Mercure Hotel Ancol Jakarta Indonesia Series 1

Mercure Hotel - Ancol

Old but Comfortable Home
(Jakarta, Indonesia Series 1)

This was my second time to travel to Indonesia.

Bali was my destination the first time I traveled to this

 country and it was a long, long time ago in the mid 90's.
 I was young, unmarried, and I traveled with my mother.

I would have returned to Bali with my wife and kids,

but the Bali bombing in the past  dampened

my interest in traveling to the popular island.

We are on a week- long Indonesian tour  and

we initially intended to stay a few days in

Yogakarta and neighboring suburbs, but

changed our plan the last minute and decided

to maximize our visit at the capital city of Jakarta

and enjoy whatever the city had to offer.

So we planned our Jakarta trip to two phases.

The first three days was meant  for fun and play

so the kids would have something to look forward

to an exciting and adventurous stay in the city.

The last four days would be meant to experience, 
absorb and learn the culture  and arts  

of this huge and diverse oriental  megalopolis.

Stay

For the Fun Part of our Jakarta tour,

I booked for four days and three nights stay

in Mercure Hotel Ancol thru Booking.com

and got a two bedroom suite for a real

bargain price of Php 9,500 +++ per day.

The hotel is located in southern Jakarta

and we arrived past midnight after an

almost four hour flight from Manila.

The hotel had a huge and cavernous
beautiful classic lobby,

And luckily our check in was fast in easy,

…and we were immediately on our way

to our suite room and rearing for

a much needed rest and sleep.

Our room was a two bedroom suite

with a beautiful seaside view,

It has a very spacious living room,

...that had a very comfy sofa,

It also had a huge flat screen LCD TV,
and equipped with a VCD / DVD player.

 

It has a well stocked mini bar,





...with a fabulous high tech coffee maker,

…a balcony overlooking the ocean,

...that also offers a view 
of Jakarta's skyscrapers,





...the upscale yacht club,



...the modern cable car and the
nearby islands of the Java Sea.



The living room has its 
own powder room and toilets,



...and a working and study area.

 The main bedroom was very large

and had a huge king sized bed enough

to accommodate our  whole family of

two adults and two young kids.

Beside the King sized bed is a comfy
lounge chair, perfect for reading or
just to laze, rest or relax.

 

It also had a flat screen TV.

.The main room has  spacious walk in closet,

 

...that leads to a regular bathroom, and I would say
undersized for this huge suite room,
but otherwise clean and comfortable.

…with abundant toiletries.

…equipped with a bath tub,

that doubles as  shower room.

The other bedroom had

two double beds,

…a modern flat screen TV,

...an in room mini bar,



…and its own rather old but clean
and comfortable  bathroom that looks
exactly identical with the bathroom
to that in the master's bedroom.

The second bedroom also had
a nice sitting area,



....and a vanity area and working table
at the same time,



Connectivity was not a problem as it had it's own

modem for a free  but fast Wi Fi internet access,

and a land line phone on the living room,

…another land line phone
in the main bedroom,

...and in the second bedroom,



…and a phone each
in the three toilets.

Stray

There are lot of places to visit in this hotel

as it is located in Ancol  Dreamland,  a multi

theme park and entertainment complex .

Just across the hotel is Dufan, Indonesia’s

version of Disneyland,

… just nearby are the Sea World Jakarta,

…the  Ocean Dream Samudra  where guests 
can watch live Dolphin and Sea Lion Shows,

…and the Atalantis, a fabulous water park.

Within this massive tourism complex 
are pristine beaches, 

..seaside leisure areas,

...with various Water Sports facilities,

 

…the  port that could take tourists

to various nearby islands in Jakarta,

…and restaurants serving native

and international cuisine.

 

 

Mercure Hotel Ancol is located in the middle

 of a kid’s dream paradise which is perfect

 for my family’s fun phase of the travel-

…which actually was the main reason why

we chose  to stay in this hotel in the first place.

Play

Aside from the several theme parks

in the neighborhood, Mercure Ancol

has several play areas in the hotel.

It has a beautiful outdoor playground,

…and an air conditioned indoor play area,

...that the kids had a great time
playing on both facilities.

