Climb Borobudur Every Day in 2026: Sessions, Rules, Quota

Booking choice: The hill-or-temple sunrise tour, 5 to 8 hours. Book this Tour details

Climbing Borobudur has been rationed since the monument reopened after the pandemic. You book a session, wear woven sandals and follow a guide on a fixed route. One rule changed in July 2025: the day of the week no longer matters.

Here is what the change means, how the sessions work, why the 2022 plan to raise the fee was dropped, and what it all means for a sunrise tour.

The quick answer

Since the third week of July 2025, tourists can climb Borobudur every day, Mondays included. Before that, Mondays were for students. Climbing runs in eight sessions from 08:30, each of about 150 people, always with a local guide and upanat sandals. For a hill-sunrise tour, it means the 08:30 climb works on any day of the week.

Can you climb Borobudur every day now?

Yes. Since the third week of July 2025 the general public can climb to the top every day. Mondays were for students before that.

"There are no longer any restrictions on the day, tourists are allowed to climb to the top of the temple every day," said Mardijono Nugroho, director of PT Taman Wisata Borobudur, in InJourney's announcement of 22 July 2025. Until then, the general public climbed Tuesday to Sunday and Monday was set aside for school groups.

He called it a trial too, approved by the Ministry of Culture's museum and heritage office. A year on, the official climbing ticket still lists the temple structure as open daily, 08:30 to 17:00. Some news sites repeated the Monday closure as late as December 2025. Ignore them.

One thing did not change: Prambanan. The sunrise, climb and Prambanan day listing says the main Roro Jonggrang temple there is closed on Mondays, so a two-temple day on a Monday is lopsided. Our Borobudur and Prambanan guide covers the timing.

How do the Borobudur climbing sessions work?

Eight sessions a day, hourly from 08:30 to 15:30, each capped at about 150 people. Online and counter sales share the same quota.

The session system came in 2023. Republika reported eight visiting sessions a day, and detikJateng described the 1,200 daily places selling out by midday on a busy day. InJourney's June 2026 promotion still refers to Sessions 1 to 8, so the structure holds in 2026.

Book online at the official ticket site, choose a session and bring the e-ticket. On weekends and Indonesian holidays the morning slots go first. Skip the 10:30 to 12:30 slots in the dry season: the stone heats up and there is little shade on the terraces.

Session	Start (WIB)	Notes
1	08:30	First climb of the day, the one most sunrise tours aim for
2 to 3	09:30, 10:30	Mid-morning, still before the midday heat
4 to 6	11:30, 12:30, 13:30	Hottest hours on the terraces
7 to 8	14:30, 15:30	Softer light, structure closes at 17:00
Grounds only	06:30 to 16:30	Courtyard ticket, no climbing

Why do you need a guide and upanat sandals to climb?

Both protect the stone. Climbers go up in groups with a licensed local guide, and everyone wears woven upanat sandals on the monument.

Each session climbs with a local guide (pamong carita) along a fixed one-way route from the east stairs up through the galleries to the round terraces, then down the other side. The guide is part of the climbing ticket. You get some free time at the top, not an open run of the place.

Upanat are flat sandals woven by local craftspeople and introduced in 2023 to cut wear on the andesite steps. You take off your own shoes, put them on, and keep them afterwards. Hands stay out of the stupas: the old Kunto Bimo wish of touching the Buddha inside is banned for conservation. Drones and food on the monument are out too. The full list is in our climbing rules and dress code guide.

A pile of woven upanat sandals ready to be handed out to climbers — Upanat sandals: handed out with the climbing ticket and yours to keep.

What happened to the 2022 plan to raise the climbing fee?

It was dropped. In June 2022 the government floated a steep climbing fee to protect the stone, then cancelled it after a public backlash and brought in quotas instead.

The proposal would have made a climb several times more expensive for both Indonesian and foreign visitors. The outcry was loud, and the plan was shelved. What replaced it, per Fortune IDN, was the quota: fewer people on the stones at once, in timed sessions, with guides and sandals.

You still see the old figure quoted as if it were current. It is not. Climbing tickets today cost a fraction of that plan, with a higher tier for foreign visitors, and our ticket guide explains the categories.

Will the daily climbing quota go up?

Maybe. In July 2025 InJourney said it was studying a far higher daily number, proposed by the Magelang regent, but had not adopted one.

The same July 2025 announcement said trials were under way to balance preservation and visitor numbers. The Magelang regent and others had proposed 5,000 to 10,000 visitors a day, and the park operator was continuing studies before confirming anything. It also said Monday visits had risen to roughly 3,000 to 4,000 since the change.

On the ground the session caps are the limit you will meet: about 150 per session, eight sessions a day. Our view: assume the caps stay, book a fixed session in advance, and treat any higher figure as news until the ticket site shows more places.

What does daily climbing mean for a Borobudur sunrise tour?

Hill sunrise plus the 08:30 climb now works any day of the week. That is the shape of most sunrise tours from Yogyakarta.

Most "Borobudur sunrise" tours watch first light from Setumbu Hill, about 2 km west as the crow flies, then drive down for the first climbing session. Before July 2025 a Monday booking meant the climb was off for the general public. Now it is any day.

Read the listing, not the title. Several say "climb" and mean the 08:30 session, not a dawn climb. The hill-or-temple sunrise tour lets you choose Setumbu Hill or the temple top at booking, with entry and the climb included. The Setumbu Hill sunrise keeps the group at five and makes the temple an add-on.