Hotel Tugu Blitar, unprecedentedly the best hotel and restaurant in Blitar, East Java, is housed in a colonial East Javanese mansion that was built in the 1850s, making it the oldest hotel in Indonesia, with giant white-washed pillars, furniture from the late 19th century and the early 20th century, nostalgic photographs and elegant chandeliers.

To discover the real, unspoiled East Java means a visit to the town and surroundings of Blitar, where most of the remains of Majapahit Kingdom still stand timeless, surrounded by tropical landscape and countryside scenery. It also has a romantic flair of the early days of Indonesia; in fact Blitar is where Soekarno, Indonesia’s first president who proclaimed the independence of this country, was born and buried.