 

The hotel also had a indoor
entertainment center.







It has a beautiful clubhouse,





...near the  three gorgeous 
swimming pools,

...with lots of fun slides an water spouts
 that it looked like a mini water park,

...and a had private beach

offering various water sports.
 

My family had a great time swimming
and bonding on the hotel's wonderful pool.

 

They also have a  well equipped gym but
 we never got to use it as there were so
 many things to do and there was so little time

Feast

Lobby Cafe

Mercure Hotel Ancol has a lovely Cafe at the lobby

which was undergoing renovation at that time,

...but other wise dishes out excellent coffee concoctions

and delightfully  yummy cakes and pastries.

Sunda Kelapa Restaurant

The hotel’s wonderful main restaurant located at

the ground floor is called Sunda Kelapa Restaturant,



The restaurant offers indoor  dining for those
 who wanted to dine in air conditioned comfort,







...and an outdoor dining area for those 
who wanted to enjoy the sea breeze.

It is a superb source of local and international cuisine

and serves an amazing spread of breakfast buffet. 

It  also offers a great Indonesian Cuisine for its

dinner buffet with astonishing spread of dishes

coming from different regions of Indonesia.

I would be discussing about this excellent Indonesian

Dinner Buffet in my future blog as the 4^th installment

on this on- going Jakarta, Indonesia Blog Series .

Room Service / In Room Dining

"First-rate!"

It's the only way to describe the outstanding choices for

 Mercure Hotel Ancol’s In Room Dining and Service.

Great tasting  Fresh Salads,

...creamy Mushroom Soup,

...tender and delicious Lamb Chops,

...gigantic Juicy Beef Burgers,

... marvelous fresh, pan seared Pink Salmon,

...and of course-  the soothingly tasty

huge bowl of Wonton Noodle Soup.

The good thing is, In Room Dining and Room Service

is available 24/7 at Mercure Hotel Ancol.

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I would rate this hotel very high on comfort, food amenities.

The swimming pool complex and play areas are beyond compare.

I’ve read reviews on Trip Advisor and Booking.com

before I booked this hotel and I was almost discouraged

because of the negative issues such as being an old and

smelly hotel rooms needing renovation.

Well, they are right, our suite room was old but it was

well maintained and we felt right at home.

The beds were comfortable that my wife who has

scoliosis was all praises for the superb beds in our room.

For a two bedroom suite,  with three toilets, a huge living room

a spacious balcony offering a magnificent view of the ocean

and glorious breakfast buffet for only Php 9,500 a night? 

Trust a renowned hotel brand like Mercure to compensate

with the service and amenities they are offering. 

We felt we  hit the jackpot  in staying in this wonderful hotel.

Read my other 
Jakarta, Indonesia Series Blogs.

Mercure Hotel Ancol

Jakarta Indonesia Series 1

Sea World Jakarta and and Ocean Dream Samudra

Jakarta Indonesia Series 2

Sunda Kelapa Restaurant

Superb Indonesian Buffet

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 3

Dufan is Fun

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 4

Ancol Epic Cable Park

Jakarta’s Hip Wake Park

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 5

Ancol Dreamland Jakarta

Indonesia's Fun Capital

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 6

Hotel Manhattan Jakarta

Modern Hotel with a View

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 7

Kidzania and Wendy’s

Pacific Place, Jakarta

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 8

Historic Jakarta City Tour
Traffic Choked, Rain Soaked City Tour

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 9

Ikan Bakar Cianjur

Binge Eating on Indonesian Food

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 10

Taman Mini Indonesia and

Caping Gunung Restaurant

Binge Eating at Taman Mini

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 11

Ritz Carlton Mega Kuningan

Unwelcoming Fortress Hotel

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 12

Restaurant Haka

Chinese Food Galore

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 13

Sarinah Shopping Mall 

Jakarta's One Stop Souvenir Mall 

Jakarta, Indonesia Series 14 

Jakarta a Fun Filled Kiddie Paradise

 and  Traffic Choked Culinary Adventure

 Jakarta, Indonesia Series 15