My husband and I have decided to check into Grand Serela Hotel, Bandung after comparison with few other alternatives such as Patra Jasa (RP 400,000/ nite), Sukajadi Hotel (RP 400,000/ nite), Royal Dago (RP 390,000/ nite), Bumi Sawunggaling (RP 350,000/ nite) and Bumi Asih (RP 319,000/ nite) which offered relatively lower rates.
Reason being Grand Serela’s strategic location in the very heart of Riau, really within walking distance from Riau’s most Factory Outlets! It is located in the center of Riau like walking from our Pavilion to Lot 10, to Sungai Wang %26amp; Bukit Bintang Plaza and then to Times Square in KL! So, we managed to save precious time %26amp; transportation costs there by just walking %26amp; browsing from one FO to the other.
19.01.2009.
Upon arrival at Hussein Sastranegara Airport, we were ushered by Grand Serela’s driver who provided us with free shuttle service to their hotel. So, no cost from airport to hotel! We checked in Grand Serela at 6:30 pm for a 4-night stay at RP 450,000 (RM 146.75)/ nite. Their published rate for walk-in customers is RP 698.000 (RM 227.58)/ nite. Hence, it’s cheaper to book via phone by using the I-Talk Card as they do not reply emails as commented by some forummers in the past!
No hotels visuals taken as what-you-see-is-what-you-will-get from their website! In-room internet access was offered in addition to individual safe-deposit box (our pre-requisite), coffee %26amp; tea-making facility (our second requirement), satellite television, hair dryer c/o shaver plug as well cold or piping-hot standing shower facilities offered. This is another reason of our choosing Grand Serela as we do not want to compromise comfort after our tiring shopping spree at the end of the day! The only minor setback with this hotel was perhaps the room size as it would have been so ideal had the room been a bit spacious.
After settling down, we seized the opportunity to quickly explore what Riau has got to offer by browsing through some of nearby FOs such as the famous Heritage and Cascade which is next to each other, Formen, Terminal Tas (leather bag %26amp; shoes) and OSSO (new FO). Bought a Cherokee collared T-shirt from Cascade @ RP 39,500 (RM 12.90) and a piece of Old Navy menswear from Heritage @ RP 69,000 (RM 22.50). We had dinner at nearby Dakken Café which offers private dining concept. However, apart from the romantic dining atmosphere, service was tad slow as the food tasted below expectation! My Grilled Chicken was so over-cooked that till it turned dark and hard while the Nasi Goreng Special was not-so-special after all! Our efforts to salvage Dakken%26#39;s meal taste was fruitless as all 4 containers of pepper %26amp; salt were empty at the same time!! However, the only consolation was with their Kopi Durian which turned out creamy. The bill for dinner of two came up to RP 102,000 (RM 33.25), not exactly cheap for Bandung standard... judging from aspects of café service, meal portion %26amp; taste. After breezing through Bandung’s comfortable cooling night weather, we headed to a romantic joint for our favourite Teh Tarik! This place is called Kedai Dato Café %26amp; Bar, just next to Formen FO and it offers outdoor romantic western dining. We ordered a cup of Teh Tarik and another cup of “Teh Ang” (literally our “Teh O”) %26amp; really enjoyed sipping our piping-hot tea under the romantic candle-lite environment there. The bill? Just for RP 13,000 (RM 4.25) for Teh Tarik and Teh Ang only cost RP 5,000 (RM 1.65). It was absolutely reasonable in our opinion!
