Category: Travel & Recreation

Bali might be the most famous holiday destination in Indonesia but the Komodo National Park quickly rise from the shadow. This remote frontier offer a bunch of things Bali didn’t have; undisturbed coastline, virgin beaches, brighter marine life, and empty jagged islands that seemingly transported right from the Jurassic Park. And everything made even more perfect as trip to Komodo couldn’t possibly done without Komodo Liveaboard, a vessel that would take you around the national park. Think about staying in a floating resort and having breathtaking dive spot right in the doorstep. A panoramic galore of the sky, the sea, and the towering islands all from the comfort of the boat. A walking tour with the nearly-extinct Komodo Dragons in the wild. It’s going to be an amazing summer holiday—especially when you pick the boat right. 

You see, you will spend a lot of your Komodo holiday in the boat. You will sleep, eat, preparing for the dive, and wasting the downtime all in the boat. The quality of liveaboard itself plays a huge factor on how would you enjoy the holiday. We want to make sure you choose it right, and we have prepared some help. Here’s five important questions you should ask when browsing liveaboard in Labuan Bajo, the gate city of Komodo. 

Will You Have Enough Space in the Komodo Liveaboard?

Check the size of the boat, how many stories does it has, and how many cabins but inside. See whether the amount of cabins match with the capacity of the boat. When you are browsing for Komodo liveaboard, you want one that has plenty of space. Not only cabins, but also spacious living space to enjoy the downtime. You don’t want to sail in a small boat where you are jam-packed like sardines in a wooden box. The safe choice would be a 20 – 30 meters phinisi—Indonesia’s wooden schooner—which cater to 8 – 16 passengers maximum. We don’t really recommend booking liveaboard with no cabins. The one where you sleep in a semi-open deck with a bunch of other strangers. It’s not really comfortable and further limit the space you could use to relax and enjoy the journey. 

What Are the Facilities?

Knowing what facilities provided in the Komodo liveaboard is essential. You need to match the liveaboard with your expectation. Do the liveaboard provided diving equipment? Does it has small boat to carry you into remotest and protected dive sites where larger boats can’t? How many dive guides or tour guides does the liveaboard have? Do you think the creature comforts—patios, beds, sun beds, and loungers are enough? You are going to be on holiday, and the boat will practically be your home for the week! Also, check on the meals, wifi, and other complimentary facilities like toiletries that would be nice to have. 

Do They Have Diving Facilities?

If you come to Komodo with diving in mind, you might want to embark on Komodo diving liveaboard. That’s being said, the liveaboard should have diving facilities onboard. You might want to have wet area, dive stations, rise stations, and maybe photography area in the boat. 

Read More: Finding Rare Happiness with Komodo Yacht Charter

What is Included? What Is not Included on the Package? 

Does the Nitrox come for free? Is there’s any special dinners you need to pay more? Most liveaboard come with all inclusive meals and excursion. Some dive liveaboard rent their dive gears for free, when some other rent them for extra charge. Black coffee and tea are usually a free complimentary drinks, but that latte might be billed later. Certainly, onboard spa would cost you another additional bill—excluding the tip. Knowing what’s included and what’s not on your liveaboard package is mandatory, especially when you want to travel in budget. 

The New 7 Wonder of Nature Komodo National Park is filled with some of the best beaches in South East Asia and the Komodo boat is the best vessel to embark on sandy exploration. Here, we have compiled a mix of most phenomenal beach in Komodo and some best-kept secret that should be make it to your Must-Do list on a Komodo holiday trip!

From Komodo Boat to Beach Galore! Where to Go?

The Cotton-Candy Like Pink Beach

Do you know that pink beach is one of the rarest beach on earth? Most of travel sites and guides said that there’s only around seven to twelve pink beach in the whole world. The Komodo National Park is very lucky to be blessed with the presence of several rose-hued beaches on several of its coastlines. The Komodo Islands’ Pink Beach is located in the other side of the dragon park—means you need to sail on the back of the island with Komodo boat.

To reach the Pink Beach (or locally known as Pantai Merah in local tongue), you need to hike and climb down the rolling hills of dry grassland. The picturesque views from above the savannah hills reveals a stretch pink blush glows as the sun hits the sands. This is where the cotton-candy like sands meet the brilliant turquoise water—like a piece of neverland. Thanks to the presence of red corals, which microscopic shreds were gotten carried by the waves and mixed with normal sand grains, resulting on beautiful pink beach that we know.

The Floating Beach, Taka Makassar

Other must-visit destination on Komodo boat trip is Taka Makassar, the “Floating Beach” made of big sandy atoll. A bright, crescent shaped “island” filled entirely by stark white sands, free from any palm trees, beach huts, and whatsoever. The Taka Makassar is a pleasant surprise in the middle of the sea. This little island only come to the surface when the tides are low, and would get drowned again when the sea tide risen. The Taka Makassar located just miles away from the phenomenal Manta Points—a special dive set for Manta spotting. This island was surrounded by shallow water, where you can swim like in swimming pool or stay afloat comfortably with your Insta-ready floaters.  

