A Perfect Day at Komodo National Park
Giant lizards, pink sand beaches, and the best snorkeling yet!
We were slowly slowly making our way across Flores (we’re back in Indonesia for another 30 days!) when we struck up a conversation with a couple Dutch girls sharing our homestay. We chatted about our respective trip itineraries, and when hearing we’d be heading to Komodo in a few days (it was July 29), they suggested we change our plans and get there asap — the much-anticipated Komodo National Park price hike1 was finally on for August 1!
We thanked them for the info, frantically messaged a few tour companies, booked a hotel, and arranged a shared car to take us all the way to Labuan Bajo (~10 hours) so that we could go to the park on July 31.
This may seem extreme, but this price hike is no joke; entrance to the park was to go from ~$10 to ~$250 per person! Plus the entire tourism industry of Labuan Bajo had planned a strike starting August 1 to protest the increase, so July 31 was very much our last opportunity.
I’m happy to report that Komodo National Park was 100% worth the last-minute scramble! This 700-square-mile refuge for Komodo dragons includes Komodo and Padar Islands, plus 26 smaller islands (nearby Rinca is not part of the national park, but it is also home to Komodo dragons). This is the only place in the world that they live in the wild.
A car picked us up at 5:30 am to take us and four others down to the port, where we boarded a speedboat for an hour-long sunrise ride to Padar Island. There we hiked up to The View (if you follow travel instagrams you've probably seen this multi-armed beast of an island).
Next we boated around the other side of Padar to see the pink sand beach. I am very lucky to have been to a lot of beautiful beaches in my life — I’m pretty sure this is the best one yet. Soft pink sand, crystal-clear water, AND there’s an amazingly colorful coral reef right off the beach. We grabbed our snorkeling gear and waded into the water for some of the best snorkeling EVER.
After a couple hours it was time to head to (arguably) the main event — to see the dragons on Komodo Island! They warned us that it’s mating season so there are fewer big lizards around, but luckily one was wandering around the beach restaurants when we arrived. We then did a walk with a guide so see some more — we ran into two small ones along the loop. Komodo dragons are the heaviest lizards on earth and can grow up to 10 feet long/330lbs! They are consider endangered due to habitat loss, and there are an estimated 4,400 wild komodo dragons left — mostly in Komodo National Park.
Next stop: sandbar! If you recall from the Maldives, you know I love me a sandbar, and this one was a good one. We snorkeled around another reef, looking for mantas (but we didn’t see any, tisn’t the season).
Our final stop was Turtle Point, where we snorkeled up one last time. Again, the water was crystal clear and the coral was insane. Also we saw I don’t know how many giant sea turtles — pure magic.
In general we don’t do package day trips, but for Komodo it’s really the only option. The tour costs ~$87 per person, plus the additional ~$35 park and ranger fees. I felt bad for our guides along the way — everyone we talked to was on their last day of work for the foreseeable future. Plus all the restaurants and guesthouses and shops in Labuan Bajo were JUST returning from Covid - what a one-two punch. I’m generally Team Conservation, but also there must be a way to do it without destroying everyone’s livelihood? I would also like more transparency about where exactly the new “conservation fees” are going. I see a lot of Very Fancy hotels being built and worry that the actual impact of the price increase will be that all the locally-owned joints will go out of business as the traveler profile changes, and people who used to own their own business will have to go work at the new, presumably foreign-owned resorts. We shall see.
As expected, on August 1 the strike took effect, so we laid low at our guesthouse. Nothing was officially open (definitely no restaurants), but as our host said, “I have bookings, what am I supposed to do? Kick them out?” We continued to feel out the vibe as we stayed and chilled for a few days — we heard the protests every morning, saw the trucks full of militarized police roll in, and tried to follow the Indonesian news.
In conclusion, the government arrested one organizer, but ultimately conceded to put off the price hike until January 1. [Read more about it here.] And go to Komodo National Park now if you can!
Chris traveled to Indonesia for work back in 2019 and the plans for this were already big news then.