Java: Jogja to Bandung
 

What is the best way to get from Jogja to Bandung? Flying to Jakarta and then taking a long road trip back sounds so tedious. How much is it likely to cost to hire a car + driver for the journey by road? Is the journey rewarding in any way? Is it better to do the trip n the other direction, i.e. start in Bandung and drive to Jogja?

I have travelled extensively in Sumatra, Sulawesi & Bali - but never been to Bandung and hence am curious.

Why aren't you considering the train? A ticket in executive class is cheap and comfortable, trains are clean and safe. Ride is 7 hours having tried all the options I still prefer train vs car unless you need your private transport at destination. You need to book your seat in advance, unless weekend or holiday season few days ticket advance purchase is enough, all the major local OTA ( tiket.com, Traveloka) sell trains tickets.

Good point - I am happy to take the train. Two questions - is it worth paying more for the Executive class trains? Which website do you recommend for booking the tickets? Does it have an English version since my Bahasa is non-existent? Am I likely to run into issues for paying with a foreign credit card?

Traveloka.com and all relevant Indonesian OTA have English version too, normally a foreign credit card should work. For internationals standards executives class is comparable with first class and in my opinion is worth, new economy class now has AC and leather/fabric seats, the amount of space between seats is much better in executive, an average ticket Jogya Bandung can be around 220-260 K IDR in economy and from 300 to 500 K IDR in executive depending on how late you buy the ticket and how full the train is.

If you value comfort on a long rail journey it's probably best not to quibble about a $15 or so difference between economy and executive classes. There are around 4 mixed class trains, a couple of them over-nighters, which might be convenient though I reckon the morning departure is far better if you want to see Java passing by your window.

There's an Argo train offering executive-plus, premium-class only accommodation and shaving an hour off the journey. Fares are upwards of 500K (around $30), and the train leaves Yog around midday. As a point of interest i believe it's the only Argo operating on a route that doesn't include Jakarta.

KAI (the train company) offers a frustrating mix of Indonesian and english on its website, but as BobFF68 points out, Traveloka will take that hassle away for you.
https://www.traveloka.com/en-id/kere...&ps=1.0&pd=KAI

Thanks Bob & Ian - you have sold me on the train. I was toying with the idea of a car + driver simply because that would have given me the opportunity to stop and shoot some photos anytime I came across something interesting.

Unrelated question - normally I use klook.com to book stuff like airport transfers or even intercity car hires (with a driver), but klook's offering outside Bali appears to be quite meagre. Can you perhaps recommend an alternate site for Indonesia?

From 1 October - [size=13px]High-speed trains will operate at up to 350km/h on the line, completing the journey between Halim and Tegaluar in Bandung in 45 minutes[/size]

https://en.tempo.co/read/1774806/jakarta-bandung-high-speed-train-officially-introduced-as-whoosh

Halim is the new HSR station in east Jakarta, just north of the city's Halim airport in Makasar district. Tickets are currently free - but sold-out, impossible to find.

The journey time is more than halved, but there might be inconvenience for some in the new Jakarta station, and at the Bandung end the new station is some 20km from Bandung's central station. But Bandung is just the first phase: plans are to eventually link Jakarta with Surabaya at the other end of Java: the question was whether after Bandung the line should take a north coast route through Semarang, or head south, putting Yogyakarta on the network, and thereby make this post relevant to the thread :D

As soon the testing period will end (November?), Im sure the tickets will be available for the price :D

HST train free tickets already finished, the standard service already started end of last week. Tickets can be purchased using Whoosh website: https://ticket.kcic.co.id/webTrade/#/home/index or the specific app

There is still a promo active on Premium economy class (the basic class) at 150 K IDR until end of next week the the full fare to become 300 K IDR from Jakarta Halim to Padalarang or TegalLuar or vice versa. From to Bandung city is much better to go to Padalaranag stop and then transfer to the specific new shuttle train (called "feeder train") that links the HST line to the Bandung Kota station using the old line. Halim to Padalarang is 30 minutes and then Padalarang Bandung kota is 20 minutes, Tegal Luar station is far from the city, not well connected and the traffic from there is awful, to be chosen only if final destination is located in eastern part of Kabupaten Bandung.

Thanks a lot for this practical advise. Very useful! And if the price will be 300k OW, I'm sure there will be always a seat available even last minute :D

Great to have your eyes on the ground!

I took the precaution of registering with Whoosh some time back, and I'm delighted to see I can now book seats ... but only until the end of the month, which isn't much use for my November trip. Seats currently available are mostly in 3-3 economy at 150K, though there's limited availability at (non-promo) 450K for business and 600K in first.

I think the promo economy fares match the regular slow-coach fares between Gambir and Bandung, with business (from) 200K on that route.

I wonder just how clunky the transfer to the feeder is at Padalarang. I read some reports of Bandung originating passengers missing the connection because of delays in the feeder service.

The best way, as BobFF68 has noted, to get from Yogyakarta to Bandung is to get the train. You can book on Tiket.com (which does have an English-version of the website). Executive tickets end up being from 340,000 - 500,000IDR one-way, depending on the exact subclass and when you book. There's also a fancy panoramic train (Argo Wilis Panoramic) for about 1,250,000IDR one-way, or the fanciest of them all, the Luxury sleeper-style Taksaka Luxury, where you get an actual lie-flat seat, like on a business class flight. See photos below for an idea of what Executive (blue seat) and Taksaka Luxury (brown seat) look like.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0e84a4b453.jpg
Executive
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...87c6a18b1a.jpg
Taksaka Luxury

On the subject of the Whoosh High-Speed Train between Jakarta and Bandung, I have started a whole other dedicated thread over here. Note that the feeder train crashed in December 2023 going from Bandung to Padalarang.