Best national parks in Indonesia

Serious wildlife enthusiasts won’t want to miss Gunung Leuser National Park. Deep in the North Sumatran jungle, it’s home to orangutans, elephants, tigers, rhinos and sun bears. Visitors can join multi-day treks to see elephants and orangutans (plus other primates like macaques and gibbons, as well as saltwater crocodiles and hundreds of bird species). Tigers, rhinos and sun bears are quite elusive and shy in nature, so if you do spot them, consider yourself extremely lucky. Your launching pad for exploring the park is the village of Bukit Lawang, where a handful of local homestays and tour operators are based.

Another fantastic place for orangutan spotting is Tanjung Puting National Park, on the island of Borneo. This large area of tropical forest and coastal heath is a natural habitat for orangutans and other primates like proboscis monkeys, gibbons and macaques. To see them, take a two or three-day boat tour in a traditional klotok houseboat, sailing along the winding Sekonyer River and stopping at orangutan feeding stations along the way. There’s even the opportunity to go night trekking to spot pythons, tarsiers and tarantulas. Be sure to visit Camp Leakey, an orangutan research and rehabilitation centre, to trek through the jungle and see these primates up close.

As the number one country with the most active volcanoes in the world, you could spend a lifetime exploring all of Indonesia’s fiery mountains. At the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, you can see two volcanoes. At the heart of the park is a gigantic caldera filled with sand, a unique landscape not found anywhere else in Indonesia. Out of this moon-like landscape rise Mount Bromo at 2,329 metres and Mount Semeru at 3,676 metres. Most visitors take a 4x4 tour where you get driven up to the crater rim for sunrise – peek inside the volcano to see the bubbling magma, sulfur and smoke.

Far away from the tourist crowds, West Bali National Park is located on the Prapat Agung peninsula, on the northwestern tip of the island. Crystalline waters and colourful coral reefs surround the peninsula, offering fantastic snorkelling and scuba diving. On land are lowland forests and savannah from which two extinct volcanoes rise. This landscape is home to the endangered Bali starling, as well as 160 other species of birds including kingfishers and wild jungle fowl. Also keep an eye out for deer, macaques, Balinese black monkeys, wild boar and monitor lizards. There are several hiking trails that take you through mangrove forests and on to pristine beaches, but these routes are easily customisable with your mandatory guide.

There’s a reason Komodo National Park is one of the most popular destinations in Indonesia – nowhere else in the world can you get so close to komodo dragons, the world’s largest and most dangerous reptiles. The park encompasses the islands of Komodo, Padar and Rinca, where you can trek with rangers to see the dragons, snorkel and scuba dive in some of Indonesia’s most beautiful coral reefs. The best way to get around the islands is by boat trip (day or multi-day trips are available), stopping at various spots like the Instagram-famous Pink Beach and Padar viewpoint.

Towering above Lombok at 3,726 metres, the mighty Mount Rinjani is Indonesia’s second tallest volcano. Hiking trails lead you through tropical rainforest, savanna and temperate forest, with spectacular views of Lombok, the Gili islands, Bali and Sumbawa. Most treks take three days, which include climbing up to the summit, down into the crater and back up the other side. However, longer treks are possible if you want to spend more time camping at the lake and swimming in the hot springs. This is widely regarded as one of the country’s toughest climbs, so it’s the perfect choice for anyone seeking a challenge (and you can always recover on Lombok’s white-sand beaches afterwards).

This tiny group of islands at the bottom of southeast Sulawesi is a dream destination for ocean lovers. Ringed by white sands and clear waters, the islands are straight out of a postcard. Wakatobi has the largest barrier reef in Indonesia, where a vast 1.4 million hectares are home to over 900 fish species and over 700 coral species. It goes without saying that scuba diving is the main draw, with everything from macro critters like pygmy seahorses to giant mobula rays. Snorkellers don’t have to miss out either, as many of the reefs are accessible from the beach. The best part is that Wakatobi remains relatively undeveloped, so the dive sites are still pristine and uncrowded.