Family Fun at Harris Hotel Sentul

Hello again, people! Still with staycation theme, this time I want to share hidden gem very nearby to Jakarta, Indonesia. This hotel has complete package for a fun family with toddlers/kids staycation. It is Harris Hotel Sentul.

With a modern minimalist touch, the hotel use orange color as its brand. Only one room type is available but it is very sufficient. Most room has twin bed but they can be set as double bed.  It is completed with the usual furniture such as bedside tables, TV, wardrobe, safe deposit box, fridge, working desk plus wide sofa nearby window that can be used as extra bed.

Another worth to mention facility is that the shower room and the toilet each has separated door so everyone will get their privacy even though both rooms are uses simultaneously. It’s a very time saving treats for family with toddlers such as ours.

Now moving to facilities for kids entertainment. First, the swimming pool. It is very spacious and lights decorated its surroundings at night time. It sure is kids favorite. Next, playground. It has swings, slide, see saw and climbing bars. The slide is quite high so little kids should only use it under close supervision by adult. This area is especially toddlers favorite. Another facility for toodlers is Dino Kids Club. This is a very spacious kids club, complete with slide and ball pool. A lot of children toys and huge stuffed animals also available. A very well maintained area.

Swimming Pool

Kids Playground

Dino Kids Club

More facilities for kids are hobbit house and trampoline. There are only one table and two chairs inside hobbit house but its exterior is very beautiful for photo spot. While the trampoline is designed for few kids only. It does not reduce the fun it promised though. There are sittings area also, which is very tempting on a beautiful morning and evening. There is also huge football field available nearby the playground.

Cute Hobbit House

Trampoline

Sitting Area

Moving on to facilities for older kids and even adults, ATV, archery, or fishing. Area for ATV is prety spacious, filled with trees and manmade slopes. Only paying 100k rupiah you can ride the ATV on the track twice which usually takes 15 minutes. We visited this area in the late evening and we got a bit spooky vibe so I suggest you to use this facility in the morning when the sun is shining but not too hot yet. Now to my favorite activity, archery. It costs 50k rupiah for 12 shots and I assure you that it is very addictive because you are challenged to improve your skill. While for fishing, the pond and fish are there but no one was attending it during my 3 days stay.

ATV

Archery Spot

Fishing Facility

After we cover the entertainment section, let’s move to another important matter in choosing your staycation hotel, the food. I have to applaude the chef because all the food I tasted were delicious. Breakfast variety was excellent even though mostly carbs and very limited animal protein. As for room service, by joining ASR membership, you will instantly get 15% off of the food and beverage. The food price shown in the menu already cover all taxes and it is quite reasonable such as 75k rupiah for steamed rice with roast chicken, 120k for a very delicious pizza, etc. The hotel also offer hotpot/grilled package for 125k rupiah per pax.

The Recommended Sentul Pizza

Turmeric Roast Chicken and Mochaccino

Ice Cream, Magical Tea and Oreo Milkshake

Another very important aspect is service industry is the staff hospitality and I have to say that I am impressed with the staffs here. Everybody is very helpful and nice. Great job, Harris Hotel Sentul! I sincerely plan to return because we really enjoyed our stay here.

The Lobby

Quiet Escape from the Bustling City at Century Park Hotel

It starts with a wedding invitation from my nephew in which the event starting time was very close to prayer time. Considering the venue was at Century Park Hotel Jakarta, located just across Gelora Bung Karno Station and close to multiple shopping centers, we decided to book a room.

We book the type Premium Room, 3rd type from the cheapest rate, considering that this room includes access to Anjaya Premium Lounge. We booked through tiket.com a week from our staying date, selecting non refundable rate with free breakfast for 2 adults, for IDR 1,088,000. This room takes wooden theme, from wooden flooring and wooden wall panel. The vibe was very elegant and the room is very spacious. We got a beautiful view to the baseball court and Gelora Bung Karno Stadium. All room type has bathtub but the size was a bit small and the plug wasn’t tight so it took a long time to fill the tub to the desired water depth. The bathgel was not very bubbly as well, so I didn’t quite enjoy soaking in the tub.

