Indonesia
Bajawa
Hot springs steaming through jungle at the foot of a sacred volcano wrapped in animist ritual.
Steam rises from the jungle floor where hot springs seep through volcanic rock. The morning air at 1,100 metres is cool enough for a wool wrap. In the villages around Bajawa, the Ngada people maintain ancient megalithic shrines — paired male and female totems standing in village centres, tended by communities who balance Catholicism with animist practice. Nearby, the turquoise crater lake of Wawo Muda steams in a caldera still warm from its last eruption. Bajawa sits at the junction of Flores's volcanic spine and its deepest cultural roots.
Bajawa is the capital of Ngada regency in central Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, situated at approximately 1,100 metres on the volcanic highlands. The surrounding Ngada culture is distinguished by paired ceremonial structures in village centres: ngadhu (parasol-roofed male totems) and bhaga (miniature houses representing female ancestors). Traditional villages — notably Bena, Gurusina, and Luba — maintain these structures alongside megalithic stone arrangements. The Ngada people practise a syncretic blend of Catholicism and ancestral animism. Hot springs at Soa (natural pools in a forested ravine) and the volcanic crater lake of Wawo Muda (last erupted 2001) offer geological attractions. The climate is notably cooler than coastal Flores, with misty mornings and cool evenings. Bajawa sits on the Trans-Flores highway between Labuan Bajo and Ende, making it a natural stop on the overland route. Accommodation includes basic hotels in town and a handful of guesthouses near traditional villages.
Solo
Walking between megalithic villages, soaking in jungle hot springs, and experiencing Flores's cultural heartland at your own pace — Bajawa rewards unhurried solo exploration.
Couple
Cool highland mornings, hot spring afternoons, and the intimate atmosphere of traditional villages make Bajawa a romantic stop on the Flores overland route.
Friends
Village visits, volcanic crater hikes, and hot spring sessions give friend groups a culturally rich Flores stopover that pairs perfectly with the drive to Kelimutu.
- Volcanic hot springs at Soa steam through primary jungle — naturally heated pools in a wild forest setting.
- Ngada villages around Bajawa maintain megalithic altars, carved ancestor posts, and living animist traditions.
- Mount Inerie's perfectly symmetrical cone dominates the landscape, sacred to the local Ngada people.
- The highland climate is cool and misty — a welcome change from the heat of lowland Flores.
Moke—palm wine fermented in bamboo tubes, tart and slightly fizzy, shared communally.
Se'i babi—pork smoked for hours over kesambi wood until deeply fragrant and almost jerky-dry.
Pedra de Lume
Cape Verde
Float in a salt lake inside an extinct volcano, crater walls rising on every side.
Vale do Paúl
Cape Verde
Sugarcane terraces spill down a volcanic crater into the greenest valley in the archipelago.
Monastery of St. Anthony
Egypt
Earth's oldest inhabited monastery, wedged into a Red Sea mountain canyon since the fourth century.
Hoang Su Phi
Vietnam
Rice terraces so vertiginous they look like topographical maps carved directly into the sky.
Komodo National Park
Indonesia
Three-metre monitor lizards stalking through dry savanna above bays of pink sand and fierce currents.
Cenderawasih Bay
Indonesia
Whale sharks swimming vertically to suck fish directly from the nets of floating wooden platforms.
Riung 17 Islands
Indonesia
Thousands of flying foxes dropping from mangrove trees to block the dusk sky.
Makassar
Indonesia
Wooden phinisi schooners docking beside dawn fish markets in a city built by sea nomads.