Jakarta Airport Soekarno Hatta: Available Transportation

Perhaps in street of Jakarta you will find a lot more bus or transportation names later, like Kopami, School Bus, PPD, Patas, Koantas Bima, etc. Those are too many and no need for you to know all that might disrupt your focus to choose one. So that, I make it simple for you.

Transport from the Jakarta Airport Soekarno Hatta:

Registered Airport Taxis: are those with their brands queuing up in front of the arrival gate. The taxis which are parking in their line also has a "Airport Taxi" sticker on the back glass of the vehicle. Until today, those standard taxis are using standard sedan vehicle with a trunk in the back side. It will be comfortable with maximum 3 passengers, 1 at front beside the driver, 2 at the back seat. If you are not a big body gang. you can occupy the back seat with 3 passengers. Please arrange your luggage nicely, because 4 person visitor usually will overload the trunk.
Silver class Taxis: so far there are only 2 Taxi brands who have this executive type of cars which are Mercedes Benz, Toyota Camry, or Hyundai Sonata: Silverbird (the some company with Bluebird) and Whitehorse. The cost of using this kind of Taxi is at least double than Standard Taxi. But you can tell me about its comfort later. For your illustration: if you use this Taxi from Airport to Central of Jakarta (Sudirman Street or Thamrin Street) in the middle of the night with light traffic jam, it will cost you around 400.000-500.000 Rupiah in total. You can find these Silverbird and Whitehorse Taxi queuing up at the same side of the road with other standard Airport Taxis, but a little bit separated with them. There are uniformed officer for both Taxis waiting the customer near by the Taxi parking spot, but you'd better ask for sure because the signs are not too eye-catching.
Premium Taxis: such as Golden Bird and Express Taxi they prioritizing a bigger group than Silver Class Taxi. Maybe 4-5 people with moderate baggage for each person, or 3 passenger with heavier baggage to carry. The cost is higher than Silver Class, but the car can vary from Toyota Kijang Innova to Toyota Alphard with different Taxi meter cost in general. The strong selling point of Silver Class and Premium Class Taxis are on their driver. It means that more reliable driver standards are applied for those level of drivers. Premium Taxi service can be found near your baggage claim area or just after you get out of the arrival sliding door and just before reaching the pickup area. You will find some booths there including view Hotel Reservation booths. However, you should always have a view seconds to remember the Taxi door number and the name of the driver (there are always an identity card of the driver with his photograph at the dashboard, if there is not available, please immediately pick another Taxi), no matter what kind of Taxi you will choose. Not for the negative possibility only, but just in case you left something behind in the cab.
DAMRI Bus: is an air conditioned shuttle bus service that can deliver you only to its particular destination as written on the bus front and back glass. There are about 15 destinations from Jakarta Airport Soekarno Hatta, but related to the topic, I only mention 3 destinations: Blok M (through Sudirman Street), Mangga Dua (to china town, near Taman Impian Jaya Ancol), and Kemayoran (also near Ancol, and only several km to the T-area). I am not going to mention the ticket cost, because it might have some minor change, but in general it will be varied below 50.000 rupiah per person. Using this transportation is not convenient for you who carry a big suitcase or luggage.
Unregistered Private Cars - not recommended: once you getting out of the arrival gate you will be approached and offered by men (with or without uniform) to use their delivery service. They use private cars whether it belongs to them or not. They have no driver ID and photo in their dashboard or door ID number. They also don't use any Taxi meter, and deal the cost directly with you. Unless you are familiar in negotiating with this kind of transportation, I suggest that you just smile and wave them out. No need to have a conversation with them if you are not interested in hiring their service.
Hotel Pick Up Car:this should be an easiest thing to choose. If the hotel you chose has a booth inside the arrival gate area, you might just go there directly and confirming your booking number or else. If not, you might have to open your eyes wide open to read some hand writing or printed notification that some people display at the side of pick up line at the outer exit area. It's just the same method occur at most airport arrival gates around the world. The officer who picks you up have to wear their uniform and ID card, especially if they work for 4 - 5 star hotel in Jakarta. Remember, always watch out your things and baggage just in case there is a pick pocket in action. So far, I barely heard the cases of pick pockets or other minor criminal in Soekarno Hatta Airport, but please don't left any of your belongings behind, because it is almost impossible to have them back.
"Ojek" (motorcycle unregistered transport) - not recommended: this is unique. Ojek will not be a safe and good long distance transportation for getting out of Soerkarno Hatta Airport, because it cannot go to the Toll or Free way, and it will lose speed from 4 wheel vehicles and has a high risk of getting accident, beside it cannot carry your big suitcase. But later on, this kind of transportation could be very friendly and effective for tourists to beat the traffic jam in the city areas.

