Yogyakarta walking tour & city guide

The Kraton and Malioboro

The Kraton, the sultan's palace, is a complex of pavilions where you can see gamelan music and classical dance. Nearby, the Taman Sari Water Castle was a royal garden with bathing pools and underground passages.

Malioboro Street is the city's lively main street, lined with batik shops, street vendors and becak rickshaws. In the evening, food stalls called lesehan let you eat sitting on mats on the sidewalk.

Borobudur and Prambanan

Borobudur, about an hour away, is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, built in the 9th century with thousands of carved reliefs and bell-shaped stupas. Prambanan, a group of tall Hindu temples, is just east of the city and hosts the Ramayana ballet on an open-air stage.