The currency in Indonesia is the Rupiah and prices are very cheap.
For a backpacker’s budget for Indonesia, you need between 15 and 30 USD per day.
This report goes hand-in-hand with my tourist guide to money in Indonesia.
Accommodation
There are hostels pretty much everywhere in Indonesia. Hostels go for between 4 and 8 USD per night, depending on the size of the room and if there’s AC inside.
Usually, Japanese-style hostels with cabins/capsules are a bit more expensive than shared rooms with regular bunk beds.
Hotels are cheap too, especially if you secure promotions on Booking.com – between 6 and 13 USD for a double room.
Always book online in Indonesia – prices are usually cheaper! Accommodations have a set number of rooms offered online and they have special agreements with Booking, Agoda, etc. Even if you go in person and try to book directly, they won’t be able to offer you the special online prices. I’ve had it happen to me many times and I am always baffled that they will prefer to pay a commission online to giving me a discount, but the economics checks out.
Total accommodation cost came to exactly 200 USD making the average 7.69 USD per night.
Food and Drinks
Food in Indonesia is incredibly cheap.
Street food stalls called warungs and angrinkans are ubiquitous – pretty much around every corner.
Simple meals like fried rice with veggies (nasi goreng) and fried noodles (mee goreng) cost between 0.5 and 1 USD.
Fried chicken ala KFC is quite common and very cheap too – between 0.5 and 0.8 USD per piece of chicken.
Western food establishments are a bit more expensive, even though the quality of food is not up to par with expectations. A meal in Mcdonald’s or Burger King would cost around 3-4 USD, while a pizza from Pizza Hut could be as much as 7 USD.
There are a variety of Indonesian snacks sold on the street, both sweet and savory. They are quite cheap too – between 0.06 USD for a stick of fried egg (telur gulung) to 0.6 USD for mini pancakes or gaufrettes.
Non-alcoholic drinks are very cheap too – iced tea is around 0.2 USD and fruit juices go for ~1 USD for a large (0.5 L, sometimes more) cup down to 0.4 USD for a small cup (0.25 L).
Alcohol is rare and expensive, even by Western standards – a can of beer from the supermarket is ~2.5 euros. Islam is to blame, although even in Hindu Bali, prices alcohol prices remain high due to country-wide taxation.
In total, I spent 131 USD making the average 5.04 USD per day. Incredibly cheap, considering I ate like a king.
Transport
Transport is easy in Indonesia. Between cities on Java, the train is the best option.
An 8-hour public train between Bandung and Yogyakarta is only 12 USD, while a 3-hour top-quality train from Jakarta to Bandung is ~15 USD.
Inside the cities, Grab and GoJek provide easy and cheap transportation, especially if you use their motorbike options – a 5km ride on a motorbike taxi is around 1 USD.
Intercity buses are a bit more expensive, for example, Yogyakarta to Semarang is around 6 USD (3h, 150 km).
Let me note here, that I have been to Indonesia before and this time I came mostly to relax in one place. Thus, I didn’t pay that much for transport.
In total, I paid 69 USD for transport. The average daily cost came out to 2.66 USD.
Culture and Activities
Most museums in Indonesia use discriminatory pricing.
Sometimes it’s quite extreme and the price for a foreigner is 100 times that of a local. For example, the popular Borobodur Temple costs 25 USD for foreigners (and there are plans to make it 100 USD) and less than 1 USD for locals.
I’ve been to both Borobodur and Prambanan (same pricing policy) so I opted not to go this time.
Still, I visited quite a lot of museums in several cities. If you go to popular temples and volcano tours (Bromo, Kawah Ijen) the costs will mount up.
Total cost: 15 USD. The average cost per day came to 0.58 USD.
Visa
There’s a visa on arrival for most nationalities when entering Indonesia. It costs 500.000 IDR or around 33 USD.
Recently a new option has become available – an e-visa from the official Immigration Portal. It’s a bit glitchy and not at all user-friendly. That’s why I’ve prepared this guide for the Indonesian eVoA.
Other
As I spent almost a month in Indonesia, I had other costs like laundry (~0.7 USD per kg), mobile net (~6 USD for 30 GB for a month), toiletries (toothpaste = 2 USD, small shampoo = 1.5 USD, shaving razors =0.6 USD each), a new t-shirt (3 USD), etc.
In total, I paid 36.5 USD for other expenses.
A Backpacker’s Budget for Indonesia
| Accommodation | 200 USD |
| Food | 131 USD |
| Transport | 69 USD |
| Culture | 15 USD |
| Visa | 31 USD |
| Other | 36.5 USD |
| TOTAL | 523.5 USD |
In total, I spent 482.5 USD for 26 days, which makes the average 18.56 USD per day.