$60 Village Homestay in Toraja, Indonesia 🇮🇩

I travelled from Makassar to the land of the Toraja people to stay with a local family.

The Torajans are a tribe who live in Central Sulawesi and are famous for their interesting rituals.

Ordinarily, travelling from Makassar to the Toraja regency would take a whole day of travel. The guide books will tell you it's a 9 hour bus ride on mostly bumpy roads. Thankfully, I learned that a new airport had been built in Tana Toraja and there were a few flights per week to there, directly from Makassar.

A 35 minute flight beats a 9 hour bus journey, without doubt.

The flight with Lion Air cost 1,100,000 rupiah ($75 USD) and to check 20Kg of luggage cost an extra 500,000 ($34 USD). Definitely more expensive than the bus option, but totally worth it to save a whole day of travelling.

The new Toraja airport was really nice. Super clean and surrounded by the beautiful landscape of Tana Toraja. Since there's only a maximum of 1 flight per day, it's a hassle free experience. No long waits to collect the baggage or anything like that.

I arranged with my homestay to be picked up in a car. Apparently there used to be an airport shuttle bus but due to lack of demand it doesn't run any more. So private transport is the only way.

It cost 250,000 rupiah ($17 USD) for the 45 minute private taxi ride, which is pretty expensive compared to taxi and Grab app prices in Indonesian cities. In this part of Sulawesi there's no metered taxi's or ride hailing apps, unfortunately.

I did rent a motorbike for my entire Toraja trip, though, so no more hassle or expense with transport. This was also arranged through my homestay at the cost of 100,000 rupiah ($6.80 USD) per day, which is quite reasonable.

At my homestay, which is called Rura Raya, I was greeted by the lovely lady who runs it with her brother. She was so friendly and gave the type of personal welcome to the accommodation that you can only get in a homestay, not in a commercial hotel.

The homestay is in Rantepao, the main city of the Toraja Utara regency. It's a separate regency from the Tana Toraja regency where the airport is located, but both these regencies are home to th Toraja people.

The Rura Raya homestay is in a western style home, surrounded by Tongkonans, which are traditional Torajan buildings. There were many small Tongkonans which are used to store rice, and a big Tongkonan that was formally the family home, before they moved into the more modern building they built next to it.

My room was simple, but very comfortable, with attached bathroom with hot shower. There was no AC but it wasn't needed as the climate in North Toraja is very cool, being at a high altitude.

The room cost 855,000 rupiah ($58 USD) per night and I felt like it was good value compared to other options in the area. There are a few actual hotels in the Toraja area but they all looked pretty terrible, so homestays are definitely the way to go if you visit this place.

After getting settled in to my new home, I took the motorbike out for a little bit of an adventure. I found a village called 'Ke'te Kesu' where they have a traditional Toraja cemetery. At this burial place, Toraja people are buried above ground, with coffins attached to the side of a cliff.

It was an incredible sight, and like nothing I'd ever seen before.

0:00 Toraja Flight
2:52 Toraja Airport
7:28 Road Trip to North Toraja
10:15 Toraja Homestay
31:04 Toraja Motorbike Adventure
36:51 Ke'te Kesu Village
40:58 Toraja Cemetery

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