Standard Airport Taxi

Silver Class Taxi

Premium Taxi

Anyway, please take a note that using any kind of official registered taxi from the Airport to the City will subject you an additional surcharge cost at your arrival later. It is just a small amount of money less than 1 US$. Beside the surcharge, you should prepare the Toll/Free way charge, in total of 12.500 rupiah to get in to the Jakarta City area. So the total cost of the taxi (only applied from Airport to the City) should be:

Taxi meter cost in rupiah+Surcharge in rupiah+Toll charge in rupiah

Giving an additional tip to the taxi driver should be base on your review but very much appreciated. I would say at least 10% of total Taxi cost will be adequate.

Internal district transportation :

Ojek (motorcycle or bicycle): is an effective transportation in rural and residential area which has convenient radius of 0 to 15 km at most. I kind of say that this is a semi official transportation, because it is illegally carrying passenger for a commercial use without a proper helmet and a legitimate plate number (black plate number is used for a private vehicle and not for any commercial transportation propose) that they usually do, but it is also legal to carry somebody as long as you obey the traffic rules and regulations. In short summary: you can't sue them if any accidents happen to you due to the driver mistakes. Anyway, it is a lot of fun to those tourists who want to try Ojek, so why don't you try an adventure with it ? Motorcycle Ojeks will be found in all over the places in Jakarta, while Bicycle Ojeks usually operate in the north of Jakarta near Fatahilah Museum, Bahari Museum, Mangga Dua area, and Train Station near Glodok. If you are interested in hiring their service, negotiate the price and the exact destination first. Cost will varies from 10.000 to 50.000 rupiah or more per person (1 passenger per vehicle), depends on how good are you in negotiating.
Bajaj: is a very noisy and smokey vehicle. They are supposed to be in residential area only. This is an official transportation (with yellow plate) and looks like Tuk Tuk in Thailand. It can carry maximum 2 adult passengers. Bajaj is not a favorite transportation for the most tourists, because of its high pollution and limited coverage area. However, regarding its high pollution level, Jakarta government has proposed to gradually replace the old model of Bajaj with the Gaseous Fuel Bajaj that significantly reduce their high pollution number into normal limit.
Mikrolet: is a blue front engine SUV mostly produced by Toyota second assembly company. Some other are mini buses manufactured by Suzuki second assembly company. In rural area, you may find them in green or red color and are called "Tuyul". People usually use Mikrolet or Tuyul as a connecting transport between their home and bigger transportation spots like Trans Jakarta Bus pick up points, or to the traditional market, or to school, or to bus central terminal. Mikrolet cover most of residential roads, so that they can not go faster than Ojek or Taxi, because they will stop where ever the passenger want them to stop. It is a cheap public transport with no air conditioner. The cost is based on how long the distance you will go from your pick up point, and usually decided by the driver.
Taxi: literally it is the same Taxi, but I'm emphasizing that a Taxi can be used anywhere to everywhere you would like to go. Using a Taxi in the residential area sometime is just to close in distance, but as long as you are preparing additional or extra tips, it's just find. Have fun with them.

Mikrolet

Bajaj

Ojek (bicycle)

Inter-district transportation:

