Sallo Hotel Sengkang

Overnight stay en route to Rantepao from Bira. Sengkang doesn’t have a great deal to offer apart from Lake Tempe. We arrived just after a torrential downpour which didn’t make the town look any prettier! Sallo Hotel seems to be the best of the bunch in terms of places to stay. Everything was okay apart from not having any hot water and the WiFi being so slow to the point where it was useless. Breakfast was decent and room service food quality surprisingly good.

Sengkang is a common stopover for anyone traveling from the far south (Makassar or Bira) to Toraja to cut the long journey into half. We were no exception in that sense, but were struggling to pick a place to stay, as most accomodation seemed a bit too basic or too "local" for us. In the end, the Sallo hotel was a good choice, it is right next to a big mall in a rather commercial area. We were struggling a bit to find a good place for dinner, as some restaurants shown on the map apparently didn't exist. But the streets are not too busy to walk around and in the end we found a nice open-air café with food and music up the hill. The hotel seems to be popular for weddings and big celebrations, so be prepared to walk into a crowed of dressed-up people who also may want to take a picture with you. Staff was nice, but did not speak so much English, but as the Wifi is good, any translater app will do the trick if needed. Breakfast was nice, enough choices for different preferences and checkout is usually at 12 which allows you do to a morning boat trip at the lake which is also one of the main reasons to stop here in Sengkang. The (bath-)room could use a bit of maintenance, but everything was clean and comfortable. Not a place where you spend many days, but definitely recommended for a stopover!