There are over 60 articles on Discover Your Indonesia about Yogyakarta. It’s three years worth of content about the city. With so much information about the city on this site it would be easy to miss the best articles. So to solve this I thought I’d write a Discover Your Indonesia Yogyakarta Travel Guide.

Our Yogyakarta guide covers everything from where to stay, how to get around and the best places to eat in town. We’ve created some shortcuts below. Press them to go to the relevant section of the guide.

1 – Transport: Find Out More
2 – Hotels: Find Out More
3 – Attractions: Find Out More
4 – Restaurants: Find Out More
5 – Tours: Find Out More

Still with us? That’s great. We’ll start from the beginning (if you follow all of the links below I promise you’re going to be an expert on the city).

Yogyakarta Transport

Yogyakarta a population of 3.5 million people Yogyakarta is a large city. Built on a river basin the city sprawls out in every direction. It’s tentatively surrounded by the Yogyakarta ring road, which loops around the city. That makes the city difficult to get around.

As a budget travellers I’d recommend using a mix of public and private transport. The Trans Yogya bus system will get you to most parts of the city and there’s Grab (same just like Uber) and Gojek now operating in the city, which are reasonably cheap. For more information about what’s available read our guide to getting around Yogya.

If you want a set of wheels for yourself we’d recommend arranging a private car or renting a scooter. The standard car rental agreement is for 10 hours and includes a driver and gas. You can find out more about our service on our Yogya car rental page (there’s a range of vehicles available). Larger groups might need to arrange a Yogya bus rental, which is a service that we also provide.

Yogyakarta Hotels

There are two main tourism areas in Yogyakarta. One area is around Jalan Prawirotaman and the second is Jalan Malioboro. Personally I prefer Jalan Prawirotaman as there are a large number of bars and restaurants that you can visit in the area. There are hotel options for all budgets. You can find my recommendation for the best hotel to suit your budget below:

Luxury Hotel – The Phoenix Hotel
Mid Range Hotel – Greenhost Boutique Hotel
Budget Hotel – Kampoeng Djawa

You can find more accommodation ideas on where to stay in our guide to the best 5 Star Hotels in Yogya. We created a separate guide that covers the best hotels around Malioboro, which is the backpacking area as well. For hotels around Malioboro, which is the tourist heart of Yogya, you should check out this article. Lastly we wrote an article on the best hotels near Borobudur.

Yogyakarta Tourism Attractions

Yogyakarta has a lot of tourism attractions. There are so many things to do around the city that it’s easy to get overwhelmed when trying to plan your holiday. Of course most people come to Yogya to visit Borobudur Temple. The best way to visit the temples is the Sunrise Manohara Package. Find out what to expect and how to make a booking for Borobudur Manohara here. I would recommend in taking a cycling tour in Yogyakarta or in Borobudur area (we can help to arrange that for you). It is one of the best ways to see local daily activities. If you like being artsy during your holiday, go join a Batik Workshop.

Of course that’s not all you can do in Yogya. My two favourites are Goa Jomblang and Mount Merapi. Goa Jomblang is a natural cave located in Gunung Kidul Regency. The caves are quite incredible. You can read about them here and book a day tour to the caves through this link.

For some of the best views around Yogyakarta I highly recommend hiking Merapi Volcano. You can climb Merapi Volcano for sunrise and it offers beautiful views over the surrounding countryside. Getting further afield you can also do day tours to Dieng, which are in the highlands a few hours drive from the city.

Yogyakarta Restaurants

Yogyakarta has a great restaurant scene and the food here is very cheap (so cheap that I used to eat out every day). I used to live in the South of the city, the area has some of the best restaurants in town. If you’re looking for inspiration on where to eat I’d recommend reading the guide to the best restaurants in the South of Yogyakarta.

Yogyakarta Travel Itineraries

To help you plan your Yogyakarta holiday,we’ve created a selection of travel itineraries for you to use. The different itineraries cover the best Yogyakarta tourism attractions (an essential part of any Yogyakarta Travel Guide). We’ve got 9 different one day tours and eight custom travel plans ranging from 2-Day 1-Night through to 5-Day 4-Night.

Make sure to check the individual itineraries to double check what is and is not included in the cost of the tour. We are happy to offer assistance adapting any itinerary to fit your needs.

Final Thoughts

I hope that you found this Yogyakarta Travel Guide useful. I’ve tried to cover all of the essential information that you might need for your Yogyakarta holiday in one place. As you can see, with over 60 articles on Discover Your Indonesia there are plenty of helpful resources on the site you can access when planning your holiday.

What do you think of this Yogyakarta Travel Guide? Is there anything that I’ve missed that should be included on this list? Let me know in the comments below.