4D3N Labuan Bajo itinerary for your next long weekend

Why visit Bali yet again when there is so much more to see in Indonesia? Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara has become one of my favourite destinations to visit in Indonesia. Labuan Bajo is the gateway to cool Komodo Dragons and amazing scenic sea views and activities. If you are looking for an alternative destination in Indonesia to check out, here’s my suggested 4D3N Labuan Bajo itinerary for your next long weekend trip.

Why visit Labuan Bajo?

I first visited Labuan Bajo in 2016 and updated this post after I visited again in 2025. In this span of 9 years, the little town has definitely started picking up interest on the tourism front. The Indonesian government has identified Labuan Bajo as one of its ‘new Balis‘ that they are trying to push – on my most recent visit, I noticed that the village centre has modernised a fair bit and lots of resorts are being built on the island. I definitely think Labuan Bajo will change significantly in the upcoming years, so visit it soon before it completely loses that small town charm!

How much time to spend Labuan Bajo?

The island of Flores is actually quite large – my suggestion for first-timers to Flores planning for a long weekend trip is to focus on its most developed city Labuan Bajo located on the western coast. From here, you can visit the UNESCO World Heritage Komodo National Park and enjoy the beautiful coastal beauty of this area, perfect for a long weekend trip.

For those with more time to venture out to other parts of Flores (domestic flights or long, long bus rides), head eastwards towards Ende, home to the colourful Kelimutu volcanic craters, or the lovely Maumere region.

Getting to Labuan Bajo

There is a direct flight between Singapore and Labuan Bajo thanks to Jetstar Asia, which flies from Singapore’s Changi Airport (SIN) to Komodo International Airport (LBJ) on Thursdays and Sundays and takes about 3 hours.

What this means for those looking to do a short trip, you can either do:

• 4D3N long weekend Thurs-Sun – Depart SG Thursday afternoon, Arrive SG Sunday night – perfect for working folk as you’ll minimally only need to take 1.5 days of leave
• 5D4N longer trip Sun-Thurs – Depart SG Sunday evening, Arrive SG Thursday afternoon – if leave is not an issue, you’ll get to enjoy a less busy time in LBJ with less domestic/weekend tourists

For Singaporeans, getting to Labuan Bajo (LBJ) used to be a pain when there were no direct flights and you typically had to transit in Bali or Jakarta, which is what I had to do when I visited in 2016 on a Skyscanner media trip. Interestingly enough, I’ve heard that international flights into LBJ are cheaper than transiting within Indonesia because of the high fuel charges that Indonesian airlines. If timing is an issue and you can’t do Thurs/Sun flights, you may want to consider transiting internationally instead of within Indonesia.

The great thing about Komodo Airport is that it’s REALLY close to the Labuan Bajo town centre, and I mean a literal 5-10min drive away. You may want to consider staying a bit further away from the town to really soak in the nature.

4D3N Labuan Bajo Itinerary

For the busy bee workers with a limited amount of leave to take, work on Thursday morning, hop over to the airport and take the Thursday afternoon flight to Labuan Bajo. You’ll arrive in time for dinner on Thursday, have 2 full days on Friday and Saturday to explore, and some relaxing time on Sunday to spend before you heading to Komodo airport in the late afternoon, and arriving back in Singapore on Sunday nigh. take the Sunday afternoon flight here’s my suggestion for a 4D3N itinerary based in Labuan Bajo.

Day 1 – Getting to Labuan Bajo

If you take the direct flight from Singapore, you’ll likely reach Labuan Bajo’s Bandar Udara Komodo aka Komodo Airport in the late afternoon. Check into your accommodation and have dinner either at your hotel or head down to the Labuan Bajo area for dinner. Komodo Airport is very close to the main town area.

I’ll talk more about Labuan Bajo Town Centre on the last day as you probably won’t have time to check it out on the evening of your arrival. You could potentially check out a sunset spot if you make it out of the airport quickly. Bukit Amelia or Bukit Sylvia along the coast face west and are nice elevated spots that provide great panoramas of the bay.

If you do pop into Labuan Bajo Town Centre instead, towards the northern end of Jalan Soekarno Hatto is the Labuan Bajo Fish Market where you’ll find stalls selling and cooking freshly caught fish and tables for visitors to eat at by the water in the evening, perfect for dinner.

Labuan Bajo Fish Market [Google maps]

Day 2 – Komodo National Park Island Hopping

The main attraction in Labuan Bajo is exploring Komodo National Park which involves a little island hopping by boat. These tours usually take the full day, starting at about 8am with lunch on the boat and finishing around 5pm.

