We took a 15 day tour the first two weeks of August 2023 with Bali Java Holidays, "Surrounding Java Bali Komodo Island", and it turned out to be one of our best holidays ever. We travelled with our 17 y.o. son and neither him nor us, his parents, ever got bored during the holiday.
We contacted Bali Java Holidays asking them if they would be able to organize our "dream" holiday of Indonesia, immediately afterwards Yasmin, from the office, got in touch with us, we told her we were looking for a cultural, active holiday that had to include Komodo Island and we had around two weeks to tour the country.
Yasmin sent us their proposal and all I can say is that the reality hugely surpassed our expectation.
The choice of accommodation was superb. I particularly loved our hotel in Yogyakarta, but they were all really well chosen, even the more basic one, as the guesthouse in the Sukamade Turtle beach, as it was just a short stroll from the ocean and the option of strolling along the beach during the sunset was incredible.
The activities programmed for us were all well thought and thoroughly enjoyable and to that we owe a huge thanks to Cahyo, our guide in Java. Cahyo was very friendly from the minute we met him when he collected us at the airport and very knowledgeable. He always answered all our questions with lots of information and with good doses of good humor, which made it very easy for all of us to get along. At this point I must say that Cahyo is a very good ambassador to his country! During the more physical activities like the climbing of Ijen, Cahyo set a pace that made the climbing much easier despite the effort required. He also showed us how human and how respectful of nature he is. We had a lot of fun the day we visited the Tumpak Sewu Waterfall heading down the waterfall, crossing the fast flowing streams, losing one of my flip-flops during the last crossing, climbing up the waterfall to get to the caves, getting soaking wet during the process and then miraculously finding the lost flip-flop on our way back up (tip: you are going to get very, very wet during the climbling down and up so dress accordingly, also wear footwear good for scrambling, even though many people and guides wear flip-flops, beware as you make loose them as I lost mine, I think a pair of runners/trainers would be best keeping in mind they'll get very wet).
We spent 10 days in Java which included among others visiting the Prambanan and the Borobudur temples, the Merapi Volcano, the Tumpak Sewu waterfall, hiking the Bromo and the Ijen craters, cycling around Borobudur Village and driving on a 4WD through the jungle to end up releasing baby turtles into the ocean. Then we went to Bali for 2 days where we visited the Ubud Palace and Art Market, and the Tegalalang Rice Terrace among other activities. After Bali we flew to Labuan Bajo where we started our 3D2N sailing tour where the highlight of the trip was to see the komodo dragon, which was an amazing experience. We also did some climbing, sunset rising and setting seeing and some snorkling, and even though we didn't manage to see the manta rays we did manage to see some turtles while snorkling. By the way, the food during the sailing was excellent, plentiful and really tasty.
I am very happy I trusted Baly Java Holiday to put together an itinerary customized to our requests and preferences. The itinerary they prepared for us was ideal and everything run really smoothly. They made our holiday very memorable and all I can say is that they proved to have the knowledge, the experience and the people to satisfy their customers. Best guides, great drivers and fantastic administration personnel.
(At the end of our Java part of the tour, Yasmin came to meet us in person and it was really nice to put a face to the person we communicated with from the beginning of us contacting BJH, really nice touch!)