Aceh - Leuser Mountain National Park

entrance to Leuser Mountain National Park

Leuser Mountain National Park is a sanctuary with national park status which is situated in the border of Naggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatera. This national park overlaps the regencies of South East Aceh, Aceh Singkil, South Aceh, Gayo Lues, and Langkat. The first four regencies are within the administration of Naggroe Aceh Darussalam, and Langkat is within the administration of North Sumatera.

The national park is named after Leuser Mountain, a mountain soaring the height of 3404 metres above sea level. This national park has very diverse ecosystem from beach to high mountain range covered by dense forest typical of tropical rainforest.

The national park was first declared as a national sanctuary based on 1980 Decree of the Minister of Forestry. It was also declared biosfir and world "lung" by UNESCO in 2004.

Famous tourism objects in this park are Bukit Lawang orangutan reservation area, in Langkat regency. Visitors can feed the orangutan in the reservation.

This national park also raised international attention due to the proliferation of illegal lodging.   

How to get there: to reach the park, visitors may come through Medan, North Sumatera route to Kutacane, South East Aceh (of 240 km distance) with travel time of approximately 8 hours. Travel from Kutacane to Gurah or Ketambe tourism spots will take approximately 30 minutes by car (distance 35 km). If visitors want to go to the park area in Tapaktuan, they can go from Medan by car to Tapaktuan tourism spot for 10 hours (distance 260 km).