You can book a tour with any of the tour agencies down in the Labuan Bajo town area, or make an online booking via Klook – there are plenty of options on the platform but here are some to get you started [Klook affiliate links]

• Komodo Full Day Speed Boat Tour from Labuan Bajo
• Red Whale Speedboat Full Day Tour from Labuan Bajo
• Komodo Full Day Speed Boat Tour by East Cruise Komodo

For individual/small groups, full tours cost about S$100 -S$120 per person on average depending on what you want to see. If you have a larger group and want more customisation, you could hire someone and arrange your own itinerary and speedboat rental for about US$1,000 per day.

Your typical Komodo National Park island hopping itinerary covers Labuan Bajo’s main highlights which I’ll talk more about below:

Padar Island

Padar Island is one of the larger islands in Komodo National Park and best known for its beautiful triple bay view from the top where there is a pink sand beach, white sand beach and black sand beach all in one view. Padar island tends to be busiest at sunrise or sunset, and the hills look quite different depending on whether you go during the wet season (green) or dry (brown).

The hike to the amazing viewpoint from the beach takes about 30-40 minutes, so expect to be here about 1.5-2 hours in total to cater for crowds, climbing and photo time. The hike is not too hard – when I climbed it in 2016 there were no proper paths but now it looks like they’ve paved the paths and put in staircases so it should be an easier walk.

Hopefully your tour isn’t timed with any other big tours groups so it doesn’t feel too congested overall. It wasn’t that crowded when I visited in 2016, but I heard on my recent trip that it’s become a lot more popular unfortunately.

Padar Island [Google maps]

Komodo Island

Komodo National Park is the only place in the world where you can see Komodo Dragons in the wild, so it is a must-do! Read more about my Komodo Dragon experience.

There are two spots that you can visit: Komodo Island (Loh Liang) or the smaller Rinca Island (Loh Buaya). I went to Loh Liang on Komodo Island where our group had several trek options – we took the short trek which was a relatively flat walk on a forest pathway shaded by trees and took us about 2 hours including photo-taking time.

Like safaris or any sort of animal experience, there is no guarantee you will see any Komodo Dragons. Things seemed a little dire at first with no sightings at all in the first half of our walk, not even at the waterhole which they tend to frequent. Thankfully we finally saw a handful of Komodo Dragos as we neared the restaurant area, apparently a more popular hang out spot for the lizards!

Loh Liang Komodo National Park [Google maps]

Pink Beach / Pantai Merah

A short half hour boat ride away from Loh Liang is Pantai Merah aka Pink Beach – a famous beach stretch where the sand is pink due to the presence of red coral bits in the water. Chill out by the beach, snorkel in the clear shallow waters, or climb up to the small hills around the beach to get a good shot of the pretty sand below.

The pinkness of the sand depends a lot on the weather and the sea conditions and how much people photoshop their photos!

Note that while it is The Pink Beach, it isn’t the only pink stretch of sand in the area. We did a dive here back in 2016 and I mostly remember it being a drift dive that was kinda murky.

Pink Beach / Pantai Merah [Google maps]

Snorkelling in Komodo National Park

For most of the day trips, there will be some opportunities to snorkel during the day trip in between the sightseeing. The most popular spots people visit are Siaba Besar aka turtle point because of the sheer number of turtles you can see, or Manta Point where if you’re lucky enough, you’ll spot some of these gentle giants flying through the water.

My experience in Komodo National Park has mostly been with scuba diving rather than snorkelling, but I highly recommend checking out its marine life because it is pretty lush. Flores used to see a lot of dynamite fishing back in the past so there are signs of broken coral areas all around, but in general the fish and coral life is quite healthy and you can see lots of marine life even without descending onto the sea bed.

Here are some other places in Komodo National Park that I haven’t seen for myself:

• Rinca Island is the other island where you can see Komodo Dragons. It is smaller but apparently home to more dragons
• Kalong Island is a small island covered with mangrove forest near Rinca Island. It is also home to a whole horde of bats that emerge en masse at sunset, which can be quite spectacular or freaky depending on how you feel about bats
• Kanawa Island is a resort island that is quite popular for its white sand beach and snorkeling
• Taka Makassar is new to me but a stop on many of the current island hopping boat tours, a white sandbar that people like to take pictures on

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Day 3 – Other sights around Labuan Bajo

You could spend another day going island hopping and enjoying the coastal attractions, but if you want to check out some other sights beyond Komodo National Park, there are other things to see.

Cunca Wulung

Cunca Wulang is located about 30km outside of Labuan Bajo in Mbeliling, West Manggarai and famous for its waterfall and trekking. Back in 2016 I hiked it in my flipflops but it is not the easiest of treks as the ground is covered with leaves, roots and is a tad slopey. Expect to do a lot of walking and sweat a lot because it is really humid!

The most popular route is to the river where you can jump in for a swim, a nice way to cool down after your strenuous trek. The waterfall is quite deep inside a gorge and the waters of the river are deep enough for you to do a little cliff jumping.

You can also take a longer route and hike to the top of the waterfall – be very careful up here as the waterfall spray makes everything really slippery. Stay well clear of the edges and listen to the guides – some tourists died there and the waterfall was closed for awhile, affecting local tourism so the local guides are extra paranoid about your safety for good reason.

