33 Things To Do In Yogyakarta

Show on map

Filter (33)
Historical Site (3)
Temple (3)
Museum (3)
Commercial Street (2)

1. Borobudur Temple

28 km from city center

Historical Site

Built in the 9th-century, the Borobudur temple is a Mahayana Buddhist monument located in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. This monument is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It holds six square platforms coated by three circular platforms. This is adorned with 2,672 support panels and 504 Buddha statues. The main dome is positioned at the centre of the top platform. This is enclosed by 7 (Read More)2 Buddha statues situated inside perforated stupa.

Tours starting from
₹1,230

16 km from city center

Temple

A temple of the 10th century, The Prambanan Temple is the largest temple devoted to Lord Shiva in Indonesia. The temple houses numerous portrayals of the Ramayana with references to Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma, the three great Hindu deities, along with three temples devoted to the animals that were believed to serve them.

Tours starting from
₹1,230

1 km from city center

Forts & Palaces

Kraton (Keraton) Palace, also known as the Palace of Yogyakarta, the home of the Sultan, is one of the most carefully planned buildings in Indonesia. Originally created to reflect on the Javanese cosmos, this attraction is a perfect connection between natural realms, humans and god. It is built in the heart of the city and is considered to be a place of national pride and glory.

Tours starting from
₹2,135

2 km from city center

Historical Site

Situated close to the Kraton Palace, Taman Sari was initially constructed as a garden for the Sultan of Yogyakarta in the 18th century. It includes elegant gardens and pools and is a peculiar structure that is believed to have underground tunnels that connect it ti the Indian ocean. Originally it was constructed as a large artificial lake with island, a bathing complex and a complex structure of p (Read More)avilions and small pools along with a lake. At this point, however only the bathing pool remains while the rest of the structures have been usurped under the Kampung settlement.

Tours starting from
₹3,697

Yogyakarta Travel Packages

Compare quotes from upto 3 travel agents for free

1 Nights / 2 Days

Borobudur & Prambanan Temple Tour

Yogyakarta(1N)

₹11,500/person

1 Nights / 2 Days

Sunrise Borobudur Temple & Prambanan Temple

Yogyakarta(1N)

₹14,900/person

View All Packages For Yogyakarta

5. Shop Along Malioboro Street

4.3 /5

0 km from city center

Commercial Street

Malioboro Street or Jalan Malioboro is a major commercial street in Yogyakarta, popular for shopping and eating out. Located right in the city's heart, this area is filled with trendy hotels, restaurants, cafes and shops, both large and small. After sundown, several open-air restaurants and eateries can be seen catering to hungry tourists on the street. Street musicians and artists are also a popu (Read More)lar sight on this street throughout the day.

Tours starting from
₹164

1 km from city center

Landmark

The white pillar at the Jalan Mangkubumi crossroads is the city's oldest landmark and its most photographed one. Built in 1755 and rebuilt in its present form in 1889, it stands on the invisible line the Sultans drew between Mount Merapi, the Kraton and the southern sea, so it carries the same cosmology as the palace without the ticket or the hour inside. Most people come after dark, when the colu (Read More)mn is lit.

7. Take A Jeep Tour Of Mount Merapi

30 km from city center

Volcano

Mount Merapi, or Gunung Merapi, is an active volcano on the border of Central Java and the Yogyakarta region; the name translates as Fire Mountain in Javanese. It is Indonesia's most active volcano and has been in a continuous eruptive phase since December 2020, so ash and smoke appear at intervals and the summit itself is off limits. Most visitors see it on a jeep tour of the southern slopes, sta (Read More)rting from Kaliurang.

Tours starting from
₹2,026

1 km from city center

Forts & Palaces

The Dutch built this fort in the 1760s to keep an eye on the Sultan's palace a few hundred metres away, and the two still face each other across the same street. The barracks now hold dioramas tracing Indonesia's independence struggle from the colonial period through to 1949. It sits at the southern end of Malioboro, which makes it the natural stop to break up the shopping walk rather than a trip (Read More)of its own.

4.6 /5

13 km from city center

Temple

Also called Ratu Boko Palace, this archaeological site in Java is mounted on a picturesque plateau next to Prambanan Temple Complex. It is the remains of a palace built during the 8th century AD by the Buddhist Shailendra dynasty. Reinforced with limestone, there are five gurapas or worship places adorned with tendril ornaments, tropical courtyards, eight circle pools and caves.

