First time in Indonesia: the checklist before a Komodo boat trip

Sort these three before you book a flight, because the airline checks them before Indonesia does. Most nationalities enter on the 30-day Visa on Arrival, bought at the airport or online in advance as an e-VoA; citizens of ASEAN countries enter visa-free. Your passport needs six months of validity beyond arrival and two blank pages, and you need proof of an onward or return ticket.

Within 72 hours before landing, file the All Indonesia arrival card online. It is free on the official site; third-party sites that charge for it are not the official channel. If you stop over in Bali and leave the airport, the island's tourist levy is a separate payment, made online.

Verify before travelling: in August 2026 Indonesia's immigration chief announced a higher Visa on Arrival fee, and no start date has surfaced since, so the table shows the fee in force when we checked. Check the immigration site the week you fly. Any lists of extra visa-free countries from commercial sites are unconfirmed too.

The free pickup to King Cirox 2 starts at Komodo International (LBJ), a ten-minute drive from the harbour. The usual way in is to pass immigration in Bali, Jakarta or Surabaya, then take a domestic hop east. Direct international routes are few and change often, so check the current schedule before you book.

Cash comes next. The rupiah is the only practical currency in Labuan Bajo, and the ATMs are in town and at the airport, none on the islands. Withdraw before day one; the table gives the usual withdrawal limits and fees.

Between the islands, phone signal comes and goes. An eSIM installed before you fly, or a Telkomsel SIM registered with your passport in town, covers you on land; on board, the boat's booklet lists Starlink Wi-Fi, with no speed promised.

Indonesia runs on 230 V with two-round-pin plugs, types C and F. Every cabin on the boat lists power sockets, so one adapter per person covers a 3D2N.

Tap water is not for drinking anywhere in Indonesia. On the boat that question is settled: mineral water comes free and unlimited on every trip, from a dispenser in the dining room, with tea and coffee alongside. Ashore, buy sealed bottles.

April to November is dry; December to March is wet. The wet months bring short, heavy downpours and the roughest sea, with February the wettest. The harbour master closes sailings when the forecast turns, in the wet season most often but not only then: for three days in August 2026, waves of up to 2.4 m closed Komodo and Padar and left only Rinca open.

Catholics are the majority on Flores, while Labuan Bajo mixes them with Muslim and Bajo seafaring families. Keep shoulders and knees covered away from the water, take your shoes off before entering a mosque, and ask before photographing people. On the dragon trails, stay with the ranger and, as a rule, at least 2 m from any dragon. Guides add advice on clothing colour and other details; take it as their guidance, not as a park rule.

Insurance should cover treatment and evacuation, because a hospital here can want payment before it treats you. The town has two: Siloam Hospitals, the best-equipped on Flores, with a hyperbaric chamber, and RSUD Komodo, the public hospital, with an emergency unit. Serious cases fly to Bali. Dengue and malaria are present, so pack repellent; rabies exists in dogs and monkeys. No vaccination is required for entry.

The second half of the table is about money changing hands. Tourists have been left at the harbour after paying an agent who never paid the boat, as recently as April 2026. The defence is dull and it works: deal with a licensed company, insist on a written itinerary plus an invoice listing boat, dates and inclusions, and send money to a company account rather than to a person at the pier.

Ours, for the record: PT Komodo Explorer Indonesia, NIB 1805260128363, an invoice first, then the 50 per cent.

Two authorities decide whether your day goes ahead. The harbour master, KSOP Labuan Bajo, issues each boat's sailing permit against the weather forecast. The Komodo National Park authority controls entry to the islands and sells its tickets online only, via SiOra, one named ticket per passport.

Both checks run on names. Your e-boarding pass at the harbour must match the passenger manifest, and the park ticket is issued to you personally. Hence the request, roughly seven days out, for each guest's passport spelling, and hence your passport comes aboard with you.

Park entry costs a foreign visitor IDR 250,000 per day under PP 36/2024, outside every King Cirox 2 fare. Rangers are charged per group, and harbour and pier charges are not set by the park regulation, so confirm them on your quote before travelling.

The park fees page works the sums for groups of two, four and ten.