Yogyakarta

Jogja's main artery runs south from the railway station towards the palace, part of the ceremonial line that links Mount Merapi, the white Tugu monument, the Kraton and the sea. In 2023 UNESCO inscribed this "Cosmological Axis" and its historic landmarks as a World Heritage Site. The street itself is a busy parade of batik shops, horse-drawn andong and cycle rickshaws, with wide pavements that were reworked to give pedestrians priority, and street vendors gathered into the Teras Malioboro buildings. At the southern end, Beringharjo Market is the place for cheap batik and spices, and the Dutch-built Fort Vredeburg now holds a museum of Indonesian independence.

TipCome in the early evening, when the heat breaks and buskers, food carts and families fill the pavements. Agree any rickshaw fare before you set off, and be wary of touts steering you to "special exhibition" batik galleries.

The Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat was laid out in the 1750s, when the sultanate was founded, and it is still the home of the sultan and the ceremonial centre of Javanese court life. Rather than one grand building, it is a sequence of courtyards and open-sided pavilions with carved teak columns and marble floors, attended by elderly palace retainers in traditional dress. Small museums display royal gifts, gamelan sets, carriages and portraits of past sultans.

The palace also stages regular cultural performances in its pavilions, which may include gamelan music, classical dance, wayang kulit shadow puppetry or macapat sung poetry, depending on the day. These are short, included with entry and a lovely way to hear court music played where it was meant to be heard.

TipThe Kraton opens in the morning and closes in the early afternoon, and it can close entirely for royal ceremonies and religious holidays. Check the official site for the current performance schedule, and dress modestly.

A short walk west of the palace, Taman Sari was built in the mid-18th century as a royal pleasure garden of pools, pavilions and secret passages. The best-preserved part is the bathing complex, where three pools are overlooked by a tower from which, the story goes, the sultan would watch the women of his court. Beyond it, a maze of narrow lanes leads through the surrounding kampung, a neighbourhood of artists' studios and painted walls, to the ruined Sumur Gumuling, an underground circular mosque with a central well and crossing stairways that is one of Jogja's most photographed spots.

TipGo when it opens in the morning. Local guides wait at the gate; hiring one helps you find the tunnels and supports the community living in the old compound.

Before Yogyakarta existed, Kotagede was the capital of the Islamic Mataram kingdom, founded in the late 16th century. Its narrow lanes still hold traditional Javanese wooden houses, fragments of old walls, a mosque with a Hindu-style gateway and a royal cemetery where the dynasty's founders are buried; visitors to the graves must wear Javanese court dress, which can be borrowed. Today the district is best known for silverwork, with family workshops along the main streets where you can watch filigree being made by hand and buy jewellery directly from the makers.

On the road to Borobudur, this modest ninth-century Buddhist temple hides one of the finest sculptural groups in Java. Inside its single chamber sits a huge stone Buddha, around three metres tall, flanked by two Bodhisattvas, all carved from single blocks and still venerated today. The outer walls carry graceful reliefs, including scenes from Buddhist fables. A working Buddhist monastery stands next door.

Small, elegant and often almost empty, Pawon stands between Mendut and Borobudur on the same straight line, and the three temples are thought to have been conceived together. Every year at Vesak, monks and pilgrims walk in procession from Mendut past Pawon to Borobudur. The temple's walls are decorated with celestial beings and wish-granting trees, and a stop takes only fifteen minutes.

Built by the Sailendra dynasty around the late eighth and early ninth centuries, Borobudur is a vast stepped pyramid of volcanic stone in the Kedu Plain of Central Java, about 40 km northwest of the city. Pilgrims walk clockwise around its terraces, passing more than 2,600 carved relief panels that lead from scenes of earthly desire, through the life of the Buddha, to enlightenment. The circular upper terraces carry 72 perforated stupas, each holding a seated Buddha, around a great central stupa. Abandoned for centuries under ash and jungle, it was cleared in the 19th century and rebuilt stone by stone in a major UNESCO-backed restoration in the 1970s and early 1980s.

To protect the worn stairways, climbing the temple structure itself is now limited. Visitors who want to go up need a separate structure ticket, valid for a fixed time slot with a capped number of people, and must go with a guide and wear the woven upanat sandals handed out at the start. A cheaper ticket covers the grounds and the museums around the foot of the monument only.

