Jakarta to Ubud

5 Reviews

Excellent

40%

Good

20%

Average

40%

Rather Poor

0%

Bad

0%

• SC

  Sandra
  Written on August 11, 2017

  5.0 - Excellent

  A fantastic tour of Indonesia with a good mix of volcanoes, temples, beach and sightseeing. Well organised, lots of inclusions and fits a lot into the 2 weeks. Excellent!

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• J

  JJ
  Written on March 13, 2017

  3.0 - Average

  TOUR ITINERARY – 4/5; Be aware that this itinerary has a lot of traveling in between (many days of being on the train for 4-5 hours), and you’ll be fine. Prepare to rough it out. Better to use a backpack vs. rolled luggage. This is not a luxurious itinerary, better suited for the adventurous (which we consider ourselves to be). One of the people in the tour group kept complaining that they wanted to go shopping, and all we could think of was – did this person not read the trip notes prior to signing up? We loved: Mt. Bromo, Borobodur Temple, Prambanan Temple (optional), Monkey Forest (optional), Pangandaran Coastal Reserve Guided Trek (optional), eating out in Yogyakarta (great hotel location – we also got a massage nearby for $10/hr). We didn’t really much care for: Seloliman Nature Reserve and Kalibaru (it felt unnecessary). The beaches in Pemuteran/Bali were really dirty, a lot of trash floating around. I mean a lot. We went diving so we were fine, but we felt bad for those who paid to go snorkeling. TOUR GUIDE - 2/5; The tour guide was inexperienced and did a really poor job. 1) He said that he had been a tour guide for other Intrepid tours, but this was only his second time as tour guide for this itinerary. It was clear he was still trying to figure things out along the way, and didn't do a good job doing so. 2) At times, it felt like he was the tourist – he would position himself at the front of everyone else so he could get the “best shot” of himself enjoying, while everyone was trying to get a good photo without him in the picture. If he was doing his job we would have not minded this as much, but it felt like we were paying for him to go on vacation. 3) He got sick early on, and was out of commission for about 3 days. We were left on our own on those days - he endorsed us to local tour guides where possible, but one of our tour mates got lost when this happened, which delayed us a bit. He should have informed Intrepid of his illness, and they should have sent in a replacement. The guy had to take six types of medications. Meanwhile, someone in the group was sick as well and he didn’t help that person get to a doctor until almost the end of the tour. Everyone was sick by the end of the tour because of this. What he could have done better (as part of his responsibilities): (A) Understand what was on the itinerary. Many times the people on the tour knew better what was going to happen the next day than he did. He also told the group the wrong time MULTIPLE times. He didn’t know what time the trains were, how long the car rides were, etc. (B) Facilitate the process better - he said this was his role, but he did a poor job of doing so... on one occasion, people didn't sign up for an optional activity because he didn't describe it well enough, on another, people lost the opportunity to sign up because he didn't know that you had to reserve 8 hours prior. Being a facilitator is not a hard job, just need to be organized and research things in advance. It was tough for us that he wasn’t trained and we paid full price. (C) Recommend restaurants. Instead, he would bring the entire tour group to the nearest one (across the street) which was terrible and costlier than another one down the road. He should have provided recommendations instead of telling the group where to eat, especially if he didn’t know where to eat. TRANSPORTATION – 3/5; Majority of the transportation was decent. Our train seats were mostly good, except for one segment. Our buses were mostly decent, except for one that had no A/C and had rusty scraps of metal hanging out from it. The train leaving Jakarta was delayed by about 3 hours due to flooding and heavy rains, but most of the other trains were on time. ACCOMODATIONS – 3/5; There was maybe one hotel that was really good, but the rest were just okay. Some didn’t have hot water; some didn’t have air conditioning. Two didn’t have a shower (there was a shower head in one, but the water was spritzing out, so – no, not really). All beds were a bit hard, were mostly clean. We had ants in our bed in one of them. The hotels in Yogyakarta and Ubud had plenty of hot water and good water pressure. We didn’t like the Mt. Bromo accommodations (the Yoshi Guest House in Mt. Bromo was really gross, they don’t seem to clean the rooms, and don’t even think about taking a shower). Seloliman’s open air bathroom and villa style could have been a good concept but there were tons of insects in the room and there was not enough water pressure to use the shower.

  

  Intrepid Travel commented on this review

  Hi JJ, Thank you for taking the time to share your comments with us. We were disappointed to read that you felt your guide was under qualified and you didn’t enjoy your tour. JJ, we would love an opportunity to more fully understand your experience as feedback from our passengers is essential towards improving all that we do. Please feel free to contact our Customer Relations team who will be happy to further address your concerns: customerrelations@intrepidtravel.com Thanks again and we look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, Intrepid Travel

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• EL

  Erica
  Written on September 21, 2016

  4.5 - Excellent

  This trip was AMAZING. It followed the trip notes that were outlined, and provided the adventure I sought. I was not surprised by any activities except in having my expectations exceeded! Indonesia was beautiful and I think this did a great job of taking us across Java and Bali with the time constraints allowed. Highlights - Green River Canyon (especially because I have NO idea how one would get here except on a private tour with transportation arranged and it is INCREDIBLE), Pangadaran Nature Park tour, Mt. Bromo, Seloliman Nature Reserve. Accommodations were great throughout. Only suggestions - 1) There is a lot of train travel. This is OK, because it seems if we did it by car it would be far worse/longer. If it were possible to do some of that long travel overnight, that might be nice. There are some nice views while on the train too, and I think the itinerary does a great job of not making us get up in the middle of the night for stressful travel etc. But it does feel like you lose some of your valuable vacation days to 5-8 hour distances by car or train, and often you just fell asleep on the train anyway. 2) Ubud - I know this is structured so you can spend additional time to explore there on your own once the trip is over, but I might have wanted a structured day of travel to the UNESCO rice paddies heritage site or the temple on the rocks as part of the itinerary. Balian Beach is lovely, but perhaps you could cut a day in Yogyarkata or Balian Beach to add that in. 3) The trip notes seemed to have some errors with estimates for money items - they may have been off by a decimal place. If I recall correctly, it way OVER estimated how much I needed to have on hand, but please review - estimates I am referencing were in USD Overall, this is an EXCELLENT trip and gets great highlights throughout the two islands. All of my friends who say my pictures were in awe of what we saw and did throughout and have been asking how they can do it too. I'd say that is a job well done on your part!

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• 

  Carmelle
  Written on December 4, 2013

  4.0 - Good

  the 2 last days of traveling before Tanah Lot should have been replaced by a faster way as the roads and traffic are very intense and only one day in Ubud is not enough. The hotel in Joshi is great but the food did not meet standards and I got sick. Generaly speaking it was a great experience. Andy was very helpful experienced and took good care of the crew; it was a pleasure.

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• 

  Shelley
  Written on August 2, 2013

  3.0 - Average

  I have recently returned from Indonesia and the Jakarta to Ubud tour. Although my rating is not as high as on other trips, I will say I had a great time and loved the country. I don't think I have been anywhere with friendlier people. I think my reason the scores are low is we had a nice but pretty low key guide and the travel was brutal although probably unavoidable. Java is rural so roads are not great and the towns are far apart. With this length of tour you spend a lot of time travel from one place to the next, often with little time to enjoy the actual places. Standards are lower in Java as well. Not bad just be prepared. Some real highlights on this trip....Mount Bromo, Borobudur, the Nature Reserve and amazing, smiling people.

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