Puncak Tour
With a magnificent landscape, a stunning Safari Park, a fertile soil, beautiful gardens, and a climate seven to ten degrees colder than the Capital Jakarta, Puncak highland has been known as a favorite destination for centuries. Puncak is the best, closest highland for Jakarta’s officials, expats, tourists, and inhabitants to breathe in fresh air while sightseeing. The highland is a must destination if you are staying in Jakarta.
Need a car with an experienced driver for sightseeing in Puncak? Contact us via WhatsApp: +6285226126069 or email: suwarnaadi@gmail.com. Our driver will pick you up from your location or hotel with a comfortable car on your own schedule. If you still want to know more about Puncak highland, read below guide to uncover Puncak.
Where is Puncak?
Puncak means “peak”, is the highest land on the slope of Mount Gede Pangrango. The highland connects Bogor and Bandung. The highest level is Puncak Pass area with an elevation about 1,500m. This place is located about 85 KM south of Jakarta city and takes about 2 upto 2,5 hours driving from Central Jakarta on weekday.
Puncak is a popular excursion area for Jakarta’s people. Every weekend, there are many tourist from Jakarta spending their weekend on this highland area. That is why Puncak is best visited on weekday. You can visit Puncak easily from Jakarta. If you don’t have car, you can take a bus or hire us to take you there. You can contact us to arrange this Puncak tour. After we made an arrangement, our driver will pick you up from your location in Jakarta, Bogor, or Bekasi.
How to Reach Puncak
The closest International airport to Puncak are Soekarno–Hatta International Airport Jakarta (CGK) and Husein Sastranegara Airport Bandung (BDO). Start from Jakarta is more convenient than Bandung because there are toll roads from airport Jakarta until Ciawi: airport toll & Jagorawi toll road.
The Jagorawi Toll Road connects the capital city of Jakarta to Bogor city and Ciawi. It is why the name is Jagorawi, the short for Jakarta – Bogor – Ciawi. Ciawi is the closest area to reach Puncak from the toll road. From Ciawi exit toll, the road becomes narrow and hilly. The road is lined with many restaurants, convenient stores, vegetables stalls, food stalls, hotels, petrol stations, etc.
Go With Us
If you have made arrangement with us, our experienced driver will pick you up from your location (whether it is your hotel, apartment, home, airport, or train station) using a comfortable car.
Start early morning after you have your breakfast is better to save time. Time to pick up and the address of your pick up point or hotel in Jakarta or Bogor should be informed a day before.
It is better to start from the location you are staying at in Jakarta city, not from Jakarta International Airport, because the airport is located outside of Jakarta and it would be takes time to wait for the passport and luggages checking; and takes time to drive from airport, except if your arrival is in the early morning or you want to stay in Puncak for few days.
How many days you’ll spend in Puncak highland? One day or few days?
One Day Tour in Puncak
If you have only one day free time and want to visit highland with beautiful scenery from Jakarta, the only good choice is Puncak. Spending two days is better if you have time. One day tour to Puncak is best to be done on weekday, because traffic is very busy on weekend (Saturday-Sunday) and holiday. Thus, there is one way system every weekend and holiday.
Not many places can be visited in a day tour on weekend/holiday. In a day trip from Jakarta or Bogor city, you can visit few most important places for you. Recommended places you can visit can be read in the next chapter below: Where to Go in Puncak?
Places to visit is actually flexible, depend on your interests and time permits. You can also combining you Puncak trip with tour in Bogor by visiting Bogor Botanic Garden first before going to Puncak.
One Way Traffic System
Puncak is a popular getaway destination for Jakarta people. There are many people visiting Puncak especially on weekend, causing bad traffic along Puncak road. That’s why every weekend and national holiday, local police enforce one way rule to manage the heavy traffic. Here is the schedule of the rule. Please note that sometimes the schedule is applied at different time depend on traffic condition. The system is not applicable for motorcycle.
Saturday
- 09:00 – 11:30 AM, One Way Up from Ciawi exit toll gate until Puncak Pass. It means, cars/vehicles from Puncak Pass going down to Jakarta or Ciawi toll would be blocked. Cars need to wait until One Way Up is finished or find an alternative route.
- 11:30 AM – 03:00 PM, Two Way.
- 03:00 – 05:00 PM, One Way Down from Puncak Pass to Ciawi entrance toll gate.
Sunday
- 09:00 – 11:00 AM, One Way Up from Ciawi exit toll gate until Puncak Pass.
- 11:00 AM – 03:00 PM, Two Way.
- 03:00 – 06:00 PM, One Way Down from Puncak Pass to Ciawi entrance toll gate.
