What a visitor's money does in Indonesia: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) · 1 USD = 17,700 IDR · 1 EUR = 20,400 IDR
Exchange at authorized money changers (BMC, Central Kuta) — avoid random street changers who use sleight of hand. Airport rates are bad.
Avoid: standalone machines on tourist strips, ATMs without a bank branch attached
Use: BCA, Bank Mandiri, BNI
Card skimming has been a recurring problem. Use machines inside a bank branch or a guarded mall, and cover the keypad.
A short ride in Bali: Rp 20,000–50,000 across town — very cheap
From the airport: Denpasar airport to Seminyak Rp 120,000–200,000
Far cheaper than the airport taxi desk and the hotel car.
Gudeg is the city dish: jackfruit stewed for hours in palm sugar and coconut until it is brown and sweet, eaten for breakfast. Bakpia pastries to take home. Angkringan carts sell nasi kucing — "cat rice", tiny portions — with charcoal-grilled skewers, for almost nothing.
Sasak food is much hotter than Balinese: ayam taliwang, grilled chicken with a chilli paste that means it, and plecing kangkung, water spinach with chilli and lime. Lombok means chilli in Indonesian, which is a coincidence but a fair warning.
Eat at warungs (local eateries) for Rp 25,000-40,000 per meal. Try nasi goreng, babi guling (roast pig), and lawar.
Homestay food, three times a day: rice, fish, vegetables, and that is the menu for the week. Take snacks and anything you cannot do without; there are no shops.
Labuan Bajo eats fish, grilled on the harbour at night and priced by the kilo. Beyond the town the food is rice, and a liveaboard feeds you whatever the cook brought.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
BaliIndonesiaRice terraces, temples, and surf breaks
YogyakartaIndonesiaA sultan still on his throne, the largest Buddhist temple on earth, and a live volcano behind the town
LombokIndonesiaBali’s quieter neighbour, with a 3,700-metre volcano, empty south-coast bays and the Gilis offshore
Komodo & FloresIndonesiaDragons on one island, pink sand on another, and some of the best diving in the world between them
Raja AmpatIndonesiaThe richest reef on earth, in an archipelago of limestone islands almost nobody reaches