Komodo National Park 

Overview: 

The last remain­ing home of the Drag­ons – Komo­do Nation­al Park is made up of 29 stun­ning Islands and is home to not only the rare and incred­i­ble Komo­do Drag­ons, but incred­i­ble lush green hills, stun­ning sparkling beach­es and crys­tal-clear waters which host some of the great­est dive sites and marine life on the plan­et, which helps to make the Komo­do Nation­al Park one of the tru­ly immense nat­ur­al won­ders of the world.  

Found in the heart of Indone­sia, the most pop­u­lar spots of the 1,733 km² Komo­do Nation­al Park are undoubt­ed­ly the three main and biggest islands of Padar, Komo­do and Rin­ca – with Padar fea­tur­ing the post­card panoram­ic 360 views of the Island in all its glo­ry and the island of Komo­do and Rin­ca being the only nat­ur­al habi­tat of the leg­endary Komo­do Drag­ons.  

Known as the largest lizards on the plan­et, and con­sid­ered a throw­back to pre-his­toric rep­til­ian the Drag­ons are one of the most endan­gered species on the plan­et and are known to grow up to 9 foot long, weigh 200 lbs and come with a thick chain mail like skin, with each view­ing trip required to have an accom­pa­ny­ing expert guide, who will like­ly come pre­pared with  giant stick to fend off the drag­ons if they attempt to attack a human – which they have been known to do. Yet despite their occa­sion­al aggres­sive side – espe­cial­ly dur­ing mat­ing sea­son, the Drag­ons are a true won­der to look at and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to observe them in their nat­ur­al habi­tat is both a priv­i­lege and an awe-inspir­ing site, with the guides on hand to snap as many pho­tos of your­selves with them as required.  

Along­side the Drag­ons, the Komo­do Nation­al Park is also one of the best places in the world to see man­ta rays, with thou­sands flock­ing to the stun­ning clear water in the autumn to join the many Tur­tles and thou­sands of fish for breed­ing and feed­ing, mak­ing the islands a diver’s par­adise – which com­bined with the stun­ning sun­sets and the incred­i­ble night­ly milky way view­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties help to make the incred­i­ble Komo­do Nation­al Park and it’s stun­ning nat­ur­al beau­ty and drag­on res­i­dents a tru­ly incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Where:

Komo­do Nation­al Park and its 29 islands are found in Indone­sia as part of the Less­er Sun­da Islands – with the base for most trav­ellers being the town of Flo­res which serves as a gate­way to the stun­ning nation­al park.  

Getting there:

Get­ting to Flo­res and the Nation­al Park can require a bit of logis­tics – unfor­tu­nate­ly for those with­out a heli­copter and pri­vate cruise ship you can’t just enter the nation­al park you’re going to have to fly to Flo­res and then jump on a ship or tour into the won­ders and the islands.  

To get to Flo­res you’ll need to get your­self to Bali or Jakar­ta – with Bali and Jakar­ta being the only place where flights to Labuan Bajo (also known as Komo­do Air­port) are avail­able, you can then use the town of Flo­res as a base to either take a boat to the parks, hop on a live aboard or jump on a scu­ba div­ing day trip to explore the many islands and won­ders of the Komo­do Nation­al Park.  

When at the park be warned that you’ll be required to have a guide with you at all times when you embark on your  trek to see the Drag­ons – as they do have a bit of a tem­per and have been known to go at explor­ers, so hav­ing them by your side is required for your pro­tec­tion – and to let them grab some stun­ning pho­tos of you next to them.  

Best time to Visit:

Komo­do Nation­al Park is great to vis­it year round – so it’s more a case of the vol­ume of heat you’re com­fort­able with in Indone­sia – with Jan­u­ary to March being the mon­soon sea­son and increas­ing your chances of get­ting wet and June to Novem­ber being the peak sea­son for best weath­er but also bring­ing with it vol­umes of tourists – so much so that vis­its to each island are now sub­ject to a dai­ly cap.  

