First time in Indonesia: visa, flights, money and health for a Komodo trip

Entry rules follow the passport, so one grid cannot answer for a mixed group. The table sets out who can get a visa on arrival, how the online e-VoA works, how long you can stay, what the passport must show and which card to fill in before landing. Treat it as a map of the questions, not as immigration advice.

For an organiser the practical step is one extra column in the group spreadsheet: nationality, passport expiry and visa route, per guest. The passport must be valid for 6 months after arrival and carry 2 blank pages. Those two checks stop travellers at airline counters, so make them first.

Verify three things on the official immigration site before you book flights: the fee, your nationality's eligibility and the arrival card. The fee in the table is the one read on the date shown under it. An increase has been announced without an effective date, so check the figure again before you fly. The names on the passenger list that you send us must match each passport exactly.

Guests reach Labuan Bajo by a domestic connection through Bali, Jakarta or Surabaya. The table gives the airport code, the hubs, flight times, the airlines seen on the routes and the short drive from the airport to the harbour.

We advise on routes and times and we sell no tickets. Land the day before sailing, so one cancelled or delayed flight cannot eat the first day of the trip. On the open trip the pickup window is 10:30 to 11:55 on day 1, which makes a same-day morning arrival a gamble for a group of any size.

On the way home, a 3D2N trip returns between 10:00 and 11:00 on day 3, so book a flight after 14:00. Two-day open-trip guests land between 19:00 and 20:30 on day 2 and should fly the following day. Airline schedules change, so check the timetable again a few weeks before you travel.

Budget in rupiah. The table lists the banks with ATMs near the harbour, the limit per withdrawal and the card surcharge it records for hotels, boat charters and larger restaurants. Prices on this site carry an approximate dollar figure beside the rupiah amount, so check your bank's rate on the day you pay.

The national park and the islands have no ATMs, so cash for the days aboard is cash you collect in Labuan Bajo before the pickup. It covers tips and small purchases ashore. The fare covers meals, water, tea and coffee, and the park ticket is paid online, not in cash.

Tipping is excluded from every fare and is never compulsory. The table gives the range recorded for boat crew per guest per day. Decide in the group whether to pool it, and who hands it over at the end of the trip. Budget it as a line of its own.

Starlink Wi-Fi is fitted on the boat. The table covers the other half: SIM registration with a passport, the network with the best coverage around Labuan Bajo and how an eSIM is installed before the flight.

Signal on boats is patchy, so tell family at home that messages will arrive in batches. Send anything urgent, passport lists and payment slips included, before the boat leaves the harbour.

Mains power runs at 230 V and 50 Hz, on plug types C and F, the two round pins. The cabin sockets in our footage are the round two-pin type, with one to three outlets in a cabin, and a power strip helps a cabin of three. Tap water is not safe to drink in Indonesia. The boat serves free-flow mineral water, tea and coffee.

We are not a medical source, and the table below is public information read on the date printed under it. It lists insurance advice, the two hospitals in Labuan Bajo, what a pharmacy offers, emergency numbers and the diseases present in the region. A hyperbaric chamber is recorded for one of the two hospitals, and the source advises confirming its status with that hospital before anyone relies on it. This is a snorkel boat, with no tanks and no compressor aboard. Ask your own doctor or a travel clinic about vaccines and mosquito protection before you fly.

Travel insurance is not in any fare. A policy with medical cover and emergency evacuation is strongly advised, and a policy that covers trip cancellation is the only cover for the part of the booking that our cancellation schedule does not return.

Bring prescription medicines in their packaging, plus sunscreen and shoes with grip for Padar and Kelor. The boat carries a first-aid kit, life jackets and life rings. Give us each guest's diet and medical notes together with the head count. We print no halal, vegan or allergy guarantee.

Two authorities decide whether a boat sails and where it goes. The harbour master's office issues each boat's sailing permit, and the park office controls access to the park. The table names them and lists the rules that follow. Passengers on boats to the park need an electronic boarding pass, and the name on it must match the passenger list.

That is why the passport list comes to us with the balance, as the booking steps set out. A late name change is not a small favour, because the group is registered under those names and a mismatch becomes a problem at the pier. On boarding day each guest carries one soft bag, with a passport or ID to hand.

The harbour master can suspend sailings at a day's notice, and the table lists recent closures. If an order stops this boat, the booking terms give you a replacement phinisi of equal or higher class on your dates, or all your money back within 14 days. The list is a record, and it forecasts nothing.