Location: Jakarta
Top Things to do in Jakarta
Top 10 Things to do in Jakarta, Indonesia
Chaotic, crowded, and cosmopolitan, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is a city of contrasts. Home to millions of people from around the world, the city is a mixture of languages and cultures, poverty and wealth. The city boasts some of the best nightlife in Asia and some of the worst traffic. Every holiday, the locals escape the pollution and the crowds to enjoy relaxing diversions like Ancol Dreamland, an amusement area featuring water parks, beaches, golf courses, and a SeaWorld.
Restaurants in Jakarta
1. Istiqlal Mosque
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2 reviews
Indonesia's largest mosque is a sacred place of worship as well as a center for conferences, lectures and seminars.
Reviewed By Hüseyin Y
This mosque is one of the symbols of Indonesia and Jakarta. Istiqlal Mosque as a symbol of religious tolerance which characterizes Indonesia. It's a pretty big mosque. Located in Jakarta, next to Merdaka Square and the Jakarta Cathedral, Masjid Istiqlal (Istiqlal or Independence Mosque) is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia and has the highest capacity with around 120k worshippers.It was built to commemorate Indonesian independence. The mosque was opened in 1978. It has a different structure than the classical mosque architecture. The mosque has a large rectangular prayer hall with a 45 meter diameter dome supported by 12 round columns, and has 4 levels of balconies. Its interior is mostly simple. The mosque was designed by Frederich Silaban, a Christian architect from North Sumatra.
2. Grand Indonesia Mall
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2 reviews
Reviewed By mi3travels - Manila, Philippines
Hubby and I came here for a quick lunch upon the recommendation of a local because of the gastronomic variety (compared to other malls). True enough, Grand Indonesia houses many choices, suiting almost every type of appetite and also retail therapy (except for luxurious brands), and personal care services. Easy to navigate within the mall with helpful interactive maps.
The Saturday crowd was not too heavy that day but we couldn't get seats at the recommened resto even at 2pm.
Arrived here via Uber, which was easily located. Queue for regular taxi stands needed a waiting time of at least 20 mins. So in case in a hurry and need to book Uber or other similar app-based transit, do remember that free wifi is on a store-to-store basis and only provided passwords for paying customers (vs window shoppers)
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1 reviews
4. Senayan City
Overall Ratings
4 based on 221 reviews
Senayan City Shopping Mall is a five-star shopping mall with its target market of upper-class society and known as "The World Class Shopping Destination. Strategically located in Senayan area, one of Senayan City strengths are a balanced tenancy mix and equipped with a world class tenants such as GUCCI, Salvatore Ferragamo, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent Paris, TODS Furla, etc. Facilities that Senayan City’s provided are shuttle bus, bicycle parking, ladies parking, valet parking, kids toilet, baby stroller, deposit room, wheel chair, disabled restroom, executive musholla, nursery room, drivers room, first aid clinic, customer relations service, customer care hotline, doorman, free wi-fi, etc
Reviewed By OpaQ - Las Vegas, Nevada
Huge and fancy mall with many high-end stores and many restaurants to choose from. Located in the busy Senayan area, across Plaza Senayan, near Sate Taichan Street Food Stalls (evening) and Mulia Hotel.
5. Museum Bank Indonesia
Overall Ratings
4 based on 775 reviews
Once the first banks of Indonesia, now a museum of banking in Indonesia.
Reviewed By Jarko2015 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
There are two bank museums in Jakarta, sitting right next door to each other. Ironically, as it's half the entrance fee of the other, the Museum Bank is the more interesting. It costs IR5000 to visit, which is only about US$0.35! It won't take you long to browse around the impressive building, but it is a bit labyrinthine in its layout. There's interesting stained glass and in the former vaults, there are darkened rooms with collections of notes and coins from all over the world. The museum is definitely more skewed to world banking and international currency than anything local. It's closed on Mondays and Friday has limited hours due to prayers and is thus not open for part of the day.
6. Central Park
Overall Ratings
4 based on 348 reviews
Reviewed By santo t - Auckland, New Zealand
Big Mall with plenty of stuff, shops, food outlets, all with middle class to high qualities. Really big mall and combined with Pullman Hotel. Anyway it is a mall for branded qualities shop lovers. We visited here for dinner at Riung Sunda, nice dinner. One of the cons probably was the traffic jam in front or nearby area is heavy and really congested mainly at busy rush hours.
7. Pacific Place
Overall Ratings
4 based on 216 reviews
Reviewed By Mazmannan - Basingstoke, United Kingdom
Pacific Place Mall is an incredibly large shopping centre – tall and elegant. It has been described as a top ten shopping mall in Asia. It is located in the Sudirman Central Business District. It was opened about ten years ago.As you enter the mall, you will be amazed by the spacious glass domed lobby.
The mall has a lot of boutique shops as well as the well known designer brand shops like Louis Vuitton, Bulgari and Hermes. Galleries Lafayette- the famous French departmental store has a shop here. I would say that the mall is quite a luxurious place to do your shopping.
Pacific Place also has a hotel – the Ritz Carlton.
There are many different restaurants on the higher floors with cuisines to cater for all tastes. Each one looks so good that it makes you want to eat there. There is also a restaurant that has tables on a boat.
There is a bookshop, a museum about America and a cinema complex.
For children, there is Kidzania. This is where children get the chance to play the role of an adult across all sorts of occupations like doctor, nurse, fireman, chef, cabin crew. The children also get to learn about earning money and banking their money and using bank facilities like cash machines.
You could spend a whole day and still feel that you have not seen everything.
8. Pondok Indah Mall
Overall Ratings
4 based on 186 reviews
Reviewed By DjangoDjango - Cologne, Germany
Clean and spatious mall in South Jakarta.
I never had the feeling that it was too crowded.
Great for all ages.
Most of the stores are middle class with a few high end stores aswell.
Local and international brands.
They also had a "theme park" with arcade games for all ages.
Great food courts with delicious food.
Very recommendable if you like malls.
9. Galeri Nasional Indonesia
Overall Ratings
4 based on 113 reviews
Reviewed By Bryan H - Portland, Oregon
O.K., let me get my complaints out of the way. The museum is open for a couple hours, and then they close for lunch for at least a hour?!? (But not the whole museum, just the permanent collection?!?) Unfortunately, after viewing the interesting temporary exhibition by women artists in response to Buddhism and Borobudur, we made it to the permanent building at ten till noon, and they were already closed. That left us to find something to do for 70 minutes. Once we came back at 1:00 p.m., the staff lectured us about all the rules of the museum. What I found ironic is that the contemporary Exhibitions were all about the oppression of Indonesian society and its rules, and the museum staff were mindlessly complying to the culture.
O.K., now that I've gotten off my chest, the contemporary Exhibitions are excellent, and I would urge you to start with those while you're still fresh and not saturated. Some of the video technology that explains the art is a little funky (it doesn't work), but I was just going for the basics this time around, and didn't need a deep level of detail. I found the most moving piece to be a video art piece found in this section of the exhibition. I will will remember that piece of the rest of my life.
The modern rooms I found less compelling -- although there is a diverse group of work there, and there should be something for everyone to enjoy.
Is this museum worth it?!? Certainly! And it's free! (The first Indonesian museum I've been to that had free admission, I think.)
10. Plaza Senayan
Overall Ratings
4 based on 182 reviews
Reviewed By Lian Tiong G - Subang Jaya, Malaysia
A huge shopping mall with high end stores. Clean and well maintained. Few choices of cafes and restaurants available within. Had siow lung pau, taufu and fried rice at Din Tai Fong and tapau some nonya kueh for desserts.
