Ciamis

Ciamis is a city in the East Parahyangan region of Western Java, Indonesia.

By car
Ciamis is along the main road of the Southern Java Route that runs from Bandung to Yogyakarta. To get to Ciamis from Bandung, you will need to take the road over the Nagreg mountain pass. The journey takes about 3 hours if traffic conditions are good. However, serious traffic congestion is common on the mountain pass road. The larger city of Tasikmalaya is just west of Ciamis, and by car the journey from Tasik's city centre to Ciamis takes about 30 to 45 minutes.

By train
is in the city centre. There are four daily economy class trains to the west (to Bandung and Jakarta) and four to the east (2 to Purwokerto, 1 to Surabaya and 1 to Kediri). In addition, there is one daily business class train to Surabaya that also calls at Yogyakarta and Solo.

By bus
Many buses on the Southern Java Route drop off and pick up passengers in Ciamis. is on the southern side of the city. However, as the terminal is a bit off the main road, bus drivers do not always stop there but sometimes just let passengers get off along the main road. From Jakarta, most buses that call at Ciamis depart at Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in East Jakarta (mostly buses with destination Cilacap or Pangandaran). There are also very frequent buses during daytime from the Cicaheum terminal in East Bandung. In Bandung, it is also an option to wait for buses at the Cileunyi toll gate, as all buses from Jakarta towards Ciamis pass there. From other destinations, such as Cirebon, it is usually easier to get on a bus to the city of Tasikmalaya first, and then get on another bus or minibus (or hire an ojek motorcycle taxi) to Ciamis.

Get around
There are also small size public transportation which reach almost every corner of the town. These transportation are differentiated with route number, each route number serves a particular places. People can use an ojek (motorcycle taxi) to go to places outside the public transportation routes.

Do
The town itself is pretty quiet, the business activities are not much. People usually come to the central park (Alun-alun) with their family to rest and enjoy the park. There are several tourist places outside Ciamis that are worth a visit. One of the possibilities of attraction is to visit or spend a night or two at local village such as Jelat Village. They are offering experiences of village life along with the delicious traditional meals. Walking and biking tracks are available at the village, along with its scenery.

Buy
There are no special store for souvenirs in town selling traditional items. It is possible to find ordinary farmers hat, or bamboo matrasses but nothing special.

Eat
There are many small restaurants that sell local food. A typical snack from Ciamis is galendo. Galendo is a sweet snack that was a byproduct of the coconut oil production process. Coconut milk is boiled until dry, and then the oil is separated from the pulp. The pulp is often mixed with other flavours, such as chocolate or strawberry. Nowadays, the galendo is more expensive than the coconut oil, so it is no longer a byproduct.

Sleep
Hotels in Ciamis are usually full during weekends, as many domestic tourists stay here when they want to go to Pangandaran beach.

Connect
The telephone area code of Ciamis is 0265.

Go next

 * Tasikmalaya — the largest city in the region, 15 km from Ciamis.
 * Pangandaran — the nearest beach town, popular among both locals and foreign tourists.
 * Kuningan — small town north of Ciamis, from where you can visit Mount Ciremai National Park.