With stylish rooms, a magnificent rooftop restaurant and a huge pool, Alila Solo sets standards. Breathtaking views from the lounge and delicious breakfasts will make you forget any small imperfections.
Review #43
Table of contents
Location
Alila Solo is located in the city of Surakarta in Central Java, Indonesia. The city is colloquially known as Solo after the river that runs through it – hence the name of the hotel.
With its own airport, the region is well connected and an ideal base for tours to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Borobudur and the beautiful mountains of Java.
Getting there
We arrived from our previous hotel, the Sheraton Mustika Yogyakarta, but due to unavailable earlier slots at Boroburdur temple we first visited the site en route to Solo and after sightseeing we drove two and a half hours over the mountains through beautiful scenery to Alila Solo in the afternoon.
How to get to Alila Solo
The vast majority of travellers will probably arrive at Adi Soemarmo Airport in Surakarta. From there it is a quick 20 minute drive to the hotel. If you are arriving directly from Yogyakarta by express train, the nearest station, Stasion Purwosari, is only a 5 minute drive down the road.
As is the case almost everywhere in Asia, everything is within easy reach using grab, without having to discuss prices and turn on the taxi meter.
Check-in
We were greeted warmly at Alila Solo’s driveway and helped to unload our luggage. We then had to go through an airport-style security gate and were then directed to reception.
The lady checked us in in a very friendly manner, everything went very quickly, was well prepared and professional. We were immediately served a very tasty cold traditional drink and given basic information about the hotel. We were then immediately asked if we wanted to make a reservation for dinner at the rooftop restaurant. This was done in no time at all – the receptionist set the time herself 😉
As we asked if there was also a lounge available at the hotel, the Guest Relations Officer kindly granted us access for our one-night stay, even though admission was not originally included in our room rate and we would not have been granted automatic access due to our rather low World of Hyatt status as Discoverist.
Finally, I rang the Gong to let everyone know we were in the hotel – which by now has almost become a tradition.
Alila Solo at a glance
Alila Solo has a total of 255 rooms, of which only 9 are suites – 4 smaller Executive Suites, 4 Alila Suites with private pool and the Presidential Suite. Accordingly, getting upgraded to a suite – which is only possible at the highest status level in World of Hyatt anyway – is a little difficult here. The rooms are all the same size and vary only in terms of furnishings and, of course, location – considering the hight of the floor.
The hotel tower has 30 floors in total, with the lobby on the first floor – so you have to drive up a ramp to the reception. The main restaurant, where breakfast is served, is also located on the lobby level. The pool, spa and gym are on the 6th floor. The rooftop bar is on the 29th floor and the lounge can be found on the 30th floor.
The whole hotel is quite remarkable as it stands out so much from the cityscape due to its height. In general, the hotel is very chic, but on closer inspection it does look a little worn here and there. Nevertheless, it is certainly the best address in town. This is certainly one of the reasons why the Alia Solo has a huge ballroom situated on the ground floor for hosting weddings and the like.
Room
We booked a Standard Room, and as we only have Discoverist status with Hyatt, that’s exactly what we got. Fabi had cheekily asked for a suite upgrade via WhatsApp well in advance of our arrival, but received a very friendly refusal. Room 1110 with 40 square metres on the 11th floor was reserved for us.
As you can see from the floor plan, the building has a really interersting shape, almost like a star. As a result, there is a lot of wall space created, which means that all the rooms get the same amount of window space, plus a large window in the bathroom. The layout is mirrored horizontally and vertically, which gives it it´s special shape, which also means that each room has a slightly different layout.
Welcome
A small welcome gift of two different types of biscuits, a welcome letter and a letter with information about possible activities was waiting for us in our room as we arrived.
Entrance area
Inside the room you will find yourself in a small hallway just behind the door. To the left is the bathroom and to the right is the wardrobe with plenty of space for a suitcase. In the built-in wardrobe you will find your bathrobes, slippers, iron and ironing board, safe and everything necessary for laundry as well as a hairdryer inside the top drawer.
Next to the wardrobe is the sideboard with an empty minibar and placed on the worktop everything you need to prepare tea and instant coffee.
Living room and bedroom
Straight ahead is the combined living and sleeping area. Here you will find a very comfortable king-size bed with two different pillows per person and a large blanket. There are bedside tables with drawers to the left and right and storage space on both sides. On the right is a small pad with a pen as well as the telephone.
At the very back of the room, in front of the window, is an inbuilt couch. This is a great place to relax and enjoy the views. Next to it right by the the wall is a fairly large desk, which is a good place to work on. There are also some charging points.
