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During a recent visit to southeast Asia, we had a lot of unique and wonderful outdoor experiences. One of my absolute favorites was a day trip to Komodo Island. It’s a well-known and popular destination with many ways to visit. Day trips are popular, as well as multi-day liveaboard boat tours. With the time constraints on our trip we opted for a day trip, but they fit a lot into that day!
See our Youtube video about the trip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_6owoKXcU
Here is the link to our FULL DAY KOMODO ISLAND TOUR: https://www.viator.com/Labuan-Bajo/d50484-ttd/p-131756P1?pid=P00151140&mcid=42383&medium=link
The tour had an early start, being up before the sun and at the boat dock by 5 AM (the best part of this was being the first at each location!). The islands are fairly secluded, being about a 45-minute boat ride from Labaun Bajo (where you would fly into to do this tour).
We used a local company Mikayla had found with great reviews that offered a better timing schedule for the day being the first to a group to leave, and the first of each stop: https://www.viator.com/Labuan-Bajo/d50484-ttd/p-131756P1?pid=P00151140&mcid=42383&medium=link
The day started with a short hike on the first island, about a 15-minute walk up to the high point of the island for a breathtaking overview of the ocean the islands rocky peaks and curved beaches. From this point, you could see the main island in the distance where the dragons live!
After this brief hike and making our way back to the boat, we proceeded to drive around the island by water to its famous pink beach. The beach is pink due to the reddish pink coral that grows nearby. The coral dies and dries out and breaks the small fragments of it wash up onto the shore, creating a pinkish hue to the sand. It’s a beautiful setting with easy access snorkeling right off the beach where we were able to see corals fish, and a sea turtle. We were off to a great start. On the beach are local vendors selling souvenirs, as well as snacks and drinks. Make sure to take advantage of the fresh young coconuts found so prevalently in this region. After snorkeling here, we reloaded back on the boat and headed towards the main island.
Once we arrived at Komodo National Park, we were introduced to a local guide who works with the park service. They give us a brief overview of the island, as well as talking through the safety of seeing the Komodo Dragons – giant monitors, whose bite is highly poisonous. After going over instructions for giving the creature space and staying safe positioning, we headed off on our walking tour of the island.
While there is never a guarantee of seen animals on any tour, it sounds like they have a high success rate of finding monitors on a daily basis for visitors. We ended up seeing a total of five adults as well as one small juvenile while on our walking tour. We also got the bonus of seeing some of their local deer that also live on the island and are a good source of food for the dragons. The Komodo Dragons are massive creatures, far larger than any normal reptile you are used to seeing on land.
In the completion of our walking tour of the island, we made our way back to the central beach of the island to have some lunch before heading off to our next destination. Our first stop was nearby sandbar just appreciate the ocean and the views around. When ended up getting lucky and having a nearby sea turtle in waste deep water. The turtle was very content to eating and allowed me to get close enough to get a fun video and photo of him.
From there, it was off to do more snorkeling. It took 20-minutes to get a nearby cove where we jumped in the water and headed off along a reef. It was a great opportunity to see many sea turtles up close along with the stunning variety of underwater, reef, fish, and other creatures. For those of us that don’t live near a beach, this was a fantastic treat. I am always amazed at the variety of underwater life that can be found in such a small area. After some time in the water here, we headed for our final snorkel stop.
For a last stop we were looking for Manta Rays. For this, we were in deeper water than our previous snorkeling. We dropped as a group using the tide to push us along in about 30-feet of water. It took a few minutes to spot them, but it seemed like once we found some they just kept on coming. I believe we ended up seeing a total of 12 while in the water. They are majestic creatures, floating smoothly and slowly through the water, they presented the opportunity to dive down and see them closer if you were up for it, but they could also be seen well from the surface with your snorkel. We spent about 30 minutes in the water with them before heading back to the boat.
At this point, it was late in the afternoon and we had been on our tour for 10+ hours. The entire boat seemed exhausted, but happy. We had managed to see all the things we were hoping to for the day, Komodo dragons, coral reefs, troves of tropical fish, sea turtles, as well as manta rays. The boat ride back, took about 35 minutes. We said goodbye to some of the new friends we had made. We then headed off towards town to find a delicious dinner to wrap up our day. When in this region, make sure not to miss the opportunity for these types of experiences. There are so many unique animals and landscapes.
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MC Exploring 