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I am looking for information on doing a paragliding trip around Lake Toba. I have no paragliding license, so I am looking for a tandem trip with a pilot.

I see references to this possibility on e.g. this site (archive link as original went down), but I've had a hard time finding information on prices and booking. I found information on multi-day paragliding tours, but I was hoping to find something as a single day activity.
I have contacted this company as well, but they informed me that they used to fly around Lake Toba, but now they don't any more unfortunately.

Would anyone know of a paragliding tour operator on Samosir or around lake Toba?

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  • I am finding it very hard to get any further information than what you have stated in your question. As you said, Indonesia Paragliding used to fly around Lake Toba, and I have found evidence of this elsewhere. Can't find any present operators right now though.
    – user44274
    Jun 1, 2016 at 13:53
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    Sorry I posted a pointer to your link. For some reason I didn't think it was the same one.
    – Berwyn
    Jun 1, 2016 at 21:47
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    No worries, the extension was slightly different (.com instead of .id). It did let me revive one of my links (I now use the .com version instead of the archive.org .id version), so thanks!
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Jun 1, 2016 at 21:52
  • Have you considered contacting that company anyway? It sounds like they take people on multi-day tours who are undoutedly already experienced paragliders. Maybe they'd take you up during one of their tours
    – Berwyn
    Jun 1, 2016 at 21:54
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    Almost certainly not. I often go there for week-ends and I've never seen such thing in the sky. Given the calm of the place, a motor over a lake would be heard at several kilometers
    – Madlozoz
    Jun 2, 2016 at 10:33

3 Answers 3

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+200

Paragliding is possible around Lake Toba , there even was a big festival in 2013, however it seems the sport has not quite picked up as you report that companies used to fly around there, @Madlozoz reports in a comment frequently going there for weekends and never having seen them and the conclusion of the answer by @Nathan Shoesmith is the same.

I found two other leads that might be worth contacting if you are very willing to do the trip (I'm not contacting anyone without a personal interest but you might want to):

  • This Medan-based guy (link to his FB) has paragliding pics from the festival but also a few months after and seems to have a flying-related store in Medan. There is an address, phone numbers and you could reach him via FB message. The site has reviews recent as 2015.
  • This site offers paragliding tours around Lake Toba (I can't quite make out if there's also single day activities but sure you could ask). There's a contact form, no price info and the copyright is as of 2014 so not sure if that service is still running. They are based in Bekasi, West Java, and here are phone numbers.

Alternative 1:
Ask any of the providers of multiday-tours you found for a quote for a tandem flight around Lake Toba. If you pay right I can not imagine they would not be willing.

Alternative 2:
There seems to be a more active paragliding scene in Padang, West Sumatra, and the nearby Lake Maninjau is also of volcanic origin as well as fairly peaceful and paragliding is possible. I found several operators in the area through Paraglidingearth:

Now I am sure some of these links are inactive but others might not. If you are not satisfied with flying around the area there, you could always ask these guys for a quote for lake Toba.

Also the guy that @Berwyn contacted in his answer(to which +1) offers tours around lake Toba and as mentioned above it would not hurt asking for the single-day lake Toba-version.

I'm afraid these are only leads at best but they might still be helpful to anyone stumbling upon this post.

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I emailed the owner of this site: http://www.sumatra-paragliding.com/tours.html and asked him.

The owner will give a tandem flight during the Painan , Langkisau Hill, Padang Beach , and lake maninjau tour. Cost for a tandem flight would be 850,000 IDR (approx USD$63). It wasn't clear from his email whether he would also give a tandem flight during the Toba tour.

I suggest you email and ask. He responded quickly.

Tell him I sent you :)

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  • I think what Berwyn is saying @SaaruLindestøkke is that the person who owned that site will take you on a day trip (if they are flying that day.) There is no guarantee they would go where you wanted and over Lake Toba - you'd need to find that out yourself.
    – user44274
    Jun 3, 2016 at 14:17
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I'm afraid the only answer I can provide to 'Are there paraglide/paramotor operators around Lake Toba?' is no.

After extensive research, I have pretty much concluded that there are no paragliding operators in the stated area at present. It is clear there was previously, but this has wound down. I may be wrong, there may be little-unadvertised organisations that provide such opportunities, which I could not find.

It certainly seems as if you did your research well before posting this question, as most of the research I conducted linked to your posted links. As you said, Indonesia Paragliding used to fly around Lake Toba, and I have found evidence of this elsewhere.

Your first link does not work, neither does your second.

So, in short, I feel have to conclude the answer to this question is, no, there are no known paragliding operators that fly over the Lake Toba area.

If you were desperate to find a solution, you could try

-Contacting companies requesting just day trips (Unlikely to work) -Looking for people who have done paragliding previously and contact them. They may have some connections.

I won't go into detail, as your question just asked if you can, not for a solution if not.

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