Local police also place the odd-even car plate number policy every weekend and national holiday.
Few Days Tour
You have much more flexibility if you spend few days in Puncak. By spending more than one day in the highland, you can visit much more beautiful tourist attractions. Don’t worry about accommodation because there are some nice hotels and villas located on the hills area.
Hungry? There are many restaurants selling food with yummy taste that you must try. There are many choices for food: Indonesian food, Dutch food, Arabian food, etc.
Things to Do in Puncak
Below are the top attractions in Puncak.
Tea Walking or Horseback Riding in Gunung Mas Tea Plantation
Puncak is famous for its tea plantation. The tea hills are wide-spreaded along the area. Here you can visit Gunung Mas tea plantation, where you can walk through the plantation or ride horse for further and easier trip around the garden.
Paragliding - Fly to See the Beautiful Panoramic View of Puncak Highland
Going further by car after exiting Gunung Mas, you will see beautiful scenery of tea gardens and hills on the left and right of the main road. On the highest level, you will reach Puncak Pass. It is the highest place cars can reach and can be parked. You can take few photos here. If you brave enough, you can ask the driver to take you to Paragliding hill and jump from the hill with altitude about 1345m only using a parachute.
Taman Safari - Get an Awesome Experience by Feeding Animals at the Safari Park
Before reaching Taman Safari, our driver will suggest you to purchase some carrots and bananas. You will see lots of stalls selling carrots before entering the park. With the carrots in hand, you can feed some animals while driving through the park. The animals are aggressive enough. They will come to your car window and asking for carrots or bananas. But not all animals can be fed. When entering the wild animals area, you must put up your window. Our driver will warn you about it.
Cibodas Botanical Gardens, A Wonderful Place to Relax
Breathe fresh air in the 85 hectares botanical garden located on the slopes of Mount Gede. See the green scenery, tall trees, Rhododendron flowers, Sakura garden, beautiful river, moss garden, cactus collection, the giant flower Amorphophallus titanum, water banana, and many more.
It is also a nice place for you to do exercise, riding horse, picnic with families, or just relax and read your favorite book under the trees near the big pond in the middle of the garden.
Little Venice, the Miniature of Italian Venice
Cheerful Your Day by Visiting Taman Bunga Nusantara
Standing on an area of 35 hectare, there are hundreds of plant and flower varieties nicely styled in its own theme. It is Nusantara Flowers Garden. Nusantara means nationwide. But don’t assume that all flowers brought to the garden are from inside Indonesia. They are from all over the world!
Hike to Reach Cilember 7 Waterfalls
Curug 7 Cilember has seven waterfalls located on different elevations. The most visited waterfalls are waterfall 7, 6 and 5 because they are easily accessible from the entrance. The unique thing from this waterfall is: the smaller the number of the waterfall, the higher and harder the location to be reached. There are no easy access to reach waterfall 4, 3, 2, and 1.
Masjid Atta’awun
Atta’awun mosque is a big & beautiful mosque located in the middle of the hills. Not only has function as a worship place, this mosque is also popular by many tourists as a place to take a rest for a while while traveling around Puncak. The mosque was built in cooperation between Gunung Mas tea plantation company and local people. The name “Atta’awun” was derived from Arabic word which means mutual cooperation. The architecture of the mosque is very unique. The shape doesn’t look like a typical mosque but rather giant mushrooms. The building is surrounded by beautiful gardens with a small river flow.
Kota Bunga Villa Estate
Kota Bunga is a Villa Estate area built on an area of approximately 125 hectares, surrounded by mountains and hills. In the estate area, there are about 2500 houses built in thematic design. In the estate, there are some facilities for visitors and residents, such as swimming pool, factory outlet, Little Venice, mosque, atv rent, etc. There are many types of villas for rent: Cartoon, Osaka, Denhaag, Bangkok, etc. Shown in the photo is Cartoon type Villa.
Lake Telaga Warna
It is a small lake located in the middle of forest near tea plantation. The color of the water normally has moss green color. But sometimes the color is gradually changing. The atmosphere is quite peaceful. Visitors can enjoy the surrounds by taking a small raft. People can also find some wild monkeys around the lake.
Recommended Hotels in Puncak
1. Novus Giri Resort & Spa
The hotel located in Cipanas area with beautiful green scenery and is completed with good facilities. It is a good hotel for relax and enjoying a quality time with your beloved one or your family. Facilities people like are: Bamboo Restaurant, beautiful rabbits in the rabbit farm, horse riding, and spa.