TipStructure tickets for popular slots sell out, so book in advance through the official Borobudur ticketing site or a licensed operator, and arrive well before your slot. Rules and prices have changed several times since 2023, so check the current terms when you book.

In the cool pine forests of Kaliurang, on the lower slopes of Merapi, this private museum tells the story of the Javanese royal courts of Yogyakarta and Surakarta through batik, portraits, letters and personal stories of princesses. The buildings, half sunk into the hillside among mossy gardens, are as memorable as the collection. Visits are by guided tour only, and photography is not allowed inside the galleries.

Merapi, the "mountain of fire", erupts every few years, and its catastrophic eruption in 2010 killed more than 300 people and buried villages on its southern flank. Open-top jeep tours from Kaliurang and Cangkringan now bump along the old lava and ash flows to the ruins of that disaster: a small museum of melted household objects, the site of the home of Mbah Maridjan, the mountain's spiritual gatekeeper who died refusing to leave, and the Kaliadem bunker, with the peak looming above. Sunrise tours aim to catch the summit before the clouds roll in.

Merapi has been at Alert Level III (Siaga) since November 2020, with lava avalanches and pyroclastic flows sliding down its upper slopes, and the area around the summit is closed. Climbing to the crater is not permitted while this status lasts, and jeep routes are adjusted to stay outside the danger zone.

TipCheck the current level on the MAGMA Indonesia volcano site before you go, and use an established operator that follows the official exclusion zones. Bring a scarf or mask for the dust.

About 17 km east of the city, Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia, built in the ninth century and dedicated to the Trimurti of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. Its central Shiva temple rises to about 47 metres, and its balustrades are carved with the story of the Ramayana, which you can follow by walking clockwise. Many of the hundreds of smaller shrines around the core still lie as heaps of numbered stones, and a strong earthquake in 2006 caused fresh damage that took years to repair. The same park contains Sewu, a large Buddhist temple complex guarded by giant stone figures, a reminder that the two faiths flourished side by side.

TipArrive at opening or stay for late afternoon light. On many evenings, especially in the dry season, the Ramayana Ballet is performed with gamelan on an open-air stage with the floodlit temples behind; an indoor theatre is used at other times.

A short drive or bicycle ride northeast of Prambanan, Plaosan is a pair of ninth-century Buddhist temples set among rice fields, with finely carved figures of male and female donors on their walls. It sees a fraction of Prambanan's visitors and is especially lovely at sunrise, when Merapi is often visible to the north.

On a plateau above Prambanan, Ratu Boko is not a temple but the remains of a large hilltop complex, perhaps a palace or fortified monastery, from the eighth and ninth centuries. Its great double gateway, bathing pools, terraces and caves are spread over a breezy hilltop with views over the plain to Prambanan and, on clear days, Merapi. It is the region's classic sunset viewpoint.

TipCombined tickets for Prambanan and Ratu Boko have been offered with a shuttle between the two; check what is currently available at the Prambanan ticket office.

In the limestone hills of Gunungkidul, about an hour and a half southeast of the city, Jomblang is a collapsed sinkhole roughly 60 metres deep, with a small patch of ancient forest growing at its bottom. Visitors are lowered on ropes by trained local operators, then walk through a muddy passage into the neighbouring Grubug cave, where an underground river runs below. Around the middle of the day, on sunny days, a shaft of sunlight pours through a hole in the roof, the "light of heaven" that has made the cave famous.

TipNumbers are limited each day and descents start in the morning, so book ahead. Wear shoes you do not mind ruining; boots are usually provided. The light depends on the weather and is least reliable in the rainy season.

An hour south of the city, the long black-sand beach at Parangtritis faces the full force of the Indian Ocean. It is a place for sunsets, horse-cart and ATV rides and kite-flying rather than swimming: the surf is powerful, rip currents are deadly, and swimming is forbidden. The coast is bound up with the legend of Nyai Roro Kidul, the Queen of the Southern Sea, who is said to be the spiritual consort of the sultans, and offerings are made at nearby Parangkusumo. Just inland lie the Parangkusumo sand dunes, rare on a tropical coast, where you can try sandboarding.

TipDo not go in the water, however calm it looks. If you want a gentler beach, the small coves of Gunungkidul further east, such as those around Indrayanti, are prettier, though still not safe for swimming when waves are high.