Flores Komodo Dragon & National Park Walk
Visit Komodo National Park from Flores — the UNESCO World Heritage site that protects the world's largest living lizard in its island habitat, with boat trips from Labuan Bajo to Komodo and Rinca islands where Komodo dragons patrol beaches and forest paths in their prehistoric wildness.
- 1
Labuan Bajo Harbour
Labuan Bajo on the western tip of Flores is the gateway to Komodo National Park — the fishing town that has transformed into one of Indonesia's priority tourism destinations hosts the boat operators, dive schools, and hotels that serve the Komodo dragon and diving tourism, with the harbour filled with wooden phinisi sailing vessels that carry tourists to the park islands and the surrounding dive sites.
- 2
Komodo Island Dragon Trek
Komodo Island is the original home of the Komodo dragon — the largest of the park's islands, where guided walks with park rangers through the dry savannah and forest reveal dragons in their natural habitat, from the large adults patrolling the beach area around the park ranger station to the dragons that rest under the raised ranger huts, warming themselves in the shade before the day's hunting.
- 3
Rinca Island Short Trek
Rinca Island, closer to Labuan Bajo than Komodo, offers dragon sightings that are often more reliable — the higher dragon density near the ranger station at Loh Buaya, where the kitchen area attracts dragons that have learned to wait near human food sources, means that first-time Komodo dragon encounters are virtually guaranteed on Rinca, with the bonus of encountering wild horses, water buffalo, and deer that the dragons prey upon.
- 4
Pink Beach Komodo
Pink Beach (Pantai Merah) in Komodo National Park is one of only seven pink-sand beaches in the world — the distinctive colour comes from fragments of red coral mixed into the white sand, creating a rose-tinted beach framed by dry Komodo island vegetation and the impossibly blue water of the park's protected marine environment, with the snorkelling off this beach considered among the best in the park.
- 5
Padar Island Viewpoint
Padar Island's viewpoint, reached by a steep 30-minute climb, provides one of Indonesia's most photographed landscapes — the panorama across three bays each with differently-coloured sand (white, pink, and black) and the surrounding Komodo National Park islands in the turquoise Flores Sea creates the Instagram image that has driven exponential growth in Labuan Bajo tourism in the past decade.
- 6
Komodo Marine Park Dive
Komodo National Park's marine environment is as extraordinary as the dragons — the 1817 square kilometres of marine park contains 260 coral species, 70 sponge species, and over 1000 fish species in an upwelling system that produces nutrient-rich water supporting extraordinary marine life, including manta rays at the Manta Point cleaning station, dolphins, and the thresher sharks that patrol the deeper outer reef areas.