Guide to Taking a 3-Day Komodo Islands Boat Tour from Flores
Taking a Komodo Island-Hopping Boat Tour is the best activity you can do on any trip to Indonesia. Typically visited on multi-day tours through the Komodo Islands Archipelago, Komodo Cruises do not set sail directly from Bali, but from the islands of Flores and Lombok. You need at least 3-days to visit the Komodos, and many travelers (including myself) consider it the highlight of their trip to Bali & Indonesia – Trust me, the Komodos are well worth visiting!
✔️ Essential Information
- 💵 Price: Around $550 per person private room / $250 pp dorm.
- 📍Location: Boats sail to/from Lombok and Labuan Bajo, Flores
- ⏳ Duration: Most tours are 3 days / 2 nights.
- 👉 Note! Tours don’t run from January-March (Rainy Season)
- 🍺 All-inclusive, except for alcohol
- ✈️ Getting to Flores from Bali: 1-hour flight
- 🏆 Best tour company: I recommend Wanua Adventure
- 🚢 Different types of Komodo Boat Tours for any style of traveler or budget. → Read my guide to the different types of boat tours.
FYI: Some links on my site are affiliate links that help support my site at no additional cost to you. Read more on my privacy policy page.
The Best Komodo Boat Tour
If you’re looking for a tour recommendation, this open tour has both luxury & budget options.
All About Komodo National Park
Komodo National Park is a famous UNESCO world heritage site in Indonesia that became popular around 10 years ago with travelers looking to go beyond Bali to find pristine beaches and adventure. Komodo National Park is composed of almost thirty separate islands, some huge and some super tiny.
Each island in Komodo is incredibly distinct and worth a visit, and while you could just pick one island and stay as there are a few Resorts in Komodo National Park, most people choose to go “island hopping” and stay overnight on a boat instead.
✔️ Quick Guide – Different Cruise Types
| 💎 Private Luxury | 2-4 Day Luxury Private Phinisi Charter |
| 💰 Private Budget | 3-Day Classic Boat Private Charter |
| 🏆 Luxury Open-Tour | 3-Day Luxury Open Tour On A Phinisi Boat |
| 💵 Budget Open-Tour | 3-Day Budget Open Tour |
| 💸 Ultra-Budget | 4-Day Backpackers Boat from Lombok to Flores |
🚨UPDATE! 🚨 The Indonesian government has decided to scrap the idea to raise prices to Komodo Island! The entrance fee remains 550K ($35) for foreigners and 250K ($16) for Indonesians!
There have been some issues in the past few years about the future of tourism in Komodo National Park. In 2019 Nine men were arrested for stealing and trafficking Komodo Dragons to sell overseas, which is both highly illegal and terrible for the natural Komodo Dragon population. The Indonesian government first planned to completely shut down Komodo Island as a response, and the locals who live off of the tourism generated by the park protested. The new plan is to raise the cost of entrance to Komodo National Park from what it is now, around 550K ($35) for foreigners, and 250K ($16) for Indonesians, to around 3.75 million Rupiah ($244).
Locals from Labuan Bajo and the Komodo Islands who depend on tourism have been actively protesting the price hike, as they see it as a direct attack on their economy – as of right now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens! What does seem certain at this time is that even if they increase the admission price to Komodo National Park, the Indonesian government seems to have lost interest in closing the islands for tourism completely.
Komodo Island is located in Komodo National Park, which is a cluster of islands off the coast of Flores. Flores is an island in the Indonesian Archipelago that belongs to the East Nusa Tenggara Province. You can see on the map that Komodo & Flores are far east of the island of Bali, where most travelers fly. The islands of Lombok and Sumbawa lie between Bali and Komodo National Park, making overland transport between the two islands difficult.
You cannot fly directly from Bali to Komodo, and all travelers need to arrange transportation to Labuan Bajo, Flores, first. Labuan Bajo is also called the “Gateway to the Komodos” because it’s the port city all the cruises embark from. The only way to get from Bali to Labuan Bajo is by taking a short flight from Bali’s Denpasar Airport. These flights run multiple times a day, take around 1-hour, and usually cost $30-50 each way. 👉 Read my more detailed guide on how to get to/from Bali to the Komodos
Indonesia doesn’t have winter, spring, summer, and fall – instead, they only have two seasons: the dry and the wet. You’ll want to visit Komodo National Park during the dry season which stretches from April – to October. I sailed in Komodo at the beginning of the wet season in November and didn’t have any problems with the weather personally, but the people who sailed the weekend before me in mid-November had it rain the whole weekend! So it’s better to go in the dry season if you can.
YES – You 100% need a tour to enter Komodo National Park. It’s actually illegal to visit the Komodo Islands without a guide, plus they can only be accessed via boat. So, it’s not a DIY kind of tourist location and you need a tour.
Komodo National Park is not an easy place to visit from Bali, since you need multiple days to explore the Komodo Islands + you have to take a short flight to Flores. But, in my personal opinion, it’s one of the most worthwhile things you can do in Indonesia.
