
From
United KingdomWow! I wish I could give this more stars!! We had a fantastic time with Jackie and his family staying on the Komodo Island 🤩 We would really recommend this for anyone wanting to see the island at a more leisurely pace. The room was lovely - there was a fan, a comfy bed and it was right on the water front of the village. Jackie and his wife were wonderful hosts and within the price you get 3 delicious meals a day! Jackie also organised for us to take a local boat with a local captain to see Manta Point/Pandar/pink beach - he's a local ranger so he took us around Komodo Nation Park (and even his own village) where we saw loads of Komodo dragons. We loved his stories and he spoke excellent English! It was the best experience we had in Indonesia so far ❤️
Some tips that we learnt:
There is a public boat but it only leaves on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. It's from the fish market on Labuan Badjo (if you go there the locals are really helpful). We paid 100k each. It leaves at 11am but we arrived at 9am - there are no seats so be ready to sit on the floor. It's a busy boat so we were squished like sardines. The boat takes around 4 hours and is loud but there was a toilet onboard.
The return boat leaves on Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday back to Labuan Badjo. If this isn't something you're interested in, speak to Jackie as he'll arrange collection and drop off with you for a reasonable price (and it can work around your schedule).
It's totally worth staying on the island - the views are amazing! Best sunset we've seen! You also see waaayy more dragons near the village than at the National Park (and there aren't many people)
The boat Jackie organised for us was 2 million for the whole day! The captain knew exactly where to find the Manta rays and even came swimming with us. It was lovely to see the sights on our times so would highly recommend this :) we did the national park on the same day to only purchase the ticket once!