Sumba
Nearly 11,000 km² of island an hour’s flight beyond Bali, where stone tombs are still raised every year, horsemen fight with spears in early spring, and two resorts hold four MICHELIN Keys between them.
- Arrival
- Tambolaka (Lede Kalumbang) · TMC
- To the resort
- About 50 minutes by car to Cap Karoso, 1 h 30 to NIHI
- Private jets
- 2,300 m runway; customs first elsewhere
- Best time
- April to November
The city
Stone, cloth and horses.
Sumba was once the Sandalwood Island of the European traders. Its old faith, Marapu, honours the ancestors, and the megalithic custom lives on: about a hundred new stone tombs are built each year. The west is the more fertile and populous half; the main port, Waingapu, lies in the east.
The rains fall from December to March. From April to November the island is dry, the days at 31 to 33 °C and the sea at 27 to 30 °C, with hardly any rain from July to October.
- Pasola Mounted horsemen hurling blunted wooden spears at each other across a field in western Sumba, for four weeks in February and March.
- Megalithic tombs Dolmens, standing stones and stone terraces, the largest and most richly carved in the east, kept for the royal clans.
- Ikat Hand-woven cloth, geometric in the west, a single piece sometimes taking months on the loom.
Arriving
An hour from Bali, then the last road.
The airport, renamed Lede Kalumbang, stands about 5 km from Tambolaka in the south-west of the island. Its runway of 2,300 metres takes an A320 or a 737. It is not a port of entry, so a jet from abroad clears customs first at an Indonesian airport that is.
- Bali 1 h 05
- Jakarta 2 h 20
- Hong Kong 5 h 00
- Tokyo 7 h 20 long-range jet
- Dubai 10 h 35 long-range jet
When to go
April to November.
Hot and even, 31 to 33 °C in every month. What changes is the rain: a wet season from December to March, then eight dry months, with August and September down to a few millimetres.
- 32° J 170 30°
- 32° F 160 29°
- 32° M 145 30°
- 32° A 70 30°
- 32° M 35 29°
- 31° J 25 28°
- 31° J 10 27°
- 31° A 5 27°
- 32° S 5 27°
- 33° O 10 28°
- 33° N 40 30°
- 33° D 135 30°
Where to stay
Two resorts on the west coast.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
Where to dine
The best tables on the island.
No MICHELIN Guide covers Indonesia, and Sumba has no restaurant scene of its own. These are the dining rooms of the island’s two top resorts.
- Kaboku Signature restaurant, NIHI Sumba Japanese omakase NIHI Sumba, Wanokaka, south-west coast
- Julang Signature restaurant, Cap Karoso Visiting chefs, farm produce Cap Karoso, west coast, for resort guests
- Ombak Signature restaurant, NIHI Sumba Open-air dining room NIHI Sumba, Wanokaka, south-west coast
Elsewhere in Indonesia
More reasons to come.
- Ubud Rice terraces and temples in the hills of Bali.
- Uluwatu Villas on the cliffs above the surf, in the south of Bali.
- Jakarta A sprawling capital of towers, and Java's old port of Batavia.
- Lombok Beaches, and the Gili islands, just east of Bali.
- Labuan Bajo The gateway to Komodo, its dragons and its islands, best seen from a boat.
Flying to Sumba?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.