Aside from the gardens, there's also The Bogor Palace, which was built by Governor General van Imhoff and became the residence of Sir Stamford Raffles during his rule over the islands. Later, in December 1954, the Palace became the historic venue of the Bogor Conference attended by then Prime Ministers of Indonesia (Ali Sastroamidjojo), India (Jawaharlal Nehru), Ceylon (Sir John Kotelawala), Pakistan (Mohammed Ali) and Burma (U Nu), in preparation of and to agree on the convening of the First Asian African Conference. The  Asian African Conference held in Bandung in April 1955 and attended by 29 countries became the collective platform of the Third World in the fight against imperialism and for national independence.   

The Bogor Palace is laid out amidst manicured lawns where hundreds of spotted deer graze.

Near the entrance to the gardens is the Zoological Museum that has a collection of some 300,000 specimens of land and sea creatures from throughout Indonesia. It houses the skeleton of a blue whale, the last rhino found on the Bandung plateau, and the coelacanth “living fossil” fish found in North Sulawesi. 

The Bogor gardens have several branches on Java, Sumatra and Bali, most important of which is the Cibodas Park located further up Mt. Gede at Cipanas. The gardens are beautifully landscaped, and are perfect for strolling.  Here, researchers produced the quinine and coffee for which Java became world famous.