3 Indonesia destinations beyond Bali to put on your travel list

While Bali needs no introduction, many Australian tourists explore no further than the flashing lights and Western comforts of this bustling province. But those who delve beyond the ordinary are richly rewarded.

There’s no need to convince most Australians that Indonesia is a perfect holiday destination. But while most people will automatically think of Bali, our gateway to this diverse country, those who travel beyond the popular province will discover the full cultural, natural, and culinary depths Indonesia has to offer. This is a destination that begs travellers to branch out beyond the conventional tourist routes.

Relaxing in Lombok

Catch a 40-minute flight from Bali to Lombok, where secluded luxury is key. Here, pristine beaches and eco-conscious resorts create an ideal setting to slow down, take a deep breath and reconnect.

Open body and mind

woman doing yoga pose at Novotel Lombok — Join in a yoga class to clear body and mind.

Lombok offers a thriving wellness scene and is perhaps best known for its abundance of spas, yoga classes and meditation centres. Sunset beach yoga, a signature offering of Lombok, should be one of the first activities on your to-do list. Combining the self-care of yoga with ocean views coloured by sunset hues, it’s impossible not to leave relaxed.

If one day of relaxation isn’t enough (and it so rarely is), Lombok also offers world-class wellness retreats for travellers seeking longer and more immersive rejuvenation experiences.

Natural delights

pink beach padar island labuan bajo — See the natural hue of Pink Beach. (Credit: Jouhar Hidayat)

Few destinations in the world can boast the breathtaking landscapes found in Lombok. Volcanic landscapes, lush forests and inviting beaches beg travellers to reconnect with nature.

Relax into the mellow waves of Selong Belanak Beach. Stay for sunset to witness the iconic buffalo-walking tradition, when local farmers lead large herds of water buffalo across the shoreline.

The smallest of the Gili Islands, Gili Meno, is perfect for those seeking a peaceful haven surrounded by white-sand beaches. For something a bit different, head over to Pink Beach (also known as Tangsi Beach); crushed red coral fragments mix with the sand to create a picture-perfect rosy hue.

Take a multiday hike through rainforest and grassland to see majestic Mount Rinjani on Lombok Island. If you’re looking for a less challenging walk, follow a 60-minute trail over wooden bridges and shallow river streams to see the breathtaking Tiu Kelep Waterfall, nestled in the jungle in Senaru.

Discover underwater worlds in Labuan Bajo

Indonesia boasts some of the world’s most unforgettable underwater landscapes. Just a one-hour flight from Bali, you’ll find an underwater wonderland at the port town of Labuan Bajo. Here’s a good place to start.

Manta Point

manta ray swimming near komodo indonesia — Dive with manta rays.

The nutrient-rich waters of Manta Point attract large schools of gentle reef manta rays. Be awed as they glide by, their wingspans ranging from an impressive three to seven metres.

Snorkellers and divers with the skills to handle strong currents are regularly treated to over half an hour spent floating with these majestic creatures as they feed on plankton, or as they patiently wait for smaller reef fish to clean parasites off them.

Siaba Island

hawksbill turtle underwater — Spot green and hawksbill turtles.

Often referred to as Turtle City, the calm and shallow waters of Siaba Island are renowned for being one of the best and most reliable spots in the region for spotting green sea and hawksbill turtles.

This spot allows beginner snorkellers and families to float above vibrant coral gardens as the underwater residents swim by. These reefs aren’t only popular with turtles, either – expect to see whitetip reef sharks, eagle rays, blue-spotted stingrays, parrotfish and plentiful schools of other marine creatures.

Batu Bolong Reef

coral ref in labuan bajo indonesia — Snorkel through a colourful aquarium.

Diving into the reef of Batu Bolong – in the Lintah Strait, between Komodo Island and Tatawa Besar – is almost like diving into a colourful aquarium.

Here, strong swimmers can fight against the currents to find another explosive display of underwater life. Think reef sharks, turtles, moray eels and thousands of fish schools.

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Delight your tastebuds in Yogyakarta

As one of Indonesia’s heritage cities, Yogyakarta continues to preserve authentic wellness traditions and gastronomical flavours. Fly two hours from Bali to delight in the local food scene and indulge in a world of wellness practices all rooted in centuries-old Javanese philosophy. This is truly a destination where travellers can balance rest and relaxation with cultural immersion.

Traditional cuisine

indonesia food ingredients — Feast on Yogyakarta’s cuisine.

In Yogyakarta, the cuisine is defined by rich, sweet Javanese flavours and fiery street food. Start with the province’s signature dish, gudeg, a traditional Javanese slow-cooked stew; made from unripe jackfruit simmered for several hours with palm sugar, coconut milk and a blend of aromatic spices, the result is rich, sweet and savoury.

Sate klathak is another local favourite. It’s a satay with a difference, made with large chunks of goat meat that have a simple seasoning of salt and pepper, and is served on iron rods in a shallow pool of a spiced curry broth.

Visitors should also try the traditional Indonesian comfort food, bakmi jawa, which is composed of yellow egg noodles with shredded chicken, eggs and vegetables, all cooked in an aromatic blend of spices.

Wash them all down with traditional drinks like wedang uwuh, a hot tea-like blend of dried spices, herbs and woods.

Diverse dining options

Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta City, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia — From casual eats to fine dining, find it in Yogyakarta. (Credit: Arif Ubayy)

As well as the food itself, Yogyakarta offers a vibrant and diverse dining scene, no matter what travellers are in the mood for. Eat like a royal at Bale Raos. This famous restaurant serves traditional Javanese dishes, once reserved exclusively for the kings and sultans of Yogyakarta. For something more modern, take in breathtaking mountain views along with local and international menus at Enam Langit by Plataran.

Discover more of Indonesia’s experiences with tourism experts at Luxperience in Sydney this November. Or, visit indonesia.travel.

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.

Indonesia, unfiltered: 3 destinations beyond Bali to put on your travel list