Taman Safari (Safari Park) Tour
About Taman Safari
Taman Safari Indonesia is a wildlife park built in 1982 at Cisarua district, Bogor. The park is situated in a wild forest and ex unused tea plantation on the slope of Mount Gede-Pangrango. It covers an area of 170 hectares. It is the first wildlife conservation park in Indonesia and one of the best safari parks in the world. In the park, you will see thousands animals from all over the world live in their habitat. Most of the animals are live freely outside the cage. At the park, you will also get an amazing experience by feeding animals from inside your car while driving thru. Mostly they were not shy to come to you and look for a carrot. Even, some animals like zebra, deer, and giant eland will aggressively look for some carrots by inserting their head into the car window.
History of Taman Safari in A Timeline
Battle of Shanghai
Hadi Manansang (Tjoa Kim Hian) was an acrobatic performer from Shanghai. He is the only one survivor when his family in Shanghai became victims during Battle of Shanghai (China vs Japan) and World War II. He then worked for Harmston’s Circus British and took a world tour, performing circus in many countries including South East Asia countries. When in Indonesia he married an Indonesian girl named Tuti and lived in Jakarta.
1937-1945Acrobatic Group
Hadi established an acrobatic group named Bintang Akrobat dan Gadis Plastik (Acrobatic Star and Plastic Girl). He trained kids including his three sons to be the best acrobatic performers. They are: Jansen Manansang, Frans Manansang, and Tony Sumampau.
1963-1964Oriental Show
Hadi established Oriental Show, the first oriental circus troop perform inside circus tent in Indonesia. His mission was to entertain the public and soldiers who faced an unstable security situation caused by communist rebellion in Indonesia. His dream was to be the best circus in the world.
Acrobatic, plastic girl, and traditional somersault were their leading program.
1967Oriental Circus Indonesia
The show started involving animals. That’s why the name of the Oriental Show was changed to Oriental Circus Indonesia. Animals involved were Sumatran tiger, Thailand elephants, and chimpanzees.
Their animals attractions, clowns, and acrobatic performance attracted a lot of people attention.
1972SARI ASIH INN WAS ESTABLISHED
The inn also provided small zoo. The inn is the pioneer of the starred hotel named Royal Safari Garden Resort.
1979ELEPHANT TRAINING CENTER
The Elephant Training Center was created to reduce conflicts between elephants and humans in several places in Indonesia.
1980BUILT TAMAN SAFARI
Taman Safari Indonesia construction was begun on an area of 50 hectares. The land was a tea plantation that were not used anymore.
1982OPENING TAMAN SAFARI
Taman Safari was officially opened for public. It covered an area about 68 hectares and collected 400 animals from 100 species.
1986ROYAL SAFARI GARDEN RESORT
A hotel was built and named Royal Safari Garden.
1997TAMAN SAFARI II PRIGEN
Taman Safari II was built on the slope of mount Arjuna in Prigen, East Java. The park is the main conservation for Javanese Banteng (Bos Javanicus) beside of Alas Purwo National Park.
1997SAFARI WONDER
59 souvenir shops named Safari Wonder were opened inside the Safari Park.
1998TAMAN SAFARI BALI
Built Taman Safari Bali and Marine Park in Gianyar, Bali. The park was officially open by Mr. President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono.
2007BATANG DOLPHIN CENTER
Built Batang Dolphin Center in Batang’s beach, Central Java. The center is used as conservation place and research center for dolphin and other sea animals.
2010GIANT PANDAS
Brought a pair of giant panda from China. They are Cai Tao (male panda) and Hu Chun (female panda). Bringing them to Indonesia is not easy. It takes years, hard working, and high-level diplomatic lobby. Finally, Indonesia has successfully lobbied China to loan pandas. It is a 10 years loan agreement between China government, Indonesia government, and Taman Safari. Indonesia is the 16th country which get permission from the Chinese government to brought and look after pandas.
2017
Safari Journey Using Car is Recommended
It is highly recommended for you to explore the park by car. By car, you can interact with many animals by feeding them or touching them, except for wild animals like lions and tigers. It is impossible to interact with animals if you take the Safari bus.
By car, you can also stop everywhere for a while to take some photos of the animals. Put down the car window, choose the best angle, and take some great photos!
Need to rent a car with an experienced driver? Contact us via WhatsApp/Signal: +6285226126069 or email: suwarnaadi@gmail.com. Our driver will pick you up from your location in Jakarta or Bogor to go to Taman Safari to take this amazing tour experience.
