11 Day Sumbawa: The Unknown Frontier Guided Motorcycle Tour in Indonesia

Overview

Sekongkang Beach, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia While the world flocks to the familiar, the true explorers turn East. Heavily underrated and largely ignored by the tourist trail, Sumbawa is the hidden jewel of the Sunda Islands. This is not a tour for sightseers - it is a mission for riders who live for the road.

Highlights

• Starts and ends in Kuta or Lombok
• Scenic coastal riding with ferry crossings between Lombok and Sumbawa
• Remote landscapes untouched by tourism, from jungles to deserted beaches
• Snorkeling and relaxation day around Moyo Island
• Unique wildlife encounters including whale sharks and free-ranging horses
• Exploring Mount Tambora with views of the world’s largest caldera
• Cultural village routes, shipyards, waterfalls, and sunset beach stops
• 10 nights accommodation

Itinerary

1. Day 1: Kuta or Lombok - Sekongkang or Sumbawa (175 kilometers / 109 miles)

   The tour can be adjusted to start in Bali. Leaving Kuta straight after breakfast, you follow a scenic road and pass some fishermen's villages along the coastline. After two and a half hours, you will arrive at the port of Kayangan and take another ferry ride of about two hours to Sumbawa. Once there, this island shows its difference from Lombok from the first meter. Unaffected by tourism, you feel the silence, no traffic. You head south, passing a mangrove section and having lunch in a restaurant with a stunning view of the ocean, to overnight in a bungalow compound near the beach. Sekongkang

2. Day 2: Sekongkang - Sumbawa Besar or Sumbawa (210 kilometers / 130 miles)

   You have to leave early in the morning to cover this day’s stage. Through dense forest, tropical jungle, along deserted beaches, and along rivers winds your trail. You ride south of the island towards Lunyuk, the only locality within 80 kilometers. After a refreshment break at a convenience store, it goes more up and down, passing highland areas, and a short off-road passage has to be mastered. Back to the "civilization", you leave Sumbawa-Besar on your left and take the last 20 kilometers to your beachfront accommodation just opposite of Moyo Island.

3. Day 3: Moyo Island - Riding day-off

   After breakfast, you will take a boat ride to the adjacent island for snorkeling and relaxing. Time for a beach walk while the fish barbecue gets prepared.

4. Day 4: Sumbawa Besar - Labuan Jambu (115 kilometers / 71 miles)

   A late start leaves time for either a massage or even hanging around at the pool. After lunch, the bit more than 100 kilometers quickly go away under the tires. A last stop will give you the chance to taste coffee from different areas of Indonesia. Just nine kilometers more to go. Your accommodation tonight will be a quite new homestay which is not far from the jetty of your boat trip tomorrow morning.

5. Day 5: Labuan Jambu - Calabai (160 kilometers / 99 miles)

   You are leaving at 3:30 a.m. by boat (jetty 100 meters beside the homestay) to see the fishermen at work and meet the whale shark(s) after the fishing nets are lifted. Swimming with the biggest fish on earth is possible and very exciting. You will be back on land around 9:00 a.m. After having flushed the salt water from your body and a late breakfast, you continue your trip. Keen to be back on the bikes you ride on the island-highway direction east to cover the distance of your daily stage. Your final destination today is Calabai, a small town situated on the slopes of the volcano Tambora with

6. Day 6: Calabai - Bima (225 kilometers / 140 miles)

   An early start is required. On tarmac roads, via short off-road passages (those who want can do a river crossing), you get around Tambora in its North-East. Cliffs and beaches on your left, the mountain massif with the biggest caldera on earth on your right. Depending on your decision for lunch (snack and dinner or late lunch in Bima due to lack of food stalls along the way), you will pay the Bidadari Waterfall a visit. Via Kilo, you get to the north coast to explore the villages along the Flores Sea coastline. Totally rural and authentic. On one of your breaks, there will be the possibility t

7. Day 7: Bima (160 kilometers / 99 miles)

   As you stay at the same hotel, you can leave your baggage there and start your stage, the East-Island-Loop. Leaving Bima direction north-east, tiny roads lead you along the Bima Bay. Sangiang, your next destination, is the center of the local shipbuilding business. Here you have a break to visit the boat builders and watch the brisk business of the traders on the beach, always having a look at the stunning volcano Sangeang Api on the other side of the strait. You move on to the Easternmost civilized point of Sumbawa, the ferry-port town of Sape. On your way, you will stop at some viewpoints to

8. Day 8: Bima - Hu\`u or Lakey (100 kilometers / 62 miles)

   Most kilometers have to be done on the main road, thus some truck - and bus traffic should be expected. It is just 100k, thus your lunch would be taken in a warung already in Lakey. As Lakey is a famous surfing spot, shacks and warungs at the beach invite an evening hangout.

9. Day 9: Hu\`u or Lakey - Sumbawa Besar (225 kilometers / 140 miles)

   A riding day lies ahead of you. On small side roads, passing rice paddies and fishermen's villages, you make your way back to Soriutu, where you hit the highway again. After having passed the hilly scenic area again, it is not far to your lunch break. As you know, the road from a few days ago, the kilometers on the Trans-Nusa Highway quickly get away under the tires. Your accommodation today is a city hotel in Sumbawa Besar.

10. Day 10: Sumbawa Besar - Senaru (170 kilometers / 106 miles)

    It is a two-hour ride to Poto Tano, where you board the ferry to Lombok. After the crossing time of another two hours and a few kilometers in the direction north, you reach your lunch break spot. Now you have just 60 kilometers left to Senaru, a village on the slopes of the Rinjani Caldera. On your way, you would have the possibility to visit the oldest mosque of the Lombok natives.

11. Day 11: Senaru - Kuta or Lombok (145 kilometers / 90 miles)

    In the morning, you visit the nearby Sidang Gile waterfall. Once on your bikes, you follow the northern coastline direction to Mataram, the capital of Lombok. High above the ocean are some viewpoints from where you always have a breathtaking view of the landscape around you, palm-fringed beaches, and the “famous-infamous Gilis”. A few kilometers more to Senggigi, where you will have your lunch break in a restaurant next to the beach. Saturated, now it is time to make your last kilometers to Kuta, where your tour ends. The tour can be adjusted to finish in Bali.

Ride Details

Terrain

asphalt

Bike

rental bike (Honda, KTM, and Kawasaki models)

Mileage

1,725 kilometers / 1,072.7 miles

Daily rides

100 - 225 kilometers / 62 - 140 miles

Riding gear

included: helmet

Meals

all breakfasts and lunches

Accommodation

You will spend eight nights at the hotels with pools and two nights at air-conditioned bungalows (Labuan Jambu, Calabai without pool). The accommodation in Calabai is quite basic, clean, with an air-conditioner, but a squat toilet and bucket shower.

Food

You will be served daily breakfast and lunch included in the price.

Getting There

The tour will take place in Indonesia.