How to Plan a Komodo Island Tour in 2026, With Real Prices

A Komodo island tour leaves from Labuan Bajo, on the western tip of Flores, and comes in four sizes: a one-day speedboat trip from IDR 1,450,000 (about $81), a two-day trip with one night aboard, a three-day liveaboard from IDR 6,000,000 (about $336) per person, or a whole boat to yourselves. On top of the boat, foreign visitors pay IDR 250,000 a day in park fees, and since 1 April 2026 every visitor needs a dated slot booked in advance through SiOra, the park's online system.

We run all four out of Labuan Bajo harbour. Below: both timetables stop by stop, the 2026 quota and closure dates, every fee line, and six questions to put to any boat before you pay. Prices are from our own tour pages in September 2026, converted at IDR 17,800 to the dollar.

Where a Komodo island tour actually goes

Komodo National Park is 29 islands between Sumbawa and Flores, and none of them can be reached by road. Every tour sails from Labuan Bajo, a ten-minute drive from Komodo Airport, and works through the same handful of places in a different order.

The nearest stops, Kelor, Manjarite and Kanawa, sit close to Labuan Bajo and are mostly about snorkelling. The famous ones are further out: Rinca to the south, Padar and Komodo beyond it for the viewpoint and the dragons, Pink Beach, and to the east the manta cleaning station at Karang Makassar and the Taka Makassar sandbar. A speedboat reaches Padar in about 75 minutes. A wooden phinisi takes around three hours, which is why the slow boats sleep out in the park instead of commuting to it.

A boat that spends the night in the park puts its guests on Padar's steps at 05:00. A speedboat leaving town at 07:00 cannot land before about 08:15. That gap is the difference between Padar's first session and its second, and between seeing the Kalong bats and missing them.

Day trip, 2D1N, 3D2N or charter: which Komodo tour to book

These are the tours we sell and what the boat costs, per person unless the table says otherwise. Park fees and flights are extra on every one of them.

The 2D1N is the shortest trip that gets you the bats at dusk and Padar at sunrise, one night apart. The 3D2N adds a second night, which buys Padar twice, a quieter reef at Pengah, and a spare half day if the sea shuts one morning. The day trip is the cheapest way to see the famous sights, and it is a fast day: six stops in ten hours leaves between 35 minutes and an hour and a half at each.

At ten guests the Akassa 2D1N is IDR 6,400,000 each, with nobody else aboard: the boat is IDR 64,000,000 for five to ten people. The private 3D2N charter takes up to five at IDR 45,000,000 for the boat. Ask for both before you book separate cabins.

Labuan Bajo, Flores

Three days in the park, sleeping at anchor

Padar at golden hour and again at sunrise, the dragons at Loh Liang, Pink Beach, Manta Point and the Kalong bats at dusk. Cabins on the Ballona or the Elbark, with meals and snorkel gear included.

See the three-day tripFrom $336 per person

The Komodo day trip, hour by hour

Our day trip is a shared speedboat with an English-speaking guide for every ten guests. This is the timetable it actually runs to:

Look at where Padar falls. The speedboat lands at 08:15, inside the park's second entry session, so a day trip never sees the sunrise from the top. For that you need a boat that sleeps in the park.

Speedboat crossings get bumpy and wet once the afternoon wind picks up. If you get seasick, take the tablet before 07:00 and sit at the back, or look at a slower phinisi instead. Our liveaboard versus day trip comparison sets the two side by side.

Three days on a phinisi, hour by hour

The three-day boats work the other way round: leave while the day boats are still in port, sleep at anchor, and be first on the trail next morning. This is our shared 3D2N liveaboard, the IDR 6,000,000 trip in the table above, as it runs in 2026:

The 04:30 alarm is optional, and you have already seen Padar the evening before. Go anyway if you can. It is the one time on the trip when the ridge is cool and the sun comes up behind the islands.

Our Akassa sails the same sights in a different order, with Kelor, Manjarite and the bats on the first day and Taka Makassar and Kanawa on the last, and a four-day version that goes north to Gili Lawa Darat. If you are still choosing between boats, our guide to the best Komodo liveaboard compares the cabins deck by deck.

The stops on a Komodo tour, island by island

Padar Island

The view over three curved bays, one pale, one dark and one faintly pink, is the photograph that sells Komodo. Getting to it takes 30 to 45 minutes of built steps and then an exposed ridge path with no shade at all. Since April 2026 the park admits people in three sessions of roughly 300 each, 05:00 to 08:00, 08:00 to 11:00 and 15:00 to 18:00, as Kompas reported. Boats that sleep in the park use the first and last sessions. Day boats land in the middle one.

Wear closed shoes or sandals with a heel strap. The upper steps are worn and loose in places, and people slip on the way down, not the way up. Our Padar trail and viewpoint guide shows where the platforms are.

