Every question we are asked, answered once

The open trip is the 3D2N and sails on Monday & Friday; the next date is Friday, 6 November 2026. A private charter can sail any day the boat is free. If your date is taken, we propose the nearest sailing, the other weekday or the whole-boat route, and no seat is held until WhatsApp has confirmed it live.

Pay 50 percent as a deposit to confirm the booking and the rest 30 days before sailing. With 60 days or more to go, 50 percent returns; with 30 to 59 days left, 25 percent; inside 30 days, nothing. Moving a date costs IDR 500,000 from 14 to 29 days ahead and is free earlier.

From abroad you can use a card payment link (3 percent fee), PayPal (7.2 percent), Wise, Revolut, Alipay or a bank transfer in rupiah. At the Labuan Bajo harbour the rest can be paid with rupiah notes or a card, and the card machine adds 3 percent. Account details arrive on the invoice.

If Vhale cannot sail, you can take a replacement boat of at least her class for your dates, free of any added charge, or have a complete refund inside 2 days. That promise is ours because we took your payment. A stop dropped for weather is a different matter, and the captain's choice stands.

PT Komodo Explorer Indonesia is registered in Labuan Bajo under NIB 1805260128363, open Daily 08:00–20:00 (WITA). Payment goes to one bank account in the company's name, sent on an invoice and never in a loose message. Reviews on this site are real ones we can source, and where we have none we show none.

Yes, on request, when the boat is free on that date. If guests have already taken cabins on that sailing, they keep their trip and the boat cannot be converted; we offer the nearest free date. The fare is then the whole-boat fare, IDR 148,000,000 (≈ USD 9,080) for the 3D2N.

Ask early if you are 20 or more, since a whole-boat date is one date for everybody. We hold it in three messages: party size, dates, route. Party size changes nothing in the terms: 50 percent to confirm, the remainder 30 days before sailing.

There are five kinds of cabin: Atlantic, Azure, Oceanic, Pacific and Coral. Atlantic, Oceanic and Pacific have an en-suite bathroom. Coral is sold as a private room at IDR 5,700,000 (≈ USD 350) a person or as a sharing room at IDR 4,450,000 (≈ USD 273), where you share the bunk room with other guests. For Azure and Coral, ask us which bathroom arrangement your cabin has.

Every cabin is air-conditioned. Bathroom details per cabin, the window and the night-time cooling are settled in a written reply, so put the question to us and the answer arrives before a rupiah changes hands.

Atlantic takes 2 to 4 guests, Azure and Oceanic 2 to 3, and each Coral cabin 3 on its bunks. Pacific takes 2, so a third guest does not fit there. An extra bed in Atlantic, Azure or Oceanic is by request and confirmed in writing; its price is not published here.

Two can book Atlantic, and it is the one kind that takes four. Coral takes three, Azure and Oceanic take three with an extra bed, Pacific takes two. On the open trip every guest pays a seat, so ask us for the exact total for your family before you pay.

Atlantic and Azure are on the upper deck, Oceanic and Pacific on the main deck, and Coral on the lower deck. The two dining rooms, the chill area and the day bed are shared by every cabin. Tell us if stairs matter for someone in your party.

Atlantic, Oceanic and Pacific cabins have an en-suite bathroom. For Azure and Coral cabins, ask us which bathroom arrangement your cabin has. The reply comes in writing before you pay a deposit.

Coral is the lower-deck kind, 4 cabins, each a bunk room with one double bed below and one single above, for 3 guests. It suits friends and children. A couple who want privacy will find it less private than Pacific or Atlantic. Coral is sold as a private room or a sharing room.

Yes. The standard terms stay the same: a 50% deposit confirms the date and the balance is due 30 days before departure, but you may also pay the balance in Labuan Bajo on the departure day, in cash or by card on the EDC machine. Card payment link 3%, PayPal 7.2%, EDC 3%; your issuing bank may add its own charges.

12 cabins, up to 28 guests on standard beds and 9 crew make a boat for a big table, a reunion or an office or a circle of friends, and not a quiet week for two. If quiet matters most, ask us who else is booked on the Monday or Friday sailing before you pay.