And fun fact: there’s a card in each room telling you that you’re not allowed to wear your bathrobes and slippers in the corridors. I can only hazard a guess as to the reason for this – but it must have something to do with the Muslim faith, which is prevalent in Central Java.
As a result, you will definitely have to change for the pool and spa on site and cannot just jump into your swimming trunks in your room, throw on your robe and go downstairs.
Bathroom
The bathroom was relatively large considering the size of the room. The washbasin with sink, amenities, water for brushing teeth and towels is built in to the right of the passage door. Directly opposite is the toilet behind frosted glass and straight ahead is the really nice, large shower with its own seating area opposite the large window. I think it’s quite unique that every room in such a large hotel features its own large window with a view of the city inside the shower!
View
Well the view – it’s really impressive! As you can see from the pictures, the city is quite flat, so you can see really far across the whole city. Our room was only located on the 11th floor out of 30. So it only gets better the higher up you go.
The sofa in front of the window is very comfortable and looks great, but it also blocks the access to your window quite a bit. I love standing right next to the floor-to-ceiling window and soaking in the view. Here we had to climb on the couch to take proper pictures. But that’s a matter of taste I guess…
Lounge
Located on the top floor above the rooftop bar, the lounge is really something to savour. In fact, the Alila Solo management has decided to reserve the best view of the entire hotel for guests with lounge access. So you either have a more expensive room with lounge access or the highest status in World of Hyatt – only then can you get in. Usually there aren’t that many guests. Which makes it all the more impressive that this decision was made.
The Sky Lounge, also known as the Club Lounge, is beautifully decorated and offers delicious snacks in the evening along with a selection of wine, beer, cocktails and soft drinks. The food is served as a small buffet, the quality was really good and the quantity was meant as a small snack before dinner. The cocktails were delicious, but the white wine was definitely not recommended. Indonesia is just not a wine country – and that’s OK, I just kept forgetting about it. The service is really quite slow and the drinks we ordered took quite a long time to find their way to us.
But the real highlight, of course, is the view. To be able to look out over the whole of Surakarta – the sea of lights at night and the mountains during the day – is truly unique and amazing.
Hotel activities
Pool
The really spacious pool is located on the 6th floor on the roof of the extension building. There are sun loungers and seating. The area is nicely landscaped and there are some trees to provide shade, but it is quite remarkable that there are no parasols.
This may be due to the fact that the wind is constantly blowing quite strongly on the 6th floor, as there are no other obstacles in the entire valley. Nevertheless, a little shade would be nice for a whole day by the pool, wouldn’t it?
At the exit to the pool we had to give our room number and were given our towels. This is also where the service is based – not really a bar, but you can order here.
Kid´s Pool
If you turn right twice circling around the building, you will also find the small children’s pool on the 6th floor, directly in front of the Kid’s Club. Again, only a few trees provide shade.
Fitness Center
The rather large gym is well equipped and offers everything you would expect from your home gym. All the equipment is on the ground floor, with a classroom upstairs. Water, cold towels and small sports towels are also available.
Spa
The spa at Alila Solo offers separate areas for men and women in a culturally appropriate manner. At the time of our stay, the spa was open from 9:00 to 21:00. As we arrived just before 8pm, there was a small rush at reception and a quick glance at the clock. Nevertheless, we were let through and shown the way to the changing rooms.
Certainly, I can only report about the men’s side here. The spacious changing area was really well designed, tidy and clean – but unfortunately it was all downhill from there. The actual spa area is dominated by two elevated pools that you have to climb a few steps to get to. There is no real entrance to neither, so you either stand on the edge of the pool and take a very large step down to the seating area, or you sit on the edge of the pool and then swing your legs into the water. Of both I don´t think are really ideal.
The big pool is very warm. I´m talking really, really warm. I like it quite warm in the bathtub, but even for me this temperature was the upper limit of what I could stand for more than two minutes. The second pool was an ice-cold plunge pool. So you can do great full body Kneipp treatments at Alila Solo if desired.
Both pools are passed their best time and the tiles were beginning to show signs of damage. The water in the large, warm pool was obviously not treated the right way (or at all), no longer smelled good and was already a little cloudy. The water quality should have been checked as a matter of urgency.
There is also a sauna and steam room, although the latter was unfortunately closed for ‘maintenance’.
The fact that the two pools are built on top of the floor of the room, but the ceiling height is the same as in all the other rooms, makes the whole area feel strangely squat and low. Furthermore, the entire room is almost completely taken up by the pools. There is no opportunity to lie down or relax outside the water, let alone read.