Komodo and Rinca, the dragon walks

Dragons live on both islands, and on both a park ranger walks the group with a forked wooden stick. Our boats use Loh Liang on Komodo Island, where the day-trip walk is about 2.5 km and takes just over an hour. Loh Buaya on Rinca is closer to Labuan Bajo and shorter, and it has one practical advantage: when the harbour master closes the Padar Strait for waves, boats have usually still been cleared to sail to the dragon walk on Rinca.

The park counted 3,270 dragons in 2024, up from 2,897 in 2018, according to ANTARA. Older guides still quote 5,700, which is higher than any count the park has published since. Seeing them is close to certain, because the animals lie up near the ranger posts for shade and water.

Keep three to five metres back, stay behind the ranger, and do not crouch down to a dragon's eye level for a photograph. Women who are menstruating are asked to tell the ranger before the walk. It is a routine line in the briefing, and the ranger changes how the group moves rather than leaving anyone behind. The park's own record is 24 attacks and five deaths between 1974 and 2012, mostly villagers and staff, and our look at how dangerous Komodo dragons are goes through what those numbers show.

Pink Beach

The colour comes from fragments of red coral ground into the sand, and it is strongest right at the waterline, where the wet sand holds it. In flat midday light it can look ordinary from the boat, so get in the water. The reef starts a few metres off the sand, so you can snorkel it without the tender, and reef shoes help on the landing, which is broken coral. More on Pink Beach and its reef in our attraction guide.

Manta Point at Karang Makassar

A shallow rubble reef where reef mantas queue at cleaning stations. It is done as a drift: you go in up-current, float over the station and the tender follows you, so nobody has to swim back to the boat. Mantas live in the park all year, although nobody can promise one on a given afternoon, and our Manta Point snorkelling guide covers the tides that help.

Taka Makassar

A crescent of bare sand in open water that appears and disappears with the tide, which is why its slot moves from one day to the next. You get twenty minutes to an hour on it, and the reef along its edge is worth a look with a mask.

Kalong Island

There is no landing. Boats anchor off the mangroves at dusk and thousands of flying foxes lift off and stream across the channel overhead. It lasts about twenty minutes, and only overnight boats see it, because the day boats are back in port by then.

Kelor, Manjarite and Kanawa

The near islands. Kelor is a steep twenty-minute scramble for the view back over the harbour, then a swim. Manjarite is calm and shallow, the stop where nervous snorkellers get comfortable. Kanawa, on the Akassa's last morning, has a reef that starts a few metres off the beach and is usually the longest, least rushed swim of the trip.

If you only have one day, the speedboat still covers Padar, Pink Beach, the walk on Komodo, Taka Makassar, Manta Point and Turtle Bay, and gets you back for dinner. It lands in Padar's morning session and is back in port before the Kalong bats fly.

Labuan Bajo, Flores

Six stops and the dragons in one day

Padar, Pink Beach, the ranger walk on Komodo Island, Taka Makassar, Manta Point and Turtle Bay, with hotel pickup at 06:30 and lunch included.

See the day tripFrom $81 per person

Is Komodo open? The 2026 quota and closures

Yes, but plan for interruptions. Some older guides still warn that Komodo Island will close to tourists in January 2020. That closure was announced in 2019 and cancelled the same year, and Komodo Island has stayed on every itinerary since.

Since 1 April 2026 the park has admitted 1,000 people a day across Padar, Rinca and Komodo plus 23 dive sites, a cap set by the Ministry of Forestry, and every ticket is booked ahead through SiOra against a dated slot. There are no walk-ins. Your operator files the booking and needs passport details two to three days before you sail, and in July and August the Komodo Island slots go first.

When a closure lands on your tour day, the harbour master's decision is final and no operator can sail around it. Our terms say it plainly: trips run in rain or cloud, only the harbour master's call stops a departure, and if we cancel for any reason you get a full refund. On some closure days Rinca stays open while Padar and Komodo are shut, so ask any operator you book with what they do then.

The magnitude 7.7 earthquake of 15 August 2026, off the north coast of Flores, did most of its damage inland. Komodo Airport stayed open, boats were out again within about a day, and Padar was taking visitors by 17 August. Our Komodo tour from Bali guide has the full status table.

What a Komodo tour costs beyond the boat

Three days inside the park costs a foreign visitor IDR 750,000 in entry alone, before the harbour fee and the ranger. These are the extras, per person unless stated:

Our day trip stops at both Padar and Komodo, so it carries two ranger fees, and its tour page puts the total at about IDR 400,000 for a foreign visitor, collected on the day. For a longer trip, multiply the daily entry by the days your boat spends inside the park, then add the harbour fee and your share of the ranger. Bring rupiah cash: card acceptance at the park gates ranges from patchy to none, and there are no ATMs at sea.

