Vhale
Vhale Phinisi
Nine places, and which of them the boat reaches
Updated 4 November 2026
Nine places make up the Komodo routes of Vhale, and the list runs from Kelor and Rinca through Kalong, Padar and Pink Beach to Taka Makassar, Manta Point, Sebayur and Kanawa. The 2D1N and 3D2N routes reach seven or eight of them, and Kanawa is an alternative.
The nine places this voyage touches
A voyage through the park is a string of short, different appointments, and the useful thing to know before you board is how different. One stop is a twenty-minute climb on a dry hill, another a ranger-led walk among animals that are wild and unpromised, another a sandbar that the tide rubs out twice a day, another a reef where the current decides how long you stay, and one is an evening in which nothing happens except bats. The nine pages that follow take them one at a time, with the same facts in the same order so that you can compare them.
None is long. The longest, the Rinca walk, takes up a morning's worth of attention and not a whole day, and the rest sit between a lunch and a swim. The verdict: a long table with short excursions.
- Up the ridge before the sun does
- The beach after the ridge
- Rinca is the dragon stop on this boat
- The drift over the reef, and who decides
- A sandbar the tide gives and takes back
- Where the day ends, and the bats begin
- The first climb of the voyage
- The last swim before the harbour
- A white beach on the way home
The stops side by side
The table sets the nine side by side: the best hour, the minutes you spend, how hard it is, how deep the water runs, how strong the current is, whether the tide matters and which months are crowded. Read it as general knowledge of the park, not as a timetable. The minutes are for the activity, not for the sail that precedes it, and the order in which Vhale takes the stops is the captain's to arrange with the sea and the wind of the day.
Two columns do most of the work. Tide separates Taka Makassar, where the sand shows only at low water, from Pink Beach, where it does not. Current separates Manta Point, which is guided and drift-based, from Kanawa, which is an easy first snorkel.
Which stop is on which route
The 2D1N and 3D2N routes begin the same way. On the first day, after the hotel pickup and lunch, they sail to Kelor, walk at Rinca and end with the bats at Kalong. Day two goes Padar, breakfast, Pink Beach, lunch, then Taka Makassar and Manta Point in the afternoon. The 3D2N adds a last morning at Siaba or Sebayur, where the captain picks the reef, and then the sail back to the quay.
Kanawa is not on the route. It is an alternative for that last morning, offered when the captain thinks the sea suits it, and we will not promise it. The one-day and four-day fares carry no route, so the stops on them are a sample, finished with the captain at the quay. The page on Rinca and Komodo explains where the dragons are met and what to ask the captain.
FAQ
Is the whole string of stops worth three days?
Most of the value sits in four of them: the Padar sunrise, the Rinca walk with the rangers, a snorkel at Manta Point or Pink Beach, and the bats at Kalong. The other five fill the gaps with shallow reef, white sand and lunch. If you only have a day, the one-day fare takes a sample route; three days is the full route.
Where on this voyage do we meet the dragons?
At Rinca, on the first afternoon of the routes, with park rangers leading the walk. Padar has no dragons, and Kelor, Kalong, Taka Makassar and the reef stops are not dragon sites either. Dragons are wild, so a sighting at Rinca is never promised.
Check availability — Vhale
Bookings for Vhale are made with the Komodo Explorer team in Labuan Bajo; the boat sails with its own crew of nine.