Read More: Finding Rare Happiness with Komodo Yacht Charter

The Snake Island

Komodo might have Kalong (Big Bats) Island which the bats are the only habitants. But that doesn’t happen on the Snake Island. The Snake Island is another sandy atoll—a little smaller than the Taka Makassar, shaped like apostrophe with long tail—which seen like a snake tail from the above. Similar as the Taka Makassar, the Snake Island is surrounded by shallow water, which means the Komodo boat could not go near to this tiny island. You need either to swim to reach this island (if you can handle the currents—or hop into small boat. The bright shallow water features jellyfishes (which are pretty, but you need to stay away from), starfishes, small fishes, and beautiful small corals that would surely brighten up your day. Not everyone knows the Snake island, so there’s high probabilities to have it for yourself!

The Empty Beaches of Mauwan Island

Just like the Snake Island, the Mawan Island is also quite hidden from mainstream travelers. Only the true adventurers has probably found this small, deserted island among other 28 islands within the national park. Mawan is nothing but simple and beautiful. It promise nothing, it provides nothing, yet this little uninhibited island will deliver one of the best beach-venture experience on your whole life. Take a short trekking to the hills to catch stunning view; sun rays reflected on the vast sea below, the bright and blue sky above, and the neighbouring islands on the horizon. Go down and let your bare foot touches the softness of the sands. To your surprise, Mawan islands also hides glimmering pink beaches on one of its side!

The Komodo National Park sits in the middle of tropical emerald of Indonesia, is definitely one of the most impressive and pristine archipelagoes to found in the planet. In fact, Komodo NP is one of UNESCO World’s Heritage, intriguing explorers all around the world to see what’s inside. The islands’ remoteness and a certain sense of wilderness are somewhat luring, and its abundant biodiversity both in the land and beneath the sea makes one heaven of trip destinations.

Much like the Galapagos island, Komodo is a sailing trip kind-of-trip. Means that you have to embark on a boat for a set of days, sail from one island to another, sleep and eat on the boat, and practically have that liveaboard experience. With the growth of tourism, now Komodo has developed a range of liveaboard boats to embark on. From extra luxurious until the cheapest Komodo liveaboard budget, you have it all. But now we’re not talking about taking the most basic liveaboard to have a budget-pressed adventure. We gonna talk about how you can have affordable Komodo exploration and still enjoying your holiday to the most.

Keep a pair of good eyes on the Skyscanner

Skyscanner is our BIG SECRET when it comes to budget traveling. If you haven’t used it, we absolutely don’t have any idea why. This is why travelers can keep wandering the world even when they are tight on money. Just like its name, the application helps you to watch the fluctuation of plane tickets and find the best time to book when they are the cheapest.

If you are traveling from outside of Indonesia, you will need at least make one connecting flight reach Labuan Bajo, where the Komodo is. You may reach Jakarta and make a direct flight to Labuan Bajo, land in Jakarta and fly to Bali before taking a flight to Labuan Bajo, or get straight to Bali followed by a direct flight to Labuan Bajo. Plane tickets can cost 1/3 part of your trip, even when you have booked a Komodo liveaboard budget beforehand. So, plan it considerably.

Always book the most comfortable Komodo liveaboard budget you can find

A holiday to the brilliant, untouched land of Komodo would mean nothing when you cannot enjoy your trip. That’s why even though you are short in cash, we recommend you to put comfort on top whenever you are looking for Komodo liveaboard budget. You may find the cheapest liveaboard available, but most often than not, they are not coming with the most comfortable facilities. Instead of decent cabins, you might find a semi-open deck where all passengers would sleep together with a thin sleeping pad. Meals might feature the same Nasi Goreng and Mie Goreng more often than you’d like. And did we mention that these liveaboards usually carry 20 and more people on such a small boat?

There are a lot of Komodo liveaboard budget that you can choose without neglecting creature comforts. Remember, your body needs a good place to have a good amount of quality rest and gather the energy for Komodo adventure!

Brush any temptations of unnecessary packages

In the midst of liveaboard competition, a number of operators get super creative with their product and start to offer extra packages that will surely attempt many travelers. Some of the most popular extras are onboard spa and massages, professional trip photographer, a professional videographer, private lunch on a deserted island, or even island camping. Now, who wouldn’t like to have their journey get aesthetically documented by professionals? However, these extra fun’ could cost a fortune, so don’t even let them sink in your head. Just a standard Komodo liveaboard budget would be enough to make the adventurous memory last a lifetime.