Pelabuhan Ratu

Palabuhanratu means harbour of the queen, and the queen is Nyai Roro Kidul, the ruler of the southern ocean in Javanese and Sundanese belief, who is held to take people from the shore and to claim anyone wearing green - a prohibition observed seriously along this coast, with signs warning against the colour and a room permanently reserved for her in one of the hotels. The belief coexists with a plain physical fact: the Indian Ocean here has very strong rips and undertow and drowns people regularly, so the warnings work in both registers. It is a working fishing port with a busy auction market, a long grey beach, hot springs at Cisolok where water comes up through the riverbed, and the surf breaks at Cimaja and Karang Hawu.

What you actually see

• A working fishing port - boats and the auction market on the harbour.
• The queen's coast - the Nyai Roro Kidul belief, and the prohibition on green.
• Cisolok geysers - hot water coming up through the riverbed inland.
• Surf at Cimaja - the reef break along the coast west of the town.

When to go

May to September. Two days.

Honest expectations

The sea here genuinely kills people - the rips are severe and swimming is unsafe on most of the beach. The town is a working port rather than a resort. The green prohibition is taken seriously locally.

Nearby

Cisolok and Cimaja are west along the coast; Sukabumi is inland.