Tours starting from
₹2,448

Try The Masangin Walk At Alun-Alun Kidul

2 km from city center

Garden & Park

The south square of the Kraton fills up after dark with light-covered pedal cars and food carts, but the reason to come is the pair of old banyan trees in the middle. Walking blindfolded between them, a ritual called masangin, is said to work only if your intentions are true, and watching people veer off course is half the entertainment. It is the one evening attraction here that costs nothing and (Read More) needs no booking.

39 km from city center

Cave

The Jomblang Caves are a part of a cave system that reaches the whole of Gunung Kidul. The cave had formed around a thousand years ago when the soil and vegetation had collapsed under the surface of the earth. It had created a sinkhole that was roughly 50 m wide and up to 80 m deep. Over the thousand years, supported by the 'Heavenly Rays,' which is a daily 3-hour window of sunlight that enters th (Read More)e cave, helped an incredible underground forest take root.

Tours starting from
₹1,090

1 km from city center

Shopping Market

The main market on Malioboro has been trading since 1758 and is still where the city buys its batik. The ground floor is cloth, printed and hand-drawn, with prices that drop the further back you walk. The upper floors hold jamu herbs, dried goods and food stalls. Bargaining is expected here in a way it is not in the Malioboro shops outside, which is the reason to come in rather than walk past.

13. Watch Silversmiths At Work In Kotagede

4 km from city center

Town

Kotagede was the capital of the Mataram Sultanate before Yogyakarta existed, and the old town still has the lanes, Javanese-Dutch houses and royal cemetery to show for it. Since the 1930s it has also been the city's silver quarter, and workshops here take visitors through the hammering and filigree work. Come for the craft rather than the monuments: it is quieter and much smaller in scale than the (Read More) Kraton.

4.3 /5

0 km from city center

Culture & Events

The Ramayana Ballet is a dance performance depicting the Valmiki Epic of Ramayana, which was originally written in Sanskrit. This highly intricate and stylised dance form is performed with music and drama and usually without dialogues. The performance is generally seen in two traditional forms - Javanese and Balinese, and tourists can enjoy the performance accompanied by a wonderful dinner in most (Read More) places.

Tours starting from
₹2,464

1 km from city center

Museum

Sonobudoyo holds the best collection of Javanese art outside Jakarta: krisses, masks, gamelan sets and wayang puppets, in a 1935 building beside the north square. The draw for most visitors is the wayang kulit it stages every evening, two hours of shadow play with a live gamelan, which is a far shorter commitment than the traditional overnight version. Easy to pair with the Kraton on the same day.

15 km from city center

Viewpoint

Villagers quarried this limestone cliff until it was declared a protected geological site, and then turned it into something else: the walls are carved with wayang figures and the quarry floor is now an amphitheatre. Climb the steps and you look across the Prambanan plain to Merapi. It is ten minutes from Ratu Boko, so the two work as a single sunset trip rather than two separate ones.

53 km from city center

Beach

An oddly-laid out beach at Yogyakarta, the Timang Beach is quite unique. It is at a boundary between the sea and the land which is located in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It guarantees beautiful sunset views, a gondola ride to the cliff on the other side of the beach with large waves reaching out to you, and a delicious lobster meal. The sand at the beach is white. The Pandanus plants are (Read More)lined up encompassing the beach which adds to the beautiful picturesque view of Timang Beach.

Tours starting from
₹3,012

16 km from city center

Buddhist Temple

Plaosan is two almost identical Buddhist temples standing side by side, raised in the ninth century by a Buddhist queen married into the Hindu dynasty that built Prambanan. That mix is the point: the layout and the guardian figures borrow from both traditions. It is a kilometre and a half from Prambanan and takes a fraction of the visitors, which makes it the better place to actually look at the c (Read More)arving.

23 km from city center

Museum

The Ullen Sentalu Museum sits in Kaliurang, on the northern slopes of Mount Merapi, and occupies historic buildings including the Hastorenggo Guesthouse building that is owned by Sultan Hamengkubuwono VII (1877-1921) and Kaliurang Three Nations Commission Building. The word 'Ullen Sentalu' is an acronym of the phrase in Java language that is 'Ulating Blencong Sejatine Tataraning Lumaku'. The phra (Read More)se literally means 'the Light of Life for Human Journey.' The museum exhibits relics and artefacts from the royal houses and kratons of Java, for example, the Pakualam, Surakarta, Yogyakarta, and Mangkunegaran houses.

