Komodo 4D3N from Labuan Bajo: Gili Lawa, and a Cave You Swim In

A mid-morning start, two easy snorkel stops, and the bat flight at dusk.

1. 08:30

   Pickup from your hotel in central Labuan Bajo, or from Komodo Airport if you land this morning. The drive to the harbour takes about ten minutes.

2. 09:30

   Board Akassa, take your suite, and sit through the safety briefing on the sundeck while the crew clears the port.

3. 11:00

   Kelor Island. A short, steep climb of about twenty minutes up the ridge for the view back over the near islands, then a swim off the beach below.

4. 12:30

   Lunch on board under way, cooked in the galley while the boat repositions.

5. 14:00

   Manjarite. Calm, shallow and sheltered, which makes it the stop where nervous snorkellers get comfortable before tomorrow's currents. Coral starts a few metres off the beach.

6. 17:30

   Anchor off Kalong Island. At dusk thousands of flying foxes lift off the mangroves and cross the channel overhead. It lasts about twenty minutes and it is the reason the boat stops here rather than pressing on.

7. 19:00

   Dinner on deck at anchor, then the night on board in a sheltered bay.

The big day, and with a fourth day in hand there is time to add the sandbar to the end of it.

1. 04:30

   Wake call and coffee on the sundeck. The tender runs to Padar in the dark so you are on the path before the light.

2. 05:00

   Padar Island. Around 45 minutes of steps and packed earth to the viewpoint over the three bays. This is the photograph that sells Komodo, and it is worth the alarm.

3. 07:30

   Back aboard for breakfast while the boat repositions to Komodo Island.

4. 09:30

   Komodo Village. A park ranger walks the group through dragon country on a marked trail. Dragons are wild animals and sightings are not guaranteed, though the ranger station area is where they are seen most often.

5. 12:00

   Lunch under way.

6. 13:30

   Pink Beach. The sand is pink because of red coral fragments ground into it, strongest right at the waterline, and the snorkelling straight off the beach is the best colour of the trip.

7. 15:00

   Manta Point at Karang Makassar. A drift snorkel along the cleaning station where reef mantas queue up. Currents run here, so the tender follows the group.

8. 16:30

   Taka Makassar. A bare crescent of sand in the middle of the sea, above water on the falling tide and gone again by evening. Shorter trips reach it on their last morning at speed. Here there is time to swim the reef on its edge.

9. 19:00

   Dinner at anchor. Second night on board.

The day the shorter trips do not have. North to the sunset ridge, then the two clearest reefs in the park.

1. 07:00

   Breakfast on deck under way north, out of the busier middle of the park.

2. 09:00

   Gili Lawa Darat. A climb of about thirty minutes up a bare grass hill for the view over the northern islands and the channels between them. Emptier than Padar and, in a lot of people's photographs, better.

3. 12:00

   Lunch on board under way south.

4. 14:00

   Sebayur. An easy snorkel over a hard-coral slope in almost no current, which is where people who found Manta Point intense get their confidence back.

5. 16:30

   Kanawa Island. Shallow, clear, and a reef that starts a few metres off the beach. The longest and least rushed swim of the trip.

6. 19:00

   Dinner at anchor. Third and last night on board.

A last reef, then a saltwater cave on the Flores mainland that most Komodo trips never reach.

1. 07:00

   Breakfast on deck under way to Bidadari, the closest island to Labuan Bajo and the last snorkel of the trip.

2. 09:00

   Rangko Cave. A limestone chamber on the Flores mainland with a pool of seawater at the bottom, lit through a hole in the roof when the sun is high. You swim in it. The floor is wet rock, so shoes with grip are worth having.

3. 12:00

   Lunch on board, then alongside at Labuan Bajo and transfer to your hotel or the airport.