In Reply to: mandela air posted by nannamish on Sunday, 29. June 2008 at 15:40 Bali Time:
Hi Michelle,
I booked the flights on-line at mandalaair.com - it's just like booking on Virgin or Qantas here at home. There are flights to Yogya each day as far as I can tell, and you get a confirmation email and an e-ticket via email. You can choose your seats etc... just as you would here, and the whole process is in English, it's incredibly simple.
As for tour guides, I did ALOT (and I mean alot) of research before I went. I've wanted to do this side trip for a long time, so I wanted to get it right. You CAN do a one day, get, get out tour, but I wouldn't recommend it - there's quite a bit of walking around involved, and you really need two days to cover it, more if you can spare them.
The other thing to keep in mind is Borobudur Temple. I had been advised by others not to do this during the day as it's hot and crowded and yucky, and I believed them. the sunrise tour costs a little bit more as you have to access the temple through a hotel which charges you for the privelege, but it was worth it. Cool, serene and quiet, you could take lovely photos of the monument and teh surrounding mountains and wander around in peace while you checked out all of the carvings. Just brilliant.
I went with Ms Evie at Alam Persada Tours because she was the most professional and prompt communicator. She was very flexible, and we had a great guide, a driver and a comfortable car. I paid a 50% deposit via bank transfer which I was a little nervous about, but I had no reason to be, it was all above board.
The guide met us at the airport on time and took great care of us.
I contacted them through the yogyes website (www.yogyes.com)
I hope you do take the trip - itx's taken us about 5 years to get around to it, but I'm so glad we did it - it was amazing.