Tours starting from
₹1,917

13 km from city center

Viewpoint

HeHa sits on the Patuk ridge where the road from Yogyakarta climbs into Gunungkidul, and the whole hillside is built around one view: the city spread out below, at its best after sunset when the lights come on. There are glass platforms, swings and restaurants designed to be photographed. Think of it as the engineered, modern counterpart to the older pine-forest viewpoints along the same road.

26 km from city center

Beach

Parangtritis Beach lies about 25 km south of central Yogyakarta. Set amidst lush green hills, the beach is also known for the special place it holds in Javanese folklore. The surrounding area of the beach is replete with natural and geological features such as caves, lakes, lagoons. At night, once the stars come out, the entire landscape is bathed in an almost ethereal light, perhaps one of the re (Read More)asons that the area is awash with legends.

Tours starting from
₹2,191

25 km from city center

Desert

These are sand dunes, which is not what anyone expects a short way inland from a Javanese beach. Volcanic sand carried down from Merapi by the rivers, then pushed back inland by the sea wind, has built one of the few barchan dune fields anywhere in the tropics. Sandboards are rented at the entrance. It sits next to Parangtritis, so it slots into the same afternoon as the beach.

4.3 /5

34 km from city center

Cave

Pindul Cave is an underground river cave located around 7 kilometres from Wonosari, Gunung Kidul in Indonesia. It is a popular spot for cave tubing or flowing down the river on inflated tubes. Rafting is also offered for those who might not want to indulge in the tubing. Towards the mouth of the underground river, tourists can swim and take pictures to commemorate visiting this wonderful tourist s (Read More)pot.

Tours starting from
₹1,090

3 km from city center

Museum

Affandi built this riverside compound himself and shaped the roofs like banana leaves. Indonesia's best-known modern painter lived, worked and is buried here, and the galleries hold the paintings he refused to sell, alongside his studio and the car he had rebuilt into the shape of a fish. It is a more personal museum than Ullen Sentalu, which covers court history: this one is about one man, and ta (Read More)kes about an hour.

20 km from city center

Volcano

Nglanggeran is the eroded remains of a volcano that stopped erupting tens of millions of years ago, now part of the Gunung Sewu UNESCO Global Geopark. The climb takes an hour or so, through gaps between the boulders with ropes and ladders in the tight sections. Most people start before dawn for the sunrise. Of everything on this list it is the one that asks for real physical effort.

16 km from city center

Temple

Candi Ijo, or the Ijo Temple, occupies a spot roughly at a distance of four kilometres from Ratu Boko. Established during the 10th and 11th centuries, the Candi Ijo is close to Yogyakarta in Indonesia. The compound of the temple adorns the serene hamlet of Groyokan, in the Sambirejo Village.

Tours starting from
₹1,999

27 km from city center

Forest

Kalibiru is a community-run forest in the Menoreh hills with wooden platforms built into the treetops, looking down over the Sermo reservoir and out towards the coast. There is a flying fox and a high rope course for anyone who wants more than the view. It is the furthest of the viewpoints from the city, about ninety minutes west, so it suits a day built around Kulon Progo rather than a quick even (Read More)ing run.

15 km from city center

Historical Site

The second-largest Buddhist temple complex in Indonesia after Borobudur, the Sewu Temple Complex is built upon Buddhist principles and sensibilities. It stands about 15 km east of central Yogyakarta, immediately north of Prambanan, and ranks among Java’s foremost temple sites. The construction of the temple complex was started way back in the 8th- Century by the Matram Kings, although it was disco (Read More)vered only in the 1960s. This was because the debris of the temple were buried under the deluge of the explosion of Mount Merapi Volcano.

Tours starting from
₹1,230

1 km from city center

Amusement & Theme Park

Taman Pintar is a science park built for school groups, with hands-on physics exhibits, a planetarium, a dinosaur zone and a water playground. It is the one entry on this list aimed squarely at children, which makes it useful on a family trip once the temples and palaces have run their course. The location helps: it sits directly behind Beringharjo market, ten minutes on foot from Malioboro.

