This is a full day tour of the Minahasa volcanic highland area. The Minahasa Tour will be adjusted to your preferences. An example of what the tour could be like:
- Depart from the resort around 7.00 am
- Visit a Waruga: an ancient stone grave
- Visit Mahawu Volcano
- Tondano Lake and Tondano villages sight-seeing
- Visit Pulutan: a Pottery Village
- Traditional Market in Tomohon where they sell all exotic meat (bats, tree rats, python, dog, wild pig, etc.), with a separated section where they sell flowers, fruits, vegetables and spices. Feel free to skip the meat section if you are especially sensitive.
- Lunch
- Linow: Sulphur Lake
A sulfur lake that changes color, with rich thermal activity of fumaroles, sulphur steam and sulfur muds, with its typical smell of ‘rotten eggs’. Observe the burbling, but cool water and the beautiful scenery surrounding the lake.
Swimming is not allowed in this lake as there might be big explosions of boiling warm water. Be careful with the bubbling mud holes at the edge of the lake, touching them could cause a serious burn.
Entrance fee (which includes coffee + cookies) is included in the tour price. Additional cookies and drinks you can pay directly. - Woloan: Minahasan Traditional Wooden House Industry
- Back to the resort around 5.00 pm
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MAHAWU VOLCANO
There is a road that allows the car to go closer to the top of the volcano. From there it’s only a 15 minute hike to the top, and another 20 minutes to walk halfway around the crater lake, to the highest peak. From here you have a spectacular view over the caldera with the steaming and bubbling crater lake with sulphur scent. You can also see the whole of North Sulawesi from the top of the volcano: Manado bay and neighbouring islands, the Lokon-Empung volcano, Soputan volcano and Mount Klabat (2000 m) – the highest mountain in North Sulawesi.
The elongated Mahawu volcano lies immediately east of the Lokon-Empung volcano. It is the northernmost of a series of young volcanoes along a SSW-NNE line near the margin of the Quaternary Tondano caldera. Mahawu is capped by a 180-m-wide, 140-m-deep crater that contains a small crater lake, and has two pyroclastic cones on its northern flank. Less active than its neighbor, Lokon-Empung, Mahawu’s historical activity has been restricted to occasional small explosive eruptions recorded since 1789. In 1994, fumaroles, mudpots, and small geysers were observed along the shores of the greenish-colored crater lake.
WARUGA ANCIENT SARCOPHAGUS
This is a historical tour to Sawangan village in the Minahasa region where you can see remnants of 144 Waruga from the Megalithic age. Waruga’s are ancient sarcophagus (stone grave) of Minahasan ancestors.
A Waruga consists of a base stone, shaped into a square, where the corpses were put into. The corpses were put into a seating/squatting position with their face towards the north, and a headstone with a rooftop shape. Natural spices were slipped in between. North symbolizes the origin of Minahasan ancestors who derive from Mongolia. The engravings on the headstone depict the cause of death, the deceased’s hobby, character or occupation and the number of corpses inside.
During the 1870s Minahasan tribes started to replace Waruga with normal coffins due to the suspicion that diseases such as Typhus and Cholera would spread from the space between base stone and headstone of Waruga, along with Christian beliefs that mandated a burial. Among these 144 Waruga, there are a group of Waruga of the Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Mongolians. Queen Juliana and Prince Bernard, as well as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands have visited this site.
There is a small museum in front of the gate. A small donation is suggested when you visit.
You can also find out more about the Waruga in Wikipedia.
Minahasa Tour Prices
| Tour | Inclusions | 1 person | 2 Persons | 3 Persons |
| Minahasa Highlands Tour | Boat Transfer Car and Driver English speaking guide |
IDR 1,890,000 | IDR 1,095,000 | IDR 850,000 |
