September 13, 2025 • 9 mins
Recommended 1, 2 and 3 day ideas for Timor-Leste to help build your dream itinerary.
More information - https://exploringtimor.com/discover-what-you-can-do-in-timor-leste/#itineraries
Website - www.exploringtimor.com
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@exploringtimor
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jonty (00:06):
Bondi.
Welcome to exploring Tim Este,the podcast that talks about
Southeast Asia's best kepttravel secret.
I'm your host Jte, and I'llshare firsthand insights, expert
interviews and practical traveltips.
Whether you're a traveler, acultural lover, or just curious
about places rarely covered inthe mainstream.
You're in the right place.
Let's explore two more.
Less day.
(00:31):
In today's episode, I wanna giveyou an idea for some
itineraries.
So if you are planning to visittwo more less day, this will
give you some ideas about howyou can structure your visit.
I'll talk about five day trips.
You can do from Dili, fiveovernighter, two day trips you
can do from Dili, and threetrips where you'll allow at
least three days to completethem.
So hopefully these will give yousome ideas of combinations to
(00:54):
make the most of your time intoLeste.
To start with the day trips fromDili.
The most popular and obviousplace to visit is ET Island.
I've talked about thisextensively on other podcasts is
a beautiful place, a must visitif you are coming to Timor, Now,
I'd recommend that you spend afew days there.
It's a very nice place to spendsome time and relax.
(01:15):
But if you only have one day,you can go to ATAR roof for the
day.
Get the ferry out in themorning, you get a few hours on
the island, and then get theferry back.
The best place for UpToDateinformation about traveling to
Aro Island is on the website ofBarry's Place.
Under getting here, Barryupdates that regularly with the
latest services as I record thisin mid 2025.
(01:36):
There were ferry services fivedays a week.
To get the most time on theisland though, you wanna get the
dragon boat.
These are the fast boats thattake about an hour and a half to
get to Aru.
The other ferries take more likethree to three and a half hours,
so obviously you get less timeon the island.
So if you get Dragon boat out.
And back on the same day, you'reprobably gonna have three to
(01:56):
four hours on the island, whichis plenty of time to look around
the markets.
Particularly on a Saturday.
Maybe have a quick walk aroundthe village of Beloit.
And the main attractionobviously is snorkeling.
And if you go to Barry's place,you can rent gear and organize
boats to go and snorkel in the,in a reef.
Can also snorkel directly offthe beach just south of the
wharf, there is a reef there,which is okay, but the inner
(02:19):
reef is definitely the place togo to if you can, which does
require a local fishing boat totake you out.
It's a very short boat ride of afew minutes, but it's too far to
Safely Swim, If you only do oneday trip from Dili, I would
recommend ET Island.
A second day trip idea is to goout to, so this is to the west
of Dili, and it's very durable,particularly if you have your
(02:39):
own transport, like hiring a caror a scooter.
The road is in decent condition.
You can visit the historicApollo Prison uh, uba, which has
a, for a church and a, and alake and town, which is a
massacre site, a church, andsome seafront restaurants all in
the day with about two and ahalf hours driving.
It is technically possible to doit by local bus, but the buses
(03:00):
may be infrequent, so you dorisk getting stuck there.
I think if you just went to oneplace and came back.
You probably could, but if youwant to visit multiple sites in,
that's quite difficult withoutyour own transport.
Another option as a day trip isto head up to Glen O.
This is the largest town inAmira and it has a huge church.
And on the way you can stop atKO to visit the Gecko Cafe,
(03:22):
there are local buses up there,or if you've got your own
transport allowed, two and ahalf hours in total for driving
to Glen Oak and back.
The road is steep and winding,but it is a sealed and well
maintained road.
Another option is Salo Crack.
This is home to a beautifullagoon filled with water, lilies
and surrounded by rice fields.
Need to allow at least threehours for driving.
