If Jakarta is Java's financial and industrial powerhouse, then Yogyakarta definitely can be defined as its cultural hearth where history and modern traditions are united. The art of nature can be found in East Java that houses two sublime volcanoes with their own incomparable characters.
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Itinerary: Yogya highlights mixed with nature: Borobudur, Prambanan and volcanoes Bromo & Ijen - 4 days & 3 nights
Indonesia's most important archeological sites are the temples Borobudur and Prambanan. Yogyakarta is also where the Javanese language is at its purest, Java’s arts at their brightest and its traditions at their most visible. This exhibition of culture combined with 2 of Indonesia's renowned landmarks in the form of volcanoes and their landscape all in one tour. Get ready to experience Java.
Click on one of the headings to read the extensive itinerary.
The Borobudur and Prambanan temples
The Borobudur and Prambanan temples
Be ready for this impressive cultural day. First is the celebrated Borobudur. This colossal Buddhist monument lies within a bottle green park surrounded by swaying palms, just 42 kilometers northwest of Yogyakarta in Magelang city. This 8th century Buddhist monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms. The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.
Then you travel the spectacular temples of Prambanan which are set in the plains. It is a mighty Hindu complex built between the 8th and 10th centuries AD. The Prambanan made the Unesco World Heritage list in 1991, like the Borobudur. The Prambanan temples are the best remaining examples of Java’s extended period of Hindu culture.
If you would like to read more about the Borobudur or to read more about the Prambanan temples, the Unesco World Heritage List offers great insides.
If time is sufficient, we drive to Yogyakarta's city center and visit Ngasem traditional bird market, the water palace Tamansari, and to complete the trip we visit the batik and silver industry in Kotagede.
Then you will be driven to your hotel in Yogyakarta.
By train to Surabaya to visit the Madakaripura Waterfalls & see the sunset over Mt. Bromo
Visit the Madakaripura waterfalls & see the sunset over Mt. Bromo
You will take the Sancaka train to Surabaya that departs at 06.45. You will arrive at 11.37. Your driver picks you up to visit the Madakaripura waterfalls (2,5 hours drive). Be ready to get wet!
Then, you will continue to Cemara Lawang village, where you will be accommodated for the night. This village has a view over the caldera of Mt. Bromo and the volcano itself. After checking in at your hotel, you have some leisure time and you can see the sunset over the ancient landscape in which Mt. Bromo rose thousands of years ago.
Sunrise tour Mt. Bromo - via Arak-Arak hill to the Ijen Plateau
Sunrise tour Mt. Bromo - Ijen Plateau
Have a cup of coffee or tea to before leaving to Mt. Pananjakan at 03.00. Enjoy the scenery over Mt. Bromo while the sun rises. Then you will descend to the black Sea of Sand to see the active volcano Bromo and its crater.
After enjoying Bromo you willl be driven back to Cemara Lawang village to have breakfast in your hotel before check out. Hereafter you continue the trip via Arak-Arak hill to spend the night at the Ijen Plateau. The plateau is actually a coffee plantation. If the sun hasn't yet set, you can visit the coffee factory (when season), take a bath in a sulphuric hot spring, and see a waterfall.
Witness the spectacular blue flames at the Ijen crater lake
Ijen blue flames at Ijen crater lake
It will be an early morning again if you wish to see Ijen's blue flames. Actually you should not miss it as "blue flame" is a spectacular phenomenon in which released volcanic gasses react with oxygen. It can only be seen at night and Ijen happens to be the biggest blue fire area in the world. At 2 o'clock in the morning you depart with your local guide and hike up hill and then into the crater.
When the sun is about to rise, you can hike out of the crater and see the colors changing over Ijen crater lake and the surroundings while sulphur miners are at work. Actually these miners have one of the hardest jobs in the world. The sulphuric gasses condense in the ceramic pipes that have bee installed. When the liquid poors out of the pipes it solidifies quickly. Then the miners are able to collect it. In bamboo baskets on their shoulders, they carry about 80 to 100 kg sulphur out of the crater and down the hill.
Once you have seen it all, the driver is waiting for you. It takes about 1.5 hours - via Licin village - to the harbor in Ketapang. Here you can take the ferry to Bali. Your "Yogya highlights mixed with nature" tour ends.
- Yogya highlights mixed with nature is an intensive tour. You will have to wake up early every morning and days are a bit long due to the amount of activities. One could spread the activities over more days to travel in a slow pace. We can adjust, please contact us. You could also fill in the contact form on the right side of your screen (or below on a mobile phone) and mention your wishes at the box "Message / Question(s)".
- Would you like to do "something else"? Take a look at the 5 days tour to the Dieng highlands and the dazzling archipelago of Karimunjawa.