Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Ancol Park (Taman Impian Jaya Ancol)

In 1962, the government of Indonesia built a huge recreational park that today is called Taman Impian Jaya Ancol. It is located on the bay between Sunda Kelapa Port and Tanjung Priok. This park consists of night clubs, fitness centre, watersports, hotels, restaurants, parks, cafes and art market.
The art market is an exhibition of crafts, and various shops with side ways walk cafes, and life music shows on Sunday and Saturday nights. There are 2 aquariums, the sea world with it's walking tunnel through, various parks and sea life. Gelanggang Samudra is an aquarium with boat ride and dolphin shows. The Gelangang Renang is a swimming pool complex consists of wave pool and slide pool.

Another spectacular place at Ancol is the Dunia Fantasi (Fantasy World) a fun park with theme and very good for children. Children can see some mini world themes such as Asia, Europe, and others.

For swimming recreation in Jakarta Ancol is not the best one. Pulau Seribu or Thousand Islands with it's clear water is the best choice for water recreation. Beside, they have bungalows and many watersports. From Jakarta's Marina at Ancol a boat can be hired to reach the thousand island resort.

As a recreational place of Jakarta, Ancol has an international chain hotel; Mercure Convention Center which was initially managed by Radisson, and couple of local managed hotels such as Grand Ancol Hotel, and Putri Duyung Cottages.

For ones who wish to stay outside of the Ancol park, there are many International and local chain hotels near to the park, such as Ibis Mangga Dua Hotel, Novotel Mangga Dua Hotel, Le Grandeur Hotel (previously: Dusit Mangga Dua Hotel), Sheraton Media Hotel & Towers, Golden Boutique Hotel, Alila Pecenongan, Swiss-Bell Hotel, Red Top Hotel, etc.