(03:42):
If you're gonna go there in aday, take the road to a layer,
and before you get into a layer,you turn off right.
And it's about a 20 to 30 minutedetour.
The road does get significantlyworse once you get off the main
road.
And actually, if you can go fromsoy crack onto Glen o and that
road is quite a bad road, so youneed your own transport to get
to soy crack, but it is a verynice place to visit or continue
(04:04):
along that road to aeo.
That's a very pleasant day trip.
You've got a cooler climate upthere.
There's mountain views, there'sgood places to have lunch.
There's a couple of notablememorials and there's some busy
markets on a Saturday.
It's a very winding road.
It's about an hour and a halffrom Dilly to Alejo.
And the longest piece ofstraight road is probably,
maybe, I dunno, a hundredmeters, like the whole way you
(04:24):
are going left right.
So if you get carsick, you mightwant to give this one a miss.
But if you're on a motorbike,it's quite good fun to take the
winding road.
And you do get some beautifulviews back towards Dilly and the
coastline for when you get upinto the hills.
So those can all be done in oneday.
Obviously, you can spend longer.
If you wish.
Now two day trips.
I would start by recommendingau.
This is the second largest cityin Timor-Leste and it's home to
(04:47):
one four historic buildings andthe only real large public
swimming pool in the country.
It's about a two and a half hourdrive, one way from Dili along a
stunning coastline on some ofthe best roads in the country.
So head out in the morning, havea nice afternoon there.
Go relax at the pool, see someof the sites, stay overnight.
There's a few differentaccommodation options, and then
come back the next day Anothergood two day option is Bella
(05:08):
Ball, and that is three to fourhours drive one way from Dili.
So it gets a bit too far to doin a day, but certainly as a two
day trip, it's great.
Now on the way you're gonnatravel through.
So potentially you could visitsome of those sites I mentioned
earlier and then stay in BBO atthe historic BBO Fort Hotel.
Visit some of the sites in BBOthe following morning, and then
(05:30):
head back to Dili.
I'd also recommend that you stopin at ABI on the way the D two
UMA Cafe has fantastic views ofthe rice fields.
Another popular two day optionis to go to Mount Ramlow, which
is the highest point in TimLeste, just under 3000 meters
high.
Allow two and a half to threehours driving one way from Dili
(05:50):
with some challenging roadconditions towards the end,
requiring a four wheel drivevehicle or very good motorbike
skills.
You'll stay in the beautifulvillage of hat bco, which is the
highest in two more less day,and a lot of people would go out
there and you get up about two30 in the morning to hike to the
summit of Ramal for sunrise ataround 6:00 AM.
(06:10):
I didn't like to get up soearly, so I went for sunset set
instead and then came down inthe evening and headed the next
day.
A lot of people may just go upto see Mount Rameau, but I
highly recommend trying tofactor in time to visit the
Docker Marley waterfall, whichis probably the most impressive
in the country.
It's about 45 minutes down theroad from obesity and also to
spend a bit of time in ha to Koan hour or two at least
(06:32):
wandering around the village.
'cause there's quite a fewthings to see and do.
Now on the way to Mount Ram outis moi, so that's another
option.
If you don't have a four wheeldrive vehicle, you can still
enjoy the beautiful mountainscenery from that's about a two
and a half hour drive, one wayfrom Dili along good roads the
whole way.
Now, one of my favorite two daytrips, which you can do over a
weekend, is to visit a kui.
(06:52):
this is Timor's enclave,completely surrounded by
Indonesia.
From Dili, overnight ferries andoverland buses.
Take the best part of 12 hours.
Or you can fly with Aly in 35minutes and there's flights that
leave on Friday afternoon andreturn Monday morning.
So it's three nights, but it'sreally two days, and that's
about the ideal amount of timeto spend exploring this little
visited part of Timor-Leste.
(07:14):
Now, a few ideas for longertrips than that.
