The Komodo National Park are a group of islands in the Flores Sea, Indonesia. It’s a place that completely stole my heart and to which I hope to return soon. You can expect to dive with manta rays and turtles, walk amongst Komodo Dragons, and sunbathe in deserted pink beaches.  Here is my complete travel guide to The Komodo Islands in Indonesia.

How to get to Komodo Islands: you can fly from Bali to Labuan Bajo. I use Skyscanner to find cheap flights, and we paid around 100$ for the flight with return. If you are looking for things to do in Bali, you can see my full travel guide for Bali here.

How to move around the Komodo Islands: the Komodo Islands are only reachable by boat. There are daily trips from Labuan Bajo but I recommend spending a couple days living aboard so you can reach further away places. You can book different activities here.

Best time to visit the Komodo Islands: I would recommend to visit the Komodo Islands between September and November. The weather is stable, there is no crowds and is manta ray season!

Internet connection: we spent 3 days living on a boat, and I had zero service during those days. I had bought a local SIM card, but when you are out in the Komodo National Park, expect to have no connection at all.

ULTIMATE KOMODO ISLANDS TRAVEL GUIDE

We were a group of 4, so we decided to charter a private boat. There are some companies that offer pre-set itineraries that you can join, but there wasn’t any available for our dates. We used The Luxury Voyage to charter a boat, and they helped us plan our itinerary. We had a great experience with them and the crew and guide were amazing. They provided all the food and drinks and I have to say it was the best food I had through all my Indonesia trip!

You can also book a similar trip here.

The first day of our Komodo Islands tour they picked us up early morning in Labuan Bajo. We boarded the boat, and started sailing away!

We stopped at a small island with a sandbank so we went for a quick swim. After that, we stopped for some snorkeling. We had homemade lunch by the chef aboard and then kept sailing towards Komodo Island.

Once you arrive to Komodo Island (or Rinca Island) you have to hire a ranger that will guide you around. This is the only place on earth where the Komodo Dragons live. As soon as we started walking the first thing I saw were buffalos and deers, which surprised me! But the guide explained that they are all part of the Komodo Dragon diet.

Then we stopped with the boat in between two islands for sunsets, and they told us that the fruit bats cross as soon as the sun sets. I wasn’t very excited but then the sky turned black for a good 15 minutes, there were millions and millions of bats flying above us. It was an unique experience and most definitely one of the highlights of our Komodo Islands trip.

After a relaxing night sleeping in the middle of the ocean, our captain set sail to Padar Island while we were still sleeping. We got there at sunrise and hiked to the top to see the views and take some pictures.

After visiting Padar Island, our next stop in our Komodo Islands itinerary was Pink Beach. I was very excited to see if it was really as pink as I had seen online, and it didn’t disappoint. We spent a couple hours here just chilling and swimming and taking photos. The pink color is caused by small pieces of red coral mixed with white sand.

After lunch we went to do what I was most excited about: manta rays! The water was a bit choppy and they were difficult to spot as they weren’t coming to the surface. We ended up seeing 4 or 5 big ones!

As I wanted to dive some more, we headed to a spot around 30 minutes from manta ray point and had one of the most epic free diving ever on our last day of our Komodo Islands trip. There were dozens of turtles everywhere, the coral was amazingly colorful and full of fishes. I spent around 4h on the water and never wanted to get out!

We all wished we would have stayed for a week! I want to come back so we can spend some more time diving in the Komodo Islands. The Flores Sea is full of life and still so untouched that you get to have all these spots for yourself.

If you are thinking about visiting the Komodo Islands, I absolutely recommend doing so. This full travel guide about Komodo Islands can help you make the decision! If you have any questions just ask me in the comments below!

If you are visiting the Komodo Islands from Bali, you can see my things to do in Bali travel guide and the my guide to where to stay in Ubud, Bali.

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