Palu Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus & shared taxi

Buses to Poso (six hours), Ampana (eleven hours), Rantepao (135,000Rp, 19 hours) and Manado (24 hours) all leave from Terminal Masomba. A few others also leave from inconvenient bus company offices dotted around the distant suburbs of Palu.

Minibuses and shared taxis to places like Pantoloan (for Pelni boats) and Donggala (for Tanjung Karang) leave from Terminal Manonda.

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Boat

Travelling by boat is one way to avoid long and uncomfortable bus rides through Central Sulawesi. Palu is also well connected to East Kalimantan.

Every two weeks, the Pelni liners Kambuna, Nggapulu and Kerinci sail to Balikpapan; the Tidar and the Agoa Mas sail to Makassar; and the Kerinci goes to Toli-Toli, Tarakan and Nunukan. These boats dock at Pantoloan, 22km north of Palu, which is accessible by shared taxi from Terminal Manonda in Palu, or by metered taxi (about 30,000Rp). The Pelni office (421696) in Palu is efficient; there’s another at Pantoloan.

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Air

There are flights to Makassar and Balikpapan with Batavia Air (428888), Merpati (Merpati Nusantara Airlines; 423341; Jl Monginsidi) and Lion Air (428777; Jl Raden Saleh 1). Merpati also flies from Palu to Luwuk and Manado several times a week, as well as to Surabaya.

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