House of Danar Hadi — Attraction in Surakarta

Visited this museum on my trip to Solo and I must say that I was totally surprised from my visit there. Keep in mind that you should not come during the midday hours since they have a break from 11:30AM to 1PM as this was the case with me. Therefore you had plenty of opportunities to see the batik mode collection shops alongside the cosy restaurant which is located in the same compound. The entrance hall consists of a big batik shop where you can purchase your museum ticket as well as it is located right behind the main hall. Upon entering the actual museum, you will be given a guide to go through the exhibition complex telling you about the arts, history, use and all the different forms and production steps of batik as well. As for foreigners, the guides do speak really good English with a wide proficiency as well (with Indonesian accent of course). Taking pictures inside the museum is actually prohibited as the museum is a copyright protected area. Apart from that, touching those batik fabrics exhibited there was not allowed as well since those fabrics are 50+ years old. During the tour, you will get the chance to see a batik workshop and see how people are actually processing it. You can even have the chance to try it out yourself which I found to be really awesome. In my conclusion, if you are interested in batik arts, this is definitely a must go because you don't get that experience anywhere...

Amazing tour of the batik museum / collection! 🤎🤎🤎 Very reasonably priced at Rp. 35k for adults and 15k for local students. I went alone and my guide Yori (if I remember his name correctly) was great!! He was very informative but also warm, personable, and funny. Thanks again :)

Timing 🕰️: The tour usually takes 45 mins to 1 hour, but mine took 1 and a half cause I asked heaps of questions 😅 So it depends on how curious you are! :) Accessibility ⚠️♿️: There’s around 10 rooms (from memory) and no seating area so I would recommend this able-bodied people that can stand for long periods of time. Unfortunately, most of the batik pieces are on low platforms so you have to crouch, squat, or bend over to view them which hurt :(( There’s a few steps of stairs to get to each room. You also cannot drink or eat inside so I got a little thirsty and pusing at the end :( The toilets are also a little far from the museum section. Service: Tour guide was amazing!! But cashier ladies were a little rude lol, didn’t really smile and had no patience for my broken Indonesian 😭😭

TLDR great tour with a little accessibility issues and some minor service hiccups...

I went with my family to check out the museum. Upon first encounter, the staff at the shop already came off as unfriendly (not greeting us nor returning back our greetings). The old lady at the cashier whom I took as a tour guide was a bit passive aggressive as well. This was the exact opposite with how she treated a white couple in front of us. We couldn't join the tour along with the couple as she thought that we didn't understand English. I get where she's coming from, but to not even ask us nor offer the possibility for us to join the tour comes off as condescending to me. She also told us that we could just buy something instead of just looking around (this, too, was in a condescending tone).

We left, not really feeling welcomed there. It was a pity, since we visited Batik Keris Museum and had a wonderful experience with the staff and the tour guide, and was hoping that we could have a similar experience here. There was also no photography restriction whatsoever at Batik Keris, so I would recommend going...