Ports
Tanjung Priok handles over half of Indonesia’s trade — and since March 2025 it is also the country’s first international cruise homeport, with Star Voyager sailing Jakarta–Singapore.
The Port of Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta is Indonesia’s busiest and most advanced seaport: 20 terminals, 76 berths and nearly 17 kilometres of quay, ranked among the world’s top-25 container ports. The passenger side lives at the Nusantara Pura terminal — historically the domestic hub for PELNI’s archipelago ferries, the ships that still stitch together 17,000 islands.
The new chapter opened on 29 March 2025, when Star Cruises’ Star Voyager made Tanjung Priok its homeport alongside Singapore — the first international cruise homeporting in Indonesian history. Government targets follow: cruise facilities are being upgraded at Benoa, Celukan Bawang, Belawan and beyond, aiming at half a million cruise visitors a year.
The port is industrial; the city is 13 kilometres south through famous traffic. Cruise shuttles and pre-booked cars are the sensible options — official Blue Bird taxis and Grab work, but the pier is a 20-minute walk from the port gate. The honest day-trip split: Kota Tua’s Dutch square and Sunda Kelapa’s pinisi schooners close by, or the National Monument and Istiqlal Mosque downtown if the call is long.
THE TIO READ
Jakarta rewards the prepared: this is not a walk-off-the-ship port. Take the ship’s shuttle or book a car for the day (about US$120), do Kota Tua and Sunda Kelapa in the cool of the morning, and keep a two-hour buffer for the return — the traffic does not care about your all-aboard time. The Star Voyager homeporting is the story to watch: Indonesia’s cruise era just started.
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