How Long It Takes From Jakarta
It takes about 2 hours driving from Jakarta city in normal condition (with few traffics) and weekday. It can be longer on weekend because traffic is busier in the weekend. It is advisable to start morning before 9am (earlier is better) from Jakarta in weekday to beat traffic and enjoy everything inside the park. The less traffic, the better, because you can feed animals on the road in the park without being rushed by other cars behind you. They want to feed too.
Purchase Some Carrots and Bananas Before Entrance
Before reaching Safari Park, there are many stalls selling carrots and bananas. Stop at one of the stalls for buying some carrots and bananas. Normally they sell fresh carrots in tied bunch. The price is normally about IDR 20,000 for few bunches of carrots and IDR 25,000 for a cluster of bananas. Purchase lots of carrots and some bananas to feed many animals inside the park. You can also purchase white carrots too with different price. Animals that like to eat carrots and bananas in the park are deers, antelope, elephant, llama, hippopotamus, zebra, etc.
Opening Time
- Monday: 9.00am – 5pm
- Tuesday: 8.30am – 5pm
- Wednesday: 8.30am – 5pm
- Thursday: 8.30am – 5pm
- Friday: 8.30am – 5pm
- Saturday: 8am – 5.30pm
- Sunday: 8am – 5.30pm
Night Safari is open every Saturday night and every holiday night from 7pm – 11pm. Ticket booth is open since 6.30pm.
Entrance Fees
The entrance ticket is IDR 450,000 for adult foreigner and IDR 400,000 for foreigner below 5 years old including Panda house. The park charge driver as a domestic visitor with the price IDR 265,000 and the car entrance fee is IDR 20,000. The ticket price includes the safari journey, baby zoo, Panda house, animals exhibits, bird aviary, some children rides, and animal shows.
If you are a foreigner working or studying in Indonesia, don’t forget to bring local id card or KITAS to get domestic price. KITAS (Kartu Ijin Tinggal Tetap/Terbatas) is a Limited Stay Permit issued to foreigners who want to stay in Indonesian for certain period of time.
The ticket fee does not include: waterpark, photo with animals (lion, tiger, and orang utan) at Baby Zoo, Safari tram, cable car, animal rides, and 4D rider.
Safari Journey
Put down your car’s window, breathe the fresh clean air, then be ready to meet the wildlife animals as part of your Safari adventure at the jungle. Prepare your carrots and bananas. Some animals will come to you, stuck out their heads onto your window to ask for their lunches. Few animals are shy, while the others are aggressively reaching the carrots by their mouths from your hands.
Entering the wild animal areas, you must close your car windows. Follow the sign. Our driver will warn you to put up your window. It is forbidden to open the window. There are some animals in this wild areas: Bengal Tigers, Sumatran Tigers, Lion, and Brown Bear. They are wild, dangerous, some of them live outside the cages! Sometime they will walk around the car you are in. Sometimes they sit in the middle of the road. You must close your window, watching the animals from inside the car without feeding the animals. If you want to take few pictures, just shoot them from the car with window closed.
Animals in Safari Park
There are more than 2,500 animals in the Safari Park. They were brought from all over the world. You will find animals from Indonesia, Asia, Africa, Australia, and America. Here is few of them:
Blue Wildebeest (Gnu)
Wildebeest is a herbivore animal from Africa which eat short grasses and foliage. They live in savanna. This animal has two species: the black wildebeest which has white tail, and the blue wildebeest which has white beard, brindled skin, and has horns go out to the side, then curving up. Both species are native to Africa, wide-spreaded in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, etc. In Taman Safari, you will meet the blue one only.
Wildebeest is well-known for its big migration. Each year, in East Africa, the are many Gnus migrating from dry area to wet area depend on the seasons, accompanied by Zebra and Gazelle. They are constantly seeking fresh grazing and good water supplies. Daily, they can travel around 30 miles, and approximately 1K miles a year to follow the rains in order to seek them. Every one upto two days, the blue wildebeest drinks 9 to 12 litres of water.
Cassowary
Cassowary is a flightless bird species which has a very large body size and beautiful head. It is native to North Australia and Papua New Guinea. Behind its beauty, the bird is aggressive and tend to attack if disturbed. Their legs are very long and strong, and become the main weapon that can kick and knock down his enemies.