20 Jan 2009.
Breakfast selection was considered ok with offering of rice (plain and fried), noodles (mee hoon/ spaghetti or macaroni), chicken/ beef, chicken porridge, bread %26amp; butter/ jam, local kueh %26amp; desert as well as fruits. After breakfast, we boarded a Blue Bird Taxi from hotel to Rumah Mode in Jl. Setiabudhi which cost us RP 20,000 (RM 6.50) to reach there. We bought a JK Athletic jacket @ RP 89,900 (RM 29.30) and anther Tommy piping T-shirt RP 84,900 (RM 27.70). Before proceeding to other FOs, we savoured Blue Monster Café’s Kopi Durian @ RP 15,900 (RM 5.20)/ cup. The coffee has proven to be outstandingly smooth and very aromatic to taste as the coffee was blended with fresh durian flesh! Proceeded with few other nearby FOs such as Zenith, Rich %26amp; Famous, Summit, Donatello, Solutions, IMO, etc. and managed to buy a pair of Ice Vintage Jeans from Zenith @ RP 209,000 (RM 68.15), 3 key chains from Solutions @ RP 89,000 each (RM 29.00) and an Ocean Line T-Shirt from Natural @ RP 79,000 (RM 27.65). We boarded a Gemah Ripah Taxi from Setiabudhi to Café Bali for late lunch instead of Blue Bird as our numerous calls to Blue Bird were left unanswered. We really had very satisfying lunch under Café Bali’s garden dining concept with generously big portions of Chicken Voldostana, Chicken Steak, a plate of goreng pisang with honey, a fruit smoothie and a coffee, all for only RP 112,750 (RM36.80)! The food tasted so good with button mushrooms squeezing in-between the tender chicken meat and melting cheese topped with delicious BBQ sauce! After heavy lunch, we headed to the Riau Stock Mall, opposite Café Bali and got a pair of Hugo Jeans @ only RP 159,000 (RM 51.85). Then we proceeded to The Secret and bought a piece of MNG T-Shirt at RP 69,000 (22.50). We were adventurous enough to try hawker food for dinner by the roadside stall (opposite Grand Serela) called Kreshna Seafood which is manned by a couple with 2 helpers, just to taste what the local taste! We ordered Ikan Gurame Masak Sos Padang @ RP 30,000 (RM 9.80) and a pair of ';Kepiting'; (Crab) Masak Sos Asam Manis @ RP 35,000 (RM 11.40) with white rice %26amp; complementary tea. Our meal turned out to be nice as special requests like “kurang pedas” and “kurang minyak” were promptly adhered to! As it was still early, we headed for our relaxing 1-Hr Acupressure Aromatherapy Message at the hotel Spa for RP 150,000 (RM 48.90)/ person and woke up surprisingly fully-charge-without-any-body-ache the very next day!
21 Jan 2009.
We spent our entire day exploring Dago and nearby streets and shopped at FOs like Dago Stock Ekspor (DSE), Episode (cloths %26amp; wallets), Grande FO (cloths %26amp; wallets), Level FO (Jerseys, t-shirts %26amp; branded jeans), Edward Forrer FO (leather bags %26amp; shoes), Bloosom, Jetset, Banda Boutique Outlet %26amp; Raffles. Lunch was held at the food court of Bandung Indah Plaza where the food was overpriced and not tasty! Bought a quality Polo Menswear from Banda Boutique Outlet @ RP 109,500 (RM 35.70) and a T-Shirt from Victoria @ RP 79,000 (RM25.75). By the time we finished our shopping spree, we were all too tired to explore for any new dinner adventures far away and just settled with simple Mie Goreng and Nasi Goreng Chap Chay at the roadside stall near our hotel. Total bill was RP 25,000 (RM 8.15) but our meal was tasteless anyway.
22 Jan 2009.
We rented a Suzuki APV with driver from Total Car Rental for RP 450,000 (RM 146.70) and the package included car rental with driver from 8:00 am – 9:00 pm, petrol, parking, toll as well as driver’s meal. As requested, the driver assigned, Pak Mamat arrived at 9:00 am to drive us to Tangkuban Perahu and we spent half a day there. Entrance fee was paid @ RP 35,000 (RM 11.40)/ person (without receipt), while locals only paid for RP 12,000 (RM3.90)/ person. We enjoyed the cooling weather %26amp; beautiful scenary there but not those so-called ';professional guides'; and petty traders peddling services %26amp; goods to us all the time! To save time, we skipped the much talked-about lunch-at-Kampung-Daun plan due to most comments about not-so-tasty food by forummers %26amp; headed to few other unvisited FOs instead! Pak Mamat drove us to Merdeka Plaza where we bought a Lousiana T-Shirt @ RP 80,000 (RM26.10), 2 mensware @ RP 81,000 (RM 26.40) each, 2 White Stag ladies baby-Ts only RP 45,000 each (RM14.80) after a whopping 40% discount! As we are satisfied with Pak Mamat’s dedication and determination in accomplishing our mission throughout the journey, we treated him for late lunch at Café Bali (even though his meal was included in our package) and he was very delighted with the meal taste! This time around, we savoured a combination of local food such as rice, chicken, tofu, tempeyek, sweet curry, a Chicken Voldostana, Teh Es (Ais), 2 fruit smoothies %26amp; a mineral water. Total meal for 3 was extremely affordable at only RP 157,750 (RM 51.40)! We headed for few other FOs like Rainbow where we bought 2 Polo T-Shirt @ RP 69,000 (RM 22.50) each %26amp; proceeded to Cargo where a piece of Abercrombie %26amp; Fitch T-Shirt was bought at a steal of RM 47,400 (RM 15.450) after 40% discount! On our way back to hotel, Pak Mamat drove us to Amanda Brownies branch at Jl. Dago where we bought 4 boxes of brownies kukus, a box of pisang bolen, pisang caramel, (mini murtabak %26amp; kueh lapis for Pak Mamat) only for RP 119,615 (RM 39.00). As previously commented, the brownies were really out-of-this-world with its sinfully rich-chocolate that melted in our mouth while the pisang caramel was another great hit with oozing chocolate upon biting the ripen banana! Who cares about the extra pounds gained at that time!!! We dropped by at IBC FO %26amp; Diaz FO before headed back to hotel and before parting at 8:00 pm, we gave Pak Mamat a token of RP 100,000 (RM 32.60) as tips to thank his hard work…
As mentioned in website, Grand Serela is providing FREE shuttle service to and fro thier hotel with prior special request like what we have done. But there was an incident experienced by us where the unscrupulous receptionist on-duty asked for RP 40,000 (RM 13.05) as “shuttle fee”, so BE WARE! Just insist to her that you are aware about their free services.
