Tiger Island (Pulau Macan)

When it comes to the thought of Jakarta, it can be easily described with “skyscrapers”, “traffic jams”, “pollution”, “dust”, and “dirty”. No pun intended, I am only stating the obvious. I was so amazed when I arrived to Tiger Island, while it is still technically part of Jakarta, it is yet so much of the opposite from what I just described above.

Tiger Island (Pulau Macan) is one of the smaller islands in part of the Thousands Island (Kepulauan Seribu) area.  We took a small speedboat on a Saturday morning from the Ancol Marina for about 1 hour 30 minutes ride to the island. The speedboat is able to take roughly 30 guests on the larger side. Our group at the time was only 21 guests excluding the boat crew.

Once we hit the 1-hour boat ride, I can start seeing the crystal clear blue ocean – more like a turquois color on the shallower part and onyx blue on the deeper part of the ocean. The line was prominent. The water is so clear that I can see the coral reefs and fishes down below from the boat. I thought I was in heaven.



When we arrived we were greeted by a buffet of food for breakfast. The lady-cook really knows what she is doing. Out of the whole 1 night stay in the island we had five amazing meals.  Everyone I know took seconds on their plate. We cannot stop complementing the lady-cook whenever she comes out from her kitchen to check up on the food.

Before I get into the lodging part, I do have to mention that Tiger Island is an eco-friendly island. One, they generate their own power from solar, and two, you will see many written notices on bathrooms to conserve/save water - Take quick showers and close the tap while shampooing or soaping. The room itself is not like a typical hotel brick-on-brick type of building. It’s a cottage-shack made out of raw woods and bamboos from the trees of the island. There is no proper wall to separate the “room”. Lastly do not even think about AC.


We took the larger place called “Sunset Hut”. The shack itself can take 8 people, but we were there only for party of 5. There were 1 queen bed (for 2 people) and 4 single beds (for 4 people). There was still space available to add 2 more single beds for the 7^th and 8^th persons if we have more people. They provide us with 2 standing electric fans, a speaker stereo to plugin your iPod for your favorite music, and a water dispenser for drinks.

I also have to mention one thing about the bathroom situation. I believe our shack is the only one that has our own private bathroom right next to our shack. The other rooms/shack will have to use the shared-bathroom outside – there are about 6 shared- bathrooms throughout this small island. So if you have issues with the bathroom situation, you might have to take the Sunset Hut to get a private bathroom

Enough about the amenities, I want to get back to the sparkling blue water right in front of our shack.

The deck right in front of our shack has a stairs that allows us to get into the water. We were in the water all day, swimming, kayaking and snorkeling. The water is warm that we could be there all day without getting wrinkles. The island provides all the water equipment for free. The beautiful ocean is in the horizon and by the late afternoon you were given this marshmallow-y sunset view right from your deck. One word: Amazing.

Bottom line, I was very satisfied with the whole trip. It was one night to remember and I cannot wait to go back, perhaps with more people. The more the merrier. :)

For more info and pricing please go to pulaumacan.com

xoxo, Sari Soepono