Your Komodo Open Trip Questions, Answered Honestly

The Komodo National Park gate charges Rp250,000 per head for Indonesian citizens (WNI) and Rp400,000 per head for foreign visitors (WNA). That fee sits outside our open-trip rate — you settle it directly with park staff on arrival.

You are transacting straight with a licensed vessel owner, not routed through a third-party platform. A Rp500,000-per-person deposit lands in the Bajo Speed Boat BCA account to hold your seat, and the remaining balance is settled in cash once you reach the dock. There is no agent mark-up anywhere in that chain.

Claim a spot amidships, as close as you can to the shaded, air-conditioned cabin — that section rides the flattest. Seats up in the bow feel every swell the most when the water gets choppy. Just flag your preference to us at booking time and we will slot you in.

Absolutely. Kids aged 2 through 11 are booked as full paying passengers with their own seat, while infants under 1 simply ride on a parent’s lap. Because we only stock 5 child-sized lifejackets, each departure is capped at 5 children for safety reasons.

Everything we encounter out there is fully wild — nothing is staged for guests. The odds of crossing paths with a dragon, a manta, or a turtle on our route are genuinely good and happen often, but we never sell it as a certainty; safety and picking the best spot for that day always come first.

Our crew swings by your hotel anywhere in the Labuan Bajo area around 05:30, and the speedboat casts off from the dock at 06:00. The day wraps up around 16:30, with drop-off back at your hotel included.

Online bookings stay open until 18:00 WITA the night before your departure date — that cut-off gives us time to lock the passenger manifest and pick-up schedule. Past that hour and still need a last-minute seat? Message us directly on WhatsApp.

Schedule never wins over safety in our book. If we have to scrub a departure for weather, you get a free reschedule with a 90-day credit window, or you can ask for your full deposit back instead.

Bring reef-safe sunscreen, a swimsuit, a hat, and shoes you don’t mind trekking in over rocky ground. Already know motion sickness gets you? Pack your own tablets too — one heads-up: towels aren’t part of what we hand out.

Yes. Bajo Speed Boat runs a vessel built in 2026 that holds a full document set — Pas Besar, Surat Ukur, and an Operating Permit — plus certified safety gear on board. You can verify every document and safety detail yourself on our Permits & Safety page.

Yes, the lunch box we serve is halal-standard. If you are vegetarian or carry any allergies, just let us know while booking and our team will do their best to accommodate the menu.

A full day aboard the Bajo Speed Boat open trip runs Rp1,350,000 per person, leaving Labuan Bajo at sunrise. Separately, the park itself charges Rp250,000 for WNI and Rp400,000 for WNA right at the entrance gate. Since you book straight with the owner, no agent commission gets stacked onto that price.

It is — a single day is plenty to hit the essentials. Running 05:30 to 16:30, our itinerary covers six stops: Padar, Pink Beach, Komodo Island, Taka Makassar, Manta Point, and Siaba Besar. A liveaboard trip reaches further-flung anchorages that take days to get to, but packing everything into one day with us still gets you a sunrise viewpoint, a dragon encounter, and top-tier snorkelling without ever spending a night at sea.

Nope — dragons have not called Padar Island home for a long while. Spotting wild dragons happens on the ranger-guided trek at Komodo Island, our third stop of the day. Padar’s claim to fame is its three-bay viewpoint, not being dragon territory.

That Rp1,350,000-per-pax fee folds in your hotel transfers both ways, the speedboat ride, a guide, lunch, drinking water, a snack, one soft drink, snorkel gear, and a life jacket. Left off that list: the national park entrance ticket, your personal towel, and photo/video documentation.

The dry season from April through December gives you the calmest seas and the clearest snorkelling visibility, peaking around July–August. The wet season (January–March) is still workable, though swells run higher and departures occasionally shift to match the weather.

Door to door, you are looking at roughly 11 hours — pick-up begins at 05:30 and you are back around 16:30. That window covers the full boat journey across all six stops plus the time spent at each one.

An open trip means you share one departure with other guests who each booked their own seat — unlike a private charter where the whole boat is reserved just for your group. That shared-seat model is exactly why the per-person price stays affordable, since the cost of running the boat is split across everyone aboard.

A speedboat open trip like ours packs six stops into a single day (05:30–16:30) and drops you back at your land hotel that same night — ideal if your time is tight or you would rather not sleep on the water. A liveaboard runs 2–4 nights aboard the boat, reaching more remote corners, but it costs considerably more and asks for a much longer time commitment.

Chartering a speedboat means renting the entire vessel for your own group, with a route and departure time you can set yourselves — priced per boat, not per head. Our Bajo Speed Boat open trip works the other way around: you book a single seat at Rp1,350,000 per person and join other guests on a fixed 05:30–16:30 schedule. If you are travelling solo or in a small group, the open trip almost always works out cheaper than reserving a whole boat to yourself.

It is. The boat carries child-sized lifejackets, the crew is used to looking after families, and nothing on the itinerary forces a child into snorkelling or trekking beyond what they are comfortable with — both stay optional. One thing parents should note: open-sea swells are still real, so a child prone to motion sickness is best seated in the steadiest spot (see the seasick-seating answer above).

It depends on the sea conditions that day and how sensitive you personally are to motion. Our route crosses a few open straits that can get choppy, especially in windier months, but most guests get through the day just fine. If you already know you are prone to it, take motion-sickness medication before departure and grab a seat amidships, the steadiest part of the boat.

Yes — starting April 2026 the government enforces a daily cap of roughly 1,000 visitors and requires advance reservation through the park authority's SiORA system, phasing out walk-in gate tickets. The park entrance fee is still settled separately from our open-trip rate — per what we verified on 20 July 2026, that's Rp250,000 per person for WNI and Rp400,000 for WNA. Since the government keeps adjusting the exact tariff and quota details through 2026, message us on WhatsApp for the latest figure ahead of your departure.

Yes, if your time or budget is limited — Padar's sunrise ridge, wild Komodo dragons, Pink Beach, and Manta Point snorkelling all fit into one Rp1,350,000 day, versus $250+ for a multi-night liveaboard. You trade an overnight sail and a Kalong Island sunset for a same-day return to your hotel — a fair swap for most first-time visitors.

Private speedboat charters in Labuan Bajo are typically priced per boat, not per person, running into the millions of rupiah a day depending on vessel size and operator — that's not the model we sell. Bajo Speed Boat only runs a per-seat open trip at Rp1,350,000 per person; if you still need a private boat, message us on WhatsApp and we'll point you to a recommendation.

Our rate is a flat Rp1,350,000 per person all through 2026, with no seasonal markup or agent commission since you book directly with the boat owner, Paullo Rossi. Compared with a private charter that can run into the millions of rupiah per boat per day, this per-seat open trip usually works out far cheaper for solo travellers or small groups.

On our Komodo open trip, Padar Island is the first stop at around 06:45 — roughly a 45-60 minute climb up the savanna ridge for the legendary three-bay panorama while the morning light is still soft, before the boat continues on to Pink Beach for snorkelling.

Departing the dock at 06:00 gets you to Padar's ridge by 06:45, ahead of the later speedboats and in the softest morning light — the two things that matter most for an uncrowded viewpoint photo and a comfortable climb before the heat sets in.