Twenty-seven islands in the Java Sea, and hardly anyone on them

Snorkelling & Island-Hopping Tour Karimunjawa (Sharing Tour)

The best-reviewed Karimunjawa product on GetYourGuide and the classic island day: a shared wooden boat to snorkelling spots and sandy islets, grilled fish for lunch on a beach and the sunset on the way home. It is priced per person, so it works for solo travellers and couples.

• A full day on a shared boat around the small islands
• Snorkelling stops over coral gardens, gear included
• Barbecue lunch on an island and a sunset stop

Snorkelling & Island-Hopping Tour Karimunjawa (Private Tour)

The same full-day route as the shared boat, but the boat is yours. That means you can leave earlier, linger where the coral is best, skip a stop you do not want — the shark pool, for instance — and keep children or nervous swimmers close. Priced per group rather than per person.

• Your own boat and crew for the day
• Set the pace: longer snorkels, quieter islets
• Barbecue lunch on an island and a sunset stop

From Jepara: 3-Day Snorkeling Tour in the Karimunjawa Island

A three-day package that starts in Jepara and takes the organising off your hands: the crossing, a hotel on Karimunjawa with breakfast, lunch and dinner, snorkelling among the small islands and a visit to the mangroves. Check the listing for exactly which boat class and hotel are included on your dates.

• Boat crossing, hotel and meals arranged for you
• Island-hopping and snorkelling days
• A walk through the mangrove forest

From Semarang: Karimunjawa Island Tour

A four-day trip from Semarang, the nearest city with a major airport, out to the islands and back. It suits travellers who fly into Semarang and would rather not piece together the road to Jepara, boat tickets and island boats themselves. A newer listing with very few reviews so far.

• Starts and ends in Semarang
• Snorkelling over Karimunjawa’s coral reefs
• Four days, so the sea crossing is not rushed

Private Car Jepara – Semarang

The road between Semarang and Jepara takes around two to three hours depending on traffic. A pre-booked private car removes the most stressful link in the journey, especially for the early-morning boat or a same-day flight out of Semarang.

• Door to door between Semarang and Jepara
• Timed to your boat or flight
• Priced per car, not per person

Yogyakarta: Transfer to Jepara / to Yogyakarta from Jepara

A direct transfer between Yogyakarta and Jepara, the harbour town for Karimunjawa. It is the practical way to join the temples of Yogyakarta to the islands without changing buses in Semarang. Allow a night in Jepara before a morning boat.

• Direct link between Yogyakarta and the Karimunjawa port
• Works in both directions
• Priced per person

Yogyakarta: Borobudur Sunrise (Guaranteed Climb) & Prambanan

The most-reviewed way to see Java’s two great temple complexes in one day from Yogyakarta: Buddhist Borobudur at first light and the towers of Hindu Prambanan afterwards. Climb-up places at Borobudur are limited, which is why booking ahead matters.

• Borobudur in the early morning, with access to the upper levels
• Prambanan’s Hindu temples the same day
• More than two thousand reviews

Semarang: Old Town Walking Tour With Local Storytelling

Two hours on foot through Kota Lama, the old trading quarter of Semarang, with a local guide telling the stories behind its churches, warehouses and canals. An easy way to use the half-day you will probably have in Semarang before or after the islands.

• Kota Lama, Semarang’s Dutch colonial quarter
• Told by a local guide
• Short and inexpensive

Island Hopping & the Cemara Islands

Sandbars, casuarina trees and grilled fish on the beach

A day on a wooden boat among the small islands is the reason most people come to Karimunjawa. The classic western route takes in Menjangan Kecil, the sandbars of Cemara Kecil and Cemara Besar and a sunset at Tanjung Gelam; the eastern route heads for Cilik and Tengah.

Snorkelling & Diving in Karimunjawa

Warm, shallow coral gardens in a marine national park

Karimunjawa’s reefs are shallow, warm and close to the islands, which makes them forgiving for beginners: hard-coral gardens, clownfish in their anemones and clouds of small reef fish. Divers can add deeper reefs and a shipwreck off Kemujan.

Tanjung Gelam Beach

Leaning palms, granite boulders and the island’s sunset

Tanjung Gelam (also called Ujung Gelam) is the best-known beach on the main island: white sand, clear shallow water, coconut palms leaning out over the sea and smooth boulders at its western tip. It faces west, so this is where the day’s boats stop for sunset.

Bukit Love & Bukit Joko Tuwo

Two hilltop viewpoints over the town and the islands

Karimunjawa’s interior is steep and forested, and two small hills near the town have been turned into viewpoints. Bukit Love looks west over the islets with its much-photographed sign; Bukit Joko Tuwo sits above the harbour and displays the skeleton of a giant fish.

Kemujan & the Mangrove Boardwalk

A wooden walkway through the forest between two islands

Karimunjawa and Kemujan are separated only by a narrow, mangrove-lined channel crossed by a short bridge. Here the national park has built a long wooden boardwalk through the mangrove forest, with a viewing tower. Beyond it, Kemujan is flat, quiet and home to the airport and Bugis fishing villages.

Menjangan Besar & Menjangan Kecil

The two islands opposite the harbour — and the shark-pool question

Menjangan Besar and Menjangan Kecil lie just across the water from Karimunjawa town. Menjangan Kecil has one of the most popular snorkelling spots in the park. Menjangan Besar is known for its captive shark pools — an attraction we recommend you skip, and explain why.