benjinito

Thank you It was on our radar but the flight time makes it quite cumbersome to get to/from Yogyakarta.

DPS - TMC has 2 flights daily (9AM and 10:45AM) - No flights YIA-DPS would make those
TMC - DPS has 2 flights daily (12:35PM and 4:PM) - No flights DPS-YIA depart after those

We're not in a position for private charter, unfortunately

nmuva98

Let me respectively disagree just a bit. Jiwo has some amazing activities if you are an athletic or outdoorsy type.

I did 7 nights at Jiwo a few years ago and am an avid trail runner/hiker who does occasional ultramarathons. Jiwo is surrounded by 7 mountains, all of which can be climbed and some of which are active volcanoes. When I was there I did Mt Merapi, which is active. You leave the resort around 11pm, climb until 5am or so, then they have a nice little set up close to the summit. Chill there for a bit then proceed up for sunrise. Then a pretty aggressive descent.

I absolutely loved it. But it resulted in a good 12 hours off the property, overnight. Some of the other mountains would have taken even longer. So if you are into this sort of thing you can easily stay a week there and actually run out of time. There is also a much simpler, maybe 1hour hike just behind the resort if you are just looking for a daily workout.

I think I was actually ne of the first guests to do this in a long time so I was upgraded to the Dalem Jiwo suite afterwards for the remainder of my stay

Ericka

The snorkeling at Wana is spectacular, especially right on property. And the wildlife is great, too. We did some hiking.

Ericka

I would add that we did full week stays at both Amanwana and Amanjiwo on separate trips. If you request the word document with all of the available activities you will find there is plenty to do at both. Cultural, etc.

A4K

They will also transfer you to SOC (Solo/Surakarta), might not help you but there are 1 or 2 flights a day to DPS. Small very easy airport with a priority pass lounge, further from Jiwo but the drive is more interesting than getting to YIA.

benjinito

I didn't know this, that's fantastic, thank you. We can do TMC-DPS 12:35 - 1:55PM and still make the 3:55 - 4:10PM DPS-SOC flight

Zephyrous

This is why I love reading/lurking in this forum.

This sounds absolutely insane to me and my idea of a holiday (even though I’ve done one of those “fitness retreats” with my gym - which is mainly lifting but I digress).

I think I did one of the hiking trails (assume the 1 hour one you mention), once! Never got offered something longer but I’d have politely rejected 😂.

Enormous kudos however!

tdiddy23

wow no idea they offered this, would have considered it, althoguh would have had to stretch the schedule. We did a medium length day hike with great views and a village visit. I don't think 5 days is a terrible idea if you want to do say 4 activities at a relaxed pace. We preferred amanjiwo to mandapa in ubud

I thought it worth mentioning that east java we found quite interesting. The train is not that unpleasant and there are a couple decent non luxurious hotels to visit mt bromo + ijen. Sunrise hiking at bromo was very memorable. Amanjiwo arranged all this for us with a local tour operator

benjinito

I’m interested in Mt Bromo/Ijen. Do you recall which hotel you stayed at?

Koen dc

In the area of Bromo you could consider to stay in Plataran Bromo (its a little over 6 hours drive from Amanjiwo, possible split up in Surabaya is possible but I don't think the city is worth a visit), The plataran bromo hotel is really ok if you know it's not luxury. From there you can go visit Bromo and leave to Ijen which is just before Benjuwangi. On the way there are really nice waterfalls to see. In Benjuwangi you can easily cross to Bali and stay at The Menjangan, which is also not luxury but a really nice place to stay in a beach villa. (It was advised to us by Ernst from Amankila.)
From there it's easy to go to Denpasar airport and visit Nihi Sumba or Amanwana, although you could also consider to go from The Menjangan to Capella Ubud which is an interesting change of scenery after Amanjiwo, plataran Bromo and the Menjangan. Soori Bali can be on the way from the Menjangang to Capella Ubud or to the airport if you are looking for a nice beach hotel in-between.

tdiddy23

we stayed at Jiwa Jawa near Bromo. Bangsing breeze near Ijen. The latter was a quaint little place that id be happy to go back to. Jiwa Jawa was tolerable for one night, the sunrise tour ensures you won't be getting a great sleep anyway so it was more than adequate. Neither are luxury of course anywhere near Aman level, cleanliness/food safety etc did not seem to be an issue at either place. Having Aman/partner agency arrange transport/logistics helped make it much smoother. I think if bookended with another brief luxury stay afterwards would leave few with regrets adding this on while on Java, but obviously everyone's standards are a bit different.

Edit: plataran bromo looks nicer then where we stayed, i don't think it was open back then. although might be a bit further away

benjinito

Wow that sounds amazing, thank you Never even crossed my mind to take the ferry from Java to Bali. You gave me lots to think about. Can't thank you enough for taking the time to type this up!

worldiswide

Bumping this thread. Long time lurker, Really enjoy reading these threads and have gained a lot of great ideas. Going to Indonesia in January for a week or so. I see mention in this thread of Plataran Hotels .. understand it is not luxury as defined on this thread, but are there any other posters on this thread who have stayed in their hotels in Borobudur or Komodo?

Pausanias

The Komodo resort looks nice. It's near Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores, so you would need a boat to get to Komodo itself, probably easy to organise, and prepare for very rough crossings, full of riptides and whirlpools. We stayed at Labuan back in the primitive days - the 1990s - when you had to buy a goat and have it slaughtered as the admission price to see the dragons on Komodo. The entire area is stunningly beautiful. Be aware that January will be very wet everywhere in the Lesser Sundas.

worldiswide

Thanks for all this information, it is very helpful. I really loved your 1990's travel description!