Sixty metres down a rope, into the light of heaven

Yogyakarta: Jomblang Cave and Pindul Cave Adventure Trip

The classic Gunungkidul day and the most-booked Jomblang tour on GetYourGuide, with more than a thousand reviews. You leave Yogyakarta early, are lowered into the sinkhole, walk the tunnel to Grubug Cave for the light of heaven, then drive on to Pindul for an easy float along its underground river. Check on the listing whether the cave entrance fees are included in the option you choose.

• Rope descent into Jomblang and the walk to the light beam
• Float through Pindul Cave on an inner tube in the afternoon
• Hotel pickup and lunch — by far the most-reviewed Jomblang tour

Yogyakarta: Jomblang Cave Tour

A straightforward return trip to Jomblang: pickup, the drive into the karst hills, the descent, the forest, the tunnel and the light, then back to the city by mid-afternoon. It suits travellers who would rather not rush on to a second stop, or who want the afternoon free for Prambanan or a rest.

• A day built around the cave and nothing else
• Timed for the late-morning light beam
• Long-running listing with a steady 4.8 rating

Yogyakarta: The Jomblang Cave Adventure Trip

A well-reviewed trip focused on Jomblang alone, with transport and a meal. The driver times the departure so you are registered and geared up before the descents start, and you are usually back in Yogyakarta in the mid-afternoon.

• Door-to-door transfer from your hotel
• Guided descent, ancient forest and Grubug Cave
• A meal is included according to the listing

Yogyakarta: Mt. Merapi Sunrise, Jomblang & Pindul Cave Tour

Volcano, vertical cave and underground river in a single very long day. You start before dawn for sunrise near Merapi, cross the province to Jomblang in time for the light, and end floating through Pindul. It is tiring but efficient, and it is one of the best-reviewed combinations on the market.

• Sunrise on the slopes of Java’s most active volcano
• Jomblang’s light beam at midday
• Pindul cave tubing to finish, with a meal included

Yogyakarta: Jomblang Cave, Timang Beach Jeep & Gondola Tour

The two most adrenaline-heavy stops in Gunungkidul in one day. After Jomblang you drive to the coast, swap to a jeep for the rough track to Timang, and can ride the hand-pulled wooden gondola over the waves to the rock island. Gondola and bridge tickets are often paid on the spot — check the listing.

• The cave in the morning, the Indian Ocean in the afternoon
• Off-road jeep ride down to Timang
• Cross to the rock island by gondola or suspension bridge

Yogyakarta: Pindul Cave Tubing & Timang Beach Gondola Ride

A private Gunungkidul day for people who do not fancy being lowered 60 metres on a rope: gentle tubing at Pindul and on the Oyo River, then the coast and the Timang gondola. It also works as a second day in the area after you have done Jomblang.

• Pindul Cave and Oyo River tubing
• Jeep ride and the gondola at Timang
• No rope descent — a Jomblang-free Gunungkidul day

Yogyakarta: Borobudur Sunrise (Guaranteed Climb-up) & Prambanan

The most-reviewed temple tour from Yogyakarta, with well over two thousand reviews. Access to the upper terraces of Borobudur is rationed by a daily quota with timed slots, and this tour’s selling point is handling that for you. Entrance tickets for foreign visitors are a significant extra — check exactly what your option includes.

• Sunrise near Borobudur, then onto the monument itself
• Help securing a climb-up slot under the daily quota
• Optional Prambanan in the same day

Yogyakarta: Ramayana Ballet at Prambanan

The Ramayana told in Javanese dance, on a stage beside Prambanan. In the dry months the show is usually held outdoors with the temple towers lit behind the dancers; at other times it moves to an indoor theatre. An easy evening after a morning in the cave.

• Javanese dance-drama with a live gamelan orchestra
• Open-air stage with the temple floodlit behind it in the dry season
• Optional afternoon temple visit and hotel pickup

Yogyakarta: Mount Merapi Sightseeing Jeep Tour with Pickup

Merapi’s “lava tour” is a bumpy, dusty jeep ride across the valleys buried by the 2010 eruption, with stops at a house-museum of melted belongings and viewpoints towards the crater. With over five hundred reviews, this is the standard way to do it from the city.

• Open 4×4 on the lava fields of the 2010 eruption
• The small “remains” museum and the Kaliadem bunker area
• Sunrise or daytime departures

Jomblang Cave

A 60-metre rope descent into a collapsed cave

Goa Jomblang is a vertical cave — a sinkhole around 50 metres across, formed when the roof of a cavern collapsed. Visitors are lowered on ropes about 60 metres to a floor covered in forest, then walk through a dark tunnel to neighbouring Grubug Cave, where sunlight falls through the roof in a single beam.

Light of Heaven (Grubug Cave)

The sunbeam everyone comes to see

At the end of the tunnel from Jomblang lies Luweng Grubug, a shaft roughly 90 metres deep. Around midday on clear days the sun shines straight down it, and the light catches the mist in the chamber as solid-looking rays — the “cahaya surga”, or light of heaven.

Pindul Cave & Oyo River

Float through a cave on an inner tube

Half an hour or so from Jomblang, Gua Pindul is a short flooded cave you drift through in a rubber tube, past stalactites and under a skylight in the roof. Most visitors add tubing on the nearby Oyo River, with its small waterfalls and jumping rocks.

Timang Beach

A hand-pulled gondola over the surf

On a wild stretch of the Gunungkidul coast, lobster fishermen strung a rope cable car across to a rock island. Today visitors ride the wooden gondola — or walk a suspension bridge — above the breaking waves of the Indian Ocean.

Borobudur

The world’s largest Buddhist monument

Built in the 9th century and rediscovered under volcanic ash and jungle a thousand years later, Borobudur is a stone mountain of galleries, reliefs and bell-shaped stupas north-west of Yogyakarta. Access to the upper levels is limited by a daily quota, so book ahead.

Prambanan & the Ramayana Ballet

Java’s great Hindu temples, and a show beneath them

The 9th-century Prambanan compound, with its 47-metre Shiva temple, stands on the eastern edge of Yogyakarta — conveniently on the way back from Gunungkidul. In the evening, the Ramayana is performed as a dance-drama on a stage facing the temples.