For the Komodo‑s chances are you’ll see them year-round, but they are known to be espe­cial­ly active dur­ing mat­ing sea­son which is May to August when the Males in par­tic­u­lar­ly get a desire to mate and go seek­ing out females – lead­ing to more aggres­sive behav­iour from them.  

For those who believe life is bet­ter under­wa­ter, peak Man­ta sea­son is between Sep­tem­ber and Novem­ber with Flocks of Man­tas view­able in Sep­tem­ber and Novem­ber at the best points – and much hard­er to see out­side these months – of course for those with a big wal­let you could always head to Komo­do Nation­al Park for Komo­do mat­ing sea­son and then again for Man­ta spot­ting sea­son to tru­ly take in the best of this unique won­der.  

 

Explore:  

While Komo­do Nation­al Park is divid­ed into 29 sub­lime and beau­ti­ful islands the main three are Komo­do, Rina and Padar – which is where you’ll be able to spot the Great Drag­ons, take in the famous views and absorb your­self in this stun­ning won­der of the world.  

While we’d encour­age get­ting off the beat­en track and explore the rolling hills, lush green­ery and stun­ning natives – both above and below land at Komo­do Nation­al Park, below are our absolute must see sights in the won­der of the Komo­do Nation­al Park:  

 Padar:

Start­ing with the clos­est spot to Flo­res and with what will like­ly be your first port of call in the won­der, the third biggest island of the Komo­do Nation­al Park, Padar is famous for is stun­ning views and hik­ing trails – with the steep hill  that leads you to the Padar Island Main look­out offer­ing what is now the post­card panoram­ic view of the mul­ti-coloured beach­es, hills and sea that has become a sta­ple of Komo­do Nation­al Park – as first stops on tours go tak­ing in this stun­ning view is among the best in the world.  

Komodo Island

Next up is the island of Komo­do – you’ll dis­em­bark your boat on to a long jet­ty walk­way and pass a cou­ple of giant docked cruise ships before enter­ing the island under a Jur­ra­sic Park style gate and next to a beach — then mak­ing sure you have your guide, you’ll then tak­en on one of the three des­ig­nat­ed treks around the island to hunt for the endan­gered and stun­ning Komo­do Drag­ons that call this island home.  

Start­ing off from beneath the gate, you’ll also get a brief from your guide about the Drag­ons – essen­tial­ly warn­ing you that they do attack humans, so be care­ful not to antag­o­nise them and under­lin­ing that they can out­run your aver­age human, before you seek out one of the 3,000 drag­ons that lie on the island. As you jour­ney round chances are (unless you vis­it in mat­ing sea­son) you’ll find them relax­ing under a tree and occa­sion­al­ly adjust­ing posi­tions to walk to a hole – which while not being as excit­ing as see­ing them wres­tle each oth­er gives you the chance to get some up close pho­tos – and some spe­cial illu­sion pho­tos that your guides will help you with while observ­ing them in their nat­ur­al habi­tat.  

As you jour­ney round the island, you’ll also get a chance to walk amongst the incred­i­ble for­est of the island, and more than like­ly wit­ness some Komo­do Nests that are shel­ter­ing eggs and pos­si­bly new-born Komodo’s – as well as look­ing out into the stun­ning Flo­res sea – with the island and it’s res­i­dents mak­ing Komo­do Island an incred­i­ble and unique nat­ur­al spot and a true won­der.  

Rinca Island

Along­side Komo­do Island you’ll also find Komo­do Drag­ons liv­ing on the beau­ti­ful Rin­ca Island, with this island being both small­er and thus less vis­it­ed by explor­ers giv­ing you poten­tial­ly a unique and untouched island to explore and hunt for drag­ons.  