💰Prices & How To Book A Komodo Open Tour
You can book your Komodo boat tour online through Klook, which is a popular tour provider in Indonesia that accepts foreign credit cards. These tours can be “Open Tours” which means you’re just booking a spot. Usually, the open tours have up to 12 passengers on a boat. Or, you can book a Private Boat tour where you charter the entire boat and crew for larger groups or families. As a solo traveler, I just booked a spot on an Open Tour. You have the option to get a room with bunk beds, usually a room of four, or a private room for a higher fee.
💰 Price of a Komodo Cruise: Komodo boat tours aren’t fixed rates and vary in price by the type of boat and room you book. My Komodo Cruise was only around $250 per person, but it was for a bed in a bunk-bed room. For a private cabin expect prices to be around $400-500 per person. This is the cheapest tour I’ve found, it’s less than $200 for three days.
💡 Tip: You need to bring cash to pay the entrance fee to Komodo National Park – It’s currently 550K Indonesian Rupiah ($35) per person.
🚨 Note: Most of the tour companies related to Komodo Cruises are just travel agents that work with independent boat owners – So make sure you see photos of the actual boat you’ll be staying on before you book!
Explore The Different Komodo Boat Tours You Can Book Online ⤵
👉-> Click Here to Explore Komodo Sailing Trips! <-👈
12 Things You Can Do on a Komodo Boat Tour
1. Get Up Close With the Komodo Dragons
I’m going to be completely honest, seeing the Komodo Dragons on the eponymous Komodo Island was the least impressive part of visiting Komodo National Park. The Komodo Dragons are amazing animals that are deadly hunters with venomous saliva lethal to humans. That being said, the reason the island is open for tourism despite these deadly animals is because the locals feed the Komodos. Since the dragons are reptiles, most of their energy is spent on digesting – If you’re lucky, you’ll see one walking on the beach. But more likely than not, the Komodos will be sleeping off their big meals while tourists get their photos taken by their guides in front of them.
2. Visit the Famous Pink-Sand Beach
Komodo’s Pink Beach gets its candy-hued sand from the ground-up coral. The pink color is made bolder when it’s wet, so you’ll find the most beautiful pink sand at the ocean’s edge. In addition to being pink, I found Pink Beach was all-around one of the nicest beaches I’ve visited in Indonesia. There’s great snorkeling off the coast of the beach, and the white/pink sand coupled with impossibly blue water made for the perfect setting.
3. Go Kayaking At Pink Beach
Kayaking at Pink Beach was just perfect. There was no tide on the crystal-clear blue water, making it super easy for us to explore the whole bay. We kayaked around all the boats docked at Pink Beach and the photographer on our tour took some gorgeous drone shots of us while we were out having fun that I’ll treasure for the rest of my life <3.
4. Swim With The Giant Manta Rays (!!!!) At Manta Point
When we set off to do this excursion on the second day, the guides were trying to prepare us from disappointment in case there weren’t any mantas around. They are wild animals after all, and while the tour operators know their migration patterns it’s not a 100% guarantee you will see them. I’m happy to report that this experience completely surpassed my expectations. I was swimming along with at least 10 giant manta rays in an ocean corridor where they flock.
Have you ever seen Finding Nemo? That movie was one of my favorites as a kid – there’s one scene where the main character Nemo and his little friends are off to school, and the “school bus” is a giant Manta Ray where all the little fish hop on. One of the coolest things to see was that this scene from the movie was based on real life! There were a ton of tiny little fish swimming under the Giant Manta Rays in Komodo National Park – just like in the movie! (Although it was too far for me to see if any of them were Clown Fish, like Nemo).
🚩 Ethical Issues – The Manta Rays at Manta Point in Komodo National Park aren’t fed, and you’re observing them from a good 10-20 foot distance, so swimming with the Manta Rays was an ethical animal encounter.
5. Climb to the Viewpoint at Padar Island for Sunrise/Sunset
The viewpoint at Padar Island is quickly becoming one of the most iconic photo spots in Indonesia. You’ll need to complete a 20- to 30-minute staircase hike to reach the viewpoint. Most Komodo boat tour operators schedule a stop at Padar Island either for sunrise or sunset, ensuring you get the best views of the island.
6. Visit Taka Makassar Island
Taka Makassar is technically a sandbar in the middle of the Komodo Sea, and it would be paradise – IF it weren’t for the 100 other people there when we went 😅. Our boat pulled up at the same time all the other tours did, so it was a bit too crowded to be enjoyable. But I’ve seen some photos from private tours to Taka Makassar that make it look like a deserted island.
7. Watch The Bats Make Their Sunset Migration At Kalong Island
Every day at sunset the bats fly out from Kalong Island, where they all nest as a herd, to go hunt for the night. It’s truly an amazing experience to watch the hoards of bats fly out into the sunset!
Around 6 PM you see the cruise ships, tiny fishing boats, and luxury Phinisis all dock to watch the migration. At first, the migration just looks like a flock of birds, then when you look closely you see the distinct outlines of the bat wings. While that sounds kind of intense, our guide told us that there are two types of bats on Kalong Island. There are large bats and teeny tiny ones. The large bats look scarier, but these are just harmless fruit bats. It’s the tiny breed of bats on Kalong Island that actually drink blood (creepy!), but they never attack people, just animals.
