We went to Lore Lindu 1 week ago (Sept 2023) for a 5d4N trip and would like to share our thoughts and comment for other travelers. There are awfully little information on the internet written in English for organizing a private tour. We spent lots of time trying to organise a trip that is reasonably priced. For those wanting to plan the trip themselves, a detailed map of Lore Lindu can be found in the book- "Sulawesi" by Periplus Travel Guides. Although the version we borrowed from our local library is the 2003 version, it contains a reasonably detailed map of Lore Lindu, much better than Lonely Planet for this part of Indonesia.

Thanks for the latest review in TripAdvisor, we contacted the WA no. of Palu Lore Lindu Park Office, the officer there actually has been super helpful, he gave us 4-5 guides contact no. Unfortunately all the guides the Officier gave us have quoted us a price that is way over our budget for a 5D4N all inclusive tour for 2 people (car, 1 driver, 1 guide, entrance, full board with homestay). The price they quoted start from 1200usd to way over 2000usd. Despite the price variations, they all use the same lodgings (both Besoa and Bada has a limited amount of homestays, according to our guide- Besoa Valley has 2, Bada Valley has 3, these homestays are of similar qualities so it shouldn't be a huge price difference among the homestays).
Perhaps the car is better or the guide is more professional?? I still could not make out the huge price variations given of the same itinerary.

Our 5D4N itinerary is like this, we started from Palu - Besoa valley 2 nights stay - Tentena 1 night -Bada Valley 1night - Tentena.

This itinerary was recommended by a couple of guides we contacted. To us, after visiting both Valleys, we think we would better off skip Besoa if one s main interest is to see some megaliths (not all) and some bird watching (in particular the hornbills). Reasons for this is

1. Besoa has megaliths but mainly the Kalambas and several smaller human like megaliths. for those who are interested in the largest megalith, it is in Bada. Unless you really want to see the large Kalambas, it is not worth the 13 hours travel (6 hours from Palu to Besoa, then 7 hours Besoa to Tentena). To us as an outsider (not an anthropologist or archeologist) , Bada Valley actually has more varied megaliths- The largest Megalith called Palindo, the "Buffalo stone" which sits among the beautiful rice fields, the "monkey stone" once again in beautiful rice fields (there are a couple of broken Kalambas near the monkey stone if one is really interested to see) and couple more of interesting human like megaliths.

2. Apart from a small part of road (45min of ride out of 7 hours journey) from Besoa to Tentena which is quite beautiful (a bit like going through the moor of
Scotland or the Pine forest of Switzerland) , the rest of the scenery is quite similar to the Bada-Tentena road. The worst bit is because not so many tourist go to Besoa compare to Bada, the road conditions to Besoa (either from Palu or Tentena) is quite bumpy.

3. There are a couple of places of interest from Palu to Besoa, Tembing Lake and the largw rainbow tree near Tembing lake.  Personally we found the Tembing lake uninteresting. We thought it will be a lake with nice natural setting, yet we found out that it is more like a weekend vacation place, which means there are a large camping ground with concrete buildings and facility right in front of the lake. This is not what we expect for when we come all the way from overseas to see nature. The scenery could be from small lakes near countryside of any countries. Nevertheless, we did saw a couple of interesting birds/insects in this area- the hanging parrot and Iron rajah (Charaxes mars) butterfly.  The rainbow tree (Eucalyptus deglupta) is quite beautiful but one can actually found a bigger older tree in Bada (thru about 20-30 min rainforest walk which by itself is quite nice).

4. Lastly the main reason we would have skipped Besoa if we do this trip again is because of the poor quality accomodation. The homestay we stayed at in Besoa is way below basic. We have stayed in many homestays in Indonesia but this has been the worst homestay ever. We are not expecting hot water or anything as many homestays in Sulawesi only had cold water, but we were at least expecting clean bedding, yet... we were highly doubtful that the bedding was washed at all, as there was a strong bad odour of oily scalp from the pillow and the mattress. Despite covering the pillow with our own towel and wearing our wind jacket to sleep, we could still smell it. This is how bad and strong the smell was. And the bedroom wall was full of crushed dead mosquitoes. Needless to say, the room was poorly lit and damp.  One just would not want to stay in the room, yet siting outside wasn't much better, the courtyard where the room is facing was not clean, there were litters of small candy or snacks packets in the flower bed, on the path and driveway. Last but not least, food provided could have been better, there was one meal where there was 1 small dish of vegetables with instant noodle soups to go with plain rice to share for 4 people (2 of us plus driver and guide). Even our guide was appalled at what they served. (our guide did not know what they would serve and he has not been to Besoa for 3 years due to Covid, so it wasn't his issue, it was the issue of the homestay). Overall it was a substandard travel experience. Right across the road of the homestay was a vast land of beautiful rice fields, there is so much potential to make a clean basic homestay yet this place is just disappointing. Unless the hygiene and food standard of the homestay in Besoa improves, I would not recommend anyone to stay there.