Rin­ca is also a great place to see an abun­dance of oth­er native wildlife, includ­ing owls, buf­fa­lo, goat, pigs and mon­keys as well as two incred­i­ble Komo­do Drag­on stat­ues that have been put in for tourists and again fea­tures mul­ti­ple hik­ing trails and some incred­i­ble wood­lands and green­ery that is home to the Drag­ons – with the waters near Rin­ca Island known not just as a great snorkelling spot but also a unique place to occa­sion­al­ly see the Drag­ons tak­ing a dip – just remem­ber not to get too close to them as they will still go for you even if its under­wa­ter.  

Diving / Snorkelling in Komodo National park 

While Komo­do Islands may be known for its above land stun­ning views, green­ery and the famous Komo­do Drag­ons – life under­wa­ter in this Nation­al Park is equal­ly stun­ning, with the Komo­do Nation­al Park being one of the best dive spots in the world, known not only for its stun­ning reefs, man­ta rays, tur­tles, mul­ti­ple fish, sharks and the odd swim­ming drag­on but also it’s crys­tal clear waters. 

Luck­i­ly, bas­ing your­self out of Flo­res you will have mul­ti­ple div­ing and Scu­ba options, includ­ing day trips and live­aboards and you’ll also find many trips to the island offer a com­bined island / Div­ing trip for those who want to com­bine the two.  

While there are some incred­i­ble reefs, we’d high­ly rec­om­mend mak­ing sure that you take in the snorkel spots of Batu Bolong – a 60 metre rock that is known as a hang out spot for mul­ti­ple species of fish.  

The snorkel or Dives spots of Man­ta 1 and Man­ta 2 and Man­ta 3 which make up the Man­ta points of Komo­do Nation­al Park – where par­tic­u­lar­ly in Sep­tem­ber – Novem­ber you are like­ly to see mul­ti­ple Man­ta rays glid­ing along the incred­i­ble Flo­res sea waters  and get the chance to swim along­side them and pho­to­graph them in all their beau­ty. 

On top of this scu­ba prices in Komo­do Nation­al Park are some of the best in the world, and you can expect to be accom­pa­nied by a pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­ph­er on every trip as you explore the stun­ning reefs and come face to face with Man­ta rays, Tur­tles and some of the best aquat­ic life on the plan­et.  

Island Hop­ping and Stargaz­ing: 

Along­side the beau­ty of the Nation­al Parks and the immense under­wa­ter expe­ri­ences, Komo­do Nation­al Park helped by its lack of pol­lu­tion, stun­ning scenery and crys­tal clear waters is also the home of some of the best nat­ur­al dis­plays and beach won­ders.  

Flo­res Sun­set — For those who base them­selves in Flo­res, be sure to head up the top of the main Flo­res hill (it’s the only hill in town) around 7pm to wit­ness an incred­i­ble orange and yel­low sun­set over some of the 29 vol­canic islands in the dis­tance – it’s a tru­ly stun­ning sight.  

The Milky Way — We’d also rec­om­mend – and espe­cial­ly for those doing live­aboards to go stargaz­ing, with a clear night sky in the mid­dle of the Nation­al Park giv­ing you some of the best and most incred­i­ble van­tage points of the Milky Way, with the Stars and Plan­ets of oth­er worlds com­ing togeth­er to light up the incred­i­ble won­der in a stun­ning evening sky per­for­mance – it’s one of the main sell­ing points of the live­aboard expe­ri­ence and one def­i­nite­ly worth invest­ing in a high-tech cam­era for.  

Gili Lawa – while all of the 29 islands on Komo­do have their own unique iden­ti­ty, chances are you’ll only hit the main three on most tours, yet for those who a mul­ti-day live­aboard cruise you may get the unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to vis­it our favourite non big three island of Gili lawa – a stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful island full of green lush hills and which fea­tures a view point which in our opin­ion eclipses that of Padar Island. Although it’s a much steep­er climb and the trail is tigher and less well devel­oped that Padar – the view from the top which fea­tures a 360 view includ­ing the big three islands on a clear day and the crys­tal clear water below is tru­ly stun­ning and makes for a unique yet beau­ti­ful shot of the Komo­do Nation­al Park – which is well worth check­ing out.  

