5 Nights in Flores

Travels in Indonesia 2024

I’ve just spent 5 nights in the Indonesian fishing port of Labuan Bajo.

A tiny fraction of the boats anchored off Labuan Bajo, Flores.

With a population of just 7000, this is the biggest town on the western coast of the island of Flores. It’s also the gateway to a stunning group of islands that forms Komodo National Park. When UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site in 1991, tourism took off.

With such a unique biosphere on its doorstep, tourists visit Labuan Bajo for 2 main reasons:

1. to see the Komodo Dragon

2. to go snorkelling or diving.

We were keen to do both, but we were mostly Team Dragon.

View from our hotel at dusk.

Our flight from Bali arrived late afternoon, just in time to catch a glimpse of the sun sinking behind islands on the horizon, lighting up the sky in shades of red and orange.

The next day as we drove into town, I was surprised by the sheer number of boats we saw in the natural harbour surrounding Labuan Bajo. 200? 300 perhaps? Most of them seem primed for the July / August peak season when thousands of tourists take overnight trips around the islands.

Labuan Bajo port.

I booked our stay on Flores for 5 nights / 4 days as there seemed to be a lot to see and do. Unfortunately, on day 3 after a Komodo day trip, our daughter got quite sick. Our final 2 days were mostly spent hanging out at the hotel.

Twice I made the 3.6 km (2 mile) trek from our hotel into town. It wasn’t a particularly long or difficult walk, but the heat and humidity made it uncomfortable. On both walks I took some photos I love, so I’m excited to share those with you in coming days.

Hotel pool at dusk.

I called this post ‘5 nights in Flores’ mimicking the teen horror movie 5 nights at Freddy’s. Funnily enough, both the movie and the island were things we had such high hopes for, but we ended up leaving both feeling a little deflated.

Fresh fish, Labuan Bajo.

There’s lots of more Indonesia travel posts coming soon. I’ll cover our day trip to Komodo National Park, plus the charming shops, streetscapes and people of Labuan Bajo. After that I’ll start sifting through photos of our time in Ubud, which seems like a distant memory now.

I still have several posts about Japan 2023 and China 2024 to publish too. One day I will catch up, I promise.

Cheers

Matt