nature lovers: explore Jomblang Cave, hike at the Merapi Volcano and wander the Kalibiru National Park.

Street-food vendors line the northern end of Jalan Malioboro, and after a long day of exploring, head here to sample Yogya’s best delicacies, including the famous ayam goreng (deep-fried chicken soaked in coconut milk) and dishes such as sambal welut (spicy eel) and nasi langgi (coconut rice with tempeh).

Yogyakarta also has Java’s best range of hostels, guesthouses and hotels. Many visitors opt to stay in the popular Sosrowijayan area, home to budget accommodation and mazes of alleyways. Others prefer the upmarket suburb of Prawirotaman, known for its boutique pools and restaurants.

Borobudur Temple in Yogyakarta in Java. — Get your city fix at Yogyakarta.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

Beyond Bali: discover 7 of Indonesia’s lesser-known gems