Pink Beach — Along­side the many incred­i­ble islands of the Nation­al Park, you’ll find mul­ti­ple stun­ning beach­es and sand­bars – but per­haps none is more famous (or Insta­gram Famous) that the icon­ic pink beach­es – includ­ing the one found on Padra Island. These incred­i­ble beach­es formed by the red coral of the under­wa­ter beau­ty of Komo­do reefs break­ing away and mix­ing with water cov­er incred­i­ble beach­es against the crys­tal clear waters of the Flo­res sea and make not just for stun­ning snorkelling spots but a tru­ly roman­tic and idyl­lic spot in the incred­i­ble beau­ty of the Komo­do Nation­al Park.  

How long to stay:

While we’d advise a min­i­mum of 5 days, this one is real­ly up to you – as a min­i­mum you’ll need three days – as you have to arrive the day before any trip departs to check in with your oper­a­tor and fill in var­i­ous health forms and you’ll need to bud­get a day for leav­ing the island giv­en that day trips don’t get back in time to leave the same day.  

For trip dura­tions, you have the fol­low­ing options: 

Day trip by speed boat:

Allow­ing you to see the main high­lights and if you’re luck a drag­on – you can expect to leave at 5am from Flo­res and be fer­ried direct­ly to Padar island for a morn­ing hike to the view­point then onto Rin­ca Island to view the drag­ons before hav­ing lunch on the pink beach and hav­ing a chance for some snorkelling to view rays – before head­ing back to Flo­res to watch the sun­set and kick back with a beer or some great Indone­sian food and reflect on your day.  

2 days / 1 night:

The most pop­u­lar option which includes trips to Padar, Rin­ca and Komo­do islands in all their beau­ty, as well as the option of Scu­ba Div­ing and tak­ing in the stun­ning Milky Way in the evening – the 2 day option is the most favoured by vis­i­tors and gives you plen­ty of time to explore the beau­ty of the nation­al park at your own pace and take on the longer trek on Komo­do Island giv­ing you a greater chance of see­ing the illu­sive and incred­i­ble Komo­do Drag­ons.  

Multi-day and diving Trips:

As with the above, this trip will include all the main high­lights but give you plen­ty of time to vis­it the small­er island of Komo­do Nation­al Park includ­ing the fan­tas­tic Gili Lawa island, you’ll also find that var­i­ous div­ing live­aboards for those who want to spend a lot of time at the Man­ta points oper­ate their trips as a com­bined explore the island and go div­ing style trip – giv­ing you as much time as you could pos­si­bly want in the incred­i­ble Komo­do Nation­al Park.  

Along­side this you’ll find as well that indi­vid­ual dive trips run dai­ly and can be jumped onto a few hours before they depart – which means for those who don’t fan­cy liv­ing on a boat for a few days but still want to see the incred­i­ble aquat­ic wildlife you have the chance to do a one day speed boat trip and then rest up in Flo­res before head­ing out on a sep­a­rate day trip to cov­er the best div­ing spots.  

Top Tip:  

With the Komo­do Drag­on being the largest lizard on the Plan­et and clock­ing in at an aver­age of 200lb and hav­ing chain mail like skin – and being known to bite, attack and kill humans – they are not to be messed with – so be sure to fol­low the advice of the guide you are with, don’t wan­der off and avoid eye con­tact – with these guide­lines being espe­cial­ly nec­es­sary for women on their peri­ods as the Drag­ons can smell and do react to Blood.  

It’s also high­ly advised to car­ry plen­ty of sun­screen and water – and if pos­si­ble get your­self an overnight trip to the island that takes in the Milky way view­ing and some div­ing at the Mantra points as well as the main islands – which gives you a chance to expe­ri­ence the absolute best of this incred­i­ble won­der.  

