A Guide To Batukaras - Java’s Secret Surfing Gem
Batukaras or Batu Karas is a true undiscovered gem in West Java. This sleepy surf town has so much to offer, from perfect surf, a great beach and amazing scenery to tasty restaurants and budget friendly places to stay. Batukaras is often overlooked by international tourists in Indonesia, check out our guide to see why it should be an essential stop on your Javan itinerary.
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Batukaras was honestly what we hoped to find since starting out on our great adventure. A relic of a type of travel we thought had long since passed. A small beachside village that felt almost undiscovered and far from the mass tourism of other coastal areas throughout southeast Asia.
Batukaras, also known as Batu Karas, is a small beach town, full of surfers, natural beauty and awesome locals that honestly feels as though it hasn’t changed a lot since the 70s. It was far from the popular tourist haunts of Bali and Lombok and was everything we had hoped to find in Indonesia and more. We spent nearly a fortnight in this little surfers paradise and could easily have spent longer!
Contents:
How to get to Batukaras
What to do in Batukaras
What to eat and drink in Batukaras
When to visit Batukaras?
The best time to visit Batukaras is during Java’s dry season which runs from May to October. During this time you will have long warm days and minimal rainfall. For beginner surfers, this would be the optimal time to learn as the waves are mellow and are perfect for those wanting to learn the basics. We visited at the beginning of September and had perfect waves, hot days and uncrowded beaches.
If you’re a more experienced surfer, the wet season (November to April) will provide you with more dramatic waves, but with a trade off of more wet days and stormy skies!
How to get to Batukaras?
Batukaras or Batu Karas is located on a peninsula on the southern edge of West Java. The closest city is Pangandaran to the east of the village.
There are no train or bus stations within the village of Batukaras itself, so it’s a little more difficult to get to, than other places in Java. This relative isolation works to Batukaras’ advantage, only those who know about it and really want to go will get to this idyllic cove. Once you do arrive though, it’ll totally be worth the longer journey time.
Getting to Batukaras by train:
The nearest train stations to Batukaras are Banjar in the north with its links to Jakarta and Bandung and Sidareja to the north east which links to Bandung in the north, Cilicap in the south and Malang and Solo in the east.
From both train stations you will need to arrange a taxi to take you onwards to Batukaras. We organised one ahead of time with our accommodation.
You can book your train tickets in advance using 12Go.
The views you get from the train in Indonesia are incredible!
Getting to Batukaras by bus:
The nearest bus station to Batukaras is in the small town of Cijulang. From here buses connect to the larger bus terminal at Pangandaran.
There is also a daily bus leaving around 6am in the morning which connects the town with the cultural hub of Yogyakarta and its international airport.
From Ciljulang bus station you will need to arrange a transfer to your accommodation in Batukaras.
We booked our bus tickets through our accommodation, but if you’d like to book tickets online and in advance, we’d recommend using 12Go. Online we can only find bus tickets to get you to Banjar, which will mean you will still need to arrange transport from Banjar to Batu Karas.
Where to stay in Batukaras?
Being a beachside destination, the small village of Batukaras is full of guesthouses, hostels and hotels. Ranging from the basic to the upmarket, there’s something for everyone.
We stayed in the excellent Jelajah Batukaras. This guesthouse provided us with a large room with two double beds (we hadn’t had an argument but it was very handy to have a bed for our backpacks), an en-suite bathroom and an outdoor seating area. The owner of the guesthouse was super friendly and organised a cheap scooter for us as well as booking taxis and our onward bus tickets to Yogyakarta.
Book your stay at Jelajah Batukaras here.
For those looking for something more upmarket, we can recommend a stay at the House of Sawah. This small boutique surfers retreat / resort offers beautiful rooms which look out directly over the paddy fields. With breakfast included from their café and surfboards to rent, it's the perfect base for those looking to catch some waves.
Book your stay at House of Sawah here.
If there’s a group of you and you’re wanting a beachside villa, similar to those you can find in Bali, then The Beach House has enough beds for 10 people, a swimming pool and a beachside view. Check it out here
Have a look at the map below for all the other accommodation choices on offer in the area (zoom out a little for all the options):
What to do in Batukaras?
Batukaras Beach
The black sanded beach of Batukaras is probably the main reason why you’re staying or visiting Batukaras.
This beach arches around a sheltered cove, with gentle waves lapping against the shore. On the right hand edge, a shelf of rock juts out into the sea and it is this shelf that generates the perfect waves for visiting surfers.
There are a few warungs, seaside shops and a great coffee shop circling the beach. There is also a small viewpoint you can climb from the carpark on the right hand side of the beach.
