Private Tour: Karo Highlands and Lake Toba from Medan

The drive to the Karo Highlands and Lake Toba from Medan is around 5 hours. Deddy, our driver/guide was a very pleasant fellow, who spoke perfect English. Unfortunately for us, the sky opened up and it was torrential rain all the way to Lake Toba, the world's largest crater lake. It got worse because as we reached Lake Toba it was covered with mist so that nothing could be seen. We did catch a glimpse of the Piso Piso waterfall before it disappeared with the mist. I think that the tour company should have instructed Deddy to drive to the shore of Lake Toba so that at least we could see it!!! We then spent some time at a Karo Batak village, which has a number of traditional homes. You are encouraged to enter the homes but we felt that it was too much of an intrusion for the family living there. Lunch was at the town of Berastaggi. We were not hungry and did not want a large lunch so we settled for corn on the cob at a local market and bought some mangoes. We then drove around seeing some of the old houses that the Dutch built during colonial times and finally visited a Buddhist Pagoda, which is a misnomer, outside of Berastaggi. The Taman Alam Lumbini is a Buddhist temple located at Desa Dolat Rayat, Berastagi in a national park. It is a striking building but what is more interesting is that it was build in the middle of nowhere.

Saw a lot of sites, some nice pictures, but a lot of time spent in vehicle.

Really beautiful tour - be warned there is a lot of time in he car driving!

A call was made to the agency to confirm my booking. Due to the staff not able to understand English well, I have a hard time communicating and getting confirmation but in the end, confirmation is made. The driver arrived early around 8am to our Hotel to pick us and also shared with us our itinerary. The van drive is about 3 hours before we arrived at the first destination - Buddhist temple and it was a disappointment as we can only stay outside of the temple to take photo, next we will brought to tourist local market to but fresh fruits, vegetables and souvenirs. Lunch on our own but the driver brought us to a nice clean restaurant. After lunch, we went directly to famous Lake Toba. It was another disappointment as the sight was not as great as I imagine, we stay at the site for about 30-45 mins before we set off. Half way, we stopped to eat durians. We finally reached hotel before 6pm.

The trip was nice and the touroperator was on time to pick us up and accommodated our requests.the driver was experienced and helpful and could understand English. The view from the berstagi hill of lake toba and the waterfall was amazing.