Sumba: the Indonesian island Bali was forty years ago

Sumba is twice the size of Bali and gets a fraction of its visitors. The flight from Denpasar takes an hour, the roads are empty for twenty minutes at a time, and the first thing you notice is the grass: wide, golden, cropped by horses and burned brown by the end of the dry season. It looks less like the Indonesia of the brochures and more like a country that has been left alone.

That is changing. A handful of hotels have arrived in the last decade, a couple of them genuinely excellent, and the island now appears on the itineraries of people who would not have found it otherwise. But the villages are still villages, the beaches still have no sunbeds, and the nearest traffic light is a long way away.

Getting there, and getting around

Two airports: Tambolaka (TMC) in the west and Waingapu (WGP) in the east. Both connect to Denpasar, usually once or twice a day on a turboprop. Book the morning flight; the afternoon ones cancel in the wet season with a regularity that suggests habit.

You need a car and a driver. Not because the roads are dangerous — they are mostly fine, if narrow — but because distances are deceptive and signposts are rare. West to east is five hours in good conditions, longer after rain. A driver costs $50–80 a day and knows which bridges are out.

West Sumba: the villages

Waikabubak is the base, a small town in the hills with a market that starts at five and a good number of traditional houses within an hour's drive. Ratenggaro is the one everybody photographs: tall thatched roofs, megalithic tombs in the village square, the sea behind. It is a real village, not a reconstruction, and people live there. Ask before you photograph, and leave a donation at the office rather than buying trinkets you do not want.

The etiquette is straightforward. Wear a sarong if you are entering a village, do not step over a grave, do not climb on the stone tombs for a photograph, and accept that a guide is often mandatory. The guides are worth it; they explain the marapu cosmology that makes the architecture make sense.

Half an hour from Ratenggaro, Pantai Mandorak is a small cove between limestone walls, with a narrow entrance and water that turns turquoise by ten in the morning. There is a car park, a gate and a fee. There is no bar, no umbrella, and usually no one else.

The lagoon and the lake

Weekuri is a saltwater lagoon separated from the sea by a rock wall, fed by a spring that comes through the limestone. You float. The water is so clear that the bottom looks closer than it is. It is the most photographed place on the island and still manages not to feel ruined, partly because the access is a dirt track and partly because there is nowhere to spend money once you are in.

Inland, the island turns volcanic. The road from Waikabubak to Waingapu climbs through forest and past rice terraces that look borrowed from Bali, then drops into the dry east where the grass takes over. Stop at Puru Kambera for the view and at any roadside stall selling grilled corn with chilli and lime.

East Sumba: the other island

East Sumba is drier, emptier and more traditionally weaved. Waingapu is a working town with an ikat market where the cloth is sold by the metre and the bargaining is real. Bukit Wairinding is twenty minutes away: a ridge of rolling golden hills that could be the Scottish Highlands if the Highlands had palm trees.

This is horse country. Sumba horses are small, sturdy and used for racing; the Pasola festival in February and March is a mounted spear-throwing contest between villages that is part sport, part ritual, and not for the faint-hearted. If you are in Sumba during Pasola, go with a guide, stand well back, and do not treat it as a photo opportunity.

Where to sleep

The island has three tiers. At the top, Nihi Sumba on the south-west coast is the reason many people have heard of the island at all: villas, a private beach, a spa, and a price that starts in the four figures a night. Cap Karoso on the west coast is the newer, design-led option, with a beach club and a restaurant that takes its wine list seriously. Alamayah and Sanubari sit in the middle, small and quiet.

Below that are homestays and guesthouses in Waikabubak and Waingapu, $30–60 a night, fan-cooled, often with breakfast. And on the beaches, a handful of simple bungalows with cold water and a hammock. The gap between the tiers is enormous; there is very little in between. Decide which island you are visiting before you book.

What it costs

A week in the west, with a driver, a mid-range hotel and meals, runs to $1,200–2,000 per person. The same week at Nihi is $10,000 and up, without flights. The island's pleasure is not proportional to the money: the best afternoon I have spent there cost the price of a grilled fish and a motorbike taxi to a beach with no name.

When to go

April to October is dry and golden. November to March is green, humid and prone to afternoon storms, but the rice terraces are at their best and the waterfalls actually run. Pasola falls in February and March, which is both the best and the busiest time to be in the west.

If you are combining Sumba with Komodo, do Sumba first and Komodo second: the flight from Tambolaka to Labuan Bajo is short and the contrast between dry hills and blue water is the whole point. The route fits neatly into the two-week itinerary as a three-night extension.

The things people get wrong

They treat Sumba as a beach destination and spend the whole week at one resort. They underestimate the driving. They photograph people without asking. They arrive in the wet season expecting the golden hills. And they skip the east, which is where the island feels most like itself.

Give it five nights, split between west and east, and take the slow road in between. Sumba does not reward efficiency. It rewards stopping the car when the light is right and the nearest village is selling coffee.

The island will not stay like this. The hotels are already there, the airport is being extended, and the road from the west coast to Waingapu is being widened. Go now, and go slowly, and leave the drone in the bag when you are inside a village.