A private charter gives one party the whole boat at one fare for 1 to 28 guests. An open trip sells you a cabin seat on the 3D2N that sails on Monday & Friday, among other guests. The seat includes the guide and the photo documentation. On a charter both are on request and quoted apart.

Yes. The whole-boat fare is one sum for 1 to 28 guests, so a party of 8 pays what a party of 28 pays. Per-head figures exist only for 20, 24 and 28 guests, because the fare was written for parties of that size. A smaller party should price cabin seats first, from IDR 4,450,000 (≈ USD 273) a person.

28 on standard beds: the 8 queen-bed cabins take 2 each and the 4 Coral cabins take 3 each. Extra beds in Atlantic, Azure and Oceanic are available by request, confirmed in writing, and their price is not published. We never sell the boat for more beds than we can name.

Divide it. The whole boat on the 3D2N is IDR 148,000,000 (≈ USD 9,080), which is IDR 7,400,000 (≈ USD 454) a head for 20, IDR 6,170,000 (≈ USD 379) for 24 and IDR 5,290,000 (≈ USD 325) for 28. A cabin seat on the open trip starts at IDR 4,450,000 (≈ USD 273). The charter buys the boat, the dates and the company; the worth of that is your arithmetic, not ours.

Inclusive is a list. The fare carries hotel or airport transfers both ways, all meals, snacks, free-flow water, tea, coffee, milk and juice, and snorkel gear. Outside it: the park package, flights, hotels before and after and crew tips; alcohol is not in the fare either. A private charter adds one more exception, the guide and the photo documentation, which wait on request.

Komodo Explorer quotes the park as one package per guest and trip type: 3D2N: IDR 650,000 per foreign guest, IDR 350,000 per Indonesian guest; 4D3N: IDR 750,000 per foreign guest, IDR 350,000 per Indonesian guest. It bundles the government entrance ticket (IDR 250,000 per foreign visitor per day, PP 36/2024) with the ranger fee and local levies, and it is paid on top of the boat price, never inside a fare.

A 3D2N finishes at 12:00 on the third day and a 2D1N at around 17:30, both at the quay in Labuan Bajo; the car then takes you on to your hotel or the airport. Leave margin: book a flight after 14:00 on a 3D2N day, and one well after 17:30 on a 2D1N day. One-day and four-day times are set with your date.

The car collects you at your hotel or at the airport in Labuan Bajo ahead of the 11:00 start on the 2D1N and 3D2N, and brings you back at the end. We confirm the exact time in writing and send you the driver's contact the day before.

A delayed or cancelled morning flight costs you the first stops, because the day runs against the clock. Fly in the day before and sleep in town, and the 11:00 pickup becomes a leisurely coffee. Arrive early, board calm.

We make no same-day promise. Every route begins and ends at the Labuan Bajo quay, so reach town the night before and join from your hotel. A flight that lands on boarding morning is a gamble with your first stops, and we would not sell it.

In a hotel near the harbour in Labuan Bajo, so that the pickup is short. The hotels page lists our partner hotels, and we book the room for you. The hotel is not part of the fare. After a 3D2N that ends at 12:00, a second night in town suits a late flight.

A cabin seat on the open trip runs from IDR 4,450,000 (≈ USD 273) to IDR 8,950,000 (≈ USD 549) a person, by cabin. The whole boat on the 3D2N is IDR 148,000,000 (≈ USD 9,080), shared by your party. On top come the park package, flights, hotels, tips and the card-link fee of 3 percent. Alcohol is not in the fare either.

In the fare: pickup and drop-off at your hotel or the airport, every meal, snacks, free-flow water, tea, coffee, milk and juice, snorkel gear and life jackets. Outside it: the park package, flights, hotels either side and tips; alcohol is not in the fare. The guide and the photo documentation belong to the open-trip seat; a private charter quotes them apart, on request.

