This post detailes how we travelled from Bali to the middle of Flores, by sea and land. Definitely a very memorable journey.
We spent two weeks on the road and had a memorable trip. We journeyed from Kuta, Bali to Ruteng, Flores. We did all of this spur of the moment travelling by land and sea. Generally we only booked things a day ahead, one of the benefits of travelling out of season. The further east you go, the fewer tourists you encounter and you will find people become more friendly. People in Flores were so happy and kind. I’m not sure I have travelled anywhere else where I’ve encountered this level of genuine friendliness.
Over the years we’ve developed how we travel. We now prefer to travel super light and make things up as we go. The only thing pre-arranged are the flights in and out. On longer trips we wouldn’t even worry about how we get home, working that out towards the end of the trip.
We take small backpacks and never check-in any luggage. We can both say we didn’t use everything we took and some of the things we brought from the UK were not designed for Indonesia – thick cotton t-shirts and shorts, come to mind – I managed to buy some thinner board shorts in Lombok and the three pairs of shorts I’d started with remained firmly in the bottom of my backpack.
While we didn’t have a specific budget, we travelled with Alice and Jonny, who were on a tight back packing budget of £20/day. Most of the accommodation we stayed in was £10 or less per person per day. There were a few cases where it was slightly more. We had one major deviation on this where we took a four day boat, from Lombok to Labuan Bajo. More on this below with alternatives that we looked at.
Trip Breakdown
| What | How | Cost per Person | More Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bali airport to Padang Bai | Taxi | £5.40 | We were approached by a nice person in Bali Airport while we dropped a bag. The price we agreed was based on one taken from the Grab app. https://www.grab.com/id/en/download/ |
| Padang Bai to Gili Meno | Fast Boat | £14.30 | We used Wijaya Buyu. We booked on-line and actually missed the boat we’d booked because of heavy traffic. They were very nice in the port – we just turned up at their office and they put us on the next boat. https://www.wijayabuyuk.com/ |
| Gili Meno to Bangsal Lombok | Local Boat | £0.90 | We wandered down the the pier in Gili Meno and asked – there were private boats available. The local boat was enjoyable and authentic. In general travelling in Indonesia is incredibly cheap if you use public transport. Using tourist/tour organised busses and transport is much more expensive. |
| Bangsal to Koeta | Taxi | £6.55 | As we got off the boat from Gili Meno we were surrounded by people trying to sell us taxi rides and other things. In the end we walked up into the town and had some breakfast. From there we negotiated a taxi. |
| Koeta to Labuan Bajo | Tour Boat | £325 | The price included all meals. It did not include entry to National Parks and a few other charges we had to pay. These came to £28.60. Also if you want to buy a beer on the boat this is extra – £2.40/Bintang. You can take your own. We booked the boat through and it’s wise to negotiate – as with many things in Indonesia published prices are not necessarily what you pay. https://www.komodotouristic.com/activities/tour-packages/komodo-tour-packages/4-days-3-nights-komodo-sharing-trip-from-lombok/ There are quite a lot of negative reviews for these trips on the internet. The boat we booked was larger and the crew were lovely and worked so hard to make sure we all had a fantastic and memorable trip. |
| Labuan Bajo to Ruteng | Deluxe Bus | £8.60 | We used Gunung Mas travel. There are offices in each city/town along the way in Flores. We initially tried to book over WhatsApp (+62 852 3932 2000) in Labuan Bajo and in the end it was easier to turn up at the office and book directly. It’s walkable from the town. On the way back we hailed one of the very small mini busses down which is definitely something I would recommend you do for a non-touristy experience. There’s a good article here on travelling Flores by bus https://placesoflinda.com/how-to-travel-flores-by-bus/ |
On our return journey we took the bus back to Labuan Bajo and from there flew back to Bali
