Experience the best of Ambon

Ambon is a hilly island in the Maluku Islands, long known as one of the Spice Islands, where cloves and nutmeg grew and drew Portuguese and then Dutch traders in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The city of Ambon, on a deep bay on the island's south side, is the capital of Maluku province. Fort Victoria, begun by the Portuguese and taken by the Dutch in 1605, overlooks the harbour, and a museum shows Maluku's culture.

Villages across the island are Christian or Muslim, linked by old pela alliances, and the city was named a UNESCO City of Music in 2019. Natsepa and Liang beaches have white sand, and Ambon Bay is known among divers for the odd small creatures on its sandy seabed. The islands of Saparua and Haruku lie to the east, and the Banda Islands, the original nutmeg islands, are to the south-east.

Grilled fish comes with colo-colo, a raw chilli, tomato and lime sauce, and papeda, a sago porridge, is served with fish in yellow turmeric soup. Kenari nuts and preserved nutmeg fruit are sold as snacks. The rainy season arrives in the middle of the year, unlike most of Indonesia.