No, it is never inside a fare. We quote the park package as one amount per guest for your trip type, with the park ticket, the ranger and local levies in it. The amount is on the park fees page and in your written quote. Ask us whether your share is paid by invoice or in cash.

For a foreign visitor the park's own ticket costs IDR 250,000 a day. Indonesians: IDR 50,000 on weekdays, IDR 75,000 once it is a weekend or a holiday. The park package for this trip type is quoted in writing before you pay.

The online ticket carries the visitor's own name, which is why passport details must reach us 7 days before sailing. Your quote states whether the amount goes on the invoice or is paid to us at the quay. Nobody asks you for it on the island.

Fuel does not appear as a separate line on our quote. Anything that sits outside the fare is named in writing before you pay.

No. A whole-boat charter does not bring a guide or photo and video documentation. Ask, and either one is quoted for you outside the fare. The open-trip seat carries both. The rangers who lead the walk at Rinca are a separate matter, paid through the park package.

All meals on board, snacks, and free-flow water, tea, coffee, milk and juice are in the fare. Alcohol is outside it, so ask us whether you can bring your own. Vegetarian, halal and allergy handling is confirmed in writing; tell us when you book and the note goes to the crew.

Tips are outside every fare and are a personal choice. We name no figure, because none is owed. Guests who tip do it at the end of the voyage, in rupiah; ask us what is customary for your party and we tell you plainly.

The 2D1N and 3D2N routes visit all four, taking Rinca in the first afternoon, Padar at sunrise, and spending the rest of day two on Pink Beach, Taka Makassar and Manta Point. The dragons are met at Rinca. A private party can ask the captain about a longer route.

Every Vhale route starts and ends in Labuan Bajo, with a drop-off at your hotel or the airport. There is no Lombok leg, so a one-way crossing is something we neither sell nor improvise in a chat.

Snorkel gear is part of the fare, with life jackets, and the park ticket covers snorkelling. No dive equipment is carried, so this is a snorkelling voyage. Certified divers should ask us first, and the written reply says what can be arranged.

Three days and 2 nights is the full route, and the one we would choose for a first visit: it adds a last-morning snorkel to everything on the 2D1N. Two days compresses the same stops into one night. The one-day and four-day fares carry sample routes, finished with the captain.

At anchor. Overnight the boat lies still, and where is the captain's call, made with the weather. Wind and swell decide where she lies, the captain makes the choice, and no anchorage is named in advance.

Both have a fare and no fixed route, so each is a sample route. The day begins at Kelor and adds a snorkel stop; four days stretch the 3D2N stops with more time and Kanawa as a possible extra. You and the captain settle the order at the quay, and the weather can still revise it.

Dragons live at Rinca, which is on every route, and rangers lead the walk. They are wild, and a sighting is never promised. Manta Point is where mantas are met, and they are never promised either. Whale sharks are not on Vhale's routes. One voyage can offer both; no captain can summon either.

The harbour authority approves each sailing after checking the forecast and the boat, the captain makes the call on the morning, and no one on this site promises a risk-free sea. The park has closed for short, staged periods before, so any answer is dated: ours is 4 November 2026, and we check your dates before you pay.

A child up to the age of 2 travels free beside a parent or guardian. From age 3 the full fare applies. Bed setups depend on the cabin, and Coral bunks suit children, with one double bed below and one single above. Tell us the ages before you book and the setup comes back in writing.

Life jackets are on board for every sailing. Put the question of children's sizes and children's snorkel gear to us before you book, and expect the answer in writing. A family with small children does well to bring its own snorkel set, which fits better than a shared one.

You pay a seat price per person on the 3D2N open trip, from IDR 4,450,000 (≈ USD 273) in a Coral sharing room to IDR 8,950,000 (≈ USD 549) in an Atlantic cabin. A Coral Sharing berth is the seat made for one traveller; ask us what a queen cabin costs for one person. Who you would share with is confirmed in writing before you pay. The open trip sails on Monday & Friday.

The rate list as of 4 November 2026 gives one fare for each route and one seat price for each cabin, with no season split. Dates for 2027 are on sale in the calendar, and their fares reach you in writing before any payment.