During the week, you’ll have the whole beach to yourselves for sunbathing, swimming or surfing. However, if you are visiting during the weekend, just be aware the beach population swells as Indonesian families flock to the beach for some much needed r&r!
The second beach of Batukaras is the fishing beach which runs along the whole coastal main road of the village. This is still a “working” beach with colourful fishing boats parked up at all times of the day. Although not a beach for sunbathing, it's the perfect location to take a walk and watch the local fishermen tend to nets, dry their fish or get their boats ready for the next catch.
Surfing / surf lessons on Batukaras Beach
Batukaras is famed for having some of the best waves for beginners learning to surf. No matter your skill level, a surf lesson in Batukaras should be one of your top priorities!
All along the beach are surfboards available to rent as well as the Batukaras Surf School which offers lessons throughout the day for beginners to learn the ropes.
We are complete novices at surfing, so we took a lesson. We had a great afternoon falling off surfboards and occasionally catching a wave as it broke around Batukaras Point. With help from our instructors we even managed to stand up… it was not graceful!
A two hour surf lesson will provide you with a personal teacher who will teach you the basics on the beach and then take you out into the surf to practise catching waves.
A two hour lesson will cost you 350,000 IDR (£17.50 or $22.40) and the cost of renting a surfboard is 100,000 IDR (£5.00 or $6.40). The cost of the board rental is for the whole day. The cost for renting a board and the surf lessons are a standard price across the whole beach.
Along the beach and in the town are dedicated surf resorts and camps. In the high season, this would be a great way to meet fellow travellers and surfers. We can recommend checking our Hau Beach Batukaras or House of Sawah.
Green Canyon
If surfing wasn’t enough to fuel your adrenaline, then why not book yourself a day trip to explore the Green Canyon?
The Green Canyon is a beautiful turquoise river that has carved its way through thick jungle. There’s no better way to spend a day than floating down the gentle rapids, with the sound of monkeys and birds all around.
During a trip to the canyon, you’ll get to body raft down the rapids and waterfalls, jump off rocks and float your way down the river. It’s a beautiful trip, with as many or few fear inducing jumps as you want!
It was one of our most fun and chilled out excursions we’ve done, and we can highly recommend a trip. You can read more about our day at the Green Canyon here.
Hire a scooter
Hiring a scooter is the perfect way to explore some more of the coastline around Batukaras. Scooter hire is easy, with almost every guesthouse, hostel and hotel offering scooter rental. We paid 40,000 IDR per day (£2.00 or $2.56) for a scooter and two helmets. There is a petrol pump within the village to fill up the tank.
A little more Surrey schoolboy than Hell’s Angel…
From Batukaras there are two main routes we’d recommend exploring by scooter. These are:
West towards Sindangsari
This pretty route follows the dramatic coastline past huge cliff formations sitting out in the rough sea, deserted beaches and small fishing villages.
To follow this route, helmet up and drive your scooter to Batukaras Beach. Head past the beach and drive up the steep hill behind the carpark and up onto the headland to reach Jalur Batu Karas road. Here you’ll pass by thick scrubland with phenomenal views out to the coast.
After a short drive, you’ll eventually head back down to sea level, past paddy fields and small villages until you reach Madasari Beach(location).
We’d recommend parking your scooter up here and taking some time to explore the area. The beach itself is split into two, with two sides of the beach being separated by a small peninsula that juts out into the rough sea. If the tide permits, cross over the black sand to the central rocky outcrop, to get some incredible coastal views.
The view from this peninsula is amazing. Stand on the edge of the cliff to see the incredible might of the ocean as the huge waves thunder past, crashing onto the black sanded beach in a crest of roaring bubbling white. In amongst this churning maelstrom stone behemoths rise up. These enormous sea stacks, capped with green foliage, create a natural barrier against the tide.
When we visited we could only access one of these stacks by foot, but depending on tides, it may be possible to access the others close to the shore. After walking around the cliffside islands, head back down to the beach and watch the waves roll in.
If you time it right, we’d recommend stopping at one of the seafood warungs that line the road for a seafood feast. These small warungs offer a small menu of fresh lobster, crab, prawns and the catch of the day. We stopped at the Ocean View Warung (location) and had one of the best meals of the trip so far.
We sat down at a wooden table and were presented with a large banana leaf that covered the table.
Someone is ready for a crabby lunch!
What came next was, there is no other word for it, a feast! Trays of freshly steamed crabs, rice, chilli sambal and stir fried vegetables filled our banana leaf table. It was time to get our hands dirty.