2. Taman Safari Lodge
You can opt to stay in a hotel room, Caravan, or Tree House Bungalow. Caravan and Tree House will give you the best experience, especially if you stay with your children. If you stay here, you can get a discounted price for entering Taman Safari park. If you stay here, it is advisable to bring your own car, or rent a car from us, because there is no taxi here. The location is also little bit far from entrance depend on your room location.
3. Jimmers Mountain Resort
Jimmers Mountain Resort is an ideal hotel for you who want to get a beautiful mountain view right from your room. It has a very big swimming pool. Sadly, it is not close to the main route and has a narrow access.
4. Pesona Alam Resort & Spa
This hotel is located about 5 minutes driving before Taman Safari’s entrance gate. It has great mountain view, beautiful swimming pool, and nice outdoor pine forest meeting area. Guests can choose to stay in a room or villa. For great flexibility, if you come with your big family, I recommend you to stay in a villa. It has few rooms in one Villa, just like a home. You will feel stay at home here. Unlike other hotels, the earliest time to book a room in this hotel is 2 months before your arrival. So you cannot book the room you want if your arrival or check-in time is more than two months.
5. Villa Puncak by Plataran
Escape yourself from busy activities in your city by staying at a private villas for relaxing and recharging your energy. The villas are located in the middle of beautiful garden with river view. They have spacious room and big living room. It is great for family getaway.
6. Puncak Pass Resort
It is the first hotel in Puncak and located on Puncak Pass. This Dutch heritage hotel was established in 1928. The resort provide Dutch atmosphere building and Dutch dishes since colonial period. And off course they also provide Indonesian food.
7. Le Eminence Hotel Convention & Resort
A new & modern hotel with breathtaking view of mountain, rice field, and river. You can enjoy the sound of river behind the hotel. You can also trekking on the rice field. They have good facilities such as spacious room, roof top cafe, archery, gym, swimming pool, kidzone, spa, flying fox, etc.
8. Royal Safari Garden
Royal Safari Garden is a fun hotel for family. Mostly, children would like to stay here because there are many displays of living animals and activities for family like Bird Park, Rabbit playground, Elephant rides, camel rides, and many more. Normally you will get special discount voucher or cash back to visit Taman Safari Park if you stay here.
9. Seruni Hotel
The hotel is built in Balinese, Javanese and European style. The lobby, the dining room, and the corridors are all decorated with golden Balinese carvings. They have sculptures at almost every corner of the hotel. This hotel is also equipped with complete facilities like gym, swimming pools, spa, and restaurants. The hotel is very big, but the road to access the hotel is narrow, bumpy, and located in a small village.
10. The Grand Hill Hotel
Located at an uphill beside the main road of Puncak, the hotel is traditionally designed with Javanese and Balinese influence. It provides 89 luxury guests rooms, 6 villas with private pools, and 5 function rooms. The hotel has two nice restaurants: The Grand Hill Bistro-Café which provide international food, and Kupu-Kupu restaurant which provide an authentic Indonesian cuisine.
11. The Botanica Sanctuary
Botanica Sanctuary is a new 5 star hotel located near Taman Safari. It gains popularity since its opening in the late 2021. Why? Because the view is stunning, the hotel in clean, the food is good, and it is kids friendly.
Recommended Restaurants in Puncak
1. Bumi Aki
Bumi Aki is a famous restaurant. The line is always long every weekend. No wonder, because their Indonesian & Sundanese foods are delicious. Fried gurame fish, nasi goreng kampung, tumis genjer, chicken satay, and fried baby fish are recommended to be tried. Their mountain & vegetable farm views are also beautiful.
2. Puncak Pass Resort Restaurant
This restaurant is located at Puncak Pass Resort. As a Dutch Heritage resort, they serve Indonesian and Dutch cuisine like Poffertjes, Beef Croqutte, Bitter Ballen, Pannekoek, oxtail soup, hot bandrek (ginger tea), etc. This restaurant is well designed in a simple and natural concept. It is a nice outdoor restaurant, equipped with wood furniture, and has beautiful green hills view.
3. Rindu Alam Restaurant (Now Closed)
Established since 1980, Rindu Alam is a legendary Indonesian restaurant situated at Puncak Pass, with an elevation of 1,445M. This restaurant offers a dining experience with breathtaking tea hill scenery. Rindu Alam serves a variety of Indonesian & Sundanese food. Popular foods from this restaurant are: Nasi Goreng Dadar Gulung (Omelette Fried Rice), Ikan mas kecil cabe hijau (fried baby fish with green chili), grilled goat, satay, Gurame fish, petai bean, and Campur Sari (mixed food, consist of anchovy, green chili, chicken, duck eggs, and fried shrimp).
