Cheap Komodo boat trip: cost per head

Two routes lower the cost per head on this boat, and they suit different people. The first is the sea-view cabin on the open trip, which sails every Monday and Friday. It carries the lowest fare of the three cabin classes, and the price is the same upstairs, in Sulawesi and Bali, as on the main deck, in Papua and Maluku. On the current list it is IDR 5,150,000 (≈ USD 316) per person for 3D2N, with two sharing, and IDR 4,400,000 (≈ USD 270) for the 2D1N option. The cabins page prints the full fare table.

For that fare you get the boat, hotel or airport transfer both ways, all meals, free-flow water, tea and coffee, a snack and a soft drink, a mask and snorkel, linen and a bath towel, a local guide, the documentation set, Starlink Wi-Fi, the paddle board and the kayak. The cabin has a door, a private bathroom, air conditioning and a window on the sea, and in the footage each made bed carries a towel folded into a swan.

This is not the only way to see Komodo. A day trip from the harbour has no bed to pay for, and it is a different product. What the sea-view cabin gives is a three-day route with two nights aboard, at a price that is printed and does not move with the month.

A whole-boat charter is priced for the boat, so each extra guest lowers everyone's share. At 16 guests on a 3D2N charter the share is IDR 5,220,000 (≈ USD 320), close to a bed on the open trip. From 17 guests upward the whole boat is cheaper per head than any open-trip bed, on both of the price lists printed for 2026 and 2027. At 20 the share is IDR 4,180,000 (≈ USD 256), and at the licence of 25 it is IDR 3,840,000 (≈ USD 236). The grid on the group charter rates page prints a share for each head count.

Compare like with like. The open-trip fare includes a local guide and the documentation set. A charter fare leaves both out, so ask for a quote for the guide and add it to the figure for a fair comparison. Park tickets are separate in both cases.

A charter also needs a person who will fill it. Somebody has to collect the money, chase the passports and settle the cabins. If you can find 17 friends or colleagues, the grid gives your price. If you can find eight, it gives IDR 8,560,000 (≈ USD 525), and the open trip is the better buy.

The saving from a full boat carries a cost in space. A full boat eats in two sittings, since the restaurant has about 20 chairs, and shares one sun deck with no shade.

Whatever route you choose, add these before you compare.

• Park tickets: IDR 250,000 a day for foreign guests, IDR 50,000 a day for Indonesian guests, or IDR 75,000 on weekends. Each visitor buys theirs online, and ranger and pier charges come on top.
• Guide and photographs on a charter, quoted on request.
• Tips for the crew.
• Fins, which the snorkel sets do not include.
• Flights to Labuan Bajo, a hotel night before the sailing and, on the open trip, a flight home after 14:00.
• Insurance, which is recommended and not included.

The payment method matters too. PayPal carries a fee of 7.2%, and other methods are listed on the booking page: card link, Wise, Revolut, QRIS, Alipay, WeChat Pay and bank transfer. Compare the fee line before you pay.

Price the whole trip on one page of your own notes, then compare. The budget guide does this with worked examples.

A third or fourth guest in an open-trip cabin pays the extra-bed rate, which is printed in the 2027 fare table and quoted with the booking for dates to the end of 2026. Do not assume that four in a cabin costs half. Add the two extra-bed rates to the two shares and divide by four.

The two-day option saves one night, and the saving is real. It also drops the third day, which is an easy morning at Kanawa or Seture, not another full day. If your priority is the day-two stops, Padar or Gili Lawa, Komodo or Rinca and Manta Point, the open-trip 2D1N covers them, adds Taka Makassar on day two and brings you back to Labuan Bajo between 19:00 and 20:30.

Six guests on a charter is poor value against the open trip. They pay IDR 11,420,000 (≈ USD 701) each, and three sea-view cabins on a Monday or Friday departure cost them less.

Within one printed price list the fare is the same in every month. The month changes the sea and the crowd, with July, August and late December the busy ones.

Send your head count and your month, and we return both prices side by side.