Day 3 | Jogjakarta 3D2N Costing & Duta Guesthouse Review

I did a 3D2N Jogjakarta trip with Anna & sis a couple of years back. My suggestion for a trip here would be 4-5 days Jogja alone comfortably, and if you were to include Mt Bromo and to use Jogja as a base; then perhaps 5-6 days. There are some travel blogger doing a trans Java trip which I think needs 7 days or so. That would be the alternative that you can take a look at.

My Indonesian relatives did a 10 days return trip Pekan Baru to Bali ie Sumatera to Jawa to Bali and back. Kid you not. OVERLAND. It requires driving both day and night time, relay drivers are highly required here. I don't encourage this unless you are with locals.

Lobby or registration area

We chose to stay at Duta Garden Hotel/Guesthouse which is pretty decent, reasonably priced and clean. Address below.


DUTA GARDEN HOTEL
Timuran MG.III/103
Yogyakarta 55153
Indonesia
Phone: +62 274 373482, +62 274 388378
Fax: +62 274 372064

Location from Duta Garden site as below, for map; please click HERE :

Duta Garden Hotel is located in Timuran kampong of Prawirotaman area. You can reach this hotel in 20 minutes drive from Adisucipto International Airport; 10 minutes drive from Tugu railway station or Giwangan bus station.

Various places of interest can be reached fast. It only takes you 30 minutes to go to Prambanan temple as the biggest Hindu temple in South-East Asia and 1 hour drive to go to Borobudur temple as one of the world wonders. Yogyakarta Kingdom and Tamansari water castle are reachable within 10 minutes time.

Bare with me on the resolution here. 

What I like about this place is that they serves us tea time ie tea & some lcoal delicacies, they even asked us whether we wnat to have it in the room, patio or by the pool. WOW!!! That's personalize service. Loving it!

This hotel/guesthouse have 2 other sister hotels :

Delta Homestay Yogyakarta
It is located in Prawirotaman, where you can find andicraft trading centers and it is more an "international kampong" feel.

DELTA HOMESTAY
Jl. Prawirotaman MG.III/597-A
Yogyakarta 55153
Indonesia
Phone: +62 81 727 1047, +62 274 7477537
Fax: +62 274 372064

Duta Garden Hotel & Boutique Villa 
It is located in Timuran kampong of Prawirotaman area.



DUTA GARDEN HOTEL & BOUTIQUE VILLA
DUTA GARDEN HOTEL & BOUTIQUE VILLA
Timuran MG.III/103
Yogyakarta 55153
Indonesia
Phone: +62 274 373482, +62 274 388378
Fax: +62 274 372064

This was our room, we requested for lower floor, easier to carry our luggage

 

Very quaint, they even have a substantially big pool for the guest.

Staircase from the lobby to our room, you need to pass by the pool in order to get to our room. A lot of efforts were put in making this place as unique as possible.

This is how the street looks like outside, basically it's located in a housing area, the main road turning in have Nasi Padang restaurant, Roti Bandung seller (YES!) etc.

Costing
I didn't spend much here, barely shop too. In this costing I have also removed the Air Asia flight cost as it very dynamic and fluctuates by day (if not hour).

To lower down the cost, you can do a DIY either by renting a car or motorbike and manage your own itinerary. For me, since it is a very short trip, we decided to hire a tour guide aside the fact that Borobudur sunrise is tougher to do DIY (we need to depart out guesthouse at 5am in the morning).

What did the tour package covers (click the hyperlink)

• Day 1 - Parambanan Temple, Parangtritis Resort (cliff view) and Parangtritis beach
• Day 2 - Borobudur sunrise, Kraton, Taman Sari, Taman Sari tunnel,  Mendut Temple, Spa (Lingga waited for us for 3 hours, spa was at own cost).

Lingga's contact : +62 812 295 6349

Note :

• Bakso is very very cheap there (and taste nicer too) so each of us took 2 helpings plus 2 teh bottles each hence the cost reflected in the table is higher.
• Dunkin Donuts? Nicer there!!! Enough said. Psst!!! We packed home the donuts as souvenirs. Hhehehhe.... JCo wasn't available in Jogja back then.
• The tour package is a tad expensive, to lower down the cost; suggest travelers to rent a car/motorbike (GPS is advisable)
• Another way to catch sunrise package is to stay at the Manohara Resort itself (Twin bed - IDR 745.000 nett/room/night or Double bed - IDR 690.000 nett/room/night include), bare in mind that Jogja to Borobudur is 1 hour drive.
• When I visited Jogja in 2007; there wasn't many blogs out there to guide me, even Jogyes website was simple & bare. The nearby Mt Bromo wasn't even in the vocab :)
• Those days fridge magnets was almost NONE, now aplenty as shared by MasZuber -THANKS!! Good luck buying.
• Do note that I am particular when it comes to historical sites, I like to engage tour guide as I want to know the history and story behind it (some not stated in travel books/website). It's personal satisfaction.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your trip.

Hyperlink credits : Duta Garden Hotel, Delta Homestay, Duta Boutique Villa