Hey all. I will be travelling to Indonesia from Los Angeles this December and will be there for around 14 days. I am hoping to get some advice and tips from experienced travelers on how to get around the country and what to do/not to do. Sorry if this is quite long!! And yes, I will be travelling for my mom for half the trip, so technically it's not a 100% solo-trip, but I had to post it one of my favorite subs (along with shoestring) lol. Thank you

Basics: I get to Bali on December 16th and leave early on January 2nd. I will be taking a mini-trip to Thailand in the middle from December 27th-30th. I will be with my family (mainly my mom) for 10 days in the middle but I will be travelling solo for the rest. FYI I am a guy in my mid 20s who functions pretty well in low sleep and is pretty good at being safe lol.

Here’s my itinerary for the trip. I have separated into 3 parts: Part 1: December 16th - 20th/21st Arriving to Bali at 11 pm on the 16th. The first thing I want to do is a trip to Komodo Island to see Komodo dragons, and haven’t booked anything for this yet. I will probably not take a day to relax in Bali before I head out, as I am pretty good at being high-energy when travelling lol. From what I have read, the fastest but not-so-cheap way to do it is to fly to Labuan Bajo from Bali and then find some sort of boat-tour that lasts 1-2 days and takes you to Komodo Island. People seemed to advise (on trip-adviser) to avoid booking these boats online as they apparently can be a lot shadier than in the pics online. So I guess I will just land and try to find a ride unless there’s a better option. I’m really not sure how this part will work yet. I will do another post about this mini-trip but also wanted to throw this in here for y’all helpful people in case you have previous experience. Advice needed: 1) Should the round-trip from Bali to Labuan Bajo be 2 or 3 days? Trying to figure out the optimal time to fit everything else in. 2 ) Any recommendations on how I should go about booking the boat trips to Komodo Island? I am inclined to do an overnight trip but am open to suggestions. Would really appreciate if I could find particular companies that are reliable, or advice on finding them.

Part 2 (main part): December 20th/21st- 27th After Komodo I will be travelling with my mom for a while. The goal is to spend the first day around Bali (may be doing a Mt Batur day-trip) then going towards Jakarta for the next 6 days while covering the following spots on the way (Ijen Crater- Mt Bromo- Prambanan temple- Borobudur Temple-White Crater at Kawah Puthi). We do have a flight to catch in Jakarta on the 27th at 7 pm (to Bangkok), so we have to get to Jakarta by then somehow. May be its too ambitious try to travel to all these spots and actually see them properly in a 6/7 day time-span, but hey, that’s what I am here to find out lol. I have found very little information about how transport to and from these places would work. While we prefer to travel by road (buses, shuttles, or even rented cars with a driver if that’s affordable) we are trying to avoid driving a car ourselves (because my mom doesn’t trust me on the wheel haha). Our biggest concerns are whether the public transport to and from these places are frequent and reliable, and whether night buses are available. We realize that most of these spots are 8-10 hours away from each other but we don’t want to spend the bulk of our day-time hours in buses either. I have a feeling we may need to give up on visiting the White Crater and end up taking a flight after Borobudur to get to Jakarta in time.

Advice needed: 1) What is the mode of transportation recommended for our route? (Ijen Crater- Mt Bromo- Prambanan temple- Borobudur Temple-White Crater- Jakarta) if we are on a 6 day time crunch? 2) Following from above, are night/evening buses a reliable option? 2) Any tips on visiting any of these spots would be awesome and strongly appreciated! 3) If it is indeed NOT possible to cover all these spots in our time-frame, which one(s) would you advice leaving out? 4) Are there any hostels/accommodation that you would recommend around any of the spots mentioned? 5) Any general tips and things you wish you had know before visiting would also be appreciated :)

Part 3: December 30th (afternoon) to January 2nd (2 am) I will return to Bali solo from Bangkok. I intend on using the last leg of this trip to just chill in Bali, enjoying the beach and getting boozed up with other young/young-at-heart people. May be I will try some tourist spots around Bali if I am feeling ambitious (Pura Besaikh temple/ Sacred monkey forest sanctuary). But the main goal is to just meet a bunch of people at a party hostel, probably close to Kuta (recommendations appreciated!) and just enjoy NYE before heading back to LA.

Seeking General advice: 1) Hostels/Airbnb around Bali or Indonesia? Not sure which one is better/more cost-effective, especially for the part where I will be travelling with my mom. 2) Tips on transportation around Indonesia as I mentioned in part 2. Cannot emphasize this enough haha 3) General advice on what to do/not-to-do when visiting any of our target locations 4) If I am missing any spots that I could easily hit on the way, please do let me know as well!

Of course, if anyone happens to be in the spots I am visiting while we are there, feel free to join us. The more the merrier! Thank you in advance for your help, fellow travelers/redditors!