Tips To Move Around in Jakarta

This posting is meant to guide travelers who visit Jakarta. Once you had landed at the Sukarno-Hatta Airport, you have two basic choices to the city either by bus or taxi. If you choose a taxi, please choose the registered taxi like Blue Bird. This taxi has a meter or fixed fare. The normal fare from the airport is around 200,000 rupiah. However, if you choose a bus, you take DAMRI bus, a blue striped with silver background in color, you pay around 30,000 rupiah (at the booth or on the bus). DAMRI bus goes to many city destinations such as Gambir Railway Station and Blok M. The bus moves every 15-20 minutes. This bus has a fee wifi. If you have many luggage, it is better to take a taxi.

Most tourists will take DAMRI bus to Gambir station and from Gambir, they took blue bird taxis to the hotels. The fare is around 20,000 rupiah.

It is better to stay in central Jakarta hotels if you want to move around for site visits, shopping and relaxing. Choose good hotels according to your budget. I suggest you find budget hotels around Jalan Thamrin/Sudirman as it is very easy and convenient to move around. 

Staying around Jalan Thamrin, you are closer to interesting places such as Istiqlal Mosque (the biggest mosque), Monumen Nasional, Kota (old Batavia), Pasar Tanah Abang (shopping), Plaza Indonesia and Grand Indonesia (big shopping complexes catering for rich people) etc.

Note that places of interest such as Monas open at 8.00am and close at 3.00pm. Entrance is Rp5,000/person and going up to the top, you pay another Rp10,000 (to view Jakarta from the top). It is better to go early as the queue is long if you want to go to the top.

Menara '46, along Jalan Sudirman.

Monumen Nasional (Monas)

Tanah Abang Multi Storey Shopping Complex. It has many shopping floors (bags, clothes, batik, food court, banks etc)

Kota (old Batavia). It is now being conserved  by the government

One of the activities at Kota. Man in grey has attracted many visitors here.

For halal food, you may go to food court in many shopping complexes. The price may a bit more than the road side stalls. You may go to good restaurants such as Selero Jumbo which serves nasi padang, which is near Sarinah Mall. 

For Muslim travelers, as far as food is concerned, you have many choices. I suggest you go to food court. The food court in Grand Indonesia has food from various part of the world (western and eastern food). Food court  at Pasar Tanah Abang serves many Indonesian delicacy.

Restaurant Selero Jumbo at Jalan Timur, near Sarinah Mall offers Nasi Padang.

Food Court at Grand Indonesia, offering many western and eastern dishes including fast foot outlet like pizza, KFC etc.

The famous Indonesia gado-gado. Cost around 20,000 rupiah at food court .

For internal transport, you can take TransJakarta bus which has many lines (13 lines). If you stay along Jalan Thamrin, you can take Line 1. It starts from Kota to Blok M (vice versa) with a flat fare of 3500 rupiah. If you want to go to Monas, take tranjakarta bus and stop at Monas station and walk a little to Monas. You may also take commuter train to go to Bogor or Tanah Abang. The fare is reasonable.

The TransJakarta Bus. The bus runs on tyres and wheels and has dedicated lane to it. However, the bus has to stop at  traffic light junctions.

Happy travelling.