Sulawesi: Tana Toraja and the Togean Islands

1. Day 1: Arrive in Makassar

   Sultan Hasanuddin Airport (UPG) to Makassar

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Makassar
   Day 1 details

   Your trip starts at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport (UPG), about 25 km from the centre of Makassar, where a driver meets your flight. Makassar is the old trading port of the Bugis and Makassarese, and still the busiest city in eastern Indonesia. If you land by early afternoon, walk with your guide through Fort Rotterdam, the Dutch fort rebuilt in the 17th century on the site of the Gowa sultanate's stronghold, then on to Paotere harbour, where wooden pinisi schooners still load cargo for the islands. The art of building them is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. As the sun drops over the Makassar Strait, the seafront at Losari fills with food stalls. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the week ahead and a welcome dinner: grilled fish, coto Makassar beef soup or konro ribs.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Sultan Hasanuddin Airport (UPG)
   • Fort Rotterdam and Paotere harbour with your guide, if you arrive by early afternoon
   • Welcome briefing and dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: We confirm the latest arrival time for the afternoon walk when we book.

   

2. Day 2: Up to Tana Toraja and Kete Kesu

   Makassar to Toraja Airport by air, then Rantepao and Kete Kesu

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Rantepao
   Day 2 details

   We fly from Makassar to Toraja Airport at Buntu Kunik, about an hour over the mountains, instead of spending eight or nine hours on the road. If the flight is not running on your date, we drive instead, via Pare-Pare and the coast, with stops and lunch on the way, and tell you before you travel. From the airport it is a short drive past Makale to Rantepao, our base for three nights. After lunch, your local Torajan guide joins us. In the late afternoon we drive the 4 km out to Kete Kesu, a village where a row of tongkonan, the ancestral houses with roofs that sweep up like boat hulls, faces a matching row of rice barns. Buffalo horns stacked on the posts show the funerals each family has held. Behind the village a path climbs past old wooden coffins and tau tau effigies set into the rock. Then we walk the 4 km back to Rantepao along the road through the rice fields, in the soft late light.

   Included

   • Flight from Makassar to Toraja Airport (TRT)
   • Lunch in Rantepao
   • Kete Kesu with your local Torajan guide: the tongkonan, the rice barns and the hillside graves

   Easier option: Ride back to Rantepao in the van instead of walking.

   Free time: Evening free in Rantepao

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot: an hour at Kete Kesu, with steps on the hillside, and about an hour's walk back on a flat road.

   

3. Day 3: Lemo, Londa and a funeral only if invited

   Rantepao to Lemo and Londa, and back

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Rantepao
   Day 3 details

   Torajans bury their dead in the rock, and this morning shows how. We start at Lemo after breakfast, when the light is still soft and the rows of tau tau, carved wooden figures of the dead, stand on their balconies dressed in real clothes, watching the rice fields below. Then to Londa, where a local guide with a gas lantern leads you into the cave graves: coffins stacked on ledges, skulls set on rocks, and more tau tau at the entrance. We are back in Rantepao for lunch, and the afternoon is free. Funerals, called Rambu Solo, are held mostly in the drier months and can last several days. We never schedule or sell one. If a family invites the group through our guide, the funeral takes the place of the free afternoon; if the only invitation falls in the morning, we go to the funeral instead of Londa and visit Londa on day 4. Dress in dark, modest clothes and bring the customary gift of sugar or cigarettes. Buffalo and pigs are sacrificed, and you are free to stay back.

   Included

   • Lemo cliff graves and tau tau effigies
   • Londa cave graves with a lantern guide
   • Lunch in Rantepao
   • A funeral ceremony, only if a family invites the group, in place of the free afternoon or of Londa

   Easier option: Stay at the cave entrance at Londa; the tau tau are visible from outside.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Rantepao, unless the group is invited to a funeral

   Activity: Londa's caves are low and slippery in places; wear shoes with grip.

   

4. Day 4: The Batutumonga rice terraces

   Rantepao to Batutumonga, then down to Lo'ko' Mata and Bori Kalimbuang

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Rantepao
   Day 4 details

   We drive about 20 km north up the slopes of Mount Sesean to Batutumonga, about 1,300 m up, early, before cloud gathers on the peak. From here the Rantepao valley opens out below, and on a clear morning you can see across the whole of it. Then we walk down: about 6 to 8 km on village paths and rice-field dikes, past tongkonan, bamboo groves and terraces stepped down the hillside, stopping at Lo'ko' Mata, a huge boulder cut with family graves. Lunch is at a terrace-side restaurant in Batutumonga. On the way back to Rantepao we stop at Bori Kalimbuang, a rante, or ceremonial field, of standing stones raised over generations for funerals of high rank. The whole loop is about 50 km of driving, there and back. Back in Rantepao, if it is the day of the six-day market cycle, your guide takes you to Bolu's buffalo market.

