Girls' Night Out: Jakarta Nightlife's Best Spots for Women

In this article, I will give you information about the best bars and nightclubs in Jakarta for women (both expats and Indonesians)

This blog may seems to be made for male expats since many posts talk about Jakarta nightlife's naughty spots like spas, massage parlours, girlie's bars.. I also wrote a few articles about the relationships between expats and Indonesian girls, or between expats and bargirls, or about dating Indonesian girls.

If you are a woman, expat or not, living in Jakarta, you should not think that partying here is a masculine thing to do only. On the contrary, there are actually dozens of places that I'm sure you will enjoy, which are clean, classy and where you will not find any prostitutes.

I asked some of my girl friends what were their favourite spots to go to in Jakarta before writing this blog article. I was actually surprised to hear that not all of them like the same bars and nightclubs, and that they may not always be scared to go to places where many ayam party as well.

The reason for that is that many single expat women are looking for single expat men, and one of the best ways to get them is to go to the bars where lots of local girls are. B.A.T.S and Red Square are among these. Of course both are full of hookers, but it is also great to meet young expats. Other venues like Bartele's bars (De Hooi, Cazbar, EP), which are not girlie bars but still "bars for men" are very popular among expat girls, for the same reasons. The ladies night in Blu Martini on Wednesday and in MO bar on Tuesday night are growing in popularity too. More info: Ladies nights in Jakarta.

Many of my friends also told me that girls can be quite fed up with Jakarta's electronic scene. It is true that electronic music, in particular progressive, house and techno is played in 90% of the night clubs in Jakarta. If you enjoy "real" music and social dances, you may not be so pleased with that. This is the reason why many expatriate women told me they loved venues such as Mistere (now Tempus, in Ritz-Carlton) or the Hacienda, which both have Latin/salsa nights. Other bars with "something else than electro" are BBs in Menteng (now closed), Black Cat in Senayan Arcadia, Nine Muses in Kemang (now closed also).

Another important criterion for many of my girl friends was that they appreciate when a bar or a night-club is well-decorated, stylish and clean. The favourites in this range are Immigrant in Plaza Indonesia, Buddha Bar in Menteng, Potato Head in Pacific Place, Dragonfly in Gatot Subroto. These bars always come spontaneously as the best places to go for having a drink with friends. For a date, I was told about Bibliotheque, Capocaccia, Domain, Cork & Screw , Loewy and Face Bar.

At last, good venues for clubbing seems to be South Jakarta's most famous discos, like X2, Dragonfly, Blowfish and Indochine. My friends are in average around 25-30 years-old so none of them talked about Kemang's club. Personally, I think that 365, Venue and Nu China are quite popular among girls, especially Indonesian in their early 20s.

The lesbian scene in Jakarta is very discreet. I have little info about it so I welcome anyone to comment. From what I heard, the only lesbian club in Jakarta is Matra 21. Other venues are "lesbian-friendly", such as Comedy Cafe, Nine Muses and Burgundy in Grand Hyatt. Also, the One Tree Bar in Blok M has a "Lesbo Night" on Monday (or is it Tuesday?).. (Update October 2011: Nine Muses and One Tree Bar are closed)

I hope this post will help you decide where to party at night in Jakarta if you are a woman. I realize that most clubs and bars here target males, but if you aren't too picky, you should not have any trouble having fun here. If you know other venues of Jakarta nightlife popular with girls, please do not hesitate to comment!

Update October 2011: So many venues here have closed! For the latest information about Ladies' nights, you can read my post: Ladies' nights in Jakarta.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/discomate/

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Nightlife Tips