Contrary to comments from some TA forummers; our entire 4-night stay with Grand Serela was indeed a very homely and comfortable one! Every staff whom we have met during our stay, from the receptionist, bell boy, chambermaid, technician, security personnel, waitress or even the hotel manager… was extending their very welcoming and sincere smiles and politely acknowledged us with greetings of “Good Morning, Good Evening”, etc! A culture we cannot easily find even staying in the 4 or 5-star hotels nowadays!
Special thanks must be extended for the invaluable reviews %26amp; honest advice from fellow TA forummers %26amp; experts such as Bandung Man, Sdin %26amp; Pigengineer and others. Our recent trip to Bandung has proven to be an enjoyable one, despite being first timers there! Armed with a list of where to go and how to contact, we were never lost in Bandung.
To the wonderful Bandung city, we WILL RETURN… real soon!
Grand Serela Hotel Bandung 19 Jan 2009 - 23 Jan 2009
thanks for the detailed summary.
i will be in bandung mid feb.
would oike to check with you the items you purchased above, are the label cut or darken?
Grand Serela Hotel Bandung 19 Jan 2009 - 23 Jan 2009
We are selective buyers who appreciate quality rather than quantity. So, most of our items bought (except for jeans), the labels were either cut or darkened.
thanks..i guess those items with either darken or cut label are genuine products..but the jeans are ori, like levis are cheaper there..
looking forward for the trip..1st time there for shopping too..might go rtangkupan perahu if weather is good..
I doubted the jeans are originals as almost ALL FOs sell the same jeans merchandize, i.e. same brand, same colour choices, same packing %26amp; with complete range of sizes (even with the printed plastic covers like those sold in Thailand). Price wise is within close gap for this item, unlike other stuffs which we have bought there!
If rejected goods; surely stocks will be displayed slightly different and one may not find certain size (I guess).
We bought those not because of brand, but the quality is good and I also have removed the ';Hugo'; label from the jeans as the label looks fake to me, but the material and stitching are perfect!
Speaking about Tangkuban Perahu, it%26#39;s a good decision to at least visit once and spend few hours there for first timers to Bandung as the weather is so cooling and serene there and it%26#39;s totally a different kind of experience from the hussle and bustle of Bandung city!
Just beware of numerous petty traders %26amp; ';volunteered tour guides'; around who can be very persistent and annoying at times!
You will surely have great time there :)
i%26#39;ll be going to bandung early march, not decided which hotel to stay. do u recommend this hotel? actually i%26#39;m looking for apartment so that we could do some cooking ourselves, can u recomend any reasonably good apartment?
TQ
Matthew
Dear Matthew,
Personally, I would not hesitate to recommend this boutique hotel to you and your family as they also offer some larger family rooms to suit your needs.
With regards to any Bandung apartment recommendation, we hardly saw any nice apartments (along major roads like Riau, Dago, Jl. Cihampelas, Jl. Merdeka, etc.) like what what we are having in KL during our stay and I am not in a position to recommend any to you since as I am not a Bandung Expert like Bandung Man. Perhaps you may PM him to seek his advice on this.
Hope that helps :)
lily, Do u think I can get 1 queen bed + 1 single bed in one room? (or 2 queen bed will do).
My MIL will join us next month but she scare to sleep alone. So we need to find hotel that have kind of bed.
Can%26#39;t find any picture with those bed in Grand serela hotel.
Pls advise. thx
Dear mfzahra,
You can book a Grand Room (also called Family Room) which offers double bed and twin beds.
Alternatively, you may call them direct by I-Talk Card and check with them whether they offer any additional beds to Superior Room at extra cost.
After your phone booking confirmation is done, it is always advisable to fax them a short note so that they can be more attentive to your specific needs upon checking in.
i guess I will choose Grand Serela for my first time visit.
How about transport? should i rent a car to go shopping or i can take blue bird?(since my MIl is 70+ yrs old, am a bit worry for a long walk from one place to each other)
I plan to do sightseeing as well and will rent a suzuki ( but not sure yet how much he will charge me)
thanks for your reply Lily.
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