Cost:

While a bit of a chal­lenge to get to once you’ve got your flights to Flo­res from Bali (expect to pay about $150 — $200 USD) you’ll find the island of Flo­res incred­i­bly afford­able – with accom­mo­da­tion, food and Taxi all being min­i­mal in price and the aver­age dai­ly costs eas­i­ly com­ing in at below $30 usd.  

 For trip to the island you have many options – but we’d rec­om­mend for those not a strict sched­ule to get your trip from one of the many dive or tourist shops in Flo­res itself rather than book­ing through Via­tor or Tri­pAd­vi­sor before­hand – as those are nor­mal­ly booked by agents on your behalf and come with a 200% — 300% infla­tion fee.  

For a one day speed­boat tour of the best spots – you can expect to pay rough­ly $50 USD about IDR 700,000 for a high qual­i­ty com­fort­able expe­ri­ence of the main spots  — with that like­ly increas­ing to $125 for a one night two day expe­ri­ence – which will take you to Komo­do Island and give you a chance to expe­ri­ence the incred­i­ble Milky Way from the mid­dle of the incred­i­ble Flo­res Sea.  

We’d also high­ly rec­om­mend bud­get­ing for a div­ing expe­ri­ence either one day or as part of a mul­ti-day trip which takes in the man­ta ray points – for this expect to pay $125 usd as a basic and $25 for each addi­tion­al dive – and $25 usd for pho­tos from a pro­fes­sion­al guide who will accom­pa­ny you.  

Also be warned that while meals and the guide for the park will be includ­ed, you’ll need to pay for extras (addi­tion­al snacks / sou­venirs) and dai­ly expen­di­tures by cash only – which will include a 150,000 IDR (10 USD) Nation­al Park fee which won’t be includ­ed in the tour price and is applic­a­ble for all 3 of the major islands – so it’s advised to stock up on cash before you head to the incred­i­ble won­der of the Komo­do Nation­al Park.   

Fun Fact:

Despite being some­what lethar­gic on most view­ings, Komo­do Drag­ons are no slouch­es and can reach speeds of 14 mph when pro­voked or hunt­ing – and their favourite method of hunt­ing is to bite their prey (which includes humans) and to let them walk away – with their bite con­tain­ing poi­son which slow­ly sets in leav­ing them a nice meal once their prey falls vic­tim to it.  

You’ll also find var­i­ous nests roped off and guard­ed by bright signs warn­ing you to stay away – the rea­son there’s so many is that when the female Komo­do Drag­ons lay their eggs they cun­ning­ly lay many repli­cas to con­fuse hunters – and leave the real eggs for a few months before return­ing as they are due to hatch – while a great sys­tem in prac­tice it has its flaws as some­times the female Komodo’s repli­cas are so good they con­fuse them­selves – which means for those head to the islands in Novem­ber – Decem­ber time don’t be sur­prised if you see some con­fused and lost female Komodo’s on the island.  

 Best photo spot: 

Komo­do Nation­al Park is a Pho­tog­ra­phers Par­adise – with the trip to sum­mit of the moun­tain on Padar Island and the incred­i­ble 360 views on offer of the lush moun­tains, ocean and green­ery com­bined with the great Pink beach and of course the incred­i­ble Sun­set and Milky way view­ings on offer all mak­ing for incred­i­ble pho­tos.  

But the tru­ly spe­cial pho­tos come in cap­tur­ing the rare wildlife that call the won­der of Komo­do Nation­al park home, with shots of the under­wa­ter wildlife at the mantra points and scu­ba spots com­bined with the chance to pho­to­graph and pose with the great and last remain­ing Komo­do Drag­ons an incred­i­ble and priv­i­leged oppor­tu­ni­ty and helps leave you in awe of the won­der of the world that is Komo­do Nation­al Park.