$70 Luxury Sleeper Train in Indonesia 🇮🇩

Travelling from Semarang to Jakarta, I had the pleasure of riding in the Luxury cabin of Indonesia’s best train.

The ‘Argo Anggrek Luxury Sleeper’ is the highest luxury class available on Java’s railway.

With a long journey of 5 hours, it was the perfect way to relax and enjoy my travel day. The huge, cushioned, reclining leather seat, peace, privacy and beautiful views from the large windows made this a most memorable and enjoyable train ride.

The ticket price from Semarang Tawang to Gambir station in Jakarta is between 1,025,000 – 1,315,000 rupiah, depending on the fare bucket. You usually need to book a week or so in advance to get the lower price.

I bought the ticket for 1,025,000 plus booking fee, which came to just under $70 USD. A bargain, for what is equivalent to, or better than, a lie flat business class seat on major airline.

The rest of the train had only executive cabins, and those seats cost from 460,000 – 705,000 rupiah ($30 – $47 USD). There were no economy seats on this train.

I’ve travelled in an ‘Executive’ cabin before, from Jakarta to Bandung – Full video: https://youtu.be/9AfbfjGYkKM

And from Bandung back to Jakarta in ‘Executive Luxury’ – Full video: https://youtu.be/kazffUdpyo8

I can say that this ‘Luxury Sleeper’ cabin only the Argo Anggrek train is a massive step up from both ‘Executive’ and ‘Executive Luxury’ class. It’s easily worth the extra money.

I enjoyed the train ride to Jakarta and didn’t even need to use the aeroplane style in-flight entertainment TV to occupy myself. The views as we travelled across the north coast of Java were entertaining enough.

I was given a hot meal of chicken and nasi goreng, and a snack box, but was still hungry after demolishing all that.

The train has a restaurant cabin so I went there to enjoy some rendang. Rendang is a famous Indonesian food that I hadn’t tried yet. People kept recommending it to me but I never saw it available anywhere that I was travelling.

Rendang is beef that’s slow cooked in coconut milk and spices. I got the microwavable meal version of it on the train, and the beef was very tough and hard. I did like the taste though, so I really must try an authentic version of rendang in a nice restaurant when I get the chance.

We arrived at Gambir station in the early evening. Central Jakarta is a long way from where my hotel is located, in Tangerang city. It’s possible to get there with another train but I chose the lazy option and booked a Grab car, that cost me 200,000 rupiah ($13 USD) after giving the driver a big tip. We spent over an hour in rush hour traffic during a storm.

My reason for choosing to stay in Tangerang rather than Central Jakarta is that Tangerang is near the airport, and it was my 2nd last day in Indonesia.

So I checked into my home for the next 2 nights at the Novotel Tangerang. I decided on this hotel because it was connected to a huge mall. Considering the heavy rain, that feature brings a lot of convenience.

The room was 1,000,000 rupiah per night, which is $67 USD. I would say it was worth it, if I got the king size bed that I paid for, but this hotel fooled me by giving me two single beds pushed together, with a sheet over them to make it look like a big bed.

After getting settled into my room and loading up the mini bar from Alfamart, I enjoyed a nice Japanese chicken katsu curry in the mall to end my day.

By bedtime I was feeling good, despite the long travel day. That’s the difference between luxury and economy travel. I’ve taken 5 hour train rides in Sri Lanka and India and felt exhausted by the end of the day, but 5 hours of peace and relaxation on Indonesia’s best train left me feeling great.

0:00 Semarang Train Station
3:00 Luxury Sleeper Train
6:03 Chicken Nasi Goreng
11:28 Luxury Snack Box
17:41 Restaurant Train Cabin
24:03 Jakarta Gambir Station
26:38 Novotel Tangerang
32:16 Coke Zero Hunt
37:42Feeding Stray Cat
42:59 Japanese Katsu Curry

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