Metromini/Kopaja: is a micro bus. In some routes they have air conditioners, but most of them don't. Having a longer distance coverage than a mikrolet, Metromini/Kopaja is connecting two different district area or even municipality. Metromini is red while Kopaja has white with green line color appearance. They are old, result high pollution, always speeding up when racing to get a passenger with others, and in view cases they are turned up side down because of speeding up and losing control. In some area, even pick pockets or robbers are doing their job inside. But thanks to the Governor, because starting this year there will be a big unit replacement and rearrangement of their management to several years ahead. There is still 1 positive point of Metromini and Kopaja that I always keep in mind, that they have uphold the passenger satisfaction in all time, by granting any order to stop where ever and when ever on the street immediately. Ha ha ha this is actually an irony but it is real. So please be careful choosing this kind of transportation.
Regular Bus and PATAS: is a old transportation preceding the latest Trans Jakarta Bus system. They don't occupy the Trans Jakarta Bus line, otherwise they are operating on regular public road. PATAS is an abbreviation of "Cepat dan Terbatas", which has the same meaning with "Fast and Limited". It means that they have a limited spots to stop compared to the regular buses, so that they will arrive faster to the same end destination with the other regular bus. PATAS is also supposed not to pick up passengers more than its seat capacity. Of course, PATAS cost is double or more than a regular bus, but still plus minus 10.000 rupiah no matter the distance.
Taxi: still a good recommendation to choose. Please choose the top rank taxi only to avoid any inconveniences.
Boat to Thousand Island:is a special transportation connecting Jakarta mainland with Thousand Island district in the north of Jakarta. The traditional boat can be found in Muara Angke pier (near Pluit), and if you choose to use a modern speed boat you may go to Marina Ancol pier in Taman Impian Jaya Ancol area. There are other ports like Dadap-Kamal pier, Cilincing pier, etc, but I suggest only this 2 piers because of their close location to the T-Area. Try to go to an island that has more than 2 hours distance if you would like to see a cleaner water.

Kopaja

Metromini

City transportation :

Taxi: well as I told you before, this transportation will be your major option to ride on Jakarta's roads and streets, especially for your first visit. It is not totally problem-free, but it is private and the most convenient transportation with air conditioner.
Trans Jakarta Bus:is the latest and the most modern overland transportation that uses air conditioned bus. It has its own path that supposed to be sterile from the other kind of vehicle. Less than 1 US$ ticket per person, but no guarantee you will get a free seat especially just before and after office hour. It covers the main routes of protocol and main street in Jakarta. Different color meaning different routes. So that, when you alight at your destination and depart from the opposite site of the Trans Jakarta stopping point later, don't forget to make sure that you get the same route of Bus delivering you back to the point of origin. If you are not sure, please ask around. In general, Trans Jakarta Bus is safe and no speeding up, but you can only alight at the stopping point, unlike Metromini or Kopaja.
Well-known motorcycle Ojek: I'm not talking about Ojek in common anymore. Imagine how Ojek can do a sharp maneuver when you have to pass a very narrow alley avoiding some incidents or traffic jam ahead, that no 4 wheeler can ever do. Imagine that you are a backpacker that only have little budget for a luxurious Taxi, but you want to visit a dense settlement to capture how is live going on there. Yeap, you need an agile and very mobile transportation which is Ojek. A lot of motorcycle Ojeks stationed in every tip of an alley in Jakarta. I suggest that if you have plans to explore Jakarta deep into its crowded settlement, hire an Ojek. You can start by talking to each rider around, decide which rider you like and seems reliable, ask him whether he can be hired to deliver, wait, and take you back to the point of origin, if he is free, record his mobile phone number, and you know the rest. One more thing, try to ask a helmet or you can buy one if you really need it. Riding a motorcycle without any proper helmet especially in the protocol and main roads is not safe and forbidden by Law, unless you are willing to take the risk.
Train: is actually connecting Jakarta with other adjacent cities like Depok, Bekasi, Bogor, and Tangerang, but since some stations are inside Jakarta (in china town, Sudirman street, Gambir center station, Kemayoran, in front of State Palace, etc), you may try to use it somehow.

Trans Jakarta Bus - Blue

Trans Jakarta Bus - Red

Trans Jakarta Bus - Grey

Long-to-be-remembered transportation:

Becak: is an old transportation using man to pedal a three wheel vehicle where the passengers are sitting in the front seat. After considering it is not fit the humanity, Jakarta's government stopped its operation years ago. But in suburb area and remote cities, Becak can still be found and used. Like rickshaw in Hongkong, Becak has its own historical value to Jakarta city.
Bemo: is the ancestor of "Tuyul". It looks like Bajaj from the front side, but the passengers seats are inline like the one in Mikrolet and Tuyul. It also has a high pollution number which make the government stop its operation permit.
Helicak: is a motorized Becak, so that the rider is not using any pedal to move it. Present at the time when 2-stroke motorcycle is still available in Indonesia, the same reason of over polluting the air, results another ban from the local government. Nowadays all of the motorcycle producers in Indonesia are only manufacturing 4-stroke engine motorcycle.