Culture & Events

Wayang Kulit is a form of traditional performance art, native to Javanese, Balinese and Lombok cultures in South-East Asia. It is quite a stunner of a puppet show, where carved leather figures are played against light to cast shadows from on a taut linen screen. It has been around for centuries and this much-loved artform is now spreading out from Indonesia to the rest of Asia.

3 km from city center

Commercial Street

Prawirotaman is the second tourist quarter, two kilometres south of Malioboro and a different proposition: guesthouses in converted batik-merchant homes, coffee bars, and a night market along the street itself. People stay here when they want Jogja at walking pace instead of Malioboro's crowds and traffic. It works better as a base or an evening out than as a sightseeing stop.

4.3 /5

28 km from city center

Walking Tour

Watch the sunrise from the Borobodur Temple and experience a one-of-a-kind moment. Access to the temple grounds is given as early as 4-30 AM, and coffee/tea with biscuits is provided. This tour can be taken by self or as a part of the tour operator's package.

Tours starting from
₹1,520

4.3 /5

0 km from city center

Cycling

Tourists can enjoy a quiet and less crowded tour of Yogyakarta and surrounding villages on bicycles. The cycling tours can generally be done by self or under an English-speaking guide with stops including village community centres, local temples, and restaurants serving traditional meals to guests.

Tours starting from
₹1,520

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

Attractions

FAQs on Yogyakarta

What are the top activities in Yogyakarta?

The top activities in Yogyakarta are Borobudur Sunrise Trip, Yogyakarta Private Car Charter, Private Adisutjipto Airport Transfers (JOG) for Yogyakarta, Borobudur Sunrise, Merapi Kaliadem (Jeep Course), and Prambanan Temple Tour, Borobudur Sunrise & Prambanan Temple Trip, Borobudur and Prambanan Temple Trip.

What are the top sightseeing places in Yogyakarta?

The top sightseeing places in Yogyakarta are Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple, Jomblang Caves, Merapi Volcano, Candi Ijo, Taman Sari.

How can I commute within Yogyakarta?

Taxi with meters is the best way to commute within the city. They are cheap and cost a minimum of IDR 20000.

Download and register at the GoJek app to use motorbikes to explore the city.

Becaks or pedicabs is another option you can consider. However, take this option only if you are in no hurry.

Andong is a horse driven cart which is used for commuting around the city.

Public buses can also be considered for locomotion.
Read More

Things To Do In Yogyakarta

"Indonesia’s cultural heartland near Borobudur and Prambanan temples"

33 Things To Do In Yogyakarta

1. Borobudur Temple

2. Prambanan Temple

3. Kraton Palace

4. Taman Sari

Yogyakarta Travel Packages

Borobudur & Prambanan Temple Tour

Sunrise Borobudur Temple & Prambanan Temple

5. Shop Along Malioboro Street

6. Tugu Yogyakarta

Top Hotels In Yogyakarta

7. Take A Jeep Tour Of Mount Merapi

8. Fort Vredeburg

9. Watch Sunset At Ratu Boko

10. Try The Masangin Walk At Alun-Alun Kidul

11. Descend Into Jomblang Cave

12. Shop For Batik At Pasar Beringharjo

Discover More About Sightseeing & Tourist Attractions in Yogyakarta

13. Watch Silversmiths At Work In Kotagede

14. Ramayana Ballet

15. Sonobudoyo Museum

16. Watch Sunset At Tebing Breksi

17. Ride The Gondola At Timang Beach

18. Plaosan Temple

19. Ullen Sentalu Museum

20. See The City Lights From HeHa Sky View

21. Parangtritis Beach

22. Try Sandboarding At Gumuk Pasir

23. Cave Tube Through Pindul Cave

24. Affandi Museum

25. Hike The Nglanggeran Ancient Volcano

26. See Sunset From Candi Ijo

27. Climb The Treetop Platforms At Kalibiru

28. Sewu Temple

29. Taman Pintar Science Park

30. Wayang Kulit

31. Prawirotaman

32. Sunrise Tour to Borobudur

33. Cycling Tour in Yogyakarta

Things To Do In Nearby Places

FAQs on Yogyakarta

What are the top activities in Yogyakarta?

What are the top sightseeing places in Yogyakarta?

How can I commute within Yogyakarta?

Similar Places