Rindu Alam restaurant is now closed permanently
Rindu Alam restaurant was built on a land owned by West Java government. There was a land lease agreement between the restautant and government. The agreement has expired since January 20th, 2020 but has not been extended.
4. Kupu-Kupu Restaurant
Kupu-kupu offering authentic Indonesian cuisine. Their favorite dishes are oxtail soup, Balinese sate lilit, grilled banana topped with cheese, soto Betawi, es campur, etc.
Kupu-kupu restaurant is located at The Grand Hill Resort, at a high elevation on the side of Puncak Road. From the restaurant, you can see the current traffic condition on the road. At the resort, you can also find another recommended restaurant selling international food, named The Grand Hill Bistro and Cafe.
5. Cimory Riverside
Cimory stands for Cisarua Mountain Dairy. Firstly made, Cimory was a company that produce dairy products and got milk from local farmers. The company produce yogurt and fresh milk. Due to its products popularity, the company growing fast and now has two restaurants in Puncak area: Cimory Mountain View and Cimory Riverside. Both of them are popular restaurants, but the Riverside is most popular because it is bigger and has more facility/shop like 3D museum, petting zoo (forest walk), aquarium, batik shop, chocolate shop, and snack shop.
Other recommended restaurants are Bumi Nini, Grand Hill Bistro, Nichole’s Kitchen, Bebek Tepi Sawah @ Le Eminence Hotel, The Lake House @ Pesona Alam Resort, Bavarian Haus Bratwurst & Grill (German Food), and Roofpark Cafe.
Recommended Authentic Food & Beverages in Puncak
Puncak is part of West Java province which their authentic food is called Sundanese food. In Puncak, you will find not only Sundanese food, but also Indonesian food and legendary Dutch food. Here are some recommended food and beverages.
Gemblong
Gemblong is a traditional snack made of glutinous rice flour mixed with shredded coconut and coconut milk, then fried and coated with brown palm sugar. So the taste is sweet. Gemblongs are usually sold by many peddlers in front of popular restaurants, at tourism places, and on Puncak road. It is easily distinguished by its blue container which texted Gemblong. The most popular Gemblong is labelled Gemblong Bu Juju, means Gemblong by Madam Juju.
Bajigur
Bajigur is a traditional beverage from West Java. It is a hot beverage consist of coconut milk and brown sugar with additional ingredients like ginger, young coconut slices, and salt.
There is another hot beverage similar to Bajigur, named Bandrek. Bandrek’s main ingredients are ginger and palm sugar, without coconut milk added. That’s why it is hotter than Bajigur. People usually drink it to warm their body at highland.
Sate (Satay)
Satay is a grilled meat dish originated in Indonesia. It composed from few slices of meat skewered on a bamboo skewer. Satay may consists of chicken, beef, rabbit, goat, or other meats. The skewers of meat are grilled on hot charcoal fire.
In Puncak, chicken and goat satay are very popular. One porsion of satay may consists of 10 pieces of satay, prepared with peanut sauce and ketchup. Few popular restaurants selling satay are Bumi Aki, Pusat Sate Kiloan (PSK), and Sate Haji Kadir.
Sop Buntut (Oxtail Soup)
Oxtail soup is a soup made with beef tails as its main ingredient. Other ingredients are carrot, potatoes, onion, cloves, cinnamon, etc.
Karedok
Karedok is an authentic raw vegetable salad from West Java (Sundanese). It is a dish with raw vegetables and peanut sauce as its main composition. It includes cucumber, cabbage, small round eggplant, bean sprouts, carrots, and basil leaves. The dish is similar to Gado-gado from Jakarta. The Gado-gado is also a salad, but the vegetables are boiled, while Karedok’s vegetables are raw.
Karedok is dressed with sauce made of peanuts, chillies, brown sugar, water, and other ingredients.
Bubur Ayam Cianjur (Cianjur Chicken Porridge)
Bubur Ayam Cianjur is a chicken porridge originated from Cianjur regency, West java. As you might know, Puncak area is a highland spread between Bogor and Cianjur Regency. The Cianjur chicken porridge sellers can be found easily along Puncak Pass road every morning. People like to eat porridge as their breakfast. It is a fast and easy way to have breakfast in the morning.
Drink and Taste Different Types of Tea
Black tea
White tea
Green tea
Jasmine tea
Puncak is famous for its tea plantation. Most of tea products are exported to other countries, but you can still taste some hot tea drinks in Puncak. There are few different types of tea you can taste. They are black tea, green tea, jasmine tea, and white tea. Black tea is believed to boost energy level because it has more caffeine than other type of tea. White and green tea is believed to be the best tea for health immunity. And the most expensive tea among them is white tea, because it is made of the only top buds of tea plant (camellia sinensis).