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Review Highlights
Good guides, incredible traditional valley

We visited Bada Valley in Lore Lindu Nationalpark in April 2024 for only three days because we were... read more

Reviewed April 28, 2024
Robin W
Mysterious sculpture

There are hundreds sculpture around this national park. But I think the one at Bada Valley was the... read more

Reviewed December 26, 2019
Samuelpas
,
Bekasi, Indonesia
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Reviewed May 23, 2023

As there are not many informations available online we stuck to a simple information that the village of Kamarora would be a good starting point to explore the Nationalpark. We trusted in the unspecific information that there would be homestays and guides available.
We found out afterwards that you could contact the office of the Nationalpark in Palu (apparently no informations in Englisch, but there seems to be a whatsapp number, most likely someone can answer in English https://lorelindu.info/).
From Palu airport we chartered a car to Kamarora. It took us about two hours to get there. The drivers didn't know exactely where the village is and how bad the road is. Therefore they charged us IDR 500'000 which seems to be too cheap.

Arriving in Kamarora we learnt that there is - only - one guide and one homestay. It's the Tarsius Homestay of Pak Raymond who lives there with his wife. He himself is working for the office of the Nationalpark.

Apart from the nearby church which is starting to pray and sing every early morning at around 5 am it is very quiet.

As we weren't equipped with maps or detailed information it was not that easy to make up our mind what best to do. Pak Raymond gave us some advice but we still missed the whole picture as there were no maps at all about possible routes, sights et cetera. We only afterwards saw a map of the area which we attach here and strongly recommend you to use that as a basis when making up plans.

As we were sick for two days we couldn't make that much in the end. The "bird watching" is one hour drive from Kamarora. The spot is close to a small lake. In our opinion it is not very worthwhile.

Transport costs in general are high as the roads are in a bad condition.

Apparently there is a six hour walk through the forest to Lake Lindu. It seems that the starting point is also not in Kamarora and you would have to drive to another village to get started. You could sleep in the village of Anca, which lies on the western border of Lake Lindu, and return the day after by foot or you could yourself being picked up at the village. We think that this must be a very rewarding trip as the rainforest looks amazing.

We went to the village of Anca only to do a tour on the lake for two hours the following day. We can't recommend this, as it is not worthwile compared the long four to five hours drive (one way) to there.

From Kamarora to the Bada or Napu Valley, where you could see the megaliths, it would take a whole day driving by car.

Date of experience: March 2023
2  Thank Sarah B
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed December 26, 2019

There are hundreds sculpture around this national park. But I think the one at Bada Valley was the best one. Located in the open area make us easy to reach it and take picture.

Date of experience: January 2019
Thank Samuelpas
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
316deddy, Public Relations Manager at Lore Lindu National Park, responded to this reviewResponded March 5, 2023

Thank you for your attention.

In fact, there are 3 large valleys that are the main concentration of megaliths in Central Sulawesi, namely the Napu, Behoa and Bada Valleys.

Most of the megalith remains are in the Behoa valley.

The location of the findings is within the Lore Lindu National Park area and in the buffer zone of the area.

To visit the megaliths in the Napu and Behoa valleys it takes several days and today access to the site area is more open and easy to reach.

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Reviewed June 20, 2019

Alright, now that my wife and I have travelled to this place let me share some (hopefully) practical comments on our trip. Not much info that we could find before going to Lore Lindu!

The main goal of our visit was to see the unique birds and animals (specifically - tarsiers) that Lore Lindu has to offer. Given this goal, we went with a professional guide - Nurlin from Malia Tours. This proved to be a very good decision, as Nurlin was critical to ensuring that we see as much as possible and have a reasonably comfortable stay. His services were quite expensive, however, especially if you compare them to the average prices on Sulawesi.

In terms of accomodation - we stayed one night at a local house in Kadidia village and two nights at Nasional homestay in Wuasa village. Facilities at the local house were extremely basic and I am not sure many people would consider them comfortable. Homestay at Wuasa was fairly good, given the remote location; you even get hot water for shower delivered to you in vacuum flasks :)

Lore Lindu is certainly a remote location; just getting to Palu was a challenge, with cancellation of Garuda flights. This remoteness, coupled with montane rainforest conditions, have allowed for unique fauna to develop. A whole series of birds and animals can be seen only in Lore L and the surrounding mountaneous regions.

Despite this remoteness there are 137 villages located in a circle on the park's borders (just to let that sink in - one hundred and thirty seven...). So even while in Lore L you still see people fairly often.