   Included

   • Batutumonga viewpoint on Mount Sesean
   • Guided walk down through the rice terraces
   • Lo'ko' Mata boulder graves
   • Lunch at Batutumonga
   • Bori Kalimbuang standing stones

   Easier option: Ride down in the van and walk only the short last section to Lo'ko' Mata.

   More active option: Start higher and walk the full descent from near the Mount Sesean trailhead.

   Free time: Late afternoon free

   Activity: About 3 hours of mostly downhill walking on paths and dikes that are muddy after rain.

   

5. Day 5: The long road to Lake Poso

   Rantepao to Palopo, Wotu and Pendolo, then Tentena

   • Drive about 11 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tentena
   Day 5 details

   This is the trip's one very long road day: about 380 km and 10 to 11 hours with stops, far over our usual 4 hours. Local operators who drive this road by private car quote about 11 hours; the public bus takes 13. There is no flight or ferry between Toraja and Lake Poso, and it is the only road north to the Togeans, so we leave after a 7 am breakfast and break the day three times. The road drops out of the highlands to the coast at Palopo, about two and a half hours, for coffee and a stretch. Then north past clove and cocoa farms to Wotu for a sit-down lunch. In the afternoon we cross into Central Sulawesi and climb to Pendolo on the south shore of Lake Poso, for a walk on the shore. The last stretch follows the lake to Tentena, where the Poso River leaves its north end. Dinner is together at the hotel, as Tentena has few restaurants.

   Included

   • Drive from Rantepao to Tentena with your guide
   • Coffee stop in Palopo
   • Sit-down lunch in Wotu
   • Stop on Lake Poso at Pendolo
   • Dinner in Tentena

   Activity: About 10 to 11 hours with three stops, on mountain roads that landslides can close after heavy rain; bring motion-sickness tablets if you need them.

6. Day 6: Tentena at dawn, then out to the Togeans

   Tentena to Poso and Ampana, then by boat to the Togean Islands

   • Drive about 5.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Togean Islands
   Day 6 details

   Get up early to walk onto the bridge at Tentena as mist lifts off Lake Poso and the fishermen check the V-shaped eel traps set in the river below, a Pamona tradition. Then a second long day, though shorter than yesterday: about 57 km down to Poso on the coast, then about 160 km east along the Gulf of Tomini to Ampana, about five and a half hours of driving, over our cap because Ampana is the nearest harbour for the islands. We stop in Poso and have lunch in Ampana. From the harbour a chartered boat for our group takes about two hours to reach the lodge in the Togean Islands, a national park of forested islands, reefs and mangroves. There is no public ferry to wait for. You arrive in the late afternoon, with time for a swim before dinner at the lodge, where all meals are included.

   Included

   • Dawn on the Tentena bridge over the Poso River
   • Drive from Tentena to Ampana with your guide
   • Lunch in Ampana
   • Chartered boat from Ampana to the Togean lodge
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Easier option: Sleep in and skip the dawn walk.

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: Boat landings at the lodge can be wet; keep your bag small and waterproof.

   

7. Day 7: Reefs and the jellyfish lake

   Togean Islands by boat

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Togean Islands
   Day 7 details

   A day on the water. We set out by boat in the morning, when the sea is calmest and the light is clear through the water, and snorkel at two or three reefs chosen by the boat crew for the day's conditions: hard and soft corals, giant clams and reef fish in the shallows, with drop-offs where the reef falls into deep blue. Snorkel gear is provided, and you can stay on the boat at any stop. Lunch is on a beach or back at the lodge. In the afternoon the boat takes us to Lake Mariona, on the small island of Katupat off Togean Island: a marine lake cut off from the sea, reached by a short path, where you can swim among stingless jellyfish. Their numbers vary, and we check with the boat crew before going. The late afternoon is free: a hammock, a kayak, or the jetty at sunset. Certified divers can arrange a dive with a dive centre on the islands, including the wreck of an American B-24 bomber from the Second World War.

