It's a difficult review to write as we have quite mixed feelings about our stay.
Let's start with our first impression. We arrived and we were not really greeted or introduced, but rather 'here is your room' style. Then, the booked bungalow 'kreasi' I'd definitely not recommend — it's on the very top of the hill, next to the chickens of the neighbor, burnt rests of banana trees and rubbish on the floor. Only basic furniture — nothing to put your clothes. Overall not so nice.
When we mentioned this to Evi, the manager, she was empathetic and really tried her best to help and she did, with organizing 3/5 nights in other bungalows. This is in general something very positive to highlight. Also Ira's lunch is unbeatable — so delicious! As well she's taking requests.
Then to the whole ambience and surroundings — we were very disappointed by the state of the coral reef and the water quality close by. Very murky and the corals around almost all dead. Overall a lot of trash on the island and one can see it's not treated as a national park — above and below water. Therefore our stay on Karimunjawa in general was a bit disappointing.
To top this off — it's absolutely impossible to get the tickets to and from the island by yourself. (the app won't accept any form of payment apart from local bank accounts) One basically has to ask for help. And here Alam kita is 'offering their help' with a surcharge of 50%!
In the context of the overall cost of staying there, which I believe is unjustified for Indonesian standards, this is not a lot, but it really feels like a rip off.
To conclude, we had mixed feelings staying there — we had very nice moments, for example the sunset on the jetty, but we would not come back and we would not recommend.
Let's start with our first impression. We arrived and we were not really greeted or introduced, but rather 'here is your room' style. Then, the booked bungalow 'kreasi' I'd definitely not recommend — it's on the very top of the hill, next to the chickens of the neighbor, burnt rests of banana trees and rubbish on the floor. Only basic furniture — nothing to put your clothes. Overall not so nice.
When we mentioned this to Evi, the manager, she was empathetic and really tried her best to help and she did, with organizing 3/5 nights in other bungalows. This is in general something very positive to highlight. Also Ira's lunch is unbeatable — so delicious! As well she's taking requests.
Then to the whole ambience and surroundings — we were very disappointed by the state of the coral reef and the water quality close by. Very murky and the corals around almost all dead. Overall a lot of trash on the island and one can see it's not treated as a national park — above and below water. Therefore our stay on Karimunjawa in general was a bit disappointing.
To top this off — it's absolutely impossible to get the tickets to and from the island by yourself. (the app won't accept any form of payment apart from local bank accounts) One basically has to ask for help. And here Alam kita is 'offering their help' with a surcharge of 50%!
In the context of the overall cost of staying there, which I believe is unjustified for Indonesian standards, this is not a lot, but it really feels like a rip off.
To conclude, we had mixed feelings staying there — we had very nice moments, for example the sunset on the jetty, but we would not come back and we would not recommend.