Island hopping

Three quite different archipelagos sit behind this one word, and choosing between them matters more than choosing between operators.

Komodo is the famous one and the busiest. The islands are dramatic and dry, the water is deep and blue, and you share Padar at sunrise with several other boats. It rewards a boat trip of two to four nights and it is the only one of the three where the wildlife is the headline.

Labengki and Sombori, in Southeast Sulawesi, are the opposite in almost every way: green limestone karst rising straight out of flat green water, lagoons you enter through gaps barely wider than the boat, and almost nobody else. The trade is access. Getting there takes a day at each end and the trips run three to six days because anything shorter spends most of itself travelling.

The Banggai Islands, reached through Luwuk, sit somewhere between the two. Clear-water lakes like Paisupok, easy reefs, short crossings, and a one-day version if you are passing through rather than committing a week.

Expect real time on boats. On the Sulawesi routes it is normal to be under way for two or three hours between stops, and that is the trip, not an inconvenience within it. Bring something to read, take the seasickness tablet before you leave rather than when you start to feel it, and treat any published schedule as an intention. Tides open and close the lagoons, and the captain reorders the day around them.