North Sumatera is a treasure trove of Indonesia. It might not be as popular as Bali, Yogyakarta, or eastern Indonesia, but its tourism site can easily attract people from around the world. There are many types of its tourism product from cultural tourism, natural tourism, to eco-tourism that’s very common right now.
With many potential of tourism sites, North Sumatera can be developed to be one of the most competitive and attractive place in Indonesia and the region could be main devise source for Indonesia. Nevertheless, right now, there are more than 50 tourism sites that you could visit there.
You probably think of Medan or Batak tribe when it comes to North Sumatera, but there are many things other than Medan that are more interesting and worth your time to visit. So, here are 10 interesting place in North Sumatera you should visit:
1. Samosir Island
Samosir Island is a little island located in the middle of Toba Lake. To access to this beautiful site, you can ride either ferry boat or using land transportation. In this island, you can enjoy many traditional exhibition from Batak Tribes: cultural perspective, historical contribution to Indonesia, and local food.
Other than that, the scenery around Samosir Island is amazingly beautiful, an overlay of Toba Lake will spoil your eyes and please your soul. In Samosir Island, there’s also hot water bath ready to be enjoyed.
2. Maimun Palace
Maimun Palace is an important place to the kingdom of Deli. It’s one of remaining historical heritage from ancient Indonesia. This palace is also an icon for Medan, just like Yogyakarta palace is an icon to Yogyakarta. This palace is located in Jalan Brigadir Jendral Katamso, Village of Sukaraja, Medan Maimun.
For those who loves adventures about history, this place is perfect place for you. Other than historical aspect, this palace has very unique architecture that combines many designs from Malay, Islam, India, Spain, and Italy. Surely this palace will blow your mind away from its architectural level.
This palace is considered old since it has been built around 19th century by King of Deli, Sultan Mahmud Al Rasyid. In front of the palace, there lies grand mosque Al-Mahsun or people usually call this Grand Mosque of Medan.
3. Keling Village, Medan
Keling Village or Madras Village is a place where majority of its people has Keling background or in common language, Indian background. As there many Indian background, it’s no wonder that all their behaviour is based on Indian culture and the lifestyle is heavily influenced Hindu religion.
Other than cultural experience, in this village we can find some historical building from Dutch colonial era. You can also taste some Indian food and buy Indian handicraft for your souvenir. So, you don’t have to go to India to feel how Indian culture is practiced because North Sumatra has already the village with Indian culture as its background.
4. Dwi Warna Sibolangit Waterfall
For those who love adventure, discovering Dwi Warna Sibolangit Waterfall is a perfect choice for your visit in North Sumatera because this waterfall is located exactly in the middle of Forest of Sibolangit.
This waterfall is located in Deli Serdang, or two hours from Medan using any transportation. From Forest of Sibolangit, you must take a walk through dense forest. But don’t worry, this site has been very popular so there’s official who will guide you to the waterfall.
The journey from the forest to the waterfall is approximately 3 hours so that you need to reserve your energy and plan your journey very well. However, when you arrive in the waterfall, your tired feeling will be paid off with beautiful scenery.
The waterfall consists of two colours, blue for the cold water and white for the hot water. That’s why this waterfall has a name Dwi (two).
5. Pagoda of Taman Alam Lubini
This pagoda is located in the foot of the Mountain Sibayak, Karo Village. This Pagoda is the tallest Pagoda in Indonesia. This Pagoda is a replica from Pagoda Shwedago, Myanmar. The Pagoda was inaugurated in 2010 with a great ceremony that was attended by more than 1300 Monks and 200 lay people.
If you want to know more about Buddhist community in Indonesia, this tourism site can be your alternative site to visit other than Borobudur Temple.
6. Lake of Lau Kawar
This lake is located in the foot of Mount Sinabung, Karo Village. With the width around 200 hectares, this lake is smaller compared to Toba. However, its popularity is no doubt promising. It also has more trees around it that makes the wind breezes every time so that tourist could feel comfortable.
The purpose of this lake is actually to provide a place to rest for adventurer who has finished their hiking in Mount Sinabung. But, it is a common thing that you also witness people do fishing activity in the middle of the lake.
7. Botanical Garden Tongkoh
If Bogor has Bogor Botanical Garden, then North Sumatera has Botanical Garden Tongkoh. This botanical garden provides a facility to plant some vegetables and fruits. They also develop some method to grow decorative plants.
If you want to visit this site, it is located in Tongkoh Village, Karo. This botanical garden is actually a series of local people garden. Since there are many people work as gardener, they open a public tourism site for tourist to experience living in a village and also to get to know about gardening activity in the village.
8. Nias Island
If you want to experience Batak cultural activity, you can visit Nias Island. Here, there’s the infamous Lompat Batu (Jumping Stone) activity that’s’ held by local people. There are also some beaches in Nias that can be a perfect destination to surf.
There’s also Museum of Pusaka Nias where they display about 6500 heritage from Nias society since ancient era. Nias is also as famous as Lake of Toba in terms of its popularity. Nias Island is perfect place for you to spend your time if you want complete package vacation.
9. Beach of Lagundri and Sorake
If you decide to visit Nias Island, this beach is a must visited beach, especially for those who love to surf. These two beaches are already famous in the world thanks to its big wave that attracts many international surfer from around the world.
When you visit these beaches, you can find many people who surf and some agencies that offer you a basic surfing training. So, don’t worry if you haven’t surfed before because you can ask expert there to teach you.
10. Lake of Toba
Who doesn’t know Lake of Toba? The ultimate icon of North Sumatera. It is the widest lake in Indonesia and one of the most famous tourism spot in Indonesia among Borobudur and Bali. This lake was born due to big explosion from volcano a thousand years ago. It’s believed that the explosion has changed many aspects of human being and their environment.
However, this lake offers its beauty from one side to other side that’s worth your time to visit. You’re not in North Sumatera yet if you haven’t visit Lake of Toba, that’s probably the perfect way to say it.
Those are some beautiful tourism sites in Norths Sumatera. There are actually many other sites to visit that offers cultural, historical, and educational experience. So, if you have time, don’t forget to visit North Sumatera and start finding your treasure trove.
