Cakra Homestay Solo RedPartner

We had a wonderful time at the Cakra Homestay. Located near a good area with walking distance to many great markets and places. The hosts were friendly. There is a restaurant on the property with nice food and drinks. The property itself is beautiful and very historic. The cost of accomodation is very affordable. The room is spacious. The AC works very well. Important to know that the toilet is a traditional Indonesian shower/WC. That is using water from a faucet for the shower and toilet flush.

It's stunningly beautiful. The latout is nice. There's a tower with a seating area up top with lovely views of the rooftops of Solo and a coolish breeze in the morning and evening. The room locks with and old fashioned key which I found charming.||||Little thins made it hard to enjoy though. One is that there was only one plug in the room, so every night I had to chose between charging my phone or using the fan to cool the room (I survived by charging my power bank when I was out of the room for the day).||||The first night I killed three cockroaches in my room. The bathroom was iffy clean.||||But worst of all is that I didn't see another guest all three nights I stayed. It was...eerie, like a ghost town. This place just begs to be filled with guests: the turning walkways, the nooks and crannies, the little seating areas around every corner, the gorgeous pool area. I would have loved to had other guests to mingle with here. This place would be great for a large group to stay. But it was just me and...lots and lots of empty rooms.||||Fun fact: the owner's sister is the wife of the owner of Danar Hadi batik and namesake of the business.

No toiletteries, no toilet paper, shower doesn't function, you can't leave the room window open, because then every one can step into your room. That said, you are staying in a large box. Door and window closed, no day light. No hygiene standards. Bed sheet with holes.

The Cakra is breathtakingly beautiful! It's sure to impress you with it's lush gardens and colonial Javanese architecture. ||The staff are very helpful and will jump at the chance to answer any of your questions. We also had a great experience with hiring one of their drivers to show us some of Solo's rural temples. ||For 17ish U.S. dollars, we stayed in the "V.I.P. Room", which featured a large floor plan and antique traditional furniture. All of this was very aesthetically pleasing and looked great in the pictures, but there were definite drawbacks. The mattress was ancient and needed to be replaced, and the room reeked of chemicals (maybe either mothballs or wood preservatives?). ||The pool was a definite plus after a long day exploring the city. It's also very clean and well kept.||The wifi is very spotty. It's great in the early mornings, and sometimes you can find a sweet spot in the complex that picks up reception. ||Overall great experience, but there were a couple small things that really inhibited this homestay from getting a five star rating.

Big old place with a lot of javanese cultural items and decor. We were almost alone in the place which did not play to it's advantage, it felt very empty and dusty. Rooms very basic, not very clean. "Breakfast" was 2 slices of toast with butter. Pool is big and clean. It's allright for a few nights But would not stay for Any longer.

The setting and interiors of the place are amazing - a traditional Javanese compound, full of sculptures and "oldie" charm, like from romantic movies on colonial past. Add atmospheric walkways in from of the rooms, a charming tower in the middle of the compound and a well-kept tropical garden all around and you feel being in a fairy tale. They have a pool which was a real pleasure - especially when we returned quite exhausted from the hike to Gunung Lawu. All for the price of 200k Rp for double room with bathroom and AC - hard to beat!||On the downside - the rooms themselves are rather plain, breakfast was just a toast with jam and self-made tea or coffee. Staff was not really reliable - the caretaker promised to arrange a taxi for us for catching a morning train, then called the taxi service just when we asked him again in the morning and told us "sorry, no taxi". Luckily we still had enough time to reach the station by becak.

Cakra located in a narrow road but you can still access it by car. It is a homestay with many foreign tourists. They stay for couple weeks or months while studying gamelan course here. I choose the cheapest room for two days. The room rate is around 165.000 rupiah a day per room. I took 2 rooms. You will get a room without bathroom inside. But the bathroom is nearby. Fan is too small inside, so we feel so hot all day. Hahahaha. We got our breakfast at 7 in the morning, with toast and tea. The homestay make us feel Solo atmosphere well with the architecture, decoration, and also gamelan course.

Cakra homestay has great potential to be a great guesthouse. The building is just beautiful and the staff are friendly. They don't really speak English but patient with Google translate, though are a little difficult to find in the compound. However I have given a low rating as the bedroom and especially the bathroom looked like they have never been properly cleaned ever. We have stayed in many similar priced guest houses in Java and feel the cleanliness has really let this place down. The mattresses were very old, springy and uncomfortable and lack of glass windows allowed mosquitos into the room.