Our overall impression is that foreign visitors might appreciate the unique biodiversity of Lore L to a slightly greater extent than the local people living near the park... Frequent motorcycle rides even on footpaths with the park borders, very loud music being heard in the villages and even from park HQ near Lake Tambing, garbage that you may see on the roadside - all of that is unlikely to contribute to the wellbeing of the local wildlife.

Tourist infrastructure within the park is not very developed; it would be difficult to navigate/travel without any local support. Anaso track (beloved by birders) might be the only 'official' trekking trail in the park - and even that trail is not well maintained.

Weather-wise - quite comfortable 25 or so desgrees during the day, 15-20 degrees at night. Fairly humid, esp inside the rainforest. It rained heavily on one day after lunchtime and also intermittently on one or two evenings - not pleasant as it deprived us of some valuable birding time, but far from critical nonetheless.

Now, in terms of birds - we were moderately successful, having managed to see such precious endemics as Great Shortwing, Malia (multiple times), Cinnabar Boobook, Speckled Boobook, Satanic Nightjar, both endemic Cuckooshrikes, Spot-tailed Sparrowhawk and a whole series of other birds. Looking for the Great Shortwing (and eventually seeing one individual for a very brief period of time) was one of the highlights of the trip. Disappointments - we missed Maleo, Purple-bearded Bee-eater, both Masked Owls and could not see any of the coveted high montane endemics Geomalia and Halycitrea (to be fair, our chances for these two were quite slim anyway).

We also saw Dian's Tarsier, a rarer type of this fluffy creature that you can also see at Tangkoko. Admittedly, you get better views of tarsier at Tangkoko than at Lore L.

Lore L is also famous for its megalyths and we had a very nice experience of seeing four of them - a man, a woman, a lying individual and a huge bowl presumably used for religious purposes.

Overall - a great and in many ways a unique experience, but you need to know what to look for and what to expect.

Date of experience: May 2019
10  Thank Shummie
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316deddy, Owner at Lore Lindu National Park, responded to this reviewResponded January 10, 2023

Thanks to your visiting Sulawesi, hoply you may comeback again.

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Reviewed March 15, 2018

On my way from Makassar to Ampana I decided to visit the Bada Valley to witness the Megatliths. I got in contact with a local Guide named Petrus Sinawan. Together we drove the motorbike through the VERY scenic mountain cross into the valley. We spent the day in Bada Valley driving around and walking through amazingly green paddy fields. Petrus speaks (among other languages) English very well and had a lot of interesting information about the surroundings.

The highlight of my visit to the valley was a two day jungle trek in Lore Lindu national park. Starting in the valley we hiked a full day in the jungle to set up a tent near a small water stream in the middle of the jungle. Petrus made the tent himself using materials from the forest only bringing a large canvas to cover our heads. See the photo of the tent setup. We drank water from the water stream after boiling it and cooked a nice meal of rice and chicken. It was really a unique and adventurous experience to camp in the jungle in a self made tent!! Absolute recommendation!

Afterwards I was invited to Petrus his home at lake poso to spent one night before driving further on to Ampana. Awesome experience made possible by a great guy. If you want to check the different trips you can contact Petrus directly. He has whatsapp (+62 853-4134-6483) and email (torajapetrussinawan@yahoo.co.id)

Date of experience: February 2018
2  Thank Reinierbb
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Reviewed January 7, 2018

We hired a guide for the trip and my wife & I really enjoyed having Petrus Sinawan as our guide. He took us Lore Lindu, guided us to various Megalith. Its a nice hike to these places though. We HIGHLY recommend to get a guide otherwise its going to be VERY hard to find these Megaliths. We got to see the largest one, Palindo, as well. The trip from Tentena to Lore Lindu National Park is very scenic. The road goes through very high mountains and you get to see the lush green forest of the National Park. He even showed us a tree that is called "Rainbow tree" as well as some amazing wild flower. There are plenty of wildlife but hard to spot. If you don't have a guide, its going to be very hard to spot anything. Petrus spotted black macaque, Sulawesi Hornbills. We recommend that you should spend a night in Lore Lindu National Park to enjoy more of the wildlife and the megalith but since we were on a tight schedule we did the trip in one day.

Petrus Sinawan charged us IDR 1,650,000 ($124) which included car with driver, petrol, guide fees and lunch. Its better if you can communicate ahead so that you can book a guide. This is his contact number +62 853 4134 6483. He has Whatsapp, so its easier to communicate via message and phone call.

Date of experience: October 2017
3  Thank IftekharA-Sep2016
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dtrekkingguide, Manajer at Lore Lindu National Park, responded to this reviewResponded July 11, 2018

Dear visitor, thanks to your visit Bada Valley...Do hope it will be always in your memories...

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