Whether Jakarta is somewhere you know well, or this will be your first time in Indonesia, we’ve pulled together a few things that will make planning your trip a little easier.

The practical bits are here, like passports, visas, airports and arrival requirements, but also some context on Jakarta itself, what to expect when you get here and a few things you may have wondered about after reading the occasional headline.

Nothing super serious. It’s just the things we’d tell you if we were chatting through things over a coffee! ☺️

For anyone visiting for the first time

Jakarta is big, busy, warm, colourful and wonderfully chaotic in the way only Jakarta can be. It’s Indonesia’s capital, and one of those cities that makes much more sense once you’re actually in it. Expect incredible food, genuinely excellent coffee, enormous shopping centres, neighbourhood favourites alongside beautiful new restaurants and bars, calls to prayer woven into the sounds of the city, and traffic that more often than not has absolutely no respect for your carefully made plans.

If Bali is your main reference point for Indonesia, Jakarta is a very different experience. It’s huge, diverse and incredibly cosmopolitan, shaped by different cultures, religions and communities, and that mix is one of the things we love most about it. Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country, so you’ll naturally see that reflected in everyday life, but Jakarta is also home to people from all sorts of backgrounds. A little cultural awareness and respect goes a long way.

And if there’s something you’re unsure about, just ask us!

The slightly less exciting, but important bit

What you need to enter Indonesia depends on the passport you’re travelling on, not necessarily the country you live in, so please check the requirements that apply to you before you travel.
For many of our guests, Indonesia currently offers either a Visa on Arrival (VoA), an electronic e-VOA, or visa-free entry for eligible short visits.

AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, USA & UK
• Visa on Arrival / e-VOA currently available
• Stay: up to 30 days
• Cost: IDR 500,000
• e-VOA can be organised online before departure

EUROPEAN PASSPORTS
Many European passports are also currently eligible for Visa on Arrival, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Greece and Switzerland, among others. Because there isn’t one blanket rule simply for being “European”, please check the official list for the specific passport you hold.

MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE
• Visa-free entry currently available
• Stay: up to 30 days
• No Visa on Arrival fee. Lucky you!

EVERYONE ELSE
If we haven’t mentioned your passport above, it does not necessarily mean you need a complicated visa. Indonesia’s current Visa on Arrival list covers a large number of nationalities. Rather than us attempting to turn our wedding website into an immigration department, please check your passport against the official Indonesian Immigration requirements below.

A COUPLE OF THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD CHECK
• Passport with at least six months’ validity
• Return or onward ticket
• Latest requirements for the specific passport you’re travelling on

Because our wedding isn’t until July 2027, please treat everything above as a helpful starting point rather than something to screenshot now and confidently rely on ten months later.

We’ll check and update this page closer to the wedding, but please always confirm the requirements for your own passport before travelling!

For everyone flying internationally into Jakarta, you’ll want:

SOEKARNO-HATTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Airport code: CGK

Soekarno-Hatta is Jakarta’s major international airport and the one you should be looking for when booking your flights. It handles international arrivals, terminals, transfers and transport into the city.

If your flight search suddenly starts showing you an airport code you’ve never seen before, double check before getting overly excited about the fare. CGK is the one!

Give yourself a little time!

If you’re travelling internationally, we would strongly recommend arriving in Jakarta at least a day or two before the wedding, if you can.

Partly because nobody needs the stress of an international flight delay on wedding morning, and partly because Jakarta absolutely deserves a little time of its own!

Give yourself a little time to:
• Check into your hotel and recover from the flight
• Find something delicious to eat
• Adjust to the humidity
• Have your first encounter with Jakarta traffic before you actually have somewhere important to be 😅

If you’re making a bigger trip of it, even better!! We’ll have plenty of recommendations in our “Experience Jakarta” section for where to eat (satay anyone?), drink, find coffee (or matcha for the matcha fiends!) and explore while you’re here!

One last bit of admin

Indonesia now uses the All Indonesia Arrival Card, a digital arrival declaration for both Indonesian citizens and international visitors.

