Sulawesi Travel Guide: 10 Things to Do, Itinerary + Tips!
Sulawesi is an amazing hidden gem island in Indonesia that I was lucky enough to spend three weeks traveling – Out of all the different islands I have visited in Indonesia, Sulawesi was the most culturally rich and diverse in climate. Traveling Sulawesi won’t be for everyone, since it’s a more remote and off-the-beaten-path destination, but I highly recommend it for those with an adventurous spirit.
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✔️ Sulawesi Quick Guide
🏝 Best Things to Do
- Attend a Traditional Funeral at Tana Toraja
- Go Nature Trekking in Tangkoko National Forest
- Stay on a Private Beach in the Togean Islands
- Scuba Dive in Bunaken Marine Park
- Visit Paisupok, the Clearest Lake in Indonesia
🚴♀️ How to Get Around
Sulawesi is a huge island, and requires a mix of local flights, driving services, ferries, and public transportation to fully navigate. I recommend taking a tour that organizes the transportation for you if it’s in your budget.
🚌 Best Tours
- 4-Day All-Inclusive Toraja Cultural Tour
- 15-Day All-Inclusive Sulawesi Adventure Tour
- 3-Day Tana Toraja Highlights Tour
✈️ How to Get There
You have to take a domestic flight to Sulawesi. Direct flights operate from all major cities in Indonesia to Manado on the North of the Island and Makassar in the south.
👉 Tip
I don’t recommend buying a round-trip ticket for Sulawesi. the Tourist Trail has you traveling to/from North to South so it makes the most sense to book one flight going in to one airport and out the other.
⭐️ Is Sulawesi Worth Visiting?
Sulawesi is one of my favorite places in Indonesia, but it’s not for everyone. The infrastructure is much rougher than in Bali. If you’re interested in cultural tourism, there’s no better spot than Tana Toraja Funeral Village. If you’re an adventurous traveler I recommend exploring the entire island.
All About Sulawesi & Tana Toraja
Sulawesi is a major island in Indonesia that has started to make a name for itself as an amazing, off-the-beaten-path tourist destination. Home to world-class diving, nature reserves, tropical islands, waterfalls, etc, it’s amazing that most travelers visiting Bali have never heard of it.
In Sulawesi, the crown jewel for tourism is Tana Toraja Village. Often referred to as Indonesia’s “Funeral Village”, Tana Toraja is a traditional town in Indonesia where funerals are highly celebrated and very expensive. Similar to how in some cultures weddings are the highlight of one’s life, in Toraja, it’s all about their funerals!
Frequently costing as much as 50,000 US Dollars, funerals in Toraja are massive events that attract visitors from all over the world. In addition to the massive funeral celebrations, Toraja also has ritualistic burial sites that date back thousands of years. My favorite site to visit was Londa Funeral Cave, where you can explore massive natural catacombs and see how burial traditions have changed as Toraja became a majority Catholic culture and blended that with their original beliefs.
How Long Should You Spend in Sulawesi?
For just Tana Toraja, 3 – 5 days should be enough to see the highlights. If you want to explore the island of Sulawesi, I recommend at least 2 weeks. I spent 17 days, around 2.5 weeks, exploring the island of Sulawesi. While I think that was an adequate amount of time, there were still some amazing sites that we didn’t get to see. Truth be told, I could have easily spent a month or more in Sulawesi without getting bored!
Top 10 Best Things to Do in Sulawesi
1. Visit Tana Toraja Funeral Village
I enjoy cultural travel destinations, and visiting Toraja for a funeral ceremony takes the cake of all the experiences I’ve had in Indonesia. Toraja is also known as Indonesia’s “Funeral Village”, or less-charmingly, “Death Village”. While some cultures celebrate weddings, Toraja is all about funerals. A Torajan funeral ceremony can frequently cost the families 20-30,000 US dollars, as the ceremonies go on for days and involve sacrificing buffalo – Albino or spotted buffalos can cost $30,000, each!
They have a very different idea of death in Torajan culture than we do in the West. While traveling in Toraja, we saw relatives happy to see their deceased loved ones again during the Ma’Nene ceremonies, dressing up the corpse even joking around and putting sunglasses on it (!!!). If you’re squeamish about dead bodies, Toraja might not be your idea of a travel destination, but it’s certainly interesting.
Torajan Funeral Greeter 
Torajan Funeral Dancers
👉 My Favorite Things to Do in Tana Toraja
✔️ Attend a “Ma’Nene” ceremony – Where the relatives of the deceased uncover the corpses of their relatives every 3 years and redress them.
✔️ Attend a Torajan Funeral – Typically lasting over 3 days, the funerals are large ceremonies. Bring cigarettes or some other offering for the families, and enjoy eating lunch with the locals.
✔️ Visit Londa Funeral Cave – Going caving through Londa, led by a guide and a gaslamp through the Torajan catacombs, was the most interesting thing we did in Sulawesi.
✔️ Visit Bori Kalimbuang – UNESCO world heritage site.
