Sumatra > Sumatra Experience

Advantages: Beautiful paradise & relaxation - recommended
Disadvantages: Lack of tourism

We took a trip to Lake Toba just over a year ago on a 4 month backpacking trip round South East Asia and would go back tomorrow given half a chance. It was one of the places we'd heard to much about and our Rough Guide gushed over the natural surroundings and beauty of the place so we knew it had to be one of our top stops. WHERE IS LAKE TOBA? Lake Toba in Sumatra is the biggest lake in Indonesia and is a truly beautiful place worth a visit if ...
...the remaining crater became a lake over time, now containing a central island in it (Samosir Island) over 5km long. The lake itself is around 35km long if I remember correctly, pretty amazing, and quite deep (half a kilometre, you wonder what lurks under there at that depth!). So based on the size of the lake (20 miles?), take a moment to imagine the size of the original volcano... pretty impressive. Toba was populated originally by the Batak from ... Read review

Advantages: see review
Disadvantages: see review

I live here for almost 4 years. The people is so friendly. And its save to travel here. For Example you can walk in these city in the midnight and you can a tour with a free lance tour guide from these city. And if you want to travel trough West Sumatra you can travel from here. You can travel To Lake Maninjau for 1 hour, Lake Singkarak 90 minutes , To Kings Palace "Pagaruyung" about 2 hours, to Mount Singgalang and Merapi 30 minutes, to Padang ... Read review

Advantages: Nice natural living, good for health.
Disadvantages: There is no international airport in the city.

...to tell you a about Jambi in brief. Who know that it might attract you to visit Jambi. Where is Jambi? Jambi is in Southern Sumatra, and geographically it is located between 0°45' to 2°45' south latitude and 101°10' to 104°55' east longitude. How to reach Jambi? There is no an international airport in Jambi. It means, international visitors cannot have a flight directly to Jambi, but from other international airports, such as Polonia Medan (the ...
...– Java). Visiting Jambi via Singapore is possible, too, and it does not take much time of yours. It takes about 5 or 6 hours to reach Jambi by ship (the route is Singapore – Batam – Jambi). Visiting Jambi via Jakarta is a good idea, too. After arriving at Jakarta, you can continue your flight to Jambi. The airfare is not expensive – it is about Rp 300,000 or GBP20,69 (GBP1 = Rp14,500). It takes you only about 45 minutes. And visiting Jambi from ... Read review

Advantages: Lot to see and do. Generally cheap. Culture. Arts
Disadvantages: Internal travel is difficult. Bureaucracy. Corruption

Sunmatra,just like the rest of Indonesia, in essence is still comparatively safe for foreign tourists.This huge island has a good deal to offer the inveterate traveller including the delights of Lake Toba, interesting cities such as Medan and Padang, the very attractive hill town of Bukit Tinngi and the "new town" of Pekan Baru. The main snag about travelling within Sumatra is the road network. If,eg,you want to travel from Pekan Baru to Padang,you ...
...the roads are narrow and it is dangerous to speed on some stretches. There are ,of course,air services between the major cities in Sumatra but that is a much more expensive option. Indonesia’s tourism industry which received about 5.1 million foreign visitors last year is hoping to attract 5.4 million in 2001 and around 6.9 million by 2004. Important origin markets for foreign visitors include Japan, Taiwan, Germany, the US and the Netherlands ... Read review

Advantages: Beautiful, cheap beyond belief
Disadvantages: Rip-offs

Nias is an island about 100km off the western coast of Sumatra. When I first arrived, I had a really open mind. The guidebook said Nias had a bad reputation for rip-offs and the locals at Lake Toba said, “don’t go there… Nias people are not like Sumatra people”, but I thought…no…it can’t be that bad! I’ll see for myself. After a cockroach-ridden 12-hour boat ride, where the captain didn't let me onto ...
...pressure you come under in Nias from the locals. There are countless scams and scam-merchants, i.e. they’ll hire you a dodgy old repaired surfboard, then charge you for a new one when it breaks, or offer to take you out on a hired motorbike, then smash it up and charge you an extortionate fee for repairs, or take you out in a boat as their guest then smash it up and charge you for a new one. Your safety is severely compromised by the scam and ... Read review