Purwokerto is a sleepy little town located in the Central Java province, Indonesia.

Understand

Purwokerto is a town of 300,000 inhabitants. Commonly referred as a cross-road between Jakarta and Yogyakarta. The town is located on the foothill of Gunung Slamet volcano, the highest volcano in Central Java. Purwokerto also the main entrance to climb Gunung Slamet. Many of Indonesian famous people originated from Purwokerto, namely Jendral Sudirman, Jendral Gatot Subroto, Soepardjo Roestam etc. Most of those heroic people are honoured as a street name all over Indonesia.

Get in

By plane

Purwokerto can be reached from Yogyakarta's Adisucipto International Airport (JOG), 150 km east of town. Taxi can be hired from Yogyakarta to Purwokerto for a rather steep Rp 600,000.

By bus

The main bus station is Terminal Bus Purwokerto, 4 km to the south of the town center. There are regular services throughout the island, including Jakarta (9 hours), Yogyakarta (4 hours), Semarang (6 hours) and Bandung (6 hours).

By train

Trains to Jakarta take between 7 to 9 hours from the main Purwokerto station. The Argo-class trains (Argo Lawu and Argo Dwipangga) are the best of the lot: most comfortable and fastest. Taksaka is almost as good. These train also cater for Yogyakarta destination.

Get around

Purwokerto is a relatively small town, travelling around town should not be too expensive. You may jog around town for 30 minutes.

By trishaw

Traditional three-wheeled pedal-powered carts known as becak can be found in most part of Purwokerto. Haggle furiously.

See

Purwokerto has many beautiful buildings and monuments.

• Purwokerto Fly-over, is a well known landmark located in front of train station. The flyover was built in 1967.
• Train Station, a Dutch colonial architecture, many Dutch residential building can be located in front of the train station.
• Museum Bank, located in Jalan Bank, a museum dedicated for R.A. Wiriatmaja who pioneer the Indonesian banking system.

Do

Learn

The educational institution in Purwokerto:

• Universitas Jendral Soedirman [1].
• Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto [2].
• Universitas Islam Negeri Walisongo.

Buy

Wet Market

The biggest wet market is Pasar Wage, with many small wet market such as Pasar Manis and Pasar Pon.

Shopping Malls

• Moro, the biggest mall in Purwokerto.
• Sri Ratu, the handphone center.
• Rita Supermarket, the first supermarket in Purwokerto, there are 2 in Purwokerto, one in kebondalem and the other in alun alun.

Handicrafts

Eat

Local delicacies

The following dishes are should be on every traveller's agenda:

• Gudeg, a curry of jackfruit, chicken and egg served with rice, and is the most famous local dish. The most famous gudeg seller is in front of Pasar Manis, Jalan Gatot Subroto.

• Serabi Jalan Bank, available early in the morning is a local favourite. The queue is sometimes very long especially during holiday season.

• Soto Jalan Bank, also available in Jalan Bank.

• Soto Sokaraja, available in Sokaraja, located 4 km west of Purwokerto.

Try also Pringgading, one of the best restaurants in town.

Drink

Sleep

Get out

North

• Baturaden is a resort area on the southern slope of Gunung Slamet.

East

• Sokaraja, famous for soto and gethuk.

South

• Gunung Tugel .

• Cilacap on the south coast is sleepy fishing village.