All these issues make this part of the spa look really sad – which I think is quite a shame. The whole building is so beautifully designed and spacious. Why has this space been so poorly designed? For me, it’s all or nothing – the area will almost certainly be a disappointment to most guests and therefore rarely used. So. Get it right or just leave it.
But what do you think of this topic? Let us know in the comments. We look forward to reading about it!
Kid´s Club
The children’s play area is located on the 6th floor just behind the children’s pool. Unfortunately, we can’t say much about it. While we were there, we couldn’t really take a look inside. However, the Kid’s Club looks good from the outside.
Tours
Unless the Indonesian side of your family is celebrating a wedding here, there are few reasons to stay at Alila Solo. Certainly, it´s convenient location in Surakarta is one of two options for visiting the temple complex of Borobudur if you are travelling by plane. Otherwise, you can set out from here on one of the many tours into the beautiful nature of Central Java.
Restaurant
Restaurant
We couldn’t miss the opportunity to eat at Agra rooftop restaurant the evening we spent at the hotel. The restaurant has a strict rule that you can’t enter wearing flip-flops – of course I was wearing my flip-flops that night and was immediately turned away. To be honest it was a bit annoying, but I think it’s good that there are rules and they have to be obeyed. So I just went downstairs and quickly changed my shoes at the room.
So as Fabi was already sitting at a table I got a bit lost at the entrance area as I couldn’t find the exit to the terrace – and no one helped me to find the way either. Eventually I found my way in the end after asking for directions at the bar.
We each ordered a pizza and a drink. The drinks came from the bar located on the rooftop and easily took a quarter of an hour, but never mind – the view was beautiful and we enjoyed it. When the two pizzas arrived, they each came with a cake server as cutlery – a bit odd, don´t you think? We asked for a proper knife and fork but it took a good 10 minutes for the cutlery to arrive at our table, but by then we had obviously eaten almost half of the pizza.
Unfortunately, the service here was also a little slow and not well trained, but on the other hand extremely friendly and courteous.
Breakfast
Breakfast was not actually included in our room rate at Alila Solo, but as we have been granted access to the lounge for this one night, we were able to have breakfast here as well. Like the night before, there were some delicious small dishes at the buffet but also selected dishes from a menu.
We were able to choose our seats and were asked for our hot drinks and menu choices. Unfortunately, the service in the morning took quite a long time. However, the quality of the food was really excellent and in addition to the main buffet there were local delicacies on an extension.
I am often slightly overwhelmed, to say the least, by huge buffets and endless menus to choose from over breakfast. The small but fine selection offered at Sky Lounge here at Alila Solo was ultimately more than enough for me. There was a little bit of everything you could want and all dishes were really delicious. Add to that the fantastic view over the whole city an all the way to the mountains – what more could I ask for?
Check-out
As expected, everything went smoothly, very friendly and competent at checkout in the morning. The invoice was prepared, correct, printed and, at our request, emailed. Unfortunately, this only works on the rarest of occasions – but here it very well did.
Costs
We paid a good IDR 1.6 million for this one night at Alila Solo. At the time of our stay, that was the equivalent of around 95 euros.
Departure and onward journey
We drove from Alila Solo to the airport by grab. As usual, getting a cheap ride was no problem at all. But beware: our departure day was Sunday and one of the main roads was closed due to a car-free day. This meant that all cars had to take a detour, which led to a complete traffic jam. So instead of 20 minutes, it took us a full 45 minutes to complete the journey and at times we were quite nervous not to miss our flight.
From the airport we took Lion Air to Bali. The short hop will be the review next of week. So if you’re interested, stay tuned – we’re really looking forward to it!
Conclusion
Alila Solo is an amazing hotel. A huge 5-star hotel tower in a medium-sized Indonesian city – that is quite remarkable. The check-in and check-out experience was very pleasant. A free upgrade to the club lounge, really beautifully designed rooms, a great gym and a huge pool in the middle of the city. That’s something.
We put Alila Solo in our lifestyle category.
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Recommendation
We recommend Alila Solo to all travellers. Solo travellers, couples, business travellers and families are all well catered for.
Hotel Homepage
Rating
We award Alila Solo 9 out of 10 possible points.
Basically, everything was good here. Our expectations were rather exceeded, but we still deduct a point for the friendly but very, very slow service and the strangely sad-looking indoor pool area.
Go there?
We´d say: Yes. You can find good accommodation here and the value for money is absolutely right!
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