Harau Canyon

Harau Canyon

Harau Canyon
4.5
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The area

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Attractions
1 within 6 miles

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles204 reviews
Excellent
96
Very good
86
Average
19
Poor
2
Terrible
1

Theo V
Amsterdam, The Netherlands1,556 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2023
Excellent place for a walk through the rice fields. However, be quick. It is not a reserve anymore. So, the building has started. The place where we stayed was lovely in a beautiful setting. Destroyed by a hotel nearby with Karaoke on Friday en Saturday evening till very very late. Nevertheless, we liked the walk during the day with the impressive views of the valley cliffs.
Written June 5, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Bidule05
France1,892 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2020
We visited Harau canyon in August 2019. The landscape of the valley is beautiful with steep 100 meters high red-orange rocky cliffs.
At the bottom, there are river, many rice fields with people and Indonesian buffaloes working in the fields.
We also visited the Sarasah Bunta waterfall. This beautiful waterfall is located in the Harau valley nature reserve, and the access is very easy.
This atmosphere of the site is peaceful, with a natural swimming pool. The landscape is also very fine with steep rocky red-orange cliffs, withn colors sparkling in the sunlight lights!!! Wonderful!!!
Written March 4, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

MAC Travel Tours
Bukittinggi, Indonesia72 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2018
we went there about 3 months ago and did a trekking all around places in Harau. it's really amazing to meet up local people and shared things here.
Written February 24, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Pjotr P
Utrecht, The Netherlands28 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2023 • Couples
Extremely underwhelming. This must have once been a scenic place but it is completely being ruined by all the homestays that are being built. Also the trail in the valley is made of concrete and they built a swimming pool with tiles under the waterfall, which makes this potentially beautiful piece of nature ugly. Besides these abominations, there is also a mosque at the entrance of the valley so you will definitely be sure to not have a quiet and immersive nature experience. The photos on blogs are old: this place has been ruined by touristic 'development' and they're currently working hard to make it even worse. Indonesia has a lot of beautiful places to offer so I suggest avoiding this one: it is a waste of time and effort.
Written January 27, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Katja_nsk
Suwon, South Korea473 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2012 • Couples
Harau Canyon or Harau Valley is one of the great hiking places in West Sumatra. It is very quiet and beautiful, with curious landscape where vertical cliffs contrast with rice fields. There are only two homestays in the area. We spent there 2 days and could have spent more; we did two hikes arranged by our hosts, ABDI Homestay.

First day we went to the waterfalls. There are four of them and the first three you can find without a guide, I suppose. They were nice, but crowded (as it was Sunday); there are some snack shops and small restaurants around them. But the best waterfall is the fourth one which is deeper in the jungle and harder to find without a guide. There is a small pool with refreshing water good for swimming. It is not far away from ABDI, walking slowly and taking lots of pictures, it took us not more than 1 h to the jungle waterfall.

Our second hike was to the cliff top, and this was for a whole day (6 - 7 h) with lunch. First we walked along the road which is not so nice, although we could still admire Harau Valley views. We walked past Echo Homestay and further down the road. Very near to the road our guide Ricky spotted Siamang monkeys in the trees and we went to the jungle. They were a group of five or so, we were lucky! We also saw some other monkeys. After that we followed the trail up, it is fairly easy hike, just do it slowly and you will get there! There is a gambir plantation on the top but nobody was there at the time of our visit.

On the top we had lunch (of fried rice) with a view of magnificent Harau Valley and then proceed to the natural "swimming pool" of a river. It is a bit away from the main trek. This pond is very deep, maybe around 4 m, and you can jump from the 1.5 m (?) river edge or a tree trunk lying across the river. You can also just go down to the pond but it is more fun with the jump and I am happy I did it!

We descended by a different trail and I could see why we did not go up this way. It was much steeper, wooden ladders and ropes were put at some points, and you need to be extremely careful not to slip and fall on descent. On ascent it would be more physically demanding, but if you are fit, than it is a faster way to the top.

Apparently there is much more to explore in Harau even without going up! If you want to get to Harau from Bukittinggi by car you can go to Bedudal Café, we had a good experience with them!
Written October 29, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Raymond W
Townsville, Australia4,509 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2011 • Couples
Harau Canyon is situated outside the town of Payakumbuh (meaning 'grassy swamp') in the Minang Highlands of West Sumatra. It features vivid red walls enclosing patches of jungle and is a quite impressive sight. It can be over-run with locals from Bukittinggi on major holidays, when its waterfalls and swimming pools are surrounded by an army of local families having picnics. At other times, it is quiet and peaceful, and you can even hear gibbons calling from the jungle. There are a couple of eco homestays located in the canyon, which would be a very peaceful place for nature-lovers to spend a day or two. Getting here can be a bit difficult without your own transport but it is easy enough to rent a minivan from Paykumbuh bus terminal.
Written July 29, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

kikiarfiana03
Medan, Indonesia7 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2015 • Friends
Harau valley is a fertile valley situated in the district of harau, district fifty west sumatera provincial town. Located around 138 km of desert and arround 47 km from the high hills, or 18 km from the city payakumbuh and 2 km from the government central district fifty cities. It us surrounded by steep granite colorful with a height of 100 to 500 m, in this harau valley there is a waterfall named the bunta waterfall or locally called sarasah bunta. This waterfall fresh water fresh from the highlands with three other waterfalls in thiss valley. Bunta sarasah has a waterfall berunta beatiful comel when radiated sunshine bathing nymphs seoerti so called sarasah bunta. Water flowing from the waterfall is very cold especially when we enjoyed in the morning, the view is presented arround the harau valley is beautiful.
Written April 19, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

JoshShoeString
Petaling Jaya, Malaysia871 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2012 • Solo
Yes, Lembah Harau is the main reason which caused me to visit this region! And no regrets!

From the time I'd landed in Padang airport, the anticipation to visit Harau was mounting. When I'd finally came to the valley, I was pleasantly delighted with the beauty of the place. I chose to come during the wet season so that I could behold the waterfalls in their utmost splendor.

Also, do try to get a guide to hike up the cliffs. The panoramic view up there is superb!

Remember... if you come here, make sure it's the wet season!
Written April 2, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Laksmi A
Depok, Indonesia92 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2019 • Family
I was so excited to learn that Harau Canyon is very popular and beautiful and so keen to see it by myself.
The excitement was turned off when I learned there was a theme park called ‘Kampung Eropa’ exactly in front of the Harau Canyon. I did not expect I will see modern building which has no relation with local culture exist in front of the canyon.
Long story short, I asked the driver to go to the other direction and finally....I can enjoy the beauty of the Harau Canyon for hours, awesome!!
This is a must destination!
Written July 7, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Laksmi A
Jakarta, Indonesia23 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2019 • Family
We went there last week with full excitement as this was my first visit, and expecting to visit a beautiful geopark and enjoy the nature.
We were shocked when we park the car and there was a big welcome banner said: "Welcome to Kampung Eropa". Three of us (my sister, my niece and me) were looking each other as this is something we do not expect to see in a such beautiful geopark like Harau Canyon. We are not against the theme park, but this kind of theme park were not supposed to be built in the middle of geopark (in our opinion). Long story short, we went to the other side of the area to be able to see the Harau Canyon, and finally we can see the stunning Harau Canyon!!
My advise: if you want to see the nature of Harau Canyon, do not enter the theme park, g to the other side.
Written July 2, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Harau Canyon - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2025)

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