This hotel has two primary merits: it is well priced for this class of hotel and it is only about 200 metres away from the colourful and busy main street of Yogyakarta (Malioboro street). These two important factors make this hotel a prime option for those considering a short visit to Yogya. Downside: wifi in the room is not free and not even cheap.
A few words about the location... The sites you'll want to see are spread out somewhat. Prambanan is on the eastern outskirts of Yogya; Borobrodur is about 40 km northwest of Yogya; the palace/museum/artistic area is in the south-central part of downtown. So staying in the centre of Yogya makes sense if your goal is to see all three of these. Also, staying downtown gives you a direct experience of this authentic Indonesian city. The city has a lot of tourists, but not so much so that everything is oriented towards them. Many of the other hotels in Yogya are not centrally located.
This is a proper, modern, upscale hotel. Exactly what you expect from Melia. I wouldn't call it five-star by European standards (sorry) but it is definitely four star. I was surprised to see how nice the hotel was, given the price. I felt I wanted to stay in a nice hotel during my visit to Yogya. This hotel offered me the chance to do that at a price I could afford.
Comfortable room. Luxurious even, although perhaps the bathtub was slightly on the older side. Huge comfortable bed. A wide range of English stations were available on TV. BVN (Dutch television) was also available.
The hotel puts on an expansive, quality international breakfast buffet. Always appreciated.
The hotel has a charming pool in the courtyard in the middle. It's particularly nice at the end of the day when it starts getting dark.
A few of the downsides, because there are always a few for any hotel....
Wifi is not free in the rooms. Come on, Melia!! How can a hotel like this justify not having free wifi in the rooms?? It's starting to become incomprehensible that a quality hotel would not do this.
I chose this hotel because, after looking carefully at the photos and reading the reviews, it seemed to me that it might have a solid fitness centre and a pool suitable for doing laps. However, neither turned out to be the case. It can be difficult to ascertain this because hotels go out of their way to produce photos that make the gyms and pools look larger than they are. The fitness centre is merely adequate, with equipment that is perhaps enough to do a maintenance workout. It is not an extensive quality facility (as you find at the Novotel Mangga Dua in Jakarta, for example.) The pool is very nice, but it is not at all suitable for doing laps. So I was disappointed by the fitness facilities. If this is important to you, keep looking.
A personal note....
By this time during my travels through Indonesia, I was longing for the modernity and orderliness of Singapore. Yogyakarta is authentic and fascinating, but it was messy, busy, hardscrabble and hot. After my forays, I was relieved to get back to the hotel. I guess what I'm saying is that I didn't really like Yogya.
It didn't help that during my stay in this city I became quite ill. I'm sure it was nothing relating to this hotel, but something I ate or drank while in town. Perhaps it was too much heat or too little water? My advice is to be very careful where and what you eat while visiting this city. But in the end, you could catch this kind of bug anywhere. Perhaps it was just bad luck.
Are Borobrodur and Prambanan really worth it? There were several things that detracted from the experience.
This city is fortunate to be close to two ancient sites of astonishing beauty and spirituality, but the powers-that-be have not made it easy and cheap for foreigners to get to them. Everyone is working in collusion regarding taxi and tour prices. Getting there by bus -- which ventured to do for Prambanan -- was not easy. Everywhere you go, the traffic is intense. I guess what I'm saying is that getting around Yogya is not a stress-free experience.
Also, at both historic sites, non-Indonesians are simply charged extra to enter. Significantly extra. I'm afraid this enraged me and I was unable to hold my tongue. (If you're on a tour of some kind, perhaps you won't even notice this though.)
The sites themselves are not well signed. They're not signed at all. You may want to read up on it before you go.
Most of the visitors (locals, from what I could see) didn't really seem to respect the spirituality of the place. I think you may want to time your visit to avoid crowds. At Prambanan, I took the train to Candi Sewu and got out there. This site was more to my liking because I practically had it all to myself.
These sites have been undergoing extensive restoration, so much of what you see is not authentic. I heard one exasperated tourist ask his guide, "But is this sculpture original?" The tour guide was unable to answer.
In retrospect, my photos of these ancient sites (and Yogya too actually) have a certain "wow" factor. I suppose in the end it is worth it.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
