Why Better Tours – Better Tours

What makes Better Tours BETTER

Absorbing Itineraries

We go to all the good places and then we go BEYOND so you can enjoy amazingly rich and rewarding experiences of the REAL Indonesia. We also ensure that you are fully informed so you can truly appreciate what you are seeing.

Great Food Choices

We take food very seriously. We introduce you to some of the best of Indonesian and Asian cuisines, but also ensure that Western alternatives usually are available. Special dietary needs? – just let us know.

Top Accommodation

We choose beautiful lodgings with character, facilities, traditions or histories that make them special and memorable. Often they are among the best places to stay in each location because we believe in COMFORT.

First Rate Transport

We believe also that we should travel in COMFORT and choose spacious, modern coaches with careful drivers from leading transport companies. Our flights are few, convenient and quick, and we go top Executive Class on trains.

Health and Medical

We ensure members of our team are trained in first aid and CPR and we carry a first aid kit and a defibrillator. Contrary to popular belief, Indonesia has many well-equipped hospitals and clinics with qualified staff. Travel insurance medical cover is mandatory for our guests.

Safety & Security

Your safety and security is always a top priority. Our itineraries, transport, accommodation, crewing and all other aspects of our tours are planned with this top of mind. You can relax and rest easy when you tour with us. We have your back

But WAIT - there's more ...

More Included Meals

Our current package includes MORE MEALS – breakfast EVERY DAY, lunches on most days and 16 complimentary dinners (including two pre-dinner receptions with complimentary drinks). We want you to have some evenings clear to independently sample Indonesian cuisines. We give you tips on places and foods to try.

Top Leaders and Guides

We select congenial, knowledgeable and helpful tour leaders and well-informed, personable local tour guides who know their regions intimately. All speak English and Indonesian (and often other languages). They know the do’s and don’ts of the locations we visit to ensure all runs smoothly. You will be in good hands.

Sensible Pacing

A rushed tour is likely to be a frustrating and unsatisfying tour (meaning you may well need a holiday to get over the holiday, right?). That’s why we allow three weeks for our package and schedule FREE TIME where you can choose to rest and recuperate or do your own thing for a while, perhaps with new friends made along the way.

No Buying Pressures

Don’t you hate it when Tour Guides herd you into souvenir shops and pressure you to buy so they can rake off a commission? We will give you a heads up from time to time as to value buying so you won’t be ripped off, but we promise you will never be constantly pressured to buy. We pay our people properly so they don’t need to rely on kickbacks.

Social Awareness

It might seem a little old fashioned, but we urge all our tour members to remember always that we are GUESTS in this country and the Indonesian people are our hosts. They deserve our utmost respect for themselves, their customs, culture, traditions and beliefs. We treat all we meet with dignity and consideration, and the places and environments we visit with respect and care. Put simply, we believe in good manners – it comes back to us many times over.

Plenty of Fun

We aren’t entertainers and we aren’t into wild parties, but we do like to have some fun, frivolity and jokes along the way. Not forced fun but laid-back Indonesian-style entertainment with sights, sounds and happynings to bring plenty of laughs and smiles. And if you happen to have a party piece or three there will be opportunities to star.

Our Complete ‘Know Before You

Go’ program

We know from our own travels that the more information we have in advance, the more we to look forward to seeing the places we are visiting and the more fascinating we ultimately find them to be …

Our experience is enhanced because we know what to expect be be seeing, key things to what to look for, how it all came to be, and why it is meaningful.

Good information and explanations empower us to sometimes look at the ordinary but to see so much more.

And those weeks and days of looking forward to our dream holiday can become almost as exciting as actually being there!

Most tour companies will send a brochure or refer you to a website with glossy pictures, a brief and cryptic itinerary, a list of inclusions and exclusions, the don’ts of your arrangements and a legalistic statement of terms and conditions.

We think you deserve BETTER!

That’s why we have published so much information on this website about the places we visit and the places we stay plus heaps of general advice on traveling Indonesia. It is also why we have compiled our free INDONESIA ESSENTIALS HANDBOOK – whether you travel with us, someone else or independently you will find it a valuable source of reliable information. Check the link on this page.

FREE Handbook

Key things to know if you want to explore Indonesia

It's FREE

CLICK HERE FOR MORE

When you sign up to travel with us you will receive all this expert information plus MUCH MORE in the form of videos and tidy, downloadable PDF documents that you can print out and carry with you for reference on tour.

You will receive welcome briefings on arrival at important destinations, daily briefings on events, attractions, and arrangements, and great commentary from our Tour Leaders, local guides and hosts. You’ll love it, and you will always know you are informed.

A special bonus - the BETTER TOURS GOODIES PACK!

The day you set foot in Indonesia to join our tours you will receive a COMPLIMENTARY day-pack of useful goodies to smooth your visit. It means you can avoid the hassles of racing around to buy stuff you may need before you leave home or after you arrive.

It all comes inside a light and easy day backpack and all items are yours to keep.

What's inside ...

A tube of 35+ sunscreen (the ultra-violet rays can get fierce in this part of the world).

A better tours hat (you will often need shade as well as sun screen lotion)

Insect repellant spray – bugs generally are not a problem, but we may sometimes encounter mosquitoes or midges.

A tube of lip balm plus face cream or moisuriser

A roll-up travel umbrella

A plastic raincoat or poncho and a small hand towel

A small torch (flashlight) in case you need to go outside in the night

A fold-out paper or fabric hand fan

A Power plug adaptor – the standard voltage for Indonesian mains electricity is 220V to 240V with a frequency of 50Hz. (Note – These adaptors are NOT transformers for 120V appliances.)

Your bottle of water – We provide two bottles of water for you every day. More if needed.

A you-beaut Better Tours shirt – a souvenir for you and a help for us in ensuring we don’t lose anyone along the way.

A sarong, in case your clothing is deemed unacceptable for entry to a place of religious significance.

A strip of paracetamol tablets or caplets, just in case. We try to think of everything. (Our team carries other commonly used medications, and dressings etc in the first aid and medical kit.)

A packet of Band-aid adhesive dressings

A pack or roll of tissue – many Indonesian toilets in public areas do not have tissue available. (Yep – like we said, we try to think of everything.)

A contacts card with names and telephone numbers for your Tour Leader, other key crew, and the hotels where we will be staying.

A fold-up map of Indonesia showing the places and regions we visit (useful for you on tour and handy when relating your adventures to friends and family back home).

The GOODIES DAYPACK is also intended as an easy and convenient way for you to carry your other important items, like your camera, sunglasses, pills, phone charger, extra power pack etc AND a colour photo-copy of your passport identity page.