Hotel O Onong's Homestay Near Dodikjur Rindam XIII/Merdeka

The garden view rooms are the prettier choice, though their squat toilet is outside and down a flight of stairs. The standard rooms have an indoor sit-down toilet and shower. Either way, the rooms are comfortable, if basic, as you’d expect from a homestay. Onong took such good care of us over our three days and arranged some brilliant trips, adjusting plans to help us experience the region in an authentic way. We had a fantastic time and I’d highly recommend staying here.

The garden is lovely, and the food was good, though a bit expensive. I paid extra to move to a bungalow after being told its shower would be warm, but it wasn’t warm at all. At checkout, it took 30 minutes to work out the total for a couple of meals, and they tried to charge me too much. They didn’t have change for 50,000, so I ended up paying 2,000 too little, and they made a huge fuss about it despite the roughly 1.3 million I’d spent there. Service could definitely be better.

There’s a scooter available to rent right at the homestay, which made it easy to explore the area. We also ordered homemade food at the café, and the curry was amazing. The room and garden were pretty and peaceful, the bed was comfortable, and the shower had hot water. The main downside was the noise in the garden rooms: the walls are thin, so road traffic and the church or karaoke can be heard. Still, we had a really nice stay at Onong's homestay in Tomohon.

Onong was incredibly helpful, with good advice and a scooter arranged for as long as we needed one. Rentals aren’t really a thing in the city, so it can be complicated, but he even drove us to the bottom of the volcano one morning when our scooter hadn’t arrived, then came back to get us. I’d strongly recommend renting one, since everything is quite far away and walking outside the city may not be safe with no boardwalks along the roads. We booked our bungalow directly through WhatsApp. Don’t book through booking, as there’s a reported scam involving one called OYO that isn’t the homestay. Our bungalow had a lovely balcony and a very large, comfortable bed. The hot water was unreliable in our bathroom, though we heard it worked well in the other bungalows. It sometimes smelled in the bathroom, but that happens a lot in Indonesia, so we didn’t complain since nothing could be done. The food was delicious and came in big portions, though it was a bit expensive. Breakfast was very good, with a few options. If your budget allows, I’d go for the bungalow by the fish pond. It looks so relaxing, and people seemed to enjoy it.