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Visiting Sultan Palace is one special thing that I really recommend you to do while you travel to Yogyakarta, Hi Bima here and welcome to my Bomanta.com. By the way I’m truly excited to share with you what is Sultan Palace look like, how to get there, and what you gonna see inside this palace or we get used to called it as ‘Kraton‘. As a citizen that already lived over than 20 years in Yogyakarta, i could say that this place is super fantastic, especially when you go there in early morning, just couple minutes after they open for visitors. Just for your information that Yogyakarta has been claimed as special district since couple years ago this city was belong to Indonesia’s capitol city than the second one is Yogyakarta has its own government system as a city who lead by a King that used to called as a Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono (HB), it begins hundred years ago since Sri Sultan HB 1 and now they have their Sri Sultan HB X (tenth), before I share my trip story to Kraton so let me share you some good introduction.
Visiting Yogyakarta
A lot of option that you can choose to visit Yogyakarta such as by flight, train, bus, or rent a car but here I will tell you with two recommended ways:
- By flight – You will landed in Adisucipto International Airport which you can go directly from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, just in case you want to stop at this cities before going to Yogyakarta and for sure you can go directly from few big cities such as Jakarta and Bali. From this airport you can take any kind of transportation such as Airport taxi (will be the most expensive way), Go-Car (just like Uber but don’t book it inside the terminal building, simply go out and wait in front of the Immigration office – 200 meter walk from the airport), or take the Trans Jogja Bus to go to the city (cheapest way)
- By train – Yogyakarta has two train station, Yogyakarta Tugu and Lempuyangan. If you take business or executive train class than you will stop at Yogyakarta Tugu but if you ride with the economy train class than you will stop at Lempuyangan St.
NOTE – Go-Jek is an online transportation platform which is has various services like Go-Car (with car) and Go-Rid (with scooter), no matter where you want to book it, please DO NOT BOOK from main commercial building where they have their own taxi company like Airport and Train Station, so go for little walk and book it!
Visa to Indonesia
Yogyakarta is super simple city that everybody can visit in free or with Visa on Arrival, you may contact Indonesian embassy to clarify about it or read this Visa Information to figure it out
Hotels near Sultan Palace
I tried several hotels both for stay or just for lunch and dinner, since Sultan Palace is located in a prime area, just 100 meter from Malioboro city center so actually there are a lot of hotels near Sultan Palace that you can book, but let me give you some recommendation:
- the 101 Tugu – I stayed in this hotels couple months ago and feel satisfy with their services, hotel staff are so humble, breakfast is compliment, but the room is quite small but still nice. One thing to be consider is if you stay there during peak season than sometimes you wouldn’t get any seat during breakfast, compate on Booking.com too
- Melia Purosani – I go here many times for coffee time and buy some discount cake after 6pm with my family, it’s a 5 star hotel with really nice ambiance and they do have a pianist performance every day from 7 to 9 pm just near the restaurant, you may compare with Booking.com too
- The Phoenix – Designed by heritage concept, this hotel is close to the 101 Tugu so about 1 km from the Sultan Palace, this hotel also available in Booking.com
the Sultan Palace a.k.a. Kraton
Generally Kraton is a kingdom of Yogyakarta built in 1755 and you may entering this area which is consist of garden and museum, for sure there are some hall or private area that not allowed to be enter. Located only 100 meter from Malioboro so this place is truly walkable if you choose to stay in a hotel or accommodation near Malioboro. Kraton will open from 08.30 to 12.30 but in Friday they will close sooner at 11 am. Generally there are two entrance and I recommend you to go both since the admission is less than USD2. Front entrance will consist of garden and hall than back entrance will consist of 9th King’s museum, last, there is an additional charge if you bring a camera for just USD0.5.
How to get there
- Walk – if you stay around Malioboro than walking is the best way, as I said before that Kraton is only 100 meter from Malioboro street.
- Bicycle – Try to rent a bike from your hotel or guest house than you can cycling to go there, make sure to have your own bicycle lock when you park it
- Trans Jogja – You may go to the nearest Trans Jogja bus stop from your hotel and take 1B which will stop at Taman Pintar bus stop and it is only 300 meter away from Kraton
- Go-Jek – It;s a platform where you can book a scooter or car just like Uber and grab but here in Indonesia Go-Jek is more familiar than the others
There are DAILY FREE SHOW from 10 am to 12 noon in Kraton with a random schedule and you able to see the live performance of poetry reading, traditional dance, gamelan music show, and so on, so try to get there early to see the show.
NOTE
I uploading my Yogyakarta travel photos and sell it online, in case you interesting with the photos that you can buy it on shutterstock.
From the picture above you will see a lot of Kraton’s guard that called Abdi Dalem and they wear traditional Javanese clothes called Surjan (the shirt) and Jarik (the sarong), here they will do the activities in a bare foot. No matter where you come from the are a lot of translator and guide who able to accompany you to sightseeing around with various languages, just named it! from the Dutch, German, English, Portuguese, Mandarin, till Japan and they will afford it to you.
How to pay them?
That’s a brilliant question! Due to Javanese culture they can’t ask you for some specific amount cause they think it is not polite to say it, so just give them a tips in a good amount, for me..I will give from IDR50.000 to IDR100.000 for accompany me see the whole location.
Place to see nearby the Kraton
Hope this gonna be a nice information for you cause Sultan Palace is surrounded by some places that highly recommend to visit such as:
- Tamansari Water Castle (1 km to the south)
- Javanese Museum (100 m, consist of old weapon, batik clothes, and music intrument)
- Horse Carriage Museum (100 m, consist of horse carriage owned by the king which is made 100% from high quality of wood from hundred years ago, it used for wedding, funeral, and special event)
You will definitely see and learn the History of Yogyakarta by visiting Sultan Palace!
Thank you for read my Sultan Palace story,
If you interesting in learning more about Yogyakarta, you may check my 44 things to do in Yogyakarta eBook, which include recommendation of attractions, hotel – budget accommodation, bets street food, and simple words to asking help or say greeting both in Bahasa and Javanese language.
Have you ever been to Sultan Palace?
Leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you now!