A day in Jakarta

[USGrant1962]

We're laying over in Jakarta for a day and a half on our Indonesian scuba diving trip starting in a week. We land early in the morning after a double-redeye flight (leave Sunday evening and land 24 hours later on Tuesday morning). Then we have that day and the whole next day (Wednesday) to explore. We're staying at a hotel near the airport because our flight out to Borneo is at zero-dark-thirty on the third day (actually at 05:10 on Thursday). Does anyone have a good one day itinerary to get a flavor of the city/country before we move on to Borneo and Bali?

 

[street]

Wow! Nothing I can help you with but just wanted to say that is a lot of time in the air. Sounds like a great trip and hope you enjoy every minute.

 

[audreyh1]

Man, I would be sleeping!

 

[USGrant1962]

Man, I would be sleeping!

Both red-eyes are in business class. It was pretty cheap at ~$3K. But yea, we'll be tired. Probably won't do much on Tuesday, but we do have all day Weds to explore.

 

[brett]

IF you google 'one (or a) day in Jakarta you will come up with ten or more different day trip suggestions.

We often do this for a city even when spending a few days just to see if we are missing anything.

 

[USGrant1962]

Yea, we've done that. Just looking for first person experiences from all the above average people here!

 

[latexman]

Are you at the Airport Hilton? IIRC, this was 30 years ago, they use to have a small band of local musicians play in the evenings for a few hours. After a hard, hot day, I’d have a drink at the bar and listen to the live local music. It was wonderful!

 

[audreyh1]

My sister who has occasionally been based in Jakarta complained bitterly about pollution last time they were there. It’s been a while but that can mean it’s even worse!

 

[fosterscik]

Been there, done that. We used the uber-like service (www.grab.com) to get downtown and stayed in town (it's a quite long toll road drive to the city center. We stayed at the hotel borobudur (which was really nice). We walked from there to the Monas national monument saw the exhibits in the basement and rode up the elevator for the city view. OK, but the grounds were more interesting (and it was really hot). We mostly just walked around. Great Indian meal nearby (but unfortunately can't remember the name).
Grab works really well and is cheap. The drivers asked for cash for the toll roads (so get some at an airport ATM). Probably 75% of the drivers spoke good English.

 

[fosterscik]

My sister who has occasionally been based in Jakarta complained bitterly about pollution last time they were there. It’s been a while but that can mean it’s even worse!

We found it pretty clean (last year). Way better than Bangkok

 

[fosterscik]

After looking at an old spreadsheet I see that the restaurant was Imperial Spice Indian Fusion (Imperial Spice (@imperialspice.id) • Instagram photos and videos). It's located on the ground floor of an apartment building in a very residential area. I was sure we'd made a mistake as we walked up and entered, but the food was spectacular and well worth the effort to find.

 

[USGrant1962]

So we booked a private guide that has good reviews. Says she is flexible, so we will work with her to customize the day. I'll let you know how it goes.

We ended up using two guide sites for research on private tours (not interested in bus tours):

https://www.getyourguide.com/

GoWithGuide - Private Tours & Local Tour Guides

Find your perfect tour guide at GoWithGuide. Relax and cherish unforgettable tours with loved ones. Create personalized tours for a truly memorable trip!

gowithguide.com

For the day with hotel pickup/dropoff, the guide, and driver it is $160 for the group (2 in this case but if you have a family or companions it is the same price). The one we picked was on GoWithGuide, but both sites had lots of options at similar prices. We are staying near the airport for our zero-dark-thirty flight to Borneo so our tour is a little more expensive than downtown pickup.

Regarding private guides, we had one in Cairo/Giza when we visited Egypt last year for four of us at Egypt Day Tours From Cairo | Egypt Tailor Made. That one was $80 per day per person for an Egyptologist guide, driver, and car. It was a huge value.

For what you pay in American dollars it is totally worth it to go with private guides in poorer countries including Jakarta.