Private Tour from Semarang Port to Borobudur Temple

Does anyone know of any Independent Tour operators from Semarang Port to Borobudor Temple?

Cheers,

Sue:)

I don't have a direct answer to your question, but when I was there in 2010, the ship's tour bus convoy was provided with a police escort. It was unclear how much this was for security and how much because of horrendous traffic without it. Keep this in mind as independent operators may not be able to take advantage of an escort.

I don't have a direct answer to your question, but when I was there in 2010, the ship's tour bus convoy was provided with a police escort. It was unclear how much this was for security and how much because of horrendous traffic without it. Keep this in mind as independent operators may not be able to take advantage of an escort.

You beat me to it, Mary.

It's one of those rare occasions I'd bite the bullet & take the over-priced ship's excursion.

JB :)

I agree with the others. This is one tour that is better through the ship. We took the tour that included the train ride. As the ship had the train booked for the entire day, there was no way anyone on private tours could have done that part. We got the best views all day of the countryside while on the train.

Due to the traffic having the police escort was invaluable. The buses were able to use both sides of the road :eek: :eek: :eek: and went right through the traffic lights - no matter the color. For us, getting to/from the temple turned out to be the best part of the tour.

We'd take the ship's tour again without hesitation and would strongly discourage any friends going there from taking a private tour. There are only very few places where we'd recommend not doing a private tour. This is one - and at the top of the list.

Mary Ellen - thanks for the advice.

We never normally take the ships tours - especially with Costa but will take your advice this time and bite the bullet.

Was it that it was unsafe or just the traffic or both?

Dawn

Mary Ellen - thanks for the advice.

 

We never normally take the ships tours - especially with Costa but will take your advice this time and bite the bullet.

 

Was it that it was unsafe or just the traffic or both?

Dawn

Hi Dawn,

Subject to usual caveats, Semarang is perfectly safe.

Some of our group went on ship's tour to Borobodur, the rest of us fixed up a local tour (railway museum & coffee plantation) hired at the port gate. We were dropped off later to spend time in Semarang's shopping centre. Very at ease, very comfortable.

Traffic, and the risk of delay due to mechanical problems etc, are the reason for taking ship's tour to Borobodur, which is something like a couple of hours away.

One ship's bus passed us, with police escort carving a route thro the traffic, even though it was on a local excursion same as us.

JB :)

Hi All,

Thank you for all your responses.

After a long discussion taking into account everyone's responses we decided to go with a recommended independant tour to Borobodur. There will be other passengers from our ship who will also be on the tour with us.

The tour company we are using is - javaindah-tours.com

Sue

We just took a private tour with Java Indah Tour and Travel (www.javaindah-tours.com) and were extremely satisfied with their response and service. In addition, their price was much less than the tour offered by our ship, the Seabourn Odyssey. Our tour guide, Mr. Arif, guided us expertly so that we could appreciate the history and art of the vast Buddhist monument. At the same time, he kept us on a schedule that allowed us ample time to experience Borobudur and still enjoy a delicious Indonesian lunch before returning to the ship at the designated time. The drive from Semarang port to Borobudur Temple takes nearly 3 hours each way to navigate the roads and horrific traffic. However, because of Mr. Arif's efforts and attention to the tour itinerary and schedule, we arrived back at the ship exactly as planned, while the ship's organized tours were delayed in arriving back for sail away, in spite of their use of police escorts to get around all the traffic. This is an excellent tour, and we highly recommend doing it privately with Java Indah Tour and Travel.

Hi Scotty

We're on the Odyssey in March in the reverse direction and looked at your recommended private Borobodur tour. His quote is very good and we're tempted (4 of us). Having been caught out once before in the past and nearly missing a departure - we are 2 sea days to Singapore if we miss the Odyssey out of Semarang - was there any time you were concerned you might not get back to the ship. Any other thoughts on your private tour.

We used Javaindah-tours last month as well. I can highly recommend them. A number of people on our roll call used them also. We had a convoy of vans and a police escort to get through the traffic. (You have to see it to believe it.) It was a wild ride.