So Jao Island is technicallypossible to visit in a weekend,
but as it involves 12 to 16hours of driving to get there
and back, that doesn't need muchtime to explore the place.
So it's better to spread it outover three days and break up the
journey in alco and com andexpect the road to come to be
quite decent.
But from calm through to JacoIsland, that is pretty bad.
(07:37):
So you do need some decenttransport to get that far.
Another option.
As I mentioned at the beginning,at Aru Island, you can visit in
one day, but two or three daysis much better.
You get a real chance to enjoyisland time My final suggestion
is to go to Bagilla.
Now, this is really foradventure travelers.
I'd say far few people visithere than Jao Island.
It's less well known, butarguably more interesting and
(07:59):
spectacular.
So here you can stay at anotherhistoric fault, the Bagge Fort,
which is a very nice place tostay surrounded by mountains.
And you can hike up to thesummit of Mat Bien.
Which is the second highest peakin Timor-Leste that is
significantly more challengingthan Mount Ramala.
To get to Bigge is a five hourdrive, one way from Dili.
Along the coast, there aredecent roads, so you're heading
(08:21):
through to Baal, then you go abit further to lga, and then you
start heading inland, and theroads get very rough.
When I visited here in late2024, there was some road
construction underway, whichwill certainly improve the
journey.
I'm not sure it's gonna go allthe way to Bagge.
It's probably the first sectiononly, so you do need a four
wheel drive vehicle or very goodmotorbike skills, but for those
(08:42):
who have the time energy andadventure to get out to bagge, I
would really recommend it as anoff the beaten track gem in
somewhere that's not very wellexplored.
Hopefully that has given yousome ideas of various things you
can do in Timor less day.
as always, look on the exploringtimor.com website to find more
ideas about how you can explorethis beautiful country.
(09:02):
Thank you so much for listening to exploring Timor
Less Day.
If you've enjoyed today'sepisode, please consider leaving
a rating or review.
It really helps more peoplediscover the show.
If you have any questions orfeedback, I'd love to hear from
you.
Drop me an email at exploringTimor lessDay@gmail.com.
Until next time, or Bodo ADEs.
Bondi.
Welcome to exploring Tim Este,the podcast that talks about
Southeast Asia's best kepttravel secret.
I'm your host Jte, and I'llshare firsthand insights, expert
interviews and practical traveltips.
Whether you're a traveler, acultural lover, or just curious
about places rarely covered inthe mainstream.
You're in the right place.
Let's explore two more.
Less day.
(00:31):
In today's episode, I wanna giveyou an idea for some
itineraries.
So if you are planning to visittwo more less day, this will
give you some ideas about howyou can structure your visit.
I'll talk about five day trips.
You can do from Dili, fiveovernighter, two day trips you
can do from Dili, and threetrips where you'll allow at
least three days to completethem.
So hopefully these will give yousome ideas of combinations to
(00:54):
make the most of your time intoLeste.
To start with the day trips fromDili.
The most popular and obviousplace to visit is ET Island.
I've talked about thisextensively on other podcasts is
a beautiful place, a must visitif you are coming to Timor, Now,
I'd recommend that you spend afew days there.
It's a very nice place to spendsome time and relax.
(01:15):
But if you only have one day,you can go to ATAR roof for the
day.
Get the ferry out in themorning, you get a few hours on
the island, and then get theferry back.
The best place for UpToDateinformation about traveling to
Aro Island is on the website ofBarry's Place.
Under getting here, Barryupdates that regularly with the
latest services as I record thisin mid 2025.
(01:36):
There were ferry services fivedays a week.
To get the most time on theisland though, you wanna get the
dragon boat.
These are the fast boats thattake about an hour and a half to
get to Aru.
The other ferries take more likethree to three and a half hours,
so obviously you get less timeon the island.
So if you get Dragon boat out.
And back on the same day, you'reprobably gonna have three to
(01:56):
four hours on the island, whichis plenty of time to look around
the markets.
