We're a family of 4, and recently spent 3 weeks travelling around Java. Loved it! Here are a few bits of info that might help others:
We flew into Surabaya and spoke to a taxi stand at the airport about a taxi straight to Cemoro Lawang for a Bromo hike the following day. We couldn't see a Bluebird taxi stand (turns out they are out of the terminal to the right, but we couldn't find it at the time). The taxi stand we came to first quoted 960,000rp, so we declined and spoke to a few of the taxi drivers hanging around. One asked 650,000 which is about what we'd expected to pay, and he had seatbelts/aircon, so off we went. It took about 3hrs in total.
The last bit of the journey from Problingo to Cemoro Lawang was long, steep and windy, but we eventually got the the Lava View Lodge. Excellent location, as you could walk to the crater/sunrise look out spots. Most other hotels were farther and required jeep/motorbike hire. However the price was high for the very cold, basic room, and the only restaurant was filled with smoke from the hordes of local tourists. Also loud music/fireworks that ended just after 10pm. But for one night it was fine.
There are countless bikes/horses to ride to/from the crater, but the next morning after a few sunrise shots nearby (volcano in the background), we walked... slowly it took about 45mins. (Horse ride for tired kids on the way back was 10,000rp). An easy flat walk (our children are 7yr old twins) and there weren't too many steps up to the crater, so they managed that fine aswell. SO worth doing. We hung onto them as there's not much in the way of a barrier at the top, but we were all in awe and very glad we did the climb/walk. Bromo was a highlight of our trip. The kids were engulfed at most stages by Indonesian students keen for a photo. The 4 of us had sore faces from smiling for so many cameras, but the kids seemed to quite enjoy all the attention! And everyone seemed so friendly and genuine it was hard to say no.
We got lucky the next morning. Unless you've prearranged a taxi pick up, you must book with the hotel for a shuttle to Problingo. The last one was leaving at 9:30am, and we were lucky to get spots on it as we only asked after breakfast! Failing that we'd have been looking at a LONG hike with all our luggage into the village centre to get a shuttle. It cost 35,000rp each, although the driver tried for 50,000rp and obliged at the 35,000rp rate once we told him the hotel had given us this price.
The shuttle driver tried to get us to book a direct/express bus with him to Surabaya at an extortionate per person cost, but we declined. Problingo bus station is every bit as bad as we'd heard. We got onto the first bus we saw marked Surabaya, and it wasn't long before it began.
The crucial thing to remember is DO NOT PAY UNTIL THE BUS HAS DEPARTED. 2 official looking men harassed us for over 20 minutes on the bus, trying to convince us this particular bus was express to Surabaya, and to pay them 70,000rp per seat. We just kept saying 'we KNOW the cost' (we'd checked with another passenger as well as researched here) and sure enough it was 23,000rp per person. The men finally got off the bus, the bus left, and a real bus conductor gave us correct change from 100,000. The bus was express anyway, only stopping briefly to drop off/pick up a few people on the side of the road.
Some room at the back of the bus for backpacks, and passengers seemed trustworthy enough. We picked seats not far from them anyway. In Surabaya we picked the least hassly taxi driver and got a meter taxi to our hotel.
Yogyakarta... we loved the Phoenix Hotel. Incredible breakfast (heaps of local dishes) and easy to hire a car/driver (fixed costs) to take us to Prambanan, Borobudur and Merapi. Merapi was clouded over, so we couldn't see a thing, but the temples were well worth seeing. The full day cost 900,000rp for the 4 of us in a very nice car, chilled waters, and a good English speaking driver. At the temples do be sure to get the guides - they were really cheap and well worth the small fee (can't quite recall what it was).
Another day we took rickshaws outside the hotel (who seemed associated with the hotel) to see the Sultan's Palace/Water Palace and they hovered to give us a ride back, declining payment 'til later. We did the rare thing of not negotiating the ride back until our return to the hotel, but they asked a reasonable fee so everyone was happy. The total was 150,000rp for each driver.
We were worried that we might get hassled/overcharged etc more in Java than in other places, but we found people (outside Problingo) to be very hospitable, friendly, kind and honest. We'd recommend it and will hopefully visit again!
