Rote Island

Rote lies off the south-western tip of Timor and is the southernmost island in Indonesia, a low dry place of savanna, lontar palms and white beaches. Two things define it. T-Land at Nemberala on the west coast is a long left-hand reef break that peels for hundreds of metres at moderate speed, forgiving by Indonesian standards and consequently popular with surfers who want length without punishment, and a small industry of losmen and camps has grown around it. And the lontar palm shapes life inland: the sap is tapped and boiled into syrup and sugar or fermented, the leaves are made into containers, hats and the sasando, a stringed instrument built inside a fan of palm leaf that is Rote's own and is played nowhere else in the same form.

The main sights

• T-Land at Nemberala - a long forgiving left breaking for hundreds of metres.
• Lontar palm tapping - sap boiled for sugar and syrup across the interior.
• The sasando - the stringed instrument built inside a palm-leaf fan.
• Indonesia's southernmost island - dry savanna and white beaches off Timor.

When to go

May to September for the swell. A week.

Good to know

The ferry from Kupang is weather-dependent and can be cancelled. Facilities are basic losmen with limited power. It is dry and water is short in the late dry season.

Nearby

Kupang and Timor are north-east; Ndana, the true southernmost point, is offshore.

Key facts