We gorged ourselves on a cornucopia of crustaceans. Sweet crab meat, paired with a hot and fiery sambal and garlicky greens, every mouthful was flawless. Eating crabs is never an elegant affair, but the taste is more than worth the mess. After cleaning shards of shell off our face, we paid our bill and were frankly amazed that such a feast had only cost 311,000 IDR (£15.55 or $19.90). This was for four freshly caught and steamed crabs, enough rice for an army, stir fried greens, two sambals and tea. It was a little pricey for a backpackers lunch, but as a treat, we don’t think you could get better for the price.
It was an absolute crab feast!
As you continue down the coast, you will pass through Madasari village. This small village has a few shops, warungs and guesthouses. As you exit the village, you’ll reach the Tugu Tsunami Pangandaran (location) memorial. This statue commemorates the hundreds of people who died or went missing during the tsunami that hit this coastline on 17th July 2006.
Continue driving along the coast until you see the cylindrical white tower of Mercusuar Legok Jawa Lighthouse (location). The gates to the lighthouse were locked when we visited, but it’s still a good place to stop and take a few photos.
As you leave the lighthouse, the road clings to the windswept coastal road. Huge waves crash onto the sandy shoreline, whilst sea spray wreathes the air. It’s a fantastic drive along a smooth tarmacked road, and at least when we visited, very little traffic.There are lots of car parks you can pull into along the shoreline, for walks along the beach or to explore the area. Most of these rest stops will have a small shop or stall selling fresh fruits, snacks and drinks.
When you get to the town of Sindangsari, you have three options. Continue west down the coast road, east on the main road back to Cijulang, or do a u-turn and head back the way you came, back along the coast and headland to Batukaras.
East towards Cijulang and Pangandaran
The roads between Batukaras and the nearest town of Cijulang are very picturesque.
There is the main road through town and another which takes you along the coast and past the airport. When we visited the coast road was a quagmire as it was being repaired and so we could only take the main road.
To head to Cijulang, on the main road, head north out of Batukaras. Here you’ll pass green rice paddies straight out of a postcard, an estuary and lagoon lined with coconut palms, fishing vessels and little villages.
When you reach Cijulang we’d recommend stopping for a coffee in Diujung Laut Coffee & Roastery (location). This achingly cool coffee shop roasts its own beans and has a full coffee menu. Make sure you order inside and head out to the Japanese inspired garden, which is full of smooth concrete, pebbles and dark green plants. We can especially recommend their iced lime espressos which were citrusy, refreshing and delicious. Why has citrus and coffee not taken off in the UK?
After coffee, if you’re still peckish we’d recommend you stop for lunch at Mahati Resto Restaurant (location). Set off the main road from the airport, this beautiful, Balinese style restaurant has been built overlooking the rice fields. With tables and chairs dotted around its pretty garden, and with views of the paddies from every seat, this restaurant is well worth a visit, even if it’s just for an Insta-worthy post! The restaurant has a small menu offering all the Indonesian favourites as well as burgers, pancakes, juices and smoothies.
We had two excellent plates of Ayam Goreng with delicious spicy sambal and the juiciest fried chicken you can imagine. We can also recommend their strawberry mocktail and iced teas.
After exploring the small town of Cijulang, head out along the coast road towards Pangandaran stopping off at the beaches of Maura Bojong Salawe and Batu Hiu Beach. The rock formation of the cliffs at Batu Hiu Beach is supposed to look like a shark! We’re not really sure if we can see the resemblance, but we’ll let you decide.
If the coast road has been completed, it should be a much faster route in and out of Cijulang. Let us know in the comments if it has been finished.
Cijulang town
Batukaras has lots of small shops and one Alphamart, so the nearby town of Cijulang is the best place to buy supplies, visit a pharmacy and re-charge your wallet. If you have a scooter it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to ride there.
ATMs in Batukaras
There are no ATM machines in Batukaras. The nearest ATM can be found in Cijulang, so if you’re heading there on a scooter it's a good idea to top up your cash supplies. The majority of businesses in Batukaras operate by cash only so make sure you bring enough cash with you to cover your stay.
Watch the sunrise or sunset
Given its southerly location, Batukaras is the perfect place to watch both the sun rise and the sun set. Whichever you are (early riser or night owl), we’d recommend heading down to the fishing beach to watch the sun come up or sun go down.
The Batukaras fishing beach is always a hive of activity with fishermen coming in or going out to sea in their colourful fishing boats. If you’re lucky you may even see a group of locals pull a large net full of fish onto the beach. If you head down the beach (towards the airport) close to the fish market, you’ll find a broken pier jutting out into the sea. This is a great place to sit and watch the world go by or the sun rise.
