Raffles Jakarta

Is it a classic colonial-style Raffles, or a sleek contemporary skyscraper hotel? Perhaps a bit of both. Raffles Jakarta certainly cuts a modern figure from the exterior view, set as it is in a gleaming glass tower in the Indonesian capital’s tony Golden Triangle. Step through its doors, however, and you’re treated to a classic polished-stone lobby, its soaring spaces decorated with oversized artworks by the 20th-century painter Hendra Gunawan. And it’s in the rooms that the synthesis is completed: though they’re unmistakably modern in their comforts, their equipment, and above all their high-rise city views, their style is timeless, with echoes of every era for the past century or more.

The Raffles spa experience is among the most thorough in the world, and here it’s joined by a fitness center, an expansive outdoor pool deck, and even a tennis facility. In addition to the pool bar and the lobby patisserie there’s a Writers Bar, a worthy re-creation of the Raffles Singapore original, as well as the Arts Café, an upscale restaurant serving a wide variety of European and Asian dishes. And while it’s a self-contained luxury hotel experience, it’s by no means an island — it’s connected to Lotte Shopping Avenue, a mixed-use shopping, dining, and entertainment complex, as well as Ciputra Artpreneur, a major theatre and gallery space.