Particularly on a Saturday.
Maybe have a quick walk aroundthe village of Beloit.
And the main attractionobviously is snorkeling.
And if you go to Barry's place,you can rent gear and organize
boats to go and snorkel in the,in a reef.
Can also snorkel directly offthe beach just south of the
wharf, there is a reef there,which is okay, but the inner
(02:19):
reef is definitely the place togo to if you can, which does
require a local fishing boat totake you out.
It's a very short boat ride of afew minutes, but it's too far to
Safely Swim, If you only do oneday trip from Dili, I would
recommend ET Island.
A second day trip idea is to goout to, so this is to the west
of Dili, and it's very durable,particularly if you have your
(02:39):
own transport, like hiring a caror a scooter.
The road is in decent condition.
You can visit the historicApollo Prison uh, uba, which has
a, for a church and a, and alake and town, which is a
massacre site, a church, andsome seafront restaurants all in
the day with about two and ahalf hours driving.
It is technically possible to doit by local bus, but the buses
(03:00):
may be infrequent, so you dorisk getting stuck there.
I think if you just went to oneplace and came back.
You probably could, but if youwant to visit multiple sites in,
that's quite difficult withoutyour own transport.
Another option as a day trip isto head up to Glen O.
This is the largest town inAmira and it has a huge church.
And on the way you can stop atKO to visit the Gecko Cafe,
(03:22):
there are local buses up there,or if you've got your own
transport allowed, two and ahalf hours in total for driving
to Glen Oak and back.
The road is steep and winding,but it is a sealed and well
maintained road.
Another option is Salo Crack.
This is home to a beautifullagoon filled with water, lilies
and surrounded by rice fields.
Need to allow at least threehours for driving.
(03:42):
If you're gonna go there in aday, take the road to a layer,
and before you get into a layer,you turn off right.
And it's about a 20 to 30 minutedetour.
The road does get significantlyworse once you get off the main
road.
And actually, if you can go fromsoy crack onto Glen o and that
road is quite a bad road, so youneed your own transport to get
to soy crack, but it is a verynice place to visit or continue
(04:04):
along that road to aeo.
That's a very pleasant day trip.
You've got a cooler climate upthere.
There's mountain views, there'sgood places to have lunch.
There's a couple of notablememorials and there's some busy
markets on a Saturday.
It's a very winding road.
It's about an hour and a halffrom Dilly to Alejo.
And the longest piece ofstraight road is probably,
maybe, I dunno, a hundredmeters, like the whole way you
(04:24):
are going left right.
So if you get carsick, you mightwant to give this one a miss.
But if you're on a motorbike,it's quite good fun to take the
winding road.
And you do get some beautifulviews back towards Dilly and the
coastline for when you get upinto the hills.
So those can all be done in oneday.
Obviously, you can spend longer.
If you wish.
Now two day trips.
I would start by recommendingau.
This is the second largest cityin Timor-Leste and it's home to
(04:47):
one four historic buildings andthe only real large public
swimming pool in the country.
It's about a two and a half hourdrive, one way from Dili along a
stunning coastline on some ofthe best roads in the country.
So head out in the morning, havea nice afternoon there.
Go relax at the pool, see someof the sites, stay overnight.
There's a few differentaccommodation options, and then
come back the next day Anothergood two day option is Bella
(05:08):
Ball, and that is three to fourhours drive one way from Dili.
So it gets a bit too far to doin a day, but certainly as a two
day trip, it's great.
Now on the way you're gonnatravel through.
So potentially you could visitsome of those sites I mentioned
earlier and then stay in BBO atthe historic BBO Fort Hotel.
Visit some of the sites in BBOthe following morning, and then
(05:30):
head back to Dili.
I'd also recommend that you stopin at ABI on the way the D two
UMA Cafe has fantastic views ofthe rice fields.