On the other hand, Bada Valley to us would have been a much better choice to have a taste of the megalith and bird watching of Lore Lindu.
1. car journey is much shorter, 3.5hours (60km) from Tentena, there are several places of interest to visit en route- Saluopa Waterfall, stop over to see the pitcher plants, the giant rainbow tree (thru 20-30min rainforest walk).
2. The bird watching and megalith experience is overall better in Bada. We managed to see 5 Red Knobbed Hornbills along Tentena-Bada Valley (we have not seen one during the Besoa 2 days trip), the short walks to different megaliths was very pleasant with nice scenery. Please be aware Tarsiers sightings are mainly in Lake Poso region near Tentena, not in Lore Lindu, please enquire Petrus for sightings.

3. The Homestay (Ningsih homestay) in Bada has very clean room, quite bright and with excellent food. although the room do not provide any view (it faces a small dirt road in the woods)  which was a shame given there is such a  beautiful valley view everywhere.

4. If one want to go for jungles walk, Bada would have been a better choice too just because most guides actually base at Tentena, they are more familiar with the jungles in Bada rather than Besoa (i.e they know where the birds, animals usually are and all the interesting spots)

Last 2 bits of comment

1.for those who would like to DIY to Bada Valley, I think it is possible if you know Bahasa Indonesian and with own transport and good internet reception (best is Telkomsel) . The only thing to double check is if it is indeed necessary to use a guide to enter Lore Lindu National Park (According to Lonely planet, it is necessary to have a guide to enter Lore Lindu National Park). Throughout the 3.5 days we were in the Park area(there is no distinct National park boundary), the only place where tickets were checked was actually in Tembing lake at Besoa Valley. There werent any ticketing area in Bada Valley that we could see  no check points neither in Bada Valley.

By public transport, it would be possible for first half of the journey but not for second half. On our way we saw long haul public bus going from Poso to Bomba (the main village in Bada Valley). So it is possible to get to Bada Valley by public transport, however once you reach Bomba and the homestay there (I think there is only one homestay in Bomba village called Ningsih,sorry i dont have contact no.)
, you will need transport to see the megaliths which scattered around different villages near Bomba village, ranging from several km to 10+ km, walking would seems difficult. I am not sure if it is easy to organise an ojek driver in Bomba. For details one would have to ask someone in Poso/ Tentena. A good contact would have been Noni the manager at Victory Hotel Tentena. Her contact no. should be easily found on google.

There is no reliable internet signal along the entire way from Tentena to Bada valley, so for those who are driving, you will need to ask your way as GPS don't always work.

There is no detailed map marking where exactly the megaliths are on the internet. The only map we saw is a hand drawn map in Ningsih Homestay. Even so, it is not detailed enough to guide you to the megalith, you may only know which village the megalith is close to, the exact location you will have to ask around.

If one can afford, I still would recommend a guide, as they can show you the birds and secret spots for interesting plants and animals, some megaliths are among the woods, without some guidance it would be difficult to find...

2. Cost of a private tour for 2 people.
We organised our tour with Herson at Dolidi guesthouse near Lake Poso. We paid 9.7million idr (650 usd) for a 5D4N trip all inclusive except entrance ticket to Lore Lindu (150k idr per person, once off payment for the 3.5 days we were in the national park) and dinner at Tentena on day 3.

Hope above information is helpful for future travelers who are wanting to visit Lore Lindu. We recommend spending 2-3 days in Bada and a couple of days in Tentena for refreshments. Go for Tarsier sightings with Petrus and chill out along Lake Poso. The megaliths and animals (especially Hornbills) certainly are very unique experience to us.

The guide and driver Herson has organised for us are Agus (the guide) and Poni (the driver).  Both are extremely good! Agus is a keen bird watcher and has been a guide in Tentena for 20 years. Although he is very experienced, he is nevertheless very humble, gentle and a very easy going person to hang out with. His English is very fluent, no accent whatsoever (makes it very easy to understand) and he know A LOT about birds and plants. His updated WA contact is as below
+62 813-5485-1349. You can also contact him directly for tour information. if we come back to Bada, we will certainly contact him again.