Huta Bolon Museum is part house museum and part cemetery. The latter has 5 tombs of Rajah Simalungun, a Batak king and his family. The tombs are decorated in the Indonesian style with the long projecting eaves, and are all well tended. While the house museum is a Dutch colonial era house with lots of European style furnishing and decorations. The buildings are part of an extensive grounds with gardens, which is actually quite well maintained. There's even a small windmill folly in the gardens. There's also a small museum with a collection of traditional items including cooking utensils, weapons, sculptures, and Batak carvings etc. The ticket mentioned dance performances, but when I asked the staff said there were none.

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This museum is small and a bit poorly maintained. Walking around, you can see that many areas have been neglected for a while – dusty displays, peeling paint, and a general lack of upkeep. It feels like the place has potential but just isn't getting the care it deserves. The much-talked-about glass house was a real letdown. From photos online, I expected something spacious and unique, but in reality it's tiny and unimpressive. Don't get your hopes up – it's more of a small kitchen than an attraction. On the positive side, the traditional Batak house is genuinely beautiful. The architecture, carvings, and authentic feel make it worth a look. That part alone saved the visit from being a complete disappointment. There's also a sigale-gale statue on site. I was curious to see the famous puppet performance, but unfortunately it started raining heavily during my visit, so there was no show. That was disappointing because the sigale-gale is supposed to be one of the highlights here. I can't blame the museum for the weather, but it would be good if they had a sheltered area for performances. Overall, this is a quick stop at best – you won't need more than 30–45 minutes. The entrance fee feels a bit too high given how run-down the place is. If you're passing through Simanindo and love Batak culture, come for the traditional house, but lower your expectations for everything else

So we were brought here as part of a tour to see the Batak museum but you have to go just for the garden! The entrance fee is 20K per person which is barely anything for an incredibly view and beautiful flowers. The owner speaks good English and was very welcoming. She said she also runs a bed and breakfast (can be found on booking.com apparently). Aside from one couple I saw staying there we were the only people. There are information boards about the Batak traditions outside the buildings but there aren't any labels inside the main house that contains artefacts. There is the main museum / traditional house, some graves, the traditional village (we didn't go inside any of the village houses as there were some gigantic insects flying around that seemed aggressive). For the Batak museum element alone I would say this is 3 or 4 stars as it does have information in English but could be more thorough on artefacts. But for the garden I would pay more! Also worth mentioning that the toilets were clean, had toilet paper and there was soap at the sinks.

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The museum is under renovation right now. There will be a new boathouse also in the future. The small village is accessible but deserted. It's too bad that there are no traditional dances any more or people in traditional clothes explaining the history of the place. But still an impressive place to visit if you like Batak-culture.

Museum is cute and full of interesting artifacts and history with plenty of different subjects about the area to read about Bought tickets on the door for 20.000IDR from the Granddaughter in law of the last king of Simanindo so there is family lineage still owning the lands and artifacts of their ancestors which is beautiful They even have an area to display their show houses for dutch royalty who visited them in the 20th Century

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