Yogyakarta: the sultan's city at the foot of Merapi

Yogyakarta is a city of about 400,000 people that behaves like a capital. It is the only place in Indonesia where a hereditary sultan still serves as governor, the kraton is still a working palace, and the court rituals of gamelan, dance and batik are part of daily civic life rather than a performance for tourists. It is also the most visitor-friendly city in Java, with the best tourism infrastructure outside Bali.

The city is compact and walkable in the old centre, and the countryside around it contains two of the greatest monuments in Southeast Asia. Prambanan, a ninth-century Hindu temple complex, is 17 kilometres east. Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the world, is 40 kilometres northwest. And Merapi, one of the most active volcanoes on earth, looms over everything.

The kraton and Taman Sari

The kraton is the palace of the Sultan of Yogyakarta, a walled complex of pavilions, courtyards and museums in the southern part of the city. Parts of it are open to visitors, including the throne room, the gamelan collection and the regalia museum. It is a working palace, so opening hours change with court events, and the atmosphere is formal rather than theatrical.

A short walk west, Taman Sari was the royal garden and bathing complex, built in the eighteenth century with a system of pools, underground passages and a viewing tower from which the sultan watched his daughters bathe. Much of it is ruined, but the surviving sections, including the Umbul Pasiraman pools, are beautiful and often empty.

The area around the kraton is the old craft quarter, with batik workshops, silver smiths and puppet makers. This is where to buy batik if you want to see it being made rather than buy it in a mall.

Malioboro and the city at night

Malioboro is the main street and the city's living room: a kilometre of shops, street food, buskers and horse carts that is jammed from late afternoon until midnight. It is touristy and chaotic, and it is also genuinely where the city gathers. Walk it once at night, eat at the stalls, and then retreat to the quieter lanes of Prawirotaman or the northern districts.

Yogyakarta is a student city, with dozens of universities and art schools, and that shows in the café and gallery scene. The area around Jalan Prawirotaman has good restaurants and guesthouses; the streets north of Malioboro have bookshops and coffee.

The traditional performances are worth one evening. Wayang kulit, the shadow puppet theatre, can run all night, but shorter tourist performances are staged at the kraton and several cultural centres. Gamelan rehearsals are often open to the public.

Prambanan

Prambanan is a complex of 240 temples built in the ninth century, during the same period as Borobudur, but Hindu rather than Buddhist. The main group is dedicated to the Trimurti, with three tall temples to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and the Shiva temple contains a four-metre statue of the god. The reliefs tell the Ramayana, and the scale of the spires against the sky is the image most people carry home.

The site is 17 kilometres east of the city, reachable by car, motorbike or the Trans Jogja bus. It is hot and shadeless in the middle of the day, so go early or late. The Ramayana ballet is performed on an open-air stage beside the temples on several nights a week in the dry season, and it is a genuinely impressive production.

A combined ticket with Borobudur is available and cheaper than buying separately. Allow three hours for Prambanan, more if you walk to the smaller temples in the surrounding park.

Borobudur as a day trip

Borobudur is in Central Java, about an hour and a half from Yogyakarta, and almost everyone visits it from the city. The usual plan is a 5am departure, arrival at opening, two hours on the terraces and back by lunch. Sunrise entry is a separate, more expensive ticket that gets you in before the crowds, but it only pays off if the sky is clear.

The route passes through Muntilan and the rice fields of the Progo valley, with views of Merapi and Merbabu on a good day. Many drivers stop at the small Mendut and Pawon temples on the way back, both of which are older than Borobudur and almost deserted.

If you want to see Borobudur properly, stay overnight in the village and go twice: once at opening and once in the late afternoon, when the light is better and the day-trippers have gone.

Merapi and the volcano

Merapi rises to 2,930 metres about 30 kilometres north of the city and is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, with eruptions every few years. The 2010 eruption killed more than 300 people and buried villages in ash, and the landscape on the northern slopes still shows the scars.

The standard tourist experience is the lava tour: a jeep trip from Kaliurang or Kinahrejo through the ash fields, past destroyed houses and a bunker that was overwhelmed in 2010. It is part travel and part disaster tourism, and the operators are the villagers who live there. Go with a local cooperative rather than a hotel booking.

Serious hikers can climb Merapi with a guide when the volcano is at a safe alert level, starting from Selo on the northern side. The summit is a serious 5 to 7 hour round trip, and the national park closes the mountain when the alert level rises. Check the status before you plan.

The south coast

South of the city, the coast is a series of beaches facing the Indian Ocean. Parangtritis is the closest and most famous, a long black-sand beach with dunes and a strong cultural taboo about wearing green. It is busy, the currents are dangerous, and swimming is not advised.

Further east, the Gunung Kidul coast has a string of beaches reached by a road that winds through limestone hills: Drini, Baron, Krakal and the spectacular Timang, where a wooden cable car crosses to a rock in the surf. The water is clearer than at Parangtritis, the beaches are quieter, and the seafood warungs are excellent.

This is also cave country. The Gunung Kidul karst has hundreds of caves, including Jomblang, where you descend by rope into a collapsed doline and walk through a forest to a light shaft that photographers love.

What it costs, and when to go

Yogyakarta is inexpensive. A comfortable guesthouse in Prawirotaman costs IDR 300,000 to 600,000, and a mid-range hotel is IDR 600,000 to 1,000,000. Prambanan entry is around IDR 400,000 for foreigners, Borobudur similar, and the combined ticket saves a little. A car with driver for a day is IDR 600,000 to 900,000.

Food is cheap and excellent: gudeg, the jackfruit stew, is the local breakfast, and sate klathak, grilled lamb skewers on bicycle spokes, is the local obsession. Kopi joss, coffee with a piece of burning charcoal dropped in, is a Yogyakarta invention and tastes better than it sounds.

The dry season runs roughly May to September. The city is busy at weekends and during school holidays, when domestic tourists arrive in coachloads. Ramadan is quiet during the day and festive at night.

• Day 1: kraton, Taman Sari, Malioboro at night.
• Day 2: Prambanan in the morning, the Ramayana ballet in the evening.
• Day 3: Borobudur at dawn, Mendut and Pawon on the way back.
• Day 4: Merapi lava tour, or the Gunung Kidul beaches and Jomblang cave.

Questions people actually ask

How many days do I need in Yogyakarta?

Three days covers the kraton, Prambanan and Borobudur without rushing. Four days adds Merapi or the south coast. Most people wish they had booked four.

Should I fly into Yogyakarta or Jakarta?

Fly into Yogyakarta if the city is your main destination. The new international airport at Kulon Progo is about an hour from the centre by train or car. Jakarta is a six- to eight-hour train ride away.

Is it safe to climb Merapi?

Only when the alert level allows it, and only with a guide. The mountain is closed during periods of activity, and the rules change quickly. Check the current status with the national park before planning a climb.

Can I visit Borobudur from Yogyakarta without a tour?

Yes. Hire a car and driver, or take a public bus to Magelang and a local minibus from there. A driver is much easier and lets you stop at Mendut and Pawon on the way back.