Thousands of stalls
Batik at wholesale prices.
Aqilla Rahmi — CC BY 4.0 · businesssolo — CC BY 3.0 · Ihavebeenknowing — CC0
Solo's largest batik and textile market and one of Indonesia's biggest, a multi-storey building of thousands of small packed stalls beside the Great Mosque and the sultan's palace. Its name comes from the cloths vendors once slung over their shoulders to hang down, klewer in Javanese. It burned in 2014 and was rebuilt. Here you find every kind of batik: fabric by the metre, shirts and dresses, abayas and headscarves, and prayer cloths, often at wholesale prices. The ground floor is the busiest and the upper floors calmer. Around the market, stalls serve local Solo dishes. Entry is free and bargaining is expected, so start at about half the asking price. Watch your belongings in the crowds. Come in the morning before the heat and crowds, and know what you want before going in, as the market is a maze. After shopping, pray at the neighbouring Great Mosque.
Batik at wholesale prices.
For Muslim shoppers.
And palace on one route.
Beside the Great Mosque and the palace's north square, Solo
Great Mosque of SurakartaThe royal mosque of the Surakarta sultanate, built by Sultan Pakubuwono III in t2 minutes walk
Kasunanan Palace of SurakartaThe palace of the sultans of Surakarta, founded by Sultan Pakubuwono II in 1745 3 minutes walk
Fort VastenburgAn eighteenth-century Dutch fort at the heart of Solo, built near the sultan's p8 minutes walk
Pura Mangkunegaran PalaceSolo's second palace, seat of the Mangkunegara princes since the mid-eighteenth 13 minutes walk
House of Danar HadiA batik museum in an elegant old mansion on the main Slamet Riyadi avenue, found17 minutes walkKlewer is cheaper and more varied for quantity; Laweyan is finer and pricier, and you see batik being made. Cheap gifts at Klewer, special pieces at Laweyan.