Aceh Province occupies the northern tip of Sumatra. A decades-long insurgency was finally settled in 2005, with the central government granting the province a greater degree of autonomy. The agreement came in the wake of the 2004 tsunami, which killed as many as 150,000 Indonesians, mostly in Aceh province.
Banda Aceh is the provincial capital, and you'll probably need to fly into and out of its airport to reach any of the other destinations around the area. There isn't much to see in the city itself, although it can be quite a pleasant place to pass a day or two. The big draws to the area are the scuba diving on Pulau Weh north of Banda Aceh and the surfing at Lhok Nga, on the Sumatran coast southwest of the provincial capital.
After many years of near-civil war, which only ended in 2005, Banda Aceh is very new on the international travel scene. There still isn't much infrastructure, but there is enough to make the city and surrounding areas easily accessible. The city itself will appeal to those looking for some place a little “off the map” where they can relax and enjoy a slower pace without necessarily having to do a lot of sight-seeing.
A few have hailed Weh Island as possibly the next big thing, especially for scuba divers. While I wouldn't argue that it doesn't have the potential, I very much doubt that it will get as out of hand as, say, Koh Tao in Thailand. Other places, like Koh Tao, as well as Bali, Phuket and so on, simply have too much invested in them for Weh to get much attention, unless something drastic changes.