Some sellers still quote a single park fee of IDR 650,000 for Komodo and Padar, or 900,000 for Rinca. Those are old bundled prices, not the government tariff, and our 2026 Komodo park fee breakdown lists every line with its source.

How to tell a well-run boat from a risky one

Boats do sink here. On the night of 26 December 2025 a tourist boat went down in the Padar Strait in heavy seas and four passengers were lost, ANTARA reported. Most boats are sound, and the ones that are not rarely look different from the harbour wall. These are the questions we would put to any operator, ourselves included:

• What is the boat's name, and can you send its sailing and seaworthiness papers?

• How many life jackets are aboard, and are there child sizes?

• What is the most guests the boat carries, and how many crew?

• What happens to my money if the harbour master cancels the sailing?

• Who books my SiOra slot, and when do you need my passport details?

• How do I pay, and who exactly am I paying?

A real company invoices in its own name and takes payment through a traceable channel. We confirm your dates first, then email a PayPal or Wise payment link. Be wary of anyone who wants a Komodo trip paid by transfer to a personal bank account.

Our own terms are printed on each tour page. On the day trip, for example: cancel 30 or more days out and you get a full refund, cancel 15 to 29 days out and a 20% fee applies, cancel 14 days or less before and there is no refund. If we cancel, you get everything back.

Life on board: cabins, signal, solo travellers and children

Cabins on our three-day boats have their own bathroom. On the Akassa the suites are air conditioned, the Semesta carries Starlink, and the shared liveaboard comes with snorkel gear, a paddleboard and a canoe. Away from the Semesta, expect no internet: phone signal is fine in Labuan Bajo and patchy to none among the islands, with Telkomsel reaching furthest.

Travelling solo changes two lines of the bill. A cabin sleeps two, so you either share with another guest or pay for both beds, and the ranger fee is charged per group, so it falls on you unless others share it.

There is no park-wide minimum age for children. Each operator sets its own, and most families get the most from a boat once the children snorkel confidently, at around ten. Confirm child-size life jackets before you pay, and read our Komodo with kids guide for the age question in detail. Divers pay IDR 25,000 a day on top of entry, and our Komodo dive sites guide says which sites want a tank and which work from the surface.

The best time for a Komodo island tour

April to June and September to October are the months we suggest first. They miss both the December to March monsoon closures and the July and August rush for Komodo Island slots. July and August are dry and reliable but the busiest of the year. December to March is the northwest monsoon, when sailings stop for days at a time. Mantas are resident all year, though Karang Makassar is at its busiest roughly November to April and quietest in August and September.

How many days, and where to start

Give Komodo three nights: fly into Labuan Bajo the afternoon before, spend two nights aboard, and keep a spare night at the end if an international flight follows. Denpasar to Labuan Bajo is a flight of about 70 minutes, and there is no day boat from Bali. Our Labuan Bajo airport guide covers taxis and the ride to the harbour.

Boarding on the morning you land is possible and risky. The first flight from Bali arrives at 08:15 and our boats collect guests at 08:30, which works on paper and falls apart with one delay. A hotel night in town costs far less than the cabin you lose if the flight is late.

What to pack for a Komodo boat tour

Bring a soft bag rather than a hard suitcase. Phinisi cabins are small, the tender to Padar is a step down in the dark, and the budget airlines into Labuan Bajo sell checked baggage separately.

Inside it: reef shoes or strapped sandals for the landings and the Padar steps, a head torch for the 04:30 start, reef-safe sunscreen and a long-sleeved rash guard, motion-sickness tablets taken before you board, a dry bag for your phone and passport, and rupiah cash for fees and tips. Masks, snorkels and fins are supplied on all our boats, so bring your own mask only if the fit matters to you.

Health: malaria, water and the sun

Komodo is not Bali on this point. The CDC's Indonesia travel page lists Labuan Bajo and the Komodo islands among the areas with malaria transmission, while Bali's resort areas and the Gili Islands have none. Ask your doctor about antimalarials a few weeks before you fly, and wear repellent at dusk, which on a boat is exactly when you are out on deck watching the bats.

Do not drink the tap water in Labuan Bajo. Every boat we run carries free-flow drinking water, coffee and tea, so refill a bottle rather than buying plastic. The bigger day-to-day risk is sun: the Padar ridge, the sandbar and the deck have almost no shade, so cover up in a long-sleeved rash guard between stops.

Booking a Komodo island tour

Send us your dates, how many of you there are and whether anyone dives. We come back with the boat and cabin that fit, the park slot for your day and a total that includes the fees. You can plan the trip with us or book any tour in the table above directly. Buy flights only once the SiOra slot for your date is confirmed, because the slot is the part that sells out.