Sumba, formerly known as the Sandalwood Island, is known for its horses and Sumba clothe. Sandalwood was the only known cure for many diseases until penicillin was invented. The island is famous for its arts and handicrafts, particularly the textile "ikat" weaving. The island has a small population and a dry tropical climate. Sumba has more hours of sunshine than any other place in Indonesia. The land resembles Southern Africa or Australia, with scattered small villages and herds of cattle and buffalo Sumba is off the beaten track. Transport system and roads are infrequently used. Most hotels in main towns are simple, only catering for the adventurous. Beaches are long and clean.

The island is roughly oval in shape. The greatest concentration of those who worship sprits (ancestral and those of the land) is found in West Sumba where two-thirds of the population holds on their traditional belief. It is here where incredible rituals take place, the "pasola" where hundreds of horsemen fling spears at each other. The government allows the ritual to take place, but the spears must be blunt. Although some exist in East Sumba, it is in West Sumba that one can find a greater number of huge megalithic tombs and traditional thatched and peaked huts raise on stilts.

One of the Sumba attractions is the Nihiwatu beach. Nihiwatu faces southwest into the Indian Ocean and is ideally suited for picking up swell arriving from thousands of miles away; the surf here is very consistent. If the surf is flat here you can be sure it is flat just about everywhere else in the archipelago. The wave breaks from deep water onto a shallow reef directly in front of the resort, tubing from start to finish. It is thick and steep on the takeoff and sucking a lot of water up the face. Nihiwatu is one of the fastest ride able waves anywhere, taking only six to ten seconds to travel the 250+ yard length of the wave. The coral reef is relatively surfer-friendly. The coral is pounded flat by the waves and hitting the bottom does not necessarily mean getting cut.

Getting to Nihiwatu :
•    Nihiwatu has weekly chartered flight schedules on Transnusa Trigana airlines from Bali to Tambolaka,   Sumba’s only airport. Merpati Airlines also fly to Tambolaka from Bali and East Sumba.
•    Roads are few and poorly developed, so horses are preferable to cars.
•    From Lombok, flight from Mataram airport to Tambolako. Or you can simply ask the staffs of Hotel Villa Ombak for further details and arrangement.