Nusa Local
Discover Indonesia Beyond the Guide
Local picks, stories and experiences: the villages, crafts, markets and tables where you meet the people behind the place.
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Nusa Local
Local picks, stories and experiences: the villages, crafts, markets and tables where you meet the people behind the place.
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Places and tastes that people who live there would send you to.
Local PickJava
Malioboro, Yogyakarta · Food
Yogyakarta's central market: batik at the front, spices and herbal jamu deeper in, and market snacks in between.
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Local PickJava
Purwakarta, West Java · Food
Traditional grilled beef from West Java, marinated before it meets the charcoal and eaten without peanut sauce.
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Local PickJava
Jakarta · Food
The Betawi street snack of Jakarta: sticky rice and egg cooked crisp over charcoal, topped with toasted coconut.
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Local PickBali & Nusa Tenggara
Sukarara, Central Lombok · Craft
A weaving village where Sasak women make songket on backstrap looms set up on their verandas.
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Local PickKalimantan
Lok Baintan, South Kalimantan · Food
At dawn, traders in small wooden boats gather on the Martapura River to sell fruit, vegetables and cakes.
Learn moreThe makers, villages and traditions behind what you see.
Local StoryJava
Kotagede, Yogyakarta · Craft
The first capital of the Mataram kingdom is now a quiet quarter of lanes, courtyard houses and silver workshops.
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Local StoryJava
Srengseng Sawah, South Jakarta · Community
A lakeside neighbourhood in South Jakarta set aside to keep Betawi houses, food and performing arts alive.
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Local StoryJava
Kemiren, Banyuwangi, East Java · Community
The cultural village of the Osing, the people of Java's far eastern tip, known for their coffee and their own Barong.
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Local StoryJava
Malang, East Java · Community
A riverside neighbourhood in Malang that repainted itself in bright colours and changed its own fortunes.
Read the storyLocal StoryBali & Nusa Tenggara
Bangli, Bali · Community
A highland Balinese village where every house compound opens onto one stone lane and customary law still orders daily life.
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Local StoryBali & Nusa Tenggara
Tenganan, Karangasem, Bali · Craft
One of Bali's old Bali Aga villages, known for geringsing — a cloth so complex that a single piece can take years.
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Local StoryBali & Nusa Tenggara
Sade, Central Lombok · Community
A hillside hamlet in southern Lombok where Sasak families still live in thatched houses with clay floors.
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Local StorySumatra
Pandai Sikek, West Sumatra · Craft
A highland village between two volcanoes where Minangkabau songket is woven with gold-coloured thread.
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Local StorySulawesi
Kete Kesu, North Toraja · Culture
A Toraja village where a row of tongkonan houses faces a row of rice barns, with cliff graves behind.
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Local StoryPapua
Arborek, Raja Ampat · Community
A tiny island village in Raja Ampat whose residents run homestays, weave pandan crafts and look after their own reef.
Read the storyThings to take part in, not only to look at.
Local ExperienceJava
Yogyakarta & Central Java · Experience
Sit down at the bronze instruments and learn a simple piece — the fastest way to understand how gamelan fits together.
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Local ExperienceJava
Yogyakarta · Culture
Watch a dalang bring leather puppets to life behind a lamp-lit screen, with a full gamelan beside him.
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Local ExperienceJava
Bandung, West Java · Culture
A bamboo-music centre in Bandung where the audience is handed an angklung and taught to play along.
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Local ExperienceJava
Glodok, West Jakarta · Experience
Temple incense, a narrow market lane and some of the city's oldest food stalls, a short walk from Kota Tua.
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Local ExperienceBali & Nusa Tenggara
Ubud, Bali · Culture
Legong and Barong performed to live gamelan, in a palace courtyard in the centre of Ubud.
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Local ExperienceBali & Nusa Tenggara
Ubud, Bali · Experience
Shop for ingredients at a morning market, then grind the spice paste and cook the dishes yourself.
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Local ExperienceBali & Nusa Tenggara
Uluwatu, Bali · Culture
A circle of chanting men tells the Ramayana on a clifftop as the sun goes down over the Indian Ocean.
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Local ExperienceSumatra
Bukittinggi, West Sumatra · Food
Spend a day in a Minangkabau kitchen: grind the spice paste, squeeze the coconut milk and take a turn at the wok.
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Local ExperiencePapua
Sawinggrai, Raja Ampat · Experience
Walk into the forest before sunrise with a village guide to watch red birds-of-paradise display in the treetops.
Learn moreQuieter places, a little off the usual route.
Hidden GemJava
Nglanggeran, Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta · Community
A community-run village east of Yogyakarta where a short climb between giant boulders ends in a wide view over the hills.
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Hidden GemJava
Tasikmalaya, West Java · Community
A Sundanese village in a river valley that keeps its ancestral rules — including living without mains electricity.
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Hidden GemBali & Nusa Tenggara
Sidemen, Karangasem, Bali · Hidden Gem
A quiet valley of rice terraces in east Bali, with Mount Agung filling the horizon.
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Hidden GemBali & Nusa Tenggara
Wae Rebo, Flores · Hidden Gem
A village of seven cone-shaped houses in the mountains of Flores, reached only on foot.
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Hidden GemSumatra
Pariangan, West Sumatra · Hidden Gem
A terraced village on the slopes of Mount Marapi that Minangkabau tradition names as the place its people began.
Learn moreFestivals and gatherings. Dates move from year to year — check before you plan around one.
Local EventJava
Yogyakarta · Event
A week of court gamelan in Yogyakarta, ending with a procession of rice-mountain offerings from the palace.
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Local EventBali & Nusa Tenggara
Denpasar, Bali · Event
A month of dance, music and craft from every district of Bali, held each year in Denpasar.
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