We were able to leave at the same time as the HAL buses but got to Borobodur well ahead of them because we didn't stop for the interminable rest stops with long bathroom lines.

We had a lovely lunch and made it back to the ship well before the HAL buses.

Hi Scotty

We're on the Odyssey in March in the reverse direction and looked at your recommended private Borobodur tour. His quote is very good and we're tempted (4 of us). Having been caught out once before in the past and nearly missing a departure - we are 2 sea days to Singapore if we miss the Odyssey out of Semarang - was there any time you were concerned you might not get back to the ship. Any other thoughts on your private tour.

Hi Buccaneer, We were never concerned about getting back to the ship on time, as we had a great driver who expertly navigated the roads and the traffic, even without police escort. Our guide was also very determined to keep us on schedule and always gently reminded us not to linger so as to get us back on time.

Many thanks Scotty and ldog

I've priced a number of similar tours ranging from $75 (Javaindah included)to $95 per head versus $184 for Seabourn (pre our 10% discount) so will definitely do it independently. Your recommendations for Javaindah put them in the drivers seat I think as all itineraries seem to be the same - Borobodur with or without the train museum, refreshments en route and the coffee plantation.

Anyone else out there have any thoughts on the tour ?

If you need local tour operator, you could try to contact Semarang Tour (www.semarangtour.com) real local tour operator that providing a private for 2 to 8 people or tour service to Borobudur for your own group. We have a good experiences to travel to Borobudur with this tour operator. :D

Is there any other tour that does not require 3 hour drive?

trip duration to Borobudur is not depend to tour operator, If you want to faster to Borobudur from Semarang Port :confused:, a good solution is Private Police Escort but for a couple it will be a cost, but we suggest to make it possible with collecting some people on your ship to travel with you in small group i.e 8 people, your run faster on the jungle cars :D estimated cost is USD 95 to USD 110

Small ship so it has been hard to get a group but I am surprised the cruise line has not posted any tours yet.

Small ship so it has been hard to get a group but I am surprised the cruise line has not posted any tours yet.

Trend, which ship are you on? I'm on Seabourn Odyssey in November. I definitely want to do Borobudur but just trying to figure out options. Having been stuck in Indonesian traffic jams before, I'm nervous about this one!

Our cruise does not go to Java but we want to see the Borobudor Temples. We are planning to fly Washington DC to Jakarta and then pick up locally a ticket for JOG (Yogyakarta) probably staying in Yogyakarta for 2 nights.

I have several questions if anybody has some answers. How far from Yogy. is the temple -- I've been lead to believe 40 miles -- is that a 3 hour trip? Would the tours mentioned possibly run from the city and not the port? We have to do a private tour as we won't start our cruise until a week later starting in Bali. We plan to also catch a plane from JOG to Bali. All these flights are about 30 minutes and we have been told can buy tickets in the airport. Anybody who has flown in this area please comment. We are still at the stage that we can add or subtract this city and site. We will still fly through Jakarta (CGK) because the savings is immense about $1,200 economy IAD - NRT (Japan) - CGK and back NRT - IAD compared IAD to NRT roundtrip being almost $1,900 (and the flights are identical except for the NRT to CGK leg).

One other little tiny problem is the announcement of 3rd grandchild due on the 3rd of Feb. and we are to leave Feb. 7 -- hope that baby is timely so can give her/him a kiss before we leave. Even taking off the Temple we need to leave by Feb. 9 for Feb. 17 cruise date. (Want to see Bali !)

Thanks for your help on this segment of the trip. If we don't see Java on this trip probably will not fly that long to that section of the world again:rolleyes:

Trend, which ship are you on? I'm on Seabourn Odyssey in November. I definitely want to do Borobudur but just trying to figure out options. Having been stuck in Indonesian traffic jams before, I'm nervous about this one!

