Making this for everyone who plan for Indonesia trip and all they do is Bali for a week (maybe few days in Lombok) and think thats all Indonesia! it is soooo not..
There are so many destinations worth exploring but sadly not much information in English and most of them catered to local population. You really have to go deep in the social media rabbit hole especially instagram since most of information I found was on insta about these destinations. People use it more than blogs or travel guides/tripadv etc surprisingly.
we just got back and i'm posting because i went looking for trip reports on Luwuk Banggai islands in Sulawesi beforehand and found almost nothing, so maybe this is useful to someone. we got a direct flight into bali and then used bali purely as the hub. the real trip was two guided legs, six days in luwuk banggai in central sulawesi and three in labuan bajo on flores. both booked through a local Indonesia operator, asik travel.
Honestly you can do parts of it without any guides but the hassle to reward ratio is pretty low. I think if I was going as backpacker and ultra low budget - I would have done some parts myself and saved couple hundred bucks haha
the Indonesia itinerary, roughly:
day 1: land in bali (denpasar), overnight near the airport. long flight, so we didn't attempt anything.
day 2: bali to luwuk, connecting through makassar. it's basically a full day in airports. got in around dinnertime. I still don't understand why don't they offer bali to sulawesi direct flights? would solve the major pain point and get droves of tourists. win win for locals and for foreginers!
days 3 to 8: Luwuk banggai tour. the first day was around Luwuk itself, salodik waterfall and the town, then we headed out to the Banggai islands for island hopping. Paisu pok lake was where we flew the drone and was the highlight of the trip, the water was glacier level clear. We also swam in the stingless jellyfish lake, snorkeled a few reefs, and stopped at some bajau stilt villages. saw the Banggai cardinalfish too, which apparently only lives in that area. Swam with a whale shark (yep, apparently it just live around the area and friendly with people!).
day 9: fly luwuk back to bali via makassar, overnight in bali. another long transit day, worth planning for. I really hate the transit flights!
day 10: short flight bali to labuan bajo, then a rest afternoon. sorted gear and had an early night before the boat days.
days 11 to 13: Labuan Bajo tour which was mostly by phinisi boat into komodo national park. padar island at sunrise, the komodo dragons with a ranger on rinca, manta point for snorkeling and pink beach. long days on the water but genuinely worth it. Its the best place for romantic dinner with my partner :)
Flores island waters had the best snorekeling spots!
day 14: labuan bajo back to bali. had some relaxing time in a bali resort which was much needed.
day 15: bali, then home.
Having said all that it was not all amazing. the internal flights and transfers eat up more of your trip than you'd expect so don't run this on a tight schedule. Luwuk banggai is properly remote and there isn't much english once you land, which is where a guide earned its keep, ours spoke good english and knew the area. it's also hot and humid, so the early morning starts end up being a relief more than a chore. Depends on the season you go in I guess.
the Banggai island especially was the place where you barely see other foreign tourists.
Also I would say if you want more comfort and luxury Bali is a better choice and I get why its so famous. Bali has proper infra, budget options, not much english issue and so many food options. But if you really want an adventure worth remembering, you gotta explore the rest of amazing islands :)
I feel if Indonesian govt wants then can easily make Sulawesi and komodo islands very easy to reach but yeah upto them and we can just hope!