Premium Room

Beautiful View from the Window

The Not So Big Bathtub

As expected, the Anjaya Premium Lounge answered our expectation. Not only it was cozy and quiet, it served delicious coffee by Tanamera (Forte Blend) and they served wide variety of food on 6 to 9 pm. You can find salads, cakes, dim sum, meatballs, pastries, sandwiches, juice, infused water, etc. Very fulfilling for a light dinner. One critics is about the opening hour of this lounge which is at 2 pm while the website mentioned optiin for having breakfast there instead of 100 Eatery & Bar.

Anjaya Premium Lounge

Another facility that we didn’t try there was the swimming pool because it was weekend and we avoided being in the crowd. But here’s the swimming pool photo taken from the hotel website.

The Swimming Pool

A bit comment on the breakfast at 100 Eatery & Bar. The selections wasn’t that much and mostly on the carbohydrates side, very limited protein options. They served fried rice, pasta, potato wedges, noodle stations with meatballs, porrige, cereals, pastries and breads, mung bean porrige, black sticky rice porrige, egg station, and the hot beverages was limited to hot tea and hot black coffee with additional milk if you want a white coffee, no coffee latte or cappuccino options.

A very worth to mention perk of staying here is that Plaza Senayan is just within walking distance. It only took 10-15 minutes of strolling, a very convenient location. Another worth to explore option is the staycation special deals when booking directly through their website. They provides connecting rooms, king size bed and 2 single beds room decorated with ocean themed wallpaper, complete with teepee tent and children mini playground inside.

All in all, we really enjoy our stay here and really considering to return with our childre. Thank you for the hospitality, Century Park Hotel Jakarta =)

Fantastic Family Staycation at Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta

Hello, everyone, 1st post after 8 years without any new post! A lot has changed, I’m married now and blessed with two beautiful 6 and just turning 2 y.o. daughters. I don’t read manga anymore but I still love relaxing in hotels so this time I want to share my amazing family staycation in Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta. As you now, we’re still in pandemic situation thus health protocols enforcement in a hotel is our first filter before deciding to spend some nights there.

The main reason we chose this hotel is because we had been there in 2020 and we looove the vast swimming pool and aqua playground, and this hotel has bathtub as backup in case the swimming pool was too crowded. Health protocols prior entering the hotel premises is simply wearing mask, all adults has to check in thru pedulilindungi app, and body temperature check. Not too stringent but acceptable because the alternative hotel candidate requires antigen test of my two daughters, including the 2 y.o. one which is difficult to be done.

Pandemic surely slow hotel business so they has to be creative is packaging an offer. There were several staying package but we chose Staycation Package because it already includes breakfast for 2 adults and 2 children under 12 y.o. (children 6 to 12 y.o. normally has to pay 50% buffet rate), 30% F&B discount (dine in and in room dining), 25% laundry discount (not that we use it because it was really overpriced!), surprise kids amenities (turned out to be two plates of two cute cupcakes and two lollypops), 50% room only discount for the second room if needed (we didn’t), and free extra bed upon availability.

The Cute Surprise Kids Amenities

When we chose the Staycation Package, we could also choose the room type. We selected Horizon Deluxe Room, the 2nd rate from the most economic, because the room entitled access to Horizon Lounge for private check in and afternoon tea and evening cocktail, L’Occitane bath amenities (yeah I do love pampering myself with bathing products), and late check out up to 4 pm upon availability. The price we ended up paying for 1 night was 3.2 mil rupiah nett.

