Toll Roads in Indonesia

One of the greatest ways to get around the major islands [if you are brave enough to drive!] is by hiring your own vehicle and taking your time cruising from place to place. There are, however, many pitfalls.

Of course the first being that no Indonesian observes the road rules!. Put that together with animals and people darting across the road, and by the time you are finished you will no doubt have swallowed enough nerve tablets to send you to the moon and back. Seriously though, driving in Indonesia is fabulous providing you use your common sense and take your time, and, be ever vigilant.

In my opinion one of the greatest pitfalls of driving in Indonesia are the toll roads and considering the country has about 213,649 km of paved highways and about 154,711 km of unpaved highways, it seems as though everybody wants to make money out of you.

I did a little research on the net and was amazed to find there were quite a few now. Here is the list from Wikipedia:

The most expensive is the Cipularang Toll road that connects Jakarta and Bandung.

Java:

Jakarta Inner Ringroad
Jakarta Outer Ringroad
Jakarta-Merak Toll road
Jakarta-Bogor-Ciawi (Jagorawi) Toll road

Jakarta-Bandung Toll road:

Cikampek Toll road, connects Jakarta and Cikampek.
Cikampek-Purwakarta-Padalarang(Bandung) often called Cipularang
Padalarang-Cileunyi Toll road. Called Bandung Southern Ringroad
Semarang-Ambarawa Toll road
Surabaya-Gempol Toll road
Surabaya-Mojokerto Toll road

Planned:

Transjava Toll road
Suramadu Bridge (In Progress)
Merak-Bakauheuni (Sumatra) tunnel.

Sumatra:

Medan-Tanjungmorawa Toll road
Medan-Belawan Port Toll road

Planned:

Medan-Kuala Namu International Airport

It’s all kind of spooky to think that you could travel around Java and Sumatra by vehicle and end up paying out big money on tolls. Mind you, not many travelers like to drive themselves but prefer to take the option of catching a bus, train or plane from destination to destination. But, just think of all those treasures you miss out on by that quick hop from here to there, and, not to mention the fantastic photo opportunities.