I am guessing they are on azamara as i know the CC name.. i am going ot be there next winter.. i am also concern about going on my own. So i will be dping a long boring ships tour..

Jog (airport for Yogyakarta) is really hard to get to from US it seems. I have had more luck from US going to HND (Tokyo Japan) and usually through CGK (Jakarta). Anyone know of a private tour from Yogyakarta to the temples and who could advise about the tickets from Jakarta to Yogyakarta. Now not sure we will do this part of the pre cruise program because we have just learned of a new grandbaby scheduled to arrive Feb. 3 -- not much before our departure date of Feb. 7/8. Would hate to miss the temples but if the stork is late -- We will just have to buy the tickets next month and hope new baby is very much on time. :D

We will be on the Quest and my agent has asked the cruise line what is happening with tours. Their reply is they are having trouble with dependable tour companies but will have something in place in the next few weeks. The latest is six months before departure as all other stops have tours arranged.

We were on the Rotterdam recently. We had been able to arrange a tour before hand with a private company. Their driver and guide were waiting for at the port with our names. We had asked for a police escort because of the traffic, we could get caught in the traffic and not be able to return in time. It was all arranged before hand, we paid extra for the police escort, Police vehicle was also waiting in the port area. They correspond in good English and we were very satisfied with them. The name is :

SPOORINDO TOUR & TRAVEL

Brontokusuman MG III/345

Yogyakarta - Indonesia 55153

Phone : 0274 6511232

Mobile : 081 32873 2484 / 085 64380 4242

Pin BB : 28910DD5

Email : info@spoorindo.com / richiekatoda@yahoo.co.id

Our guide was Shanty and very helpful lady. Contact them by e-mail. Harinder Bachus

I was with jenidallas on the Seabourn Odyssey back in November 2014 when there was a stop in Semarang. This was an overnight stop where we docked in the early afternoon. The only tour offered by the ship was one that left early in the morning. We opted for a private tour that left the first afternoon. Our driver picked us up at the port and drove us to Prambanan Temple, which was quite stunning and worth the stop. We then drove up to Yogyakarta to see the Water Palace (which was definitely not something I would do again.) but to answer the earlier up thread question our guide pointed out that many people fly over a night before from Bali to do Borobodur. It was probably a 1.5 hour drive from the city to the Boroboduer temple grounds.

As the sun was setting our driver/guide dropped us off at the small hotel on the temple grounds. The hotel was fairly basic but certainly suitable for an evening and we decided to order room service rather than go to the restaurant as we were tired. We had to meet our guide back at the lobby at 5am where we were given flashlights and we walked along a small path where we were then allowed to climb to the top of Borobodur. There were less than 75 guests up there and we waited for the magical sunrise. After we had our fill of photos from the top our guide walked us down level by level explaining all the history and carvings on each level. Just as we reached the bottom we saw the start of the tourist buses arriving. I will point out that the temple steps are tall and narrow and I wouldn't have felt comfortable climbing them with a mass of people in front of or below me.

After making our way to the bottom we enjoyed our included breakfast then went back to the hotel room where we washed away all the volcano dust and made our way back to the ship. We were back in time for a leisurely on board lunch.

This was arranged via Abercrombie & Kent and was well worth the investment. We did not have a police escort, but I could see why a giant lumbering bus would require a police escort. We were in a nicely sized crossover vehicle that only held us, the driver and the guide. Our driver was able to nimbly move through the traffic in ways a bus or large van would not be able to.

If your cruise stop includes an overnight I would highly recommend the overnight. Yes it means one night away from the ship, but to experience something this magical I would do it again. Since Seabourn is all inclusive we did bring a bottle of wine off the ship and we enjoyed it with our in room dinner.

We are looking for a guide to take us to Borobudur. Do you have contact details fro the guide you used?

We are looking for a guide to take us to Borobudur. Do you have contact details fro the guide you used?

We paid a lot of middle men in the process. ;) I would price out all of those folks and see if you can get a lower price.

Our guide's name was Koko and was very nice and knowledgeable.