Garut

Garut is a town in the Parahyangan mountain region of Western Java, Indonesia. It's located within Garut Regency.

Understand
In colonial times, Garut was known as 'the Switzerland of Java'. The town is surrounded by various mountains, including the Mount Galunggung volcano in the east, Mount Guntur volcano in the west, and Mount Cikurai volcano (over 2,800 metres high) in the south.

Garut is the capital of Garut regency, which stretches from near Sumedang in the north to the Indian Ocean coast in the south.

By car
Garut is about halfway between the cities of Bandung and Tasikmalaya. To get to Garut from Bandung, you will need to take the road over the Nagreg mountain pass. The journey takes about 2 hours if traffic conditions are good. However, serious traffic congestion is common on the mountain pass road.

By bus
On the northern side of the city, Garut's serves a wide range of local, regional, and intercity buses. There are frequent buses from several bus terminals in Jakarta. For example, there are Primajasa buses from Lebak Bulus terminal in South Jakarta from 05:00-21:00 every half hour (Rp52,000). The journey from Jakarta usually takes about 5 hours, but this heavily depends on traffic conditions.

Regular buses also depart from Cicaheum terminal in East Bandung. In addition, to travel from Bandung to Garut, you may opt to wait at the bus stop near the toll gate in Cileunyi (east of Bandung), because all buses from Jakarta and several other destinations pass here on the way to Garut.

By train
The serves one economy class train per day to and from Jakarta through Bandung and a local train to Purwakarta. The line to Garut is a branch line, and the nearest railway station on the Bandung-Yogyakarta mainline is, about 20 km north of the city. Cibatu station serves a few economy class trains per day to the west (to Bandung) and a few to the east (to Central or East Java).

Get around
Most places in the city of Garut and surrounding areas can be reached by angkot (public minivan). Another option is a traditional andong (horse carriage). To get to more remote places, you will need to hire an ojek (motorcycle taxi).

See
Most of the tourist attractions of Garut are not in the city, but in the surrounding area.

Buy
The most famous type of food from Garut is the dodol snack, a sticky sweet made of coconut milk, jaggery, and sticky rice flour. There are various types of dodol Garut, such as dodol with sesame seeds or nuts, or with fruit such as pineapple, jackfruit, or durian. Dodol is sold by street vendors throughout Garut (both the city and the wider regency). Another thing that is quite famous from Garut is leather products. You can find shoes, jackets, wallets, etc., made of leather in several shops in Sukaregang street.

Eat
Sundanese cuisine is ubiquitous, in restaurants and hotels, as well as in roadside stalls. Examples of popular roadside snacks include nanas goreng (fried pineapples), fried cassava, boiled salted peanuts, and bakwan sayur (vegetable fritters). Apart from that, dodol Garut (as mentioned above in the 'Buy' section) can be found in many places.

Go next

 * Tasikmalaya — larger city to the east, with a wide range of restaurants.
 * Bandung — the provincial capital, and economic and cultural centre.