Another popular two day optionis to go to Mount Ramlow, which
is the highest point in TimLeste, just under 3000 meters
high.
Allow two and a half to threehours driving one way from Dili
(05:50):
with some challenging roadconditions towards the end,
requiring a four wheel drivevehicle or very good motorbike
skills.
You'll stay in the beautifulvillage of hat bco, which is the
highest in two more less day,and a lot of people would go out
there and you get up about two30 in the morning to hike to the
summit of Ramal for sunrise ataround 6:00 AM.
(06:10):
I didn't like to get up soearly, so I went for sunset set
instead and then came down inthe evening and headed the next
day.
A lot of people may just go upto see Mount Rameau, but I
highly recommend trying tofactor in time to visit the
Docker Marley waterfall, whichis probably the most impressive
in the country.
It's about 45 minutes down theroad from obesity and also to
spend a bit of time in ha to Koan hour or two at least
(06:32):
wandering around the village.
'cause there's quite a fewthings to see and do.
Now on the way to Mount Ram outis moi, so that's another
option.
If you don't have a four wheeldrive vehicle, you can still
enjoy the beautiful mountainscenery from that's about a two
and a half hour drive, one wayfrom Dili along good roads the
whole way.
Now, one of my favorite two daytrips, which you can do over a
weekend, is to visit a kui.
(06:52):
this is Timor's enclave,completely surrounded by
Indonesia.
From Dili, overnight ferries andoverland buses.
Take the best part of 12 hours.
Or you can fly with Aly in 35minutes and there's flights that
leave on Friday afternoon andreturn Monday morning.
So it's three nights, but it'sreally two days, and that's
about the ideal amount of timeto spend exploring this little
visited part of Timor-Leste.
(07:14):
Now, a few ideas for longertrips than that.
So Jao Island is technicallypossible to visit in a weekend,
but as it involves 12 to 16hours of driving to get there
and back, that doesn't need muchtime to explore the place.
So it's better to spread it outover three days and break up the
journey in alco and com andexpect the road to come to be
quite decent.
But from calm through to JacoIsland, that is pretty bad.
(07:37):
So you do need some decenttransport to get that far.
Another option.
As I mentioned at the beginning,at Aru Island, you can visit in
one day, but two or three daysis much better.
You get a real chance to enjoyisland time My final suggestion
is to go to Bagilla.
Now, this is really foradventure travelers.
I'd say far few people visithere than Jao Island.
It's less well known, butarguably more interesting and
(07:59):
spectacular.
So here you can stay at anotherhistoric fault, the Bagge Fort,
which is a very nice place tostay surrounded by mountains.
And you can hike up to thesummit of Mat Bien.
Which is the second highest peakin Timor-Leste that is
significantly more challengingthan Mount Ramala.
To get to Bigge is a five hourdrive, one way from Dili.
Along the coast, there aredecent roads, so you're heading
(08:21):
through to Baal, then you go abit further to lga, and then you
start heading inland, and theroads get very rough.
When I visited here in late2024, there was some road
construction underway, whichwill certainly improve the
journey.
I'm not sure it's gonna go allthe way to Bagge.
It's probably the first sectiononly, so you do need a four
wheel drive vehicle or very goodmotorbike skills, but for those
(08:42):
who have the time energy andadventure to get out to bagge, I
would really recommend it as anoff the beaten track gem in
somewhere that's not very wellexplored.
Hopefully that has given yousome ideas of various things you
can do in Timor less day.
as always, look on the exploringtimor.com website to find more
ideas about how you can explorethis beautiful country.
(09:02):
Thank you so much for listening to exploring Timor
Less Day.
If you've enjoyed today'sepisode, please consider leaving
a rating or review.
It really helps more peoplediscover the show.
If you have any questions orfeedback, I'd love to hear from
you.
Drop me an email at exploringTimor lessDay@gmail.com.
Until next time, or Bodo ADEs.
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