Family staycation in Jakarta

Forced to put their international travel plans on hold, Budi and Annisa plan a family staycation at a luxury hotel in Jakarta.

When Annisa’s mother fell ill, we had to postpone our big family holiday to Australia. Our girls, Nur and Dewi, were so disappointed – and so were we! I work such long hours that I often get home after the girls have gone to bed, and we were all in desperate need of some family time.

To cheer ourselves up, we decided to book a long weekend right here in Jakarta. It was the perfect solution: by booking time off work I could be sure I wouldn’t get called into the office, the girls would get a change of scene, and Annisa would still be close enough to her mum if there was an emergency.

We always stay with Accor since I’m an Accor Plus member and get a 10% discount on every booking. We looked at our options in the capital and decided to treat ourselves to a stay at the luxury Pullman Jakarta Indonesia Thamrin CBD. I happened to check the promotions and saw that there was one for families that gave us 50% off a second room! Although the girls are too young to sleep by themselves, the extra space would make everyone more comfortable and maybe while they played in one room, Annisa and I could relax peacefully in the other. Sold!

Quality Family Time

On Friday after lunch we hopped in the car for the short drive over to the hotel. No queuing at passport control, no cramped plane seats, no whining voices asking if we were nearly there yet… We must do this staycation thing more often! From the moment we stepped into the lobby with its gleaming marble floor, I saw Annisa’s eyes light up. I could tell she was looking forward to being pampered after a rough few weeks, and it was such a nice change to see her happy. While we checked in, the girls took it in turns to run up and down the wide, red velvet staircase pretending to be princesses.

We had booked connecting Deluxe Rooms with a large living area and a huge TV (the girls’ favourite bit) and an amazing soaking tub (Annisa’s favourite bit). Nur and Dewi immediately started running from one room to the next to test which bed was comfier, shrieking at the top of their voices about who would sleep with Mum and who would sleep with Dad. I smiled, feeling grateful that the large king-size bed would make it easy to get a good night’s sleep despite my wriggling bedmate. With sleeping arrangements sorted, we took the girls to explore the rest of the hotel and somehow got talked into buying them tall glasses of iced chocolate at Makaron bakery.

The rest of our stay was just as special. Each day started with the incredible breakfast buffet at Sana Sini restaurant, with platters of food from all over the world. I couldn’t believe how much the girls ate, even though they spent half of the meal gazing open-mouthed at the live cooking stations. We definitely got our money’s worth, especially since the kids ate for free with the family promotion and my Accor Plus membership gave us 50% off the bill for me and Annisa. We spent the rest of our time at the pool. Nur is a little dolphin but Dewi has always been nervous of water. We managed to coax her in and then she loved it so much we couldn’t get her out again!

Annisa and I took it in turns to look after the kids so the other could get a moment to themselves. I had planned a workout at the gym, but then Annisa returned from the spa looking so rested I decided to go for a massage as well. I couldn’t help thinking it would be nice to go to the spa together. I’d also love to treat her to a drink at the Back Room bar, and check out Makaron for some indulgent sweet treats (I hear their Macarons and Hot Chocolate are incredible). Now that we know we have all this on our doorstep, maybe we’ll come back for our anniversary, just the two of us.