It brings immigration, customs, health and quarantine declarations together in one system, and can currently be completed within the three days before you arrive in Indonesia.

We recommend getting this sorted before you travel rather than standing at the airport attempting to remember the address of your hotel while everyone else walks past you.

We’ll check this section again closer to the wedding and make sure the requirements and links below are still current.

And please use the official link below, rather than Googling your way into a scammy website designed to seperate people from their money!

Airport to hotel, minus the drama

Soekarno-Hatta sits outside central Jakarta, so how long it takes to reach your hotel can vary quite a lot depending on where you’re staying and, most importantly, traffic.

Our strongest recommendation is to stick with Bluebird Group for airport transport. You’ll find Bluebird, Silver Bird and Goldenbird services at the airport, and once you come out into the arrivals area, they’re very easy to find.

The main thing is: go directly to the official Bluebird Group stand or counter.

You may have people approach you as you leave the arrivals hall, offering taxis or private rides. Some of these people may be offering genuine help, whilst others may be looking to scam you. A friendly shake of the head will suffice, and make your way to the official stand / counter.

From there, you can choose the option that suits you:
BLUEBIRD
The standard taxi option. Reliable, straightforward and completely fine for getting you into the city.
SILVER BIRD
The more premium taxi option, with larger and more comfortable vehicles.
GOLDENBIRD
Pre-booked private cars and airport transfers, with more premium vehicle options if you want a little more space or comfort after a long flight.
If you’re travelling with several suitcases, arriving as a family, or simply feel that an Alphard after an international flight sounds like an excellent life decision, this is probably where we’d look.

THE IMPORTANT BIT
Walk out of arrivals and find the official Bluebird Group stand, there will be some friendly staff members who are more than happy to organise a trip to your hotel!

Then, once you’re safely in the car, our biggest piece of Jakarta advice remains:

NEVER JUDGE TRAVEL TIME BY DISTANCE ALONE.

A place can look suspiciously close on a map and still require a small emotional journey to reach.

Give yourself a bit of breathing room either side of your trip, and you’ll be completely fine!

Because yes, we remember the Bali headlines too

This section exists because someone genuinely asked us whether an unmarried couple can come to Jakarta and stay together in the same hotel room.
And honestly, fair question.

You might remember the slightly alarming headlines a few years ago about unmarried couples, sex outside marriage and what this would mean for tourists in Bali. At the time, some of the coverage made it sound a little like Indonesia was about to start checking marriage certificates at hotel reception.

That is not quite what happened.

In 2022, Indonesia passed a new national Criminal Code, which came into effect in January 2026. It includes provisions relating to sex outside marriage and unmarried cohabitation and applies across Indonesia, including to foreigners. It was not a special law introduced just for Bali, nor was it Bali suddenly introducing Sharia law

The important part is that these are complaint-based offences. For an unmarried person, a complaint must come from a parent or child. If someone is married, a complaint can come from their spouse. In other words, this is not a system where hotels, taxi drivers or random strangers can simply report tourists because they suspect they are unmarried.

When the original headlines caused concern in 2022, the Bali Government was actually very explicit about this. It said there would be no checking of tourists’ marital status when checking into hotels, villas or other accommodation, and no sweeps or inspections of tourists’ marital status.

And one other thing that occasionally gets mixed into this conversation: Aceh is different. Aceh has special autonomy and its own Sharia-based provincial laws. Jakarta does not operate under that same regional legal system.

So, the TL;DR:

""Yes, you and your unmarried partner can come to Jakarta together. No, you do not need to pack a marriage certificate next to your passport.""

This is really just here as a PSA because somebody asked, and we figured if one person was wondering, a few more of you probably were too.

Come to Jakarta, be respectful of the country and its customs, and if there is something you are genuinely unsure about, ask us. We would much rather answer the awkward question than have you quietly stress about it for the next ten months.

And because laws and travel advice can change, please check the latest official advice before you travel.