Well, on way back from Maldives and Singapore in early April, Air Asia decided to change our flight by 5+ hours so now we have to spend 10 hours in Jakarta.

Should we:
1. Just say screw it and stay at airport + lounges,
2. Leave the airport for even a smidge of time to perhaps see something and eat; or
3. Eat the AirAsia ticket (I CANNOT get any live person to assist in possible other flights on their web-site) and buy another ticket on a reputable airline like KLM that is later, allowing for more time at our Singapore hotel?


FWIW, we'll be catching a 0110 hours Qatar flight.

Find a massage place / spa and hang out there for a few hours.

Go play golf at Royal Jakarta golf club. It's a great experience.

Jakarta has a huge traffic problem so take that in consideration.

Yeah, you're the 2nd person to tell me that,...

Not sure you'd be able to get into Jakarta and back to the airport in 10 hours.

Anyone with experience at airport lounges there? Sounds like nothing special.

Pretty good summary of both CGK and Jakarta itself, honestly. I'd eat the AirAsia ticket and take that DPS-SIN flight on KLM.

Have heard traffic there is horrible. Just for grins, I looked at Jakarta's population compared to Houston's.

Houston urban population density: 3,339 per sq mile

Jakarta urban population density: 25,260 per sq mile

Yuck

You guys are making this an easy decision.

Looks like I will be buying another couple of plane tickets to minimize my time in lovely Jakarta.

The Jakarta airport lounges are nothing special

Ahhh fond memories of 2 hour traffic jams leaving Jakarta. And then there was the time I spent 4 hours waiting for Sing Air flight and had some spicy ass nasi goreng at the airport restaurant….big mistake. 20 minutes prior to boarding I am popping some Indonesia version of pepto to calm whatever was brewing in my stomach. Finally boarded the plane and then started to taxi….couldn't make it so I promptly ejected from my seat and made a b-line to the toilet as we are taxing towards the run way. The wonderful Sing air stewardess told me to sit down….I murmured something and quickly ducked into the head…Ryan's steakhouse comes to mind. All said a few hours later we landed in SG and depart the plane, the same stewardess looks at me as I depart and said "sir I hope your tummy feels better" lol The tiger tasted real good that evening.

Spore Ag said:

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Jakarta has a huge traffic problem so take that in consideration.

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I knew a family that lived in Jakarta for several years working for an oil company...I can't remember which one. He had a driver that would pick him up form work each day and take him home. He said it was often faster to just leave his bag, computer in the car and walk home.

Another friend was a teacher there and she said she rarely left the neighborhood she lived in because of the traffic issue. I don't know about the location of the airport but I wouldn't venture to far from there.

Airport to town is +/- 1 hour...depending on time of day of course. Yes it can be worse, but if you check on Google Maps during your proposed travel time then you will get a feel. When I was there last fall traffic wasn't great but it didn't keep us from getting around town.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Soekarno-Hatta+International+Airport,+Tangerang+City,+Banten,+Indonesia/Royale+Jakarta+Golf+Club,+Jl.+Halim+Perdana+Kusuma,+RT.3%2FRW.4,+Tiga,+Halim+Perdana+Kusumah,+East+Jakarta+City,+Jakarta,+Indonesia/@-6.1693919,106.7384913,11.73z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x2e6a02695aaccb09:0x61dee98159fa3fe5!2m2!1d106.6534595!2d-6.127119!1m5!1m1!1s0x2e69f2bdb4c39073:0xfc11427db9e1642d!2m2!1d106.9017591!2d-6.2711765!3e0

Anyone with experience with Garuda Airlines?

Perfectly fine airline.