A Day In Ancol, Jakarta ☆ Sea World & Park

It’s winter break and I felt the need to entertain my kids, so I decided to take my girls and their friend to Sea World in Ancol, North Jakarta. I have heard of the amusement park, aquarium, and other recreational facilities in Ancol Dream Land from different people, so I decided to try Sea World, the aquarium in the Ancol Bay City.

I looked for some information about Ancol Dream Land and I stumbled upon this blog called Go Travel Indonesia. I found this post about Ancol Dreamland, very helpful.

I was a bit hesitant to go to Ancol at first as it was also the end of the year break for the local schools in Indonesia and I could imagine how crowded any recreational facilities could get with locals as well as tourists from other cities near Jakarta. Since my friend, Kara, and her husband have been so generous and took my older daughter and their daughter to nice places already to entertain, I felt the need to reciprocate and take the kids somewhere they cannot usually go.

Our friend/my husband’s coworker’s family live in Ancol, so I took up on their offer to be our guide and first met up with them. Our friend’s mom and brother came with us, which was a huge help to me. I am not sure if I could have survived touring the aquarium with a huge crowd with three kids all by myself. If it wasn’t crowded, it is definitely manageable, but the aquarium was packed!!

If you reside in Jakarta, I advise you to avoid the holiday season to visit Ancol with small kids unless you can go there with other adults to supervise if you have a choice. You will still have fun and it was definitely an entertaining place for kids, but the experience will be more relaxing if you can visit there when you don’t anticipate many visitors. This is just a word of advice from me as someone who went there with young children during the height of the peak travel season.

As for lunch, we went to Pizza Hut as opposed to eating at a food court at Sea World. Our friend’s mom who often go there to guide her friends recommended going to Pizza Hut, so I listened to her. It was definitely a good decision. It was quiet, nice and the food was good! It’s Pizza Hut, so you know what to expect, right? I don’t know if you can find the sautéed mushroom dish at Pizza Hut in other countries, but I highly recommend it if you go to Pizza Hug in Jakarta. It’s in the appetizer section, I believe. Mushrooms are sautéed with garlic and a little bit of red pepper, which gives a wonderful kick to the dish. Mwah.

Parks

There are parks along the Ancol beach. Our friends drove us to two different play areas. Kids loved playing at both places. It’s easy, laid back and the kids enjoyed the time. It was a good addition for us as we didn’t have enough time to visit other recreational facilities like Dream World (Dunia Fantasi). We’ll have to go back to Ancol in the future to see other parts of the Ancol Bay City.

Pirate Ship Park

Overall, I was very happy with our day trip out in Ancol. It just happened that on the same day, there was a Suzuki Cup final game in Jakarta between Team Indonesia and Team Malaysia and we expected a terrible traffic in the city. Because of this, I had to leave Ancol early enough so that we wouldn’t be stuck in traffic for hours. The trip back wasn’t too bad even though we did experience some traffic. No toilet call. Phew. I took some snack with me, so the snack kept the girls happy on the way back and they entertained each other a lot. Having my daughters’ friend made the traveling with a car much more fun for my girls and easier for me.