Cassowary is the heaviest bird next only to ostrich. It weighs about 50 Kg. It is also the third tallest bird after ostrich and emu. Adult cassowaries are 1.5 to 1.8 M tall.
Cassowary is also known as a reliable runner because it can run up to 50 Km/hour.
The name cassowary comes from Papuan words: “Kasu” means horned, and “weri” means head, referring to the bird’s horned head.
Once the female lays her eggs, she will leave the male to incubate the eggs. Yes, the male will incubate the eggs, look after them, and protect them for about 60 days from their predators: dogs, cats, and foxes. The maturity age of the bird is four years and its life span is 25 years.
This bird is protected in Indonesia and has endangered status in Queensland, Australia.
Zebra (Equus Quagga)
Zebra is an African wild horse known for their unique black-and-white stripes and mohawk hair. The stripes come in different patterns. It is unique to each individual, just like a fingerprint. These unique stripes make them one of the famous animals in the world to people. They are fast-moving animals, aggressive and can reach speeds of up to 65 kmph when running, and can easily escape from their predators by running in a zigzag style.
Zebra is part of the equidae family (horse family) along with horse and donkey. Like horse, zebra sleep standing up and eat grasses. But unlike horse, zebra is not willing to cooperate with people. They like to bite and kick in self-defense. Zebra’s body is also not suitable for riding.
Ankole-Watusi
Ankole-Watusi, also has name Ankole Longhorn, is a medium sized cow with huge distinctive horns. It is an ancient animals, found in pictographs of Egyptian pyramids. Watusi can be found widespread in Africa. In Uganda, the Nkole tribe’s cattle variety is known as the Ankole. In Rwanda and Burundi, the Tutsi tribe’s cattle variety is called the Watusi. In the late 19th, the cattle were imported by European zoos from Africa. In early 2oth centuries, American zoos imported the cattle from European zoos.
Watusi are able to adapt to climates with poor quality forage and limited water. People breed them for their milk and meat. Normally they have red color and can grow their horns until 2 meters in length. Their horns are used for defense and help them cool the temperature of their body.
Ostrich
Ostrich is the largest flightless bird in the world. They come from Africa. This animal has a fantastic size. An adult ostrich can reach 2.5 meters in height with 140 kg weight!
Ostriches cannot fly, but they are blessed with strong, long legs. With these long legs, they can run very fast until 70 km/h. The legs are also useful to fight against their predators by kicking them strongly.
An Ostrich has a long neck and big eyes. It helps him to see predators at long distance.
Because ostriches cannot fly, they make their nest on the ground. They dig the ground and put their eggs there. Ostrich egg is the biggest egg in the world. On average it is 1.4 kg with 15 cm in length and 13 cm in wide. It is equal to 20 chicken’s egg.
White Bengal Tiger
This is a beautiful white color tiger from India. The white tiger has a bigger body than orange tiger, has white fur with dark stripes, has blue eyes and pink nose. It also has a white spot on the back of its ears, which looks like eyes if seen from its back or top.
This tiger is not an albino animal. They are normal animal that can be bred. If two bengal tigers have a recessive gene are bred together, new baby white tigers can occur. White tigers are fully grown at age 2 or 3 years. Male White Bengal tigers can reach weight of 200 – 230 kilograms and up to 3 metres in length. The female is smaller, with weight about 130 – 170 kilograms and up to 2.5 metres in length. They sleep long hours, between 16 – 18 hours per day. They have lifespan between 10 up to 20 years.
Tiger is a carnivore. They eat herbivores like deer, goat, buffalo, chicken, etc. They are very patient. They will stalk their prey until the right time to move, approaching it quitely without being detected. They can also swim and move swiftly in the water. They have extremely strong jaws to bite the throat of their prey and bring them. They bite the throat to cut the flow of air and blood to the prey’s head, so their prey can die faster.
Recreational Park
After Safari journey is finished, you will arrived at a huge amusement park. This recreational park features baby zoo, bird aviary, panda house, children rides, waterpark, cable car, animals exhibits, swimming with dolphins, animals shows, waterfalls, and restaurants.
Baby Zoo
In the Baby Zoo, visitors are allowed to touch snake, and orangutan, and are allowed to take picture with them and other wild animals such as tiger and lion with small fees. The entrance for Baby Zoo itself is free. Here you can also see kangaroos from Australian outback, lemurs from Madagascar, leopard, African white lion, etc.
