House of Sampoerna, Surabaya

Dan & Paige Gable, Whitney, and I took a short visit to the House of Sampoerna–the sigaret kretek production facility in Surabaya.  The visit was relaxing, informative, and free.

Read on for ‘What’s There,’ our positive ‘Recommendation,’ ‘Hours,’ ‘Getting There,’ and ‘Contact Information.’

What’s There?

House of Sampoerna includes the assembly rooms—eight rooms of rollers, cutters, and packers who put each and every Sampoerna sigaret together by hand; a museum on the history of Sampoerna—from the humble origins as a one-man Chinese business during the revolution days to the recent purchase by Marlboro; a photogallery with black and white images from the Indonesian revolution; and a restaurant (we didn’t dine, but we heard that the quality of food—though it sports a menu of both western and Indonesian food—was not worth the price).

Recommendation

I didn’t know what to expect from a cigarette factory, but we all enjoyed our time there.  The museum and gallery are small, so it’s not something that will consume a whole lot of your time.  That being said, the campus is clean and quiet, so you could relax there as long as you wanted.  Our group was there for (guessing) around an hour.  If you’ve got time to spare in Surabaya, it’s could be worth a few hours.

Though small, I thought the museum was pretty interesting–a lot of props and media.  The docent on duty during our trip was friendly told us quite a bit about the company and cigarette production.  The museum was full of clove and tobacco aroma, which is surprisingly pleasant.  You just might be tempted to try a cigarette when you leave (if cigarettes were as healthy as they smelled before you light them, everyone would do it).

Again, we did not try the restaurant, but we’ve heard the food is not worth the price (I didn’t write down any example prices, sorry).  The menu had both Western and Indonesian food (again, no examples).

Hours

You should check the House of Sampoerna webpage directly for the most up-to-date visitor information.  At the time of our visit, the hours of operation were:

• Museum, Gallery, and Restaurant:  09.00-22.00 daily (closed during Idul Fitri)
• Workers/Production Room:  09.00-15.00 Mon thru Saturday (closed during Idul Fitri)

Getting There

The House of Sampoerna webpage provides detailed information here.  The campus is located on the northern side of the city, approximately three miles north of TP.  Our group caught a Bluebird taxi from near the Peace Corps office.  It took around 20 minutes and cost about Rp. 36.000,-.

A word of warning:  the first non-Bluebird taxi driver had no idea what we were talking about, and we got out before traveling a full block.  The Bluebird guy seemed like he was racking his brain to figure out what we wanted, but he did get us there.

Contact Information (according to Googlemaps & House of Sampoerna site)

Jl. Taman Sampoerna 6
Pabean Cantikan
Surabaya 60163
Indonesia

+62 31 3539000
email:  hos.surabaya <at> sampoerna.com