Komodo boat trip for couples

The open trip is priced the way couples travel. A cabin is sold for a minimum of two, the fare is per person, and it assumes two sharing. Every cabin has a double bed, a single for a third guest, its own bathroom, air conditioning and a window on the sea. The cabins page prints the fare table for each class.

Price follows the cabin class. A master cabin, Jawa or Sumbawa, costs IDR 5,950,000 (≈ USD 365) per person on 3D2N on the current list. The Flores suite costs IDR 5,600,000 (≈ USD 344), and a sea-view cabin costs IDR 5,150,000 (≈ USD 316). The two-day option, which ends on the evening of day two, is priced lower in each class.

Couples choose between a sea-view cabin and a cabin with a balcony. The sea-view cabins have one wide window along the bed and no outdoor space. Bali, upstairs, has a door that opens straight onto the open side walkway, so guests can pass outside it. Papua and Maluku are on the main deck, forward of the restaurant, and need no stairs.

Two couples travelling together can take two cabins on the open trip. When the party grows to three, four or more couples, the whole boat starts to make sense, because it is sold for the head count and not for the cabins you use.

Six guests, three couples, pay IDR 11,420,000 (≈ USD 701) each on a 3D2N charter. Eight guests, four couples, pay IDR 8,560,000 (≈ USD 525). Ten guests pay IDR 6,850,000 (≈ USD 420), twelve pay IDR 6,330,000 (≈ USD 388), and fourteen pay IDR 5,430,000 (≈ USD 333). Fourteen is a couple in every cabin, and the last head count before a third person has to share one.

On a charter the couples decide who takes the balconies. Jawa and Sumbawa are the two stern balconies, and Flores is the suite with a side balcony. Draw lots or take turns. Set each figure above beside the open-trip fare before you decide, and add the park tickets, the guide and the photographs, which are separate lines on a charter. The group charter rates page lists the share for every head count and every length.

Plan the first day as an afternoon. Pickup on the open trip falls between 10:30 and 11:55, so day one is short, and it ends at Kalong. Across the year sunset there falls between 17:49 and 18:27. The stream of flying foxes starts about 15 minutes after sunset, from the mangroves, and lasts about 30 minutes. You watch from the boat.

Day two asks for an early start. Padar or Gili Lawa is the first stop, and the Padar climb takes 25 to 45 minutes on loose, steep path, so sturdy shoes matter. A couple who dislike early mornings should know that Padar is the stop that asks for one. The park quota decides which of each pair of stops you get, and the 3-day 2-night route page lists them.

Day three is a quiet morning at Kanawa or Seture and a return to Labuan Bajo between 10:00 and 11:00. Book a flight after 14:00.

Nothing is timed to the minute. The route changes with sea conditions and weather.

Up to 25 guests sleep aboard, and a couple needs some of the boat to be empty. Three places work. The balcony of a master cabin or of Flores is private. On Flores the recessed side balcony has two bean bags, one pink and one orange. On Sumbawa the balcony has a rattan chair and a round table under a roof.

The second place is the small open deck at the front of the upper deck, which has an awning. The third is the sun deck itself before dinner, when the turf and bean bags are shared but wide. There is no shade, so go up late in the afternoon.

Dinner is a buffet. The restaurant has no dining tables, only counters with about 20 chairs along the windows, so there is no table laid for two. If you want the evening to yourselves, ask us about a dinner on an island or a private island dinner, quoted before you pay.

Choose the charter, not the open trip, if the plan only works when nobody else is aboard.

Tell us the dates and the cabin class, and the reply names the cabins free on those dates.