Originally Posted by
freyjamanfrin
My husband and I were thinking of Jakarta as our next destination. We have been searching information about the city prior to booking. I discovered through Westhill Consulting Travel & Tours that Singapore that the city was one of the must-tries. And I thought I could make use of some tips and advices from those who had first hand experiences. So my first concern is and mostly what I wanted to know is, what part of Jakarta is the best place to visit?
Firstly, if you both like casual strolls, Jakarta is a terrible city for that. The CBD - roughly from where MONAS (the national monument) meets Jalan Thamrin (Thamrin Road) up to the Le Meridien hotel on Jalan Sudirman (Thamrin becomes Sudirman as you go further south) - is somewhat walkable, though still not too pleasant. Thamrin is one of the expat hubs, where you can find a few malls (though they are EVERYWHERE in Jakarta), decent hotels and many local and foreign eating options. In other words, if the city is getting too much under your skin, this would be one area of modest refuge.
As for attractions, what are you two interested in seeing/doing? The national museum is right across from MONAS and its observation deck. In northern Jakarta, Fatahillah is a plaza filled with buskers and is very close to a few museums. Theoretically, Fatahillah and Thamrin aren't too far apart, but traffic - and its accompanying pollution - is
luar biasa, or extraordinary.
What else would you like to do?