Cunca Wulung is not a place that you can visit on your own – you must have a local guide from the village accompany you, and you will want one to keep you safe. Expect to pay around 100,000 IDR / S$11 for a guide, and 75,000 IDR (S$8).

Cunca Wulung [Google maps]

Melo Village / Kampung Melo

After a tiring morning of hiking, perhaps time for something a little more cultural. Head over to Melo Village on a hilltop to visit the home of the Manggarai people. They are an ethnic group native to west Flores and we got to check out their traditional Caci dance and culture. Their traditional dances are usually ceremonial, but these days they do perform for tourists as well for a fee. You’ll need to check whether this is available while you are there!

Melo Village [Google maps]

You can book a day trip that covers Cunca Wulung and Melo Village on Klook [affiliate link].

Some other things you can consider doing which I was recommended but didn’t have the time for:

• Rangko Cave / Gua Rangko [Google maps] is located northeast of the town centre. You have to drive about an hour out of town to Tanjung Boleng Village and then take a short 20min boat ride to the cave. There is a pool in this cave that you can swim in.
• Chermin Cave / Gua Batu Cermin [Google maps] is not far from the town centre and also known as the Mirror Stone Cave because at around noon, the light shines in a way that reflect off the walls like a mirror

This day trip on Klook [affiliate link] covers Rangko, Cermin, Cunca Wulang and a sunset lookout point at Sylvia HIll

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Day 4 – Labuan Bajo Town Centre

Final day in Labuan Bajo! You might be able to squeeze in a half day tour somewhere nearby, but my recommendation is to have a lazy start and maybe spend a little time relaxing around the Labuan Bajo Town Centre.

Labuan Bajo town is pretty small and there’s not that much to do here. The local people joke that it’s a ‘5-min town’ – the main downtown area is really just one long stretch of road (Jalan Soekarno Hatto) where all the dive shops and tour agencies are located. Most of the sights to see are outside of the town area so quite frankly there’s not that much to do here.

There is a newish sort of mall here next to the Meruorah Komodo Labuan Bajo Hotel called Plaza Marina Labuan Bajo. Most notably this mall is home to a Starbucks and a KFC if you need your fast food fix. On the 2nd floor was a pretty popular hipster looking cafe called Cafe Melinjo – most people were sitting outside on the side facing the marina. If you’re looking for souvenir shirts, there were some cute Komodo singlets at Chimpanzees on the 2nd floor which mostly sells men’s casual clothing.

Plaza Marina Labuan Bajo [Google maps] and Cafe Melinjo [Instagram] [Google maps] and Chimpanzees [Website] [Google maps]

Walking a bit further down, Copper Bonnet Bistro and Bar is a posh looking bistro pub right next to the Sea Creatures Diving Centre. They have western food here like salads, burgers and vegan food, but also a great selection of cocktails and drinks. I had some draft beer here, really like the hipster vibes.

Copper Bonnet Bistro and Bar [Website] [Google maps]

Across the road is Maison Belmont where you can get artisan ice cream – quite frankly I never knew the French had famous ice cream, but they do some pretty interesting local flavours here. I tried the pineapple sorbet with sambal and it does have quite a kick~ the passionfruit was also quite tasty, and I enjoyed the dark chocolate with orange peel cubes too.

Maison Belmont [Instagram] [Google maps]

If you do need a massage, right next door is the Flores Spa – they’ve been around for a long time since the first time I visited, though in a different location. They’re not very visible – barely any signage at the doorway. Here’s where you can get a body massage or food reflexology, but you may need to make a reservation beforehand as it is not very large.

Flores Spa (Raena Ark) [Google maps]

There are other cafes and eateries that you can pop into along this stretch of road. I didn’t have the chance to check out everything, but some other recommendations I received include Hong Signature Restaurant and Komodough Artisan Bakery.

Souvenir shops in Labuan Bajo

While there are several small boutiques in the town centre, two places you can check out are for souvenir shopping are located right next to the Komodo Airport. Kado Bajo Souvenir Shop and Exotic Komodo Souvenir Shop are side by side and where the tour buses will drop off tour groups to buy their souvenirs. I didn’t have the time on my trips, but these were recommended by the hotel concierge. You could consider heading to the airport early and dropping off here to pick up presents before checking in.

Kado Bajo Souvenir Shop [Google maps] and Exotic Komodo Souvenir Shop [Google maps]

Getting around Labuan Bajo

Good news for Grab users, there are Grab Bikes available to transport you around Labuan Bajo. There don’t seem to be any cars/taxis available on the app though, only taxi motorbikes so just take note of that if you are travelling in a group. You may need to ask your hotel to call you a taxi.

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Have you been to Labuan Bajo and the Komodo Islands? Tell me what I missed, in the meantime see my other posts on Flores.