Hi all,

I'm still waiting for the Lonely Planet Java (the old one) to arrive, but I need to do some planning now.

Want to spend about 2.5 weeks on this vacation. Arrival in Jakarta. See the big archaeological sites, some volcanoes in the east, maybe a town with lots of history, potentially the site of the mud volcano disaster. Then take a lowcost fly to for example Lombok for a few days of relaxing and a bit of jungle hiking, and then return to Jakarta. We've considered Bali, but think it's too overrun by tourists. Would also consider other islands not too far away for that (any suggestions?)

My question is how to get around on Java. We did a tour on Sri Lanka with a private guide and driver and liked it a lot, but we can't really find something similar for Java. Looks like we need to get to various places ourselves and there meet with a guide to get us to the local places we want to see. We're not really backpackers and wonder where to leave our luggage when we want to go to places not covered by guides For example some volcanoes near Bandung that seem to be less crowded than the Bromo. Oh, and again: how do we get there