Rammang Rammang
beautiful small village nestled within karst mountains, known as the Jurassic Park of Sulawesi
Rammang Rammang is a beautiful small village surrounded by magnificent karst mountains, and truly looks like a page out of Jurassic Park! Karst mountains like these are made up of limestone, a soft rock that dissolves with water. As rainwater seeps into the rock and slowly erodes it over time, its unique and characteristic shape is produced.
Rammang Rammang is the closest nature attraction that tourists visit near Makassar in South Sulawesi, and makes for a beautiful trip away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Here, you’ll be immersed in the beauty of the karst landscape, and can discover mountains, caves, and unique rock formations. You can either visit here as a day trip from Makassar, or even stay overnight in the village. We stayed here for a couple days and while we really enjoyed being surrounded by this scenery, it was very, very hot during the day, which limited our exploring hours. Since Rammang Rammang is a fairly small village, you may want to plan ahead to maximize your exploring time, as there’s not much else to do in the area. So if you’re happy to sit a scenic cafe or at your accommodation during the day to escape the heat, it may be nice to visit for a couple days like we did. Otherwise, you can see everything in a day trip if you plan properly.
Check out our YouTube video about Rammang Rammang to see what it’s like there!
Contents
Getting to Rammang Rammang
Where to stay in Rammang Rammang
What to do in Rammang Rammang
What to eat in Rammang Rammang
Getting to Rammang Rammang
Taking a Grab (taxi)
Getting to Rammang Rammang is straightforward from Makassar. Once you’re in Makassar, you can simply call a Grab or Gojek to take you directly to the village. It costs about 150k IDR ($10). If you’re staying overnight, you can have the Grab take you directly to your accommodation, and you can walk around and explore and eventually walk to the boat dock to explore by boat. If you’re only day tripping, you probably want to get dropped off at the boat dock to start your exploration directly from there.
Driving a scooter from Makassar
You can also rent your own scooter from Makassar and drive there yourself. We almost did this option, but decided to take the Grab in the end as we’d be staying a few nights and then leaving directly from Rammang Rammang on the bus to continue north. In the end, it would’ve been nice to have a scooter with us for exploring, and wish we took this option instead. The area is considered walkable, but you’ll be able to explore more and more easily by scooter.
Where to stay in Rammang Rammang
Most people visit Rammang Rammang as a day trip from Makassar, but if you’d like to take more time to slowly explore, staying for a couple nights is a great option. We stayed for 2 nights and thought it felt right. There are no hotels in Rammang Rammang but there are a few homestays ranging from more basic to more luxury.
Basic homestays:
Rammang Rammang House – This is where we stayed. It’s a true local experience where the accommodations are rather basic, but sufficient for a night or two. The best part is the view from the house which overlooks the rice fields, and how kind the host is. She cooks you delicious food and her husband is a guide if you’d like one for the area.
Nasrul House – We heard this is comparable to Rammang Rammang House in terms of comforts.
Luxury homestays:
Rammang Rammang Eco Lodge – These bungalows are right on the water. They have more of a luxury but also commercial feel.
Lego-Legona – It looked like a very nice guesthouse when we walked by. More luxury but also local and homey.
What to do to in Rammang Rammang
Take a boat tour
Take a boat tour which includes several stops along the river at beautiful stone forests, caves, and a traditional village. There are many possible places to stop at, and you can pick and choose which ones you’d like to visit. We visited a stone forest, traditional village, and at 6pm we stopped at a cave to see the daily swarm of bats fly out at sunset. If you like bats, it was seriously spectacular to witness hundreds of thousands of bats flying out all at once!
Visit the stone forests
When our homestay hosts recommended us to visit the stone forests, we had no idea what that meant or what to expect. Turns out, it’s literally like a forest made out of stones instead of trees! These are the two stone forests you can visit by foot: Stone Forest 1 and Stone Forest 2. They were both very, very cool, and I would recommend!
Visit caves
Our homestay hosts recommended several caves for us to visit, though we only made it to one, and it was kind of a crazy attempt that I wouldn’t necessarily be able to recommend it myself! We tried to make our way to Gua Kunang Kunang ourselves, but ended up walking through various farms and fields and eventually arrived at what looked like a closed cave. Max went in anyway and with just a cellphone flashlight, it wasn’t enough and he said it was a rather claustrophobic experience. While we didn’t have the most successful cave attempts, there are still a number of recommended caves to visit in the area!
What to eat in Rammang Rammang
We ate some of our meals at our homestay as our host so kindly cooked for us a few times. But we also visited some cafes, all of which have beautiful seating areas on high up balconies with views of the surrounding mountains. The cafes have small menus offering typical Indonesian food and a handful of drink options.
Cafe Puncak – Large terrace on a hill with beautiful, quintessential views of the surrounding karst mountains. Great for spending a few hours at.
Cafe Bukit – Quaint, small cafe built on a rock, also with nice views.