2. Stay On a Private Beach in the Togean Islands
The Togean Islands are a gorgeous hidden-gem archipelago off the coast of Sulawesi. You can reach the Togeans by taking an overnight local ferry from Gorontalo, or a 2-hour fast-boat from Ampana. The Togeans have a ton of resorts scattered around on different secluded beaches. Typically, resorts in the Togeans are all-inclusive, meaning you’ll have all of your meals at the resort.
🏨 Where to Stay: We chose Sera Beach Resort because it has one of the better private beaches, but due to its remote location in the Togeans, it has fewer amenities than those closer to the main port.
👉 Be Ready to Rough It: We only had electricity from 7-9 PM every night, there was no AC in the rooms, and no cellular access or wifi. I loved the Togeans, but they’re not for everyone!
3. Swim With the Stingless Jellyfish in the Togeans
You can swim with the wild stingless jellyfish in a brackish lake in the Togean Islands. Once upon a time, the lake was open to the ocean. That’s why the water is brackish rather than freshwater. As the millennia went by, the inlet naturally closed itself to the ocean and became a lake, containing jellyfish within it. Without sea turtles and other natural predators, the jellyfish in the lake evolved to lose their stingers, since they didn’t need them to defend themselves. I also swam with the stingless jellyfish in Siargao, in the Philippines, and the jellyfish lake in Sulawesi gets far fewer tourists – We were the only people there when we visited the jellyfish lake in the Togeans!
4. See the Wild Tarsiers at Tangkoko Nature Reserve
Tangkoko Nature Reserve is one of the only places in the world where you can see wild Tarsiers. The most popular way to visit Tangkoko Nature Reserve is by staying in a lodge near the park and taking sunrise and sunset nature walks. Tarsiers only come out around dusk, I immensely enjoyed our walk to the Tarsier’s tree where we got to watch them emerge from their nests as the sun went down. In addition to the Tarsiers, there are also Black Macaques. I know that there are plenty of monkeys in Bali, but something about seeing them up close and in the wild in Tangkoko was extra special.
5. Swim With the Whale Sharks in Gorontalo
Off the coast of Gorontalo, a port town where you can take an overnight ferry to the Togean Islands, you can swim with the wild whale sharks every morning. The Whale Sharks started coming off the coast of Gorontalo around 15 years ago when a fish processing plant was built in the town. Feasting on the waste from the plant, the Whale Sharks started annually migrating there. Ingenuous locals decided to capitalize on their new wildlife and now Whale Shark snorkeling tours have become one of the most popular things to do in the area.
Note: Do know that the whale sharks are wild animals, and are not always at the morning snorkeling spot.
6. Go Scuba Diving in Bunaken National Marine Park
Bunaken National Marine Park, located in the Manado Bay of northern Sulawesi, stands out as one of the premier scuba diving destinations in the country. I’ve heard it compared to the renown Raja Ampat, but I wouldn’t know because I do not know how to dive! Even If you don’t scuba dive, the crystal-clear waters surrounding Bunaken offer fantastic snorkeling opportunities.
7. Take in the Volcano Views in Tomahon
Tomahon was an unexpected hit. We stayed there one night in between visiting Tangkoko Nature Reserve and Gorontalo, but I could have easily stayed a few more days. There are these amazing hotels in Tomahon that have views of the volcano and little photo nests set up for tourists. If you have more time in Tomahon, you can do a trek partially or all the way up the volcano.
🏨 Where to Stay in Tomahon
- Gardenia Country Inn – This gorgeous hotel with volcano views has a fairy-tale village aesthetic.
8. Visit an Extreme Market
Eating exotic animals isn’t really my idea of a good time, but I should mention that Sulawesi’s “Extreme Markets” are pretty famous. In the Extreme Market in Tomahon,, you can eat local Indonesian street food, as well as snakes, rats, bats, and sadly, dogs.
9. Swim in Saluopa Waterfall in Tentena
Saluopa Waterfall is the main attraction in Tentena, a stopover town between the Togean Islands and Tana Toraja Village. Featuring a cascading waterfall that drops into different tiers of natural pools you can swim in, Saluopa is a beautiful waterfall that rivals any I’ve visited in Indonesia.
Katie’s Tips ✶
Saluopa Waterfall is very popular in the local community, get there as soon as it opens if you want to have a swim to yourself!
10. Visit the Banggai Islands & Famous Paisu Pok Lake
Photos of the crystal clear waters of the Paisu Pok Lake have been making the rounds on Instagram lately, launching the remote Banggai Islands Archipelago into social media stardom. To get to the Banggai Islands you first need to reach Luwuk, which has a local airport where daily flights run from Manado (North Sulawesi), and Makassar (South Sulawesi). From Luwuk you can take a ferry to the Banggai Islands.
