Everything you need to know about the best markets in Jakarta: The Complete Market Guide.
This is the ultimate Jakarta Market Guide ideal for travelers who want to explore the fascinating collection of local traditional markets in the Indonesian capital.
As you might expect for a city its size, Jakarta has literally hundreds of markets to explore. For the average domestic or international tourist visiting Jakarta, it can be a daunting task even seeing a sample of what the city has to offer in terms of markets.
This often results in visitors not truly experiencing where locals shop or how they shop before they leave the city.
Due to Jakarta’s massive land area and population, there is pretty much a market specialized in anything that you could be potentially looking for.
Jakarta Markets for Market Lovers
If you are looking for gems, there’s a market in Jakarta for that. If you are looking for pets, there are multiple pet markets. If you are looking for gold, there’s a gold market. If you’re looking for amazing Indonesian-made batik, there are multiple markets available for you. If you are looking for antiques and wooden crafts there also markets available throughout the city.
Let’s not forget about local fruit, vegetables, meat, and seafood.
Jakarta has several, massive produce markets that sell all kinds of vegetables and fruits that are locally grown in Indonesia (and elsewhere). Pasar Induk Kramat Jati, for instance, is one of the largest fruit and vegetable markets, ANYWHERE.
If you head north of the Monas towards Ancol you will find more seafood markets close to the water.
Jakarta also has a variety of street markets and also markets that are located in large multistory concrete buildings.
Ultimately, it really depends on what you are looking for.
Petak Sembilan Market, for instance, is one of Jakarta’s best street markets. It is located right in the middle of Chinatown. What makes it so cool is that it is still a functioning marketplace for, unlike many other Chinatown markets you will find around the world.
Another added bonus of visiting markets in Jakarta is that they are supremely under-visited by both domestic and international tourists. Meaning that if the exact same market were located in another Asian city such as Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh for instance, then there would be literally hundreds (or even thousands) of more tourists visiting each market per day.
This makes Jakarta’s markets a frontier traveler’s dream in terms of checking them out without having to deal with tour buses filled with flocking tourists taking photos all over the place.
Jakarta’s markets, for the most part, still remain traditional, filled with local culture and fascinatingly non-touristy.