Bird Aviary
In Bird Aviary, you can see thousands beautiful birds from all over the world live freely in a giant aviary netting such us parrot, julang mas, owl, peacock, cendrawasih or bird of paradise, pelican, and more for free! Walk around the aviary and see colorful birds flying around you. Purchase some bird food there, put it at your hand, then some beautiful birds will come to eat.
Panda Palace
There are two pandas live on their house on the top of the hill in Taman Safari. They are Cai Tao and Hu Chun. Both of them were born in China in 2010. They were brought to Taman Safari in 2017 and will live here for about 10 years according to the breeding-loan agreement between Taman Safari, Indonesia government, and China. The park management is optimistic that Cai Tao and Hu Chun will be married and have children here. We hope so. Let see!
Pandas Ebook
If you want to know more about Cai Tao and Hu Chun, please read our ebook titled Meet Pandas At Taman Safari Indonesia. The book is available on Google Play Book.
The book not only tells you about the giant pandas, it also provides good information and knowledge about their home, the Panda Palace and their older but smaller cousin, red panda.
Animal & Edutainment Shows
There are some educational shows for family. All of the shows are free or included in the ticket. Check the shows schedule first, before you come to the location of the shows, because shows locations were spread in the park. If you don’t have enough to see all the shows, you can make a priority. Most popular shows are Cowboy Show, Dolphin Show, Tiger Show, and Various Animals. See the below image to know their shows schedule.
See Indonesian birds fly down from the sky show off their skills at Bird of Prey Show. At Cowboy Show, watch a stunning action of Cowboys and Indian performing daredevil acts among spectacular explosion, dramatic fight scenes, and humor in a taste of what the Wild Wild West was really like. At Tiger Show, watch the Sumatran Elephant performance while you learn all about them. See dolphin counting number and doing simple math like addition and subtraction at Dolphin Show.
Elephant Trail
Be like a King, enjoy the majesty of traveling on an elephant’s back. On the top of the elephant, you will see the beautiful view of Mount Pangrango. Your trail also will take you through the green tropical forest filled with amazing sights and sounds from wild animals. The weather is nice surrounded by big trees, so you’ll walk under the tree shades. Your elephant will also cross a small river and will pass few part of safari journey, so people from inside their car can feed your elephant while driving thru the park.
Safari Waterpark
Bring change of clothes and let’s get wet at the Safari Waterpark! A fresh, cool water come from Jaksa waterfall, a waterfall located on the highest part of Taman Safari. There are also several water slides to fresh you up.
Restaurants in the Park
Hungry in the park? Don’t worry, there are several restaurants inside the amusement park after you finish your safari journey.
- Rain Forest Restaurant
Located at Parking A in front of Plaza Gajah (Elephant Show) and near Bird Aviary. The interior and exterior were decorated naturally with beautiful parrot bird, tree, wood, and animals-motif chairs. This restaurant selling traditional, chinese, and western food. - Cafe Onta Coffee & Bakery
Near the Rain Forest restaurant, there is a Cafe selling bread, cakes, and coffee. It is Cafe Onta. Located in front of Bird Aviary and beside camel ride station. That is why it is called Cafe Onta. Onta is Indonesia word for Camel. - Safari Bento
It is a local Japanese food restaurant located in front of Waterpark. Selling shrimp roll, chicken roll, ebi katsu, salad, rice, etc. - Rimba Foodcourt
Do you want to see various menu? Come to parking B, there is a foodcourt here with many small restaurants. - Safari Kuring Restaurant
Located at Parking C, near Penguin exhibit and Primate Center. Offers local food, such as sayur asam, empal, bandrek (ginger tea), nasi timbel, and other rice set menu. - Rodeo Cafe
Small cafe located at Cowboy show parking area. Also near to Dolphin show and Globe of Death show. Offers hotdog, burger, instant noodle, coffee, and soft drinks. - Safari Fried Chicken
Similar to KFC, it is the only fried chicken restaurant at Taman Safari. Located inside Baby Zoo, next to African white lions exhibit and orangutan photo booth. - Panda Resto
This restaurant is located at 2nd floor of Panda Palace. Its interior is designed like a food court. It sells Chinese and local food such as dimsum, noodle, satay, etc. The restaurant also provide a VIP room for visitors who want to eat near Panda. The room is only separated from the Panda room with a glass panel. - And few stalls selling otak-otak (fish cake), pop mie (instant noodle in a cup), snacks, steamed corn, coffee, and bread.