My Top Travel Tips for Sulawesi
✅ Be Ready to Rough It a Little Bit
Sulawesi was not an easy destination to travel in compared to Indonesia’s more convenient tourist paradises like Bali. We had to do a lot of lengthy travel days to fit everything we wanted to do in Sulawesi into the three weeks we were there. This included 14-hour local ferries, and overnight car and bus rides. As well as lots of nights in 3-star hotels in the middle of nowhere with no AC or internet -This is what we did, but it’s by no means necessary for all travelers. Sulawesi is huge, way bigger than Bali – There are areas of Sulawesi with 5-star hotels and local airports, and areas on tiny remote islands off the mainland with barely any electricity. It’s what you make of it. If you choose to take internal flights rather than overland transport and do a more simplistic travel itinerary of Sulawesi, you can cut down on a lot of the long travel days we did.
✅ I Wouldn’t Recommend Sulawesi for Solo Travel
As I mentioned before, Sulawesi doesn’t get that many travelers. I wouldn’t feel confident recommending it for solo backpackers if making friends on the road is important to you. We did meet some people in our three weeks in Sulawesi, but they were mostly couples and families.
Is Sulawesi Worth Visiting? My Take
I absolutely loved my three weeks traveling in Sulawesi and fully believe it to be worth the trip. I live in Bali, and while it’s paradise in my opinion, Bali is infamously crowded. In Sulawesi, you get the feeling that what you are seeing is more natural, untouched, and unique. I highly recommend Sulawesi overall for travelers who are interested in natural wonders, and Tana Toraja for those who love locations with cultural significance. I had visited Wae Rebo in Flores, another traditional village in Indonesia, and Toraja was just a step beyond – The way that everything there, from the food to the architecture, is so different from the rest of Indonesia, it feels like you’ve traveled to a new country!
Top 3 Toraja & Sulawesi Tours
🏆 4-Day All-Inclusive Toraja Cultural Tour
✔️ Includes round-trip private transport from Makassar Airport
✔️ Stay in a 4-star Tangkonan house hotel
✔️ Best value for money Toraja Tour
🏝 15-Day All-Inclusive Sulawesi Adventure Tour
✔️ All-Inclusive
✔️ Visits the highlights of Sulawesi
✔️ Full-Island trip from South to North
✔️ Includes diving and snorkeling tours
📆 3-Day Tana Toraja Highlights Tour
✔️ All-Inclusive
✔️ Best short trip to Toraja
✔️ Includes full round-trip transport from Makassar airport
How to Get to Sulawesi from Bali
The easiest way to get to Sulawesi from Bali is by taking a short flight. You can start your tour in the south, in Makassar city, or in the north, at Manado City. Both cities have airports that are served with flights to/from Bali multiple times a day.
How to Get to Tana Toraja
To get to/from Makassar to Toraja you can take an overnight bus designed for the many Torajans that commute to Makassar. These buses are VIP and super comfortable, with padded beds and blankets. Or, if you don’t have the time for a bus, you can also take a short flight to Toraja’s new airport.
💰 Budget Tip! Tours to Tana Toraja usually include a private car transfer from Makassar, when booked independently this can cost up to $250.
Sulawesi Travel Itinerary
There’s a set tourist trail in Sulawesi, usually starting from the north of the island in Manadao or the south in Makassar. We started our travels in the North, and here’s an example of Sulawesi’s tourist trail going from North to South: You can edit the amount of time you spend in each location, but this is the most you can fit into a 14-day Sulawesi itinerary:
- Fly into Manado
- Go scuba diving at Bunaken – 2 Nights
- Visit Tangkoko National Park to see macaques and tarsiers – 2 Nights
- Stay at a volcano-view hotel in Tomahon – 1 Night
- Go swimming with the whale sharks in Gorontalo – 1 Night
- Take the overnight ferry from Gorontalo to the Togean Islands – 3 Nights
- Swim with the stingless jellyfish in the Togeans
- Take a speedboat to Ampana, drive to Tentena – 1 Night
- Visit the waterfall and stay a night in Tentena
- Stay in Toraja for a traditional funeral – 3 Nights
- Take the overnight bus or fly to Makassar, where you can depart back to Bali or other Indonesian islands.
Tip! You can reverse this itinerary and start your tour
Is Sulawesi Safe for Tourists?
I never felt unsafe traveling in Sulawesi, neither as a female nor as a foreigner. That being said, no international travel comes without risks. Sulawesi is the least developed island I’ve been to in Indonesia, and it’s also the least touristed. Frequently, we would be included in just a handful of foreigners wherever we were – and we were traveling to all the top tourist spots on the island!
There was a lot of charm to this, being off the beaten path and all, but there were also some downsides to standing out so much. For example, while we were able to rent scooters like in Bali and drive ourselves around Tana Toraja, we were told that a foreigner driving in Gorontalo would be unheard of. We would stand out too much, and no one was willing to rent to us.
You also get a lot of attention as a foreigner in Toraja. Every other second we were being dragged to take photos with people – Then a photo shoot would last 15 minutes, at least, as everyone wanted a picture with the odd foreigners 😂.