   Included

   • Snorkelling boat trip to two or three reefs, with gear
   • Lake Mariona on Katupat and its stingless jellyfish
   • All meals at the lodge or on the boat

   Optional experiences

   • Scuba diving with a local dive centre, including the B-24 wreck (certified divers, paid locally)

   Easier option: Stay on the boat and watch from above, or spend the day at the lodge.

   More active option: Kayak along the mangroves near the lodge in the late afternoon.

   Free time: Late afternoon free

   Activity: Snorkelling is from a boat in shallow water; a life vest is available for anyone who wants one.

   

8. Day 8: The Bajau of Pulau Papan

   Togean Islands to Malenge and Pulau Papan, and back

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Togean Islands
   Day 8 details

   The Bajau are sea people who have lived on boats and in stilt villages across these waters for generations. Their village of Pulau Papan sits at the eastern end of the islands, so this is a full boat day. We leave after breakfast: from lodges near Kadidiri and Wakai, where most Togean lodges are, the boat ride east to Malenge takes about one and a half hours each way, and we confirm the time when the lodge is chosen. A snorkel stop breaks the ride out. At Malenge a wooden footbridge, reported at between 1 and 1.8 km, runs across the shallows to Pulau Papan, a village built on a small rocky island and over the water around it. Storms have taken planks out in places, so if it is broken we land at the village by boat instead. With your guide and a local host, walk the boardwalks between houses, see fish drying on racks, and stop for coffee with a family. Please ask before taking photos. Lunch is in Malenge, and we are back at the lodge by mid-afternoon.

   Included

   • Boat to Malenge and Pulau Papan, with a snorkel stop
   • Pulau Papan Bajau village and its footbridge with a local host
   • Lunch in Malenge and dinner at the lodge

   Easier option: Go by boat straight to Pulau Papan and skip the walk across the bridge.

   More active option: A late-afternoon snorkel off the lodge reef when we are back.

   Free time: Late afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: About three hours in the boat in all. The footbridge is narrow planks over the water, with no rail in places.

   

9. Day 9: Across the Gulf of Tomini to Gorontalo

   Togean Islands to Gorontalo by boat

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Gorontalo
   Day 9 details

   After breakfast a chartered boat carries the group north across the Gulf of Tomini to Gorontalo, about four to five hours depending on the sea. The public ferry from Wakai to Gorontalo sails only on certain days of the week, so a charter keeps the group on its own schedule; we confirm the ferry timetable as the fallback when we book. We leave in the morning, when the gulf is usually calmest, with water, snacks and shade on board. If the crew judges the sea too rough, we go back to Ampana by boat and continue by road, and tell you the plan the evening before. Lunch is in Gorontalo on arrival, then the afternoon is free at the hotel, with a shower and full power for the first time in three days. Gorontalo is a quiet provincial city, and its Benteng Otanaha, a hilltop fort above Lake Limboto, is a short drive if you want a last view. In the evening we gather for a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Chartered boat from the Togean Islands to Gorontalo
   • Lunch in Gorontalo
   • Farewell dinner

   Optional experiences

   • Benteng Otanaha fort above Lake Limboto

   Free time: Afternoon free in Gorontalo

   Activity: Bring seasickness tablets if you need them; the crossing is open water.

10. Day 10: Fly home from Gorontalo

    Gorontalo to Djalaluddin Airport (GTO)

    • Drive about 45 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    A slow last morning after breakfast. There is time for a walk to the market or a coffee near the hotel, and your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. Your guide and driver then take you to Djalaluddin Airport (GTO), about 30 km and 45 minutes from the city, for your flight to Makassar or Jakarta and your connection home. If your international flight leaves from Makassar, Jakarta or Bali the same day, allow at least four hours between the domestic flight and the international one, as domestic schedules in Indonesia often change. If you would rather not rush, we can book an extra night in Gorontalo, or in Makassar, Jakarta or Bali on the way home, and we send the flight options with your final itinerary.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Djalaluddin Airport (GTO)

    Free time: Morning free

    Activity: Book a flight from GTO leaving after about 10 am.

Wildlife and weather: May to October is the drier part of the year in Tana Toraja, though showers still come in the highlands; July and August bring the most funeral ceremonies, and the most visitors. The Gulf of Tomini is usually calm in these months, but boat crossings depend on the weather, and we will hold or change a crossing if the sea is rough.

• Makassar1 night
• Rantepao3 nights
• Tentena1 night
• Togean Islands3 nights
• Gorontalo1 night