💡 Note: If you’re afraid of Bats, don’t worry! The boats are parked at a distance.
8. Spot Sea Turtles While Snorkeling <3
This isn’t so much an activity as just something you’ll run into if you spend time swimming around the Komodo Islands. The wildlife in Komodo National Park is so vibrant. However, even though on our last day on the Backpackers’ Boat we stopped off at “Turtle Point”, I had way better luck spotting sea turtles at the snorkel spots the second boat tour took us to. Our guide was great about pointing out wild sea turtles to us, I think we saw three (!!!) while snorkeling from Manta Ray Point to Taka Makassar Island.
9. Experience The Glowing Bioluminescence While Night Swimming
Again, this isn’t even a part of a Komodo Tour – it’s just another AMAZING thing you will experience in Komodo National Park! Some people on the tour asked if we could go night swimming since the boat was docked. The guide replied, “Sure, but just so you know the water might glow”.
THE WATER MIGHT GLOW?!?!?
Our guide was super nonchalant about it but apparently, there’s a ton of bioluminescent algae in Komodo National Park that is very safe but makes the water and sand glow in the dark. I had experienced the bioluminescent algae in the Gili Islands a few years ago and didn’t even know it occurred outside the islands. If you’re lucky, you might be able to see it in Komodo!
10. Take Photos With Your Private Photographer!
One of the super-cool things about taking a more high-end Komodo cruise was that it included a private photographer who would take pictures of us on the tour.
💡 Tip: If you’re taking a nicer Komodo Boat Tour make sure it includes a photography service! Most of them do.
11. Hike To The View Point At Kelor Island
Kelor Island is home to another iconic viewpoint hike in the Komodos. Shorter than the hike at Padar Island, it should only take you 10 minutes to climb the dirt and rock steps leading to the lookout spot. Also at Kelor Island are some wonderful warungs where you can take a break from the sun and enjoy a Bintang beer or two (or three), and a small coral reef lies off the coast of the island. While we were snorkeling off of Kelor I saw many Parrot Fish, as well as a Barracuda!
12. Eat Really Good Food!
The meals on the luxury Komodo Cruise I took from Labuan Bajo were all next-level. We had fresh fish, fruits, and vegetables, all presented and plated in a very high-end way. I was beyond impressed with the quality of food on the Luxury Komodo Cruise.
Quick Guide to Labuan Bajo
Labuan Bajo is the gateway to Komodo National Park where you will be starting or finishing your trip before flying back to Bali. Full disclosure, I was supposed to stay in Labuan Bajo for two days after my first Komodo Boat Tour ended, but I wound up staying a whole month because I fell in love with the town and the island of Flores! Labuan Bajo is a sleepy port city, but it’s a great break from the hustle of larger cities in Bali – plus there’s a ton to do from sailing Komodo to exploring the island of Flores overland.
🏨 Where to Stay In Labuan Bajo
Labuan Bajo has become famous in recent years for having these gorgeous all-white Santorini-Inspired hotels. The best hotel in Labuan Bajo is Loccal Collection, but if you’re on a budget Seaesta Hotel & Hostel is also amazing!
Where To Eat In Labuan Bajo
After a lot of trial and error, my favorite cafe in Labuan Bajo (where I’m sitting and writing this post right now) is Bacarita Cafe. It’s in the center of town, kind of hidden above the Starbucks. They do great coffee, western, and Indonesian food, there’s wifi, and the prices are really good! I also loved the Labuan Bajo fish market come nightfall. Lots of fish vendors line up their stalls and you order whole fish, which they then grill or fry fresh to order and serve with rice and sambal. My favorite was the grilled squid!
Other Activities In Labuan Bajo & Flores
Visit Rangko Cave: Rangko Cave is a half hour outside of the town of Labuan Bajo and a very memorable experience. It’s a salt-water cave so you can float without effort – Rangko Cave has crystal-clear blue water you can swim in, and the only way to get there is by taking a tiny boat from mainland Flores so you do need a tour to visit.
💡Tip: In the afternoon, the sun aligns with Rangko Cave to light it up naturally from within. Amazing, right? Well, that’s what everyone else thinks too! We got there at 10 AM and even though it was kinda dark we had the cave all to ourselves until 11 AM when the other tourists started flooding in and the small cave quickly felt crowded.
Trek To Wae Rebo Traditional Village: Wae Rebo is most usually visited on 2-day overnight trips since it’s a difficult location to reach. You need to drive 4 hours outside of Labuan Bajo (over super bumpy roads), and then hike 1.5-3 hours uphill to reach the traditional village. Once you get there, you can experience one of the most picturesque traditional villages in Indonesia. ▶ Click Here to Book a Tour of Wae Rebo!
Visit Cunca Wulang Waterfall: Full disclosure – Cunca Wulang is the most unhinged waterfall I’ve visited in Indonesia. I think Cunca Wulang’s infrastructure suffered during the pandemic, and it wasn’t really kept up with – but if you’re into an adventure, the reward at the end of the path is a pretty cool waterfall that not many other tourists visit!