As you head back along the road, just keep an eye on where you stand as the road is often covered with tarpaulins full of drying fish!
Another great spot to watch the sunset from is the Kedai Mini Resto Rice Field which we’ll go into more detail below.
Activities further afield
Located about an hour away to the east, lies the large coastal town of Pangandaran. With white sandy beaches, a National Park to explore and plenty of seafood restaurants, there’s enough to keep you occupied for a day or so!
Just remember that like Batukaras, this is a popular weekend spot for Indonesian city dwellers and can get very busy.
Where to eat and drink in Batukaras?
Hang Five Coffee and Surf
(location)
This small beachside coffee shop serves as the common room for surfers heading into or out of the waves. Serving excellent coffee and sweet treats from morning to nightfall, this sleek coffee shop became our go to for morning coffee and pastries.
Hangfive is a very chilled out place
Head inside, order your coffee then take a perch outside and listen to the sound of crashing waves. There are lots of places to sit, including a large, tiled plinth to lounge on and sip your caffeinated beverage. If you’ve just come straight from the waves, there’s a shower just outside this coffee shop to wash the sand off you!
Two iced lattes cost us 60,000 IDR (£3.04 or $3.85). A bit more expensive than a street side coffee, but given the beachside location, delicious fresh ground coffee and chilled out vibes, it was definitely worth it for your morning pick me up! We loved Hang Five Coffee and Surf and frequented it almost daily.
The coffee shop also sells rash vests, t-shirts, surfboard wax and other accessories.
Hang Five Coffee and Surf is located right next to the large car park at Batukaras Beach so there’s plenty of space to park your scooter.
House Of Sawah
(location)
Just off a small road and surrounded by paddy fields, this upmarket cafe and bar serves breakfast, brunch and evening meals.
Set in a wooden framed building, with large open windows, the cafe area is super stylish. With sleek wooden furniture and a brushed concrete bar, entering the cafe feels as though you’ve been transported straight to the heart of Bali.
House of Sawah offers all the brunch favourites, from smashed avocado on sourdough toast, eggs in every way, granola, fruit bowls, pastries, pancakes and much, much more. For drinks the restaurant offers fresh fruit juice, smoothies, tea and coffee.
After many months of travelling and eating only street food and local delicacies for breakfast we treated ourselves to a brunch here twice. We chose the scrambled egg deluxe option which was sourdough toast topped with scrambled egg and sauteed oyster mushrooms served with garlic spinach and a drizzle of truffle oil. Not your average Indonesian breakfast, but boy was it delicious! This with two flat whites cost us 200,000 IDR (£10.14 or $12.82). An expensive breakfast for Indonesia, but compared to what you get in London, this was a complete steal.
The avocado on toast was also delicious!
For lunch and dinner, the restaurant offers Indonesian favourites alongside pasta, curries, beef burgers and salads. The restaurant also serves alcohol with a small selection of craft beer on offer, Bintang and even a cocktail menu.
For our last night in Batukaras we treated ourselves to a meal here and opted for a plate of nachos to share, two beef burgers and two large Bintang which cost us 345,000 IDR (£17.49 or $22.10). Again a lot more expensive than our usual evening meals, but given this came with two beers and we had a starter, it really wasn’t too bad.
House of Sawah is a little more pricey than what’s on offer elsewhere in town, but given its beautiful location, high quality ingredients and great coffee, it’s totally worth it for a backpacking treat!
House of Sawah is set a couple of roads back from the Batukaras fishing beach. As you reach the junction for House of Sawah, for those on foot, turn left off the road and head along a small footpath set above the lush green paddy fields. For those driving a scooter, just head a little further along the road and follow the driveway that leads to the carpark.
House of Sawah is also a surf resort offering private en-suite accommodation in small wooden cabins that have views directly over the paddy fields. They will also help you in arranging board rental and surf lessons. Book your stay here.
Kedai Mini Resto Rice Field
(location)
The Kedai Mini Resto Rice Field is a small open terraced restaurant with a bamboo roof that overlooks the surrounding paddy fields. Set a foot or so above the fields, this restaurant gives you front row seats to watch the setting sun as it lowers below the palm filled horizon.
The restaurant serves all the Indonesian favourites from fried rice (nasi goreng), fried noodles (mie goreng), coconut milk curry and gado gado (a hot and cold green salad served with a half boiled egg and peanut sauce) to pizzas, pasta, burgers, salad and french fries. The restaurant also has a small coffee bar and also serves Bintang beer.
We always ordered from the Indonesian side of the menu and were never disappointed with large plates of steaming hot mie and nasi goreng served with a fried egg and crunchy keropok crackers.
