In summer 2025 we planned a three-week trip to Indonesia, one of the few countries in Asia I had not yet visited. After in-depth research and long negotiations, we decided to divide the trip into three macro areas, roughly one week each, with Jakarta as the starting and finishing point: Sumatra, Bali & Nusa Penida, and Lombok for Gili Meno and trekking Mount Rinjani.
Unsurprisingly, it was an adventurous and rewarding trip for many different reasons. Indonesia offers an incredible variety of activities, landscapes, and climates. In a single trip, we could immerse ourselves in a primary jungle, enjoy culture, food, and spectacular beaches, and hike to the top of a volcano! There’s too much for a single post, so I’ve decided to publish one for each macro area, plus this one. Hyperlinks are above to follow. I’ll just spend a couple of words here on the capital.
Quickly, Jakarta
Truth be told, Jakarta isn’t the most beautiful or interesting part of Indonesia, nor of any Asian capital for that matter. It is huge, extremely busy, choked with traffic, and very unfriendly towards pedestrians. If you enjoy walking around cities and getting a little “lost”, as we do, it is not the best place — you’ll basically need to grab a taxi or local transport to get anywhere.
We did it anyway on our first day: we walked from our hotel towards central Jakarta to check out the park with the national monument (not so interesting). We then passed by the Istiqlal Mosque and discovered it was open to guided visits — perhaps the best thing we did in Jakarta. The mosque is the third-largest in the world, and stepping into the main dome, one can only stand in awe. It can host up to 200,000 pilgrims between its indoor and outdoor spaces, and was built to celebrate independence after 1945 — fittingly, the name translates as “Independence Mosque.”
After this, we headed further north towards Chinatown, which makes for a pleasant walk with no particular highlights. Finally, we visited the area around Taman Fatahillah (Fatahillah Square), the old Dutch colonial district closest to the port — the historical heart of old Batavia, once an imperial Dutch port city and capital of the Dutch East Indies. Today, it’s a touristic area, with colonial buildings housing cafes and restaurants, and a few museums nearby, including the Jakarta History Museum.
Getting there on foot was not easy: we had to pass under bridges and causeways where many homeless people reside. Nothing happened, but it didn’t feel entirely comfortable. The touristic areas, by contrast, feel perfectly safe in Jakarta by day and night.
Speaking of which, the nightlife is worth exploring. Over our three nights in Jakarta — split between arrival and departure — we visited a couple of cocktail bars with impressively creative menus. There are plenty of options across the city, but Naaga Bar was easily our favourite. Expect European prices at this kind of establishment.
And of course, no visit to an Asian country is complete without diving into the food. Jakarta delivers on this front: skip the malls and western chains, and instead seek out local diners like RM Pagi Sore Jeruk Purut, where you can order a spread of delicious dishes to share, just as the locals do — and spend very little doing it.
