This is Exactly How Much it Costs to Travel in Java, Indonesia

We might not like it, but we all know it, the cost of a country does matter in making a decision on visiting it or not. To help you make a decision about traveling to Java we thought we would help you a little bit, so we have created a breakdown of our cost to show you exactly how much it costs to travel in Java, Indonesia. Java, Indonesia, is a beautiful island filled with treasures and to make it even better, it is a budget destination! So keep reading to find a breakdown of the cost of our accommodation, food, transportation and activities in Java!

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But keep in Mind…

Don’t forget, there are a couple of things you should take in mind when reviewing these costs. While the breakdown of these costs creates some transparency, and perhaps a little idea on how much you will be spending on your trip to Java, Indonesia, no two people are the same. There are people we have met who have traveled for far less within Java, and people that have spent a lot more. So to give you a better idea of which group you belong to, here is a little bit on how we travel:

• We aim to travel on a budget so we can stay on the road as long as possible.
• We prefer to arrange our own transport, may it be motorbikes, our legs or public transport, over taxis and tours.
• We occasionally (okay, maybe a bit more then occasionally) splurge on food, I mean who doesn’t love food?
• We try to eat local as much as we can, but as long term travelers we sometimes miss the food we know from home, so once in a while we do splurge on Western foods.
• We prefer to have our own private room over a dorm room.
• With careful research we plan our budget out in advance, trying to stick to it as much as we can. We try to compensate the days that we are over with days that we save money to maximize our savings and income.
• We skip tours and try to organize everything on our own.
• We travel slow and aim to stay 3 – 6 nights per destination.
• We select our activities and sightseeing based on the cost and how much value it will bring to us, but also to you. There are plenty of free or budget sights to see!

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Cost of Accommodation in Java, Indonesia

Perhaps one of the best indicators to see how expensive your travels will be in a country is by looking at the cost of accommodation. We spent roughly $15 a day for the both of us together on accommodation together. In every hostel, hotel or homestay we stayed in Java this meant a clean, decent sized private room with fan or a/c and a shared bathroom. For a complete breakdown of our accommodation per city and per accommodation check the table down below! We have linked our accommodation in the table as well so you can have a better idea of what kind of accommodation you can get for this money!

We selected our accommodation based on cleanliness, location, price and wifi options (as we need this for work). We always strongly recommend you to read the recent reviews of the hotels as quality of accommodation may change over time. That said we also strongly recommend you to leave accommodation reviews just to help your fellow travelers and backpackers out!

Our room at Trava House Yogyakarta

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Cost of Food & Drinks in Java, Indonesia

Our biggest expenditure, as always, is the cost of food and drinks with an average of $9.50 per person per day. And no this is not because we are big alcoholic drinkers, we just really really really like our food. In 3 out of the 5 accommodation we stayed at in Java we had a breakfast included, saving us some money. We ate mostly local foods such as Nasi Goreng, Satay, Gado Gado and Pisang Goreng (yumyum), but have also splurged on many non local meals such as fajitas, pizza, pasta, fish and chips and perhaps even a burger. These foods often cost slightly more, so if you are planning on sticking to local food and not drinking too much you can keep these costs a lot lower!

To give you a little bit of a better idea on what you can splurge your money on, here are some example cost of prices we came across during our travels (all prices are in IDR):

Nasi Goreng Jawa, 29K IDR for the whole meal

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Cost of Transportation in Java, Indonesia

Up next, the cost of transportation in Java, Indonesia. On average we spent $4.50 per person per day on transportation (including between cities and in cities). Cost of transportation is extremely important when traveling around a country, as it can easily break your budget! Nonetheless, our cost of transportation only represent the cost for us during our travels in August and September 2018. Traveling during weekends, holiday, high season and your available time can highly influence these prices but if traveling during week days train travel in Java is extremely affordable. There is a possibility to fly between many of these destinations, saving you time, but also costing you a bit more money. To make it easier we have split transportation into two tables, between cities and in cities.

Cost of transportation in Java, Indonesia between cities:

Cost of transportation in Java, Indonesia within cities:

To minimize these costs we would strongly recommend you to download Grab. Grab is like the Uber of Southeast Asia, but instead of using creditcards you just pay cash once you arrive. It is very common and easy to use Grab in Indonesia and it will save you loads of money compared to normal taxis! As long as you have wifi or internet you simply order a Grab and it will show you how long it will take before your GrabBike or GrabCar is there and how much the cost will be!

Grab bikes and taxis are widely available in the larger cities

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Cost of Activities in Java, Indonesia

The last major category, and the category that, in my opinion, is very personal. We select activities based on cost, value for our money and really ask ourselves twice how badly we want to do this. Activities can make or break your budget. If you are planning on doing tours, see all the sights and go on wild off the beaten path adventures where you need a guide, expect this category to be a lot higher. We, however, kept our cost low by mainly doing free activities. Lucky for us, there are many low budget activities such as Taman Sari in Yogyakarta or simply exploring mount Bromo completely free. Other activities, like Borobudur, were a dent in our budget, but really worth it! Find a complete breakdown of all our activities below. Of course we did more, all our activities were just free!

Visiting Mount Bromo for Free

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Miscellaneous costs while traveling Java, Indonesia

So now that we have covered the cost of accommodation, transport, food and activities in Java, Indonesia there is only one category left: miscellaneous. You will always have these items that you simply can’t place in any other category. Some examples for us: sim card for your phone, laundry, bandaids, mosquito spray etc.. During our stay of 16 nights in Java we spent a total of $27.91 together. This included buying a simcard with 20GB data, a bottle of shampoo, mosquito spray, 3 packs of bandaids (yes, 3), deodorant, 4 laundry loads and a whole lot more.

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How we could have spent less

After having traveled a certain country, or part of a country, we always try to reflect on our cost to see where we could improve and how we can spent less in the future, just so we can stay longer on the road and provide you with more content on a daily basis! So here are a few things we have learned and how we could have saved money:

• Eat more street food, it is a lot cheaper and extremely tasty.
• Bring snacks for your train ride, they are more expensive on the train.
• Eat less… something we always struggle with, oops!
• Taken the economy class train from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, the executive class is rather expensive.
• Drink less delicious ice coffee, more water provided by the hostel.

Traveling in economy class in the train

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Pin in for later

And there you have it, our exact break down of all our cost while traveling in Java, Indonesia. We hope this gives you a better idea of how low or high your budget should be for your future travels in Java. How about you, do you have any money saving tips? Be sure to tell us in the comments down below! Oh, and don’t forget to pin it for later…