Komodo National Park
Komodo National Park is one of my favorite places in the world, and by far the best scuba diving I’ve ever done. I’ve been scuba diving at Australias Great Barrier Reef, Bora Bora, the Maldives, Belize, Cozumel, etc and Komodo National Park takes the cake! Even if you don’t scuba, theres world class snorkeling, endless pristine beaches, waterfalls, plus Komodo dragons- the largest lizard in the world.
Scuba Diving
The scuba diving here was out of this world. I saw nearly every fish in the book, sea turtles bigger than a queen sized bed, octopus changing colors, cuttlefish changing colors, reef sharks, manta rays, eagle rays, giant moray eels, and untouched coral (which is rare to find these days). My top 3 dives (out of 6) were Batu Balong, Siaba Besar and Manta Point. Batu Bolong was my favorite. I saw all the above mentioned sea life in just a single dive, plus thousands of tropical fish. Siaba Besar was my 2nd favorite. Again I saw everything mentioned above but less quantity. Manta Point was a drift dive and we swam with 2 manta rays and some sharks. It’s likely to see mantas here, but of coarse they’re wild so it’s not guaranteed.
I dove with Manta Rhei Dive Center. They have a luxurious dive boat with a top deck to lounge on bean bags. Not only is there complimentary coffee, tea and water on board, they serve banana bread, doughnuts, cookies and home made Belgium waffles through out the day in addition the lunch. Plus, they have a fresh water shower on board to rinse off. This dive boat was very comfortable.
Komodo Dragons
Komodo dragons can grow to 10 feet long and are found on Komodo island and Rinca island. The dragons are best spotted in the morning. You can go to these islands as part of an island hopping tour or a scuba trip.
At Komodo island, they apparently lure the dragons with food so the tourists can take pictures. We weren’t interested in this so we went to Rinca Island. We hiked around for about an hour and were lucky to see 7 dragons! They had saliva dripping from their mouth and they made grunt and hissing sounds. We spotted some babies as well, which are rare to see. They hide in trees until they’re 3 because these dragons are cannibals and their parents will eat them! We spotted the babies climbing down the tree for food and then quickly climbing back up.
Island Hopping 
There are day trips or multi day boat tours of the National Park. Some highlights of the area were Pink Beach, Kelor Island and the Viewpoint on Komodo Island. Pink beach was actually pink! Theres a lot of red coral in these waters, and the mix of red coral grains and white sand make it pink. Kelor Island had a beautiful beach and decent snorkeling with sting rays and sharks. The Viewpoint on Komodo Island was a 15 minute steep rocky hike to the top and view of the surrounding beaches.
Getting Here
You’ll fly to Labuan Bajo on Flores Island, which is a short flight away from Bali. From here you’ll take a boat to Komodo National Park. The alternative is to take a 4 day perama boat from Lombok to Flores (around $115 all meals included). I DON’T recommend this unless you’re very sure of the boat you’re taking. I’ll write a separate post about it, but basically our boat almost capsized and there were no life vests! After the fact, I read that some other tourists boats sank to the bottom of the ocean (with their luggage) and they were stranded treading water.
Accommodation
The main area to stay in Labuan Bajo is the street right in front of the boat harbor. It’s a very small town.
Bajo Nature Backpackers- $7.5/night for shared dorm with AC and breakfast.
Gardena Hotel and Cottage- $19/night for a private room surrounded by a garden and a nice view looking at the bay.
Thanks for reading. If you’re interested in other adventures in Bali or Southeast Asia, please check out my other blog posts or follow me on Instagram to keep up to date on my travels. If you have any questions please feel free to email me :).
