Komodo Sail: Everything you need to know

Everyone has heard of Sail Croatia... but have you heard of the Indonesian Komodo Sail?

We booked a 3-day voyage for $300 per person (or pax as they say in Indo) through an Instagram account and hoped for the best!

This is what we knew prior to the trip:

Komodo Island is one of thousands of beautiful islands which make up the Republic of Indonesia
It is the home of the famous and endangered Komodo Dragon!

…and that was about where our knowledge of this place ended.

Getting to Komodo:

We took a one hour flight from Denpasar to Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tengarra with Air Asia for around $150 return (given that we visited during peak season and booked the flight last minute, I imagine we could have saved some money on this cost).

The sail tours exclusively run over the weekend (Friday-Sunday), so we arrived a few days prior and explored Labuan Bajo.

📍Jalan Soekarno Hatta, Labuan Bajo

Taxies were available at the airport and we got a ride for $10 AUD, for a 5 minute drive to the hotel.

Hotels - Labuan Bajo

**Hotels:**

We booked cheap accomodation at the Kalton Hotel, for $47 per night (it did the job). However if you are looking for a luxury stay I would recommend AYANA Komodo, and for a nice but more affordable Eco Tree O’tel.

We rented scooters from the hotel lobby for $5 a day per scooter, and used this as our mode of transportation. However, it is also possible to get around on foot as the city centre is quite small.

If you are looking for places to eat in Labuan Bajo, I would highly recommend Happy Banana for lunch and dinner (open until 11pm) and Carpenter Cafe for breakfast.

Setting Sail

The sail fee included a 10am pick from our hotel to take us to the harbour, along with our luggage and camera equipment.

We were transported in a small boat, further out into the harbour until we reached our ship. For $300 each, we did not expect a lavish experience, however the amenities, food and service were exceptional!

We shared a room with 4 bunk beds, and our very own small but clean shower and toilet.

Every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the crew would lay out an Indonesian feast of epic proportions. Snacks were also provided on board, like smoothies, chips, fruit, soft drink and water.

Day 1.

We took a few hours to set sail, and by the afternoon we arrived at a small, picturesque island.

The one thing we weren’t anticipating was the amount of people that would crowd each location we visited. Komodo Sail is a popular Indonesian getaway, and the sail takes place over the same 3 days of the week, which causes hoards of people to arrive in the same places at once.

The afternoon and evening of Day 1 were fairly relaxed as the plan was to wake up at 4am the following morning and embark on a sunrise hike to Komodo’s most famous island…

Padar Island

We were raised by the shouting crew members at the unholy hour of 4am.

After a breakfast of coffee and nutella toast, we jumped on a dingy and made our way to the jetty at Padar Island.

At this stage it was around 5.36am, and still very very dark. This did not stop the hundreds and hundreds of people from clambering onto the jetty and running up the hill in time for sunrise.

The climb took around 20 minutes, (I would give it a difficulty rating of 3/10, as it would be easily accessible to children and older adults) and by the time we made it to the top of the hill, the sky around us resembled fairy floss...

I have to say that Padar was the highlight of my Komodo trip and it certainly lives up to the hype! After taking some photos and videos (side note: you are only allowed to fly drones on Padar for a fee of $100 AUD), we made our descent and surprisingly noticed some deer eating cocunts on the beach below!

Pink Beach

The sail continued onto my second favourite place - Pink Beach (the name is very self-explanatory).

Pink Beach, Komodo 📍

This was a great place to relax and get some rest after our early start. Surprisingly, this beach was not as busy as any of the other places we have been to.

Komodo National Park

The final destination of the day included a walk through Komodo National Park, to spot the famous Komodo Dragon!

We were lucky enough to spot some babies, but I have to admit…I was kind of relieved not to encounter an adult (they can grow up to 2.6 metres in lenth!). These may only look like harmless little lizards, but if you are unlucky enough to be bitten by a Komodo Dragon, their venomous bite will release toxins and cause blood clotting inside your body, followed by death only a few hours later.

The final activity for the day included a snorkel in the beautiful crystal waters, and as you can imagine, we were absolutely exhausted by the end of this mammoth day!

Final Day

Our final day consisted of some swimming, jumping off the top deck of the boat and a farewell lunch, after which we returned to the harbour and driven to the airport.