Our advice would be to get here a little early (just before sunset) so you can grab the prime seats right at the front of the restaurant and have an uninterrupted view of the setting sun.
The restaurant can get very busy during the evening, and with only a small kitchen and all food cooked to order, there may be a little wait for your food.
For two plates of egg and vegetable mie goreng and two soft drinks we paid 60000 IDR (£3.04 or $3.84). Super affordable, tasty and all with an incredible view!
Bonsai Warung
(location)
On the main road through Batukaras, sits the Bonsai Warung. Wafting out the sweet smell of satay, this roadside restaurant serves fried rice, curries, noodles and Indonesian classics such as gado gado and ayam geprek (fried chicken smashed together with a spicy sambal on top of rice).
We especially recommend the satay, which you can choose from chicken, beef or goat and are all delicious! A plate of chicken satay is 15,000 IDR (£0.75 or $0.96). Beef and goat are double this at 30,000 IDR each.
All food is cooked to order, so if it's busy there may be a little wait. Don’t worry it's totally worth your time!
They also have an extensive fish menu available on request. We didn’t order ourselves but on our last visit were made very jealous as an Indonesian family were served mountains of barbecued prawns, fish and squid.
The restaurant also serves beer but runs out quite quickly, so if you fancy a drink with your meal go early!
Salt Cafe
(location)
Set over the road from the fisherman’s beach, the Salt Cafe became our go to for a couple of cheeky sunset beers. With super friendly staff and a menu serving both Indonesian classics to Western favourites there was something on the menu for everyone.
With seating outside facing the beach and the fishing boats, it’s a great place to sit down and sip an ice cold Bintang. The availability of beer combined with the friendly staff made the Salt Cafe our unofficial Batukaras bar. If you’re having a sundowner beer, the deep fried vegetable fritters called bala bala make the perfect accompaniment.
Cheers Batukaras!
When we were visiting they were just about to open up a coffee shop next door. Let us know in the comments if you’ve tried it!
Warung Nasi Tin’s
(location)
Located on the main road opposite the fishing beach, this small hole in the wall warung became our go to for lunch on most days we were in Batukaras.
For those who are new to Indonesia, warungs can be found all over the country and are local food joints that serve a selection of traditional Indonesian food. Check out our guide to eating in one of these local restaurants here.
Open from mid morning, the front window of this warung would be decked out in a mosaic of metal trays of different curries, fried fish, noodles and vegetables.
We almost always opted for a plate of everything, with some of our favourite dishes being the egg curry, fried fish, sweet and sour tempe and steamed vegetables.
A plate of rice and curry is our favourite way to eat and the offerings from this warung certainly didn’t disappoint.
Just head inside, ask for a plate of rice and point to whichever dishes you would like. Plate loaded, sit on one of the few tables dotted around the outside of the warung.
With a sea view and some of the tastiest food we ate in the whole of Indonesia, it’s a warung that we're going to remember for a very long time.
Our lunches (for two people and water), depending on the number of curries we opted for and whether we had chicken or fish ranged from 40,000 IDR (£2.02 or $2.56) to 70,000 IDR (£3.57 or $4.48). An absolute steal for the mountain of food we consumed.
The view from the warung wasn’t bad either!
Kedai Samboja
(location)
This small restaurant has a small menu serving just Indonesian favourites. With a selection of mie goreng made with different size noodles, nasi goreng with egg, vegetables or seafood and ayam geprek, the menu had everything you could want.
We both opted for mie goreng jawa (angel hair fried noodles) served with egg, crackers and vegetables. It was delicious and super cheap at 40,000 for both plates (£2.03 or $2.56).
If you visit, check out the specials board on the whiteboard at the entrance.
Final thoughts
Batukaras was everything we wanted to find and more. A hidden beachside gem, surrounded by rice paddies. By the time we found Batukaras we had been travelling for well over a year and it has become obvious to us that the advent of the internet and the boom in easy travel has made it much harder to find any truly “off the beaten path” destinations.
Batukaras does not have the pristine white sanded beaches of Thailand, it does not have the co-working spaces of Bali, what it does have though, is that genuine travel experience. That feeling of having found something truly special and (not yet) widely known. Add to this some of the most genuinely lovely locals, who went above and beyond to welcome us and make sure we had a great time and you can see why this is a very special place.
Batukaras is a beautiful, laidback, chilled out surf town, the type that we honestly not sure existed anymore. We cannot overstate how much we enjoyed our time in this little town in the deep south of West Java. Get here now, but please never change it.
There are always places when travelling that as soon as you leave you long to return to, Batukaras is just this.
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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