Today we had the wonderful experience of visiting the Amazing temples of Borobudur and Prambanan near Yogyakarta in Indonesia.
Borobudur which is denominated the largest Buddhist temple in the world is a beautiful large stone structure with hundreds of buddhas sitting inside carefully designed stupas. An easy 45 minute drive from Yogyakarta a day tour can be easily arranged to see both temples in the same day. If you decide to do this tour make sure you ask for the combined ticket which is currently $IDR 375,000 to visit Borobudur and Prambanan in the same day. These tickets are not advertised anywhere in hopes that tourist pay the higher fee for separate tickets at the temples. (Price as of March of 2015)
While looking for information about the temples we came across many different forums from people asking how Borobudur and the Yogyakarta temples compare to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. We want to emphasize how much we loved our tour of the great Indonesian temples, but if you only had time to do one set of temples we will highly recommend you do Angkor Wat.
We are stoked that we were able to visit both locations on the same trip, but if we had to choose one we will definitely not hesitate to pick Angkor Wat. We did the 3-day Angkor Wat tour including sunrise at the main temple and it definitely was one of the best experiences in our lives. This magnificent Temple park should be on everyones bucket list.
Unfortunately for the Indonesian temples they have recently been hit by different earthquakes in the last decades. Many of the temples around Prambanan are still being re-constructed to their original formations. Compared in size the temples of Yogyakarta are smaller in size to the ones in Cambodia. The entire archeological park of Angkor Wat is a massive area with dozens of different temples to visit, it took us 3 days with our Tuk-Tuk driver to get to see most of the temples and we did not even stopped at all of them.
On the other hand all the temples near Yogyakarta can easily be seen in one day.
If you have time to visit both locations you totally won’t be disappointed, but then again if you are one of the people asking if you should visit either one of the two locations, our vote goes to Angkor Wat.
Here are some photos to help you decide between Borobudur / Prambanan or Angkor Wat
Pictures of the Temples in Borobudur & Prambanan
Pictures of the Temples in the Angkor Wat Complex