Horizon Lounge, Spacious, Fine Snacks, and Over Flowing Drinks

I specifically mentioned that we were staying to celebrate my 2 y.o. daughters birthday so the GRO staff decorated the room and surprise us with a super delicious and rich chocolate cake. I also requested pool view and high floor but our room was at 25th floor with city view, a bit let down there. But still, it was a spacious 45 sq.m room with carpeted floor. My daughters were so happy running around and rolling on the floor. Cleanliness check passed. Another minor glitch was that I had to call the reception to ask for the L’Occitane bath products since the ones prepared in the room was the basic Shangri-La products. And this happened again the next day when they cleaned and re-supplied the amenities. The hotel staffs should have automatically stocked Horizon Deluxe rooms with L’Occitane products just like they elaborates in the room descriptions. Oh, and if you’re a TV fan, just wanna warn you that the TV signal was not cleared. I didn’t bother to complain because we didn’t watch the TV but it’s another critics for improvement to the hotel.

The Decadent Rich Choco Cake

Ballons that Excites My Kiddos

Now to the kids fun time review, swimming pool and aqua playground. I’m a fan of spacious swimming pool and this hotel has that. We stayed during weekend on purpose, to reduce the risk of being in a crowded public place and we succeded since the pool felt like private, less than 5 groups were enjoting it during our swimming time. Aqua playground usually only open on weekend and public holiday, but it was also open on the last day of our stay because the day after is also public holiday. Some fun facilities in the pool are giant floats in a shape of duck, crocodile and popsicle, a football goalpost and basketball hoop with the balls.

The Spacious Pool

Aqua Playground When Closed

Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta surely go far and beyond in serving their little guests because they also offers add on for kids in room fun activities such as game console or like the one we chose, a tent package. The tent gives Indian inspired tent vibes and it came with thick comfortable blanket served and tent mat, cute animal shaped pillow, playing mat, washbasin stool, coloring book, puzzle and another set of cute cupcakes and lolypops. My daughters loooves this tent so much they even nap and slept there. Kuddos for Ms Lia, the GRO staff who set up the tent, upon seeing that I was with 2 kids, she sent another set of kids activities pack.

The Tent Got Make Over by My 6 y.o. Kid

Another Dose of Cupcakes

The Kids Activities Pack

Now moving to another facility of this hotel that unfortunately I didn’t use even though I was craving to use it, the workout room. Rows of working out equipment separate stylishly to provide extra precautions in this pandemic era is ready to use by the guests. They also provide tennis court and wellness spa. This all is available on the 4th floor.

They’re Calling Me!

Moving on to the breakfast experience. We met a very attentive staff on the 1st breakfast, Ms Septi. She was very friendly and engaging to my kiddos. She even packed some sweet treats for them before we left the Saato Restaurant upon seeing that my daughters only had cereals and nothing else. Breakfast buffet was a total feast! So many selections, chicken noodle, chicken soto, chicken porrige, nasi lemak, lontong sayur, western style breakfast, indian cuisine corner, vast selections of breads, ice creams, sliced fruits, cereal bars, sushi, you name it! One improvement though, the restaurant was practically empty but the staff tended to seat the guests on one certain area. The original settings was 1 table for 2 guests, but a family of 4 will gather at the same table and if more than 1 family of 4 ate at the same time, the minimum 1.5 m distance between guests was not maintained since the distance between table was close, just like before pandemic.

I have to emphasize about Horizon Lounge at 23rd floor. It’s a very cozy area and you can ask for any kind of basic beverage like coffee latte, cappuccino, chocolate, tea, soft drinks, fruit juice, as well as mineral water. You can opt to have more private breakfast here but with less selections. The afternoon snacks starts at 2 pm and I recommend the scone! They are reaaaalllyyy delicious.

Another key to our very satisfying experience staying at Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta is the hospitality of the staff. Even when I was calling to ask about the health protocols prior to make a reservation, the receptionist at the lobby, the receptionists at Horizon Lounge, the concierge staff, life guard, ALL the staff we met were very nice helpful. Thank you Shangri-La Hotel Jakarta, hope to return for another staycation here =)