Lelewatu Resort Sumba

My wife and I spent 4 nights here from 30 Dec to 3 Jan 2026 and had such a great time. We had a hanging one bedroom pool villa and the 180 degree ocean views from it were beautiful. We had breakfast delivered to our room every morning to take in the view from the deck, it was a great way to enjoy breakfast. The staff are the best aspect of Lelewatu Resort - it was exceptional service. Even staff not in direct customer-facing roles, such as the gardeners, always smiled and said hi any time we went past them. Nicholas was great with managing events, with the beachside bonfire dinner on our final night lovely and the new years eve activities great too. As an example of the service - when I was concerned that the company I'd rented a motorbike with only showed up with only 1 helmet instead of the 2 I'd ordered, Ayu in the resort front office quickly went home and returned with her helmet to loan to my wife for the day - definitely above and beyond in terms of exceptional service! Grace was lovely on front reception too, as well as the other Ayu too, and Tiger the driver was great too. As is the case with a lot of accommodation in Sumba, if you want to go exploring you need transport, so hiring a motorbike was a cheap and easy way to do it, but the resort also offers day tours by car, which we took up one enjoyable day to go to Waikuri Lagoon because it was going to be a very long motorbike ride. There is a nice little 5km return run to nearby Nipi Lima, which we did a few mornings. A hilly route and mix of bitumen and gravel, we enjoyed it. The gym at the resort is very basic, so running outside was good before the heat of the day.

I stayed in the Dekixe Room Ocean View for 2 nights as I was doing private tour and be out most of the day.The room was exceptionally bigger than expected, I got the 2nd floor corner room which had a nice view of the ocean and you can hear the waves crashing at night. Pros: Big room, nice view and quiet Cons: It's not very clean as unfortunately there isn't a netting over the bed so I come back from tour with gecko poop on bed. A few creatures in the room (small gecko, flying insects, baby roaches and huge spider) - all is fine as they don't bother you much but u did chase the spider out of the room.I upgraded to One Bedroom Pool Villa Ocean View for the last day as it's my birthday treat and that was a big difference! Room was gigantic with the most epic views, the pool was awesome and overlooked the ocean. I ordered room service and sat by the poolside for lunch which was amazing. You still get some bugs though but least it's manageable and some visit by a couple of baby crabs which I thought was quite interesting. Again, they're all very harmless as long as you leave them be. Staff also surprised me with a birthday cake and they decorated the room and that was special! They're super friendly and sweet. Understand they may have some bad reviews but my experience didn't disappoint. Hotel has been around since 2017 and Covid affected the biz and property is huge so of cause maintenance for everything is never easy esp in Sumba. Overall, I will definitely visit again and would just stay in the One Bedroom Pool Villa Ocean View as it's just gorgeous! Special thanks to Grace, Ayu, Gina & the amazing friendly staffs there! 🫶🏻

Lelewatu resort is on the south side of Sumba towards the centre. There are local beaches to visit Rua & Kerewai close by, it's perched high on the cliff (Wata means rock) which made it difficult to get out and about on foot. Despite that, the resort staff have thought of everything. Transfers to airport, stops to the neighbouring beaches or full day tours to the north west of the island to see Lagoons, caves and anything else you can come up with... the amazing Sumba scenery that is always on offer was a highlight. Both from my villa and the car window- Buffalo traffic jams! My villa was spectacular 🙌 pool, fridge, bath, extralarge King bed plus a pool daybed, sunset views, room service from the restaurant, plus it was very private. Just me and the waves 🌞. The resort is due for some maintainence over the next year, some villas need new roofs (the traditional grass are a marvel).. The restaurant and main pool were great for before and after an excursion, or just enjoy Eddie's (resort manager) home made Ginger Beer pool side! All the staff at Lele were fantastic. I had a great stay

Absolutely amazing experience. Staff is super helpful, the location is stunning and the rooms are great. Absolutely no complaints. Special shout out to Ayu, who is an absolute angel. Give that girl a raise and a management position. I am 100% sure she can do it. Also I am sure, if Lelewatu doesn't do it, other resorts will come for her. Aju, Ayu, thanks a lot ❤️

We spent the first 4 days of our honeymoon in Indonesia at Lelewatu and it was magical. Our cliffside villa had breathtaking ocean views and the calming sound of the sea breeze (pure paradise!). The staff were wonderful (shout out to Rudy, Rishda, Ayu, Tasia, Wanto and Adhi) and made us feel so welcome and relaxed. We loved the massages and cool experiences like sunrise horseback riding (we even went swimming with the horses!) and a day trip to stunning waterfalls. It is a truly special place and was the best way to start our honeymoon.

We had the most amazing stay at Lelewatu Resort! Beyond the breathtaking views and perfect accommodation, what truly made our trip unforgettable was the staff. They were genuinely kind, always going above and beyond to help, while staying authentic. We couldn’t recommend Lelewatu Resort more highly, and we will definitely be back! A special thank you to Nicholas, Grace, and Tiger for making our stay so memorable simply by being themselves.

Nice concept but bad workmanship and a big lack of maintenance. Wifi was dead the first day we were there, and phone signal was none - except for Telkomsel, it still got little reception. They were not busy, they should have checked before we got there. Food selection was minimum. The villas are spread apart, reachable by the villa buggies. With no internal phone in the rooms and no internet connection, it was super hard to request anything from the front desk. Their driver that took us to the airport had some BO problems - 1.5 hours on Sumba roads and this were not pleasant. Many insects (centipedes, bees, cockroaches, and small crabs) in the lower room. We had the 2 bedroom hanging villas. Roof leakage in the upstairs villa. Anyway what a wasteful investment. All around the villas are like forest too, the land could be maintained better. We are still figuring out whether a person or an animal sneaked into our pool at midnight.

The worst experience of my life!! You are completely isolated. There is no phone signal anywhere, and I couldn’t contact anyone or make flight reservations because SMS messages wouldn’t come through. The road to enter and leave the hotel is absolutely dangerous — you basically can’t leave the property. There is barely any light. The TV volume didn’t work, and the safe didn’t work either. Food delivery took between 1 hour and 1 hour 30 minutes. I was truly scared, I wanted to leave the hotel the next day, and they never refunded the money I had paid in advance for the week I was supposed to stay. Years of savings thrown away — they kept all the money. Horrible, not recommended.