Whale Sharks, Corals & Dragons Family Cruise with a Marine Biologist

Take an early morning flight from Bali to Komodo, where your tour leaders meet you and take you to your boat. Start your adventure at a coral restoration site to see how corals and fish have grown since 2014.

Note: Please be aware that this itinerary is designed to be flexible. The aim is to follow the schedule as described, but due to weather, tides, preferences of trip members, and other factors, such as the learning of the opportunity to investigate exciting new discoveries, can sometimes need to change course. The boat captain and your Trip Leader make the decisions to maximize trip safety and your overall enjoyment—come prepared to be flexible!

Go ashore on Komodo Island to look for Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizard, which can grow up to three meters long and weigh around 70 kilograms.
Enjoy snorkelling at some of Komodo Park’s best reefs. Swim with manta rays at the cleaning stations and snorkel in shallow waters to see sea turtles up close.

Wake up on the coast of a beautiful, uninhabited island with a beach of pure white sand with some sparkles of powdered red coral, creating the effect of a “pink beach”. Spend the morning here, swimming, paddleboarding, and snorkelling on the beautiful coral reef that lies parallel to the beach.

Over lunch, you cruise to a nearby active volcanic island where you can see a large wooden pinisi boat with the same pedigree and history of SeaTrek’s very own ships being built on the beach. Walking around this small village, get a feel for their simple way of life, chat with the locals and maybe buy some handmade textiles as a souvenir.

Spend the day at a strange and mystical volcanic island with a sunken crater lake in its center that was filled with saltwater when the nearby Mt Tambora catastrophically erupted in 1815. Here you swim, kayak and paddleboard on the lake, and the more adventurous can go trekking around the crater rim.

Experience one of the famous SeaTrek beach BBQs under a night sky filled with millions of stars as you feast on the amazing local delicacies prepared by the chef, and all accompanied by live musical entertainment from the talented crew.

Another highlight of your visit to the island is the sight of thousands of flying foxes that fly at dusk from the island to feed on the mainland.

Prepare for an early morning swim with whale sharks, the gentle giants of the sea. These massive but harmless animals have long congregated here in the bay, but now, thanks to travellers like you, you have formed a mutually beneficial alliance with the local fishermen who have their traditional small floating fishing platforms in the bay that attract the sharks. Sighting is not guaranteed, since these wild animals aren’t on a leash, but with a little luck, you just might see them!

Spend the day on a beach located on a small limestone island nearby, kayaking, swimming, and snorkelling, and exploring the local karst formations. You cruise to Labuan Aji village on the island of Moyo to visit the village and walk to a scenic waterfall where you can bathe in the refreshing cool water.

Enjoy a unique snorkelling experience where volcanic gasses escape in the form of bubbles from the sea floor among the corals, with the metallic black volcanic sand below being home to an abundance of very interesting invertebrates. Entering the Komodo National Park again, you go drift snorkelling in one of the best and healthiest coral reefs in the park, and for those who want to take the land-adventure to another level, you can do a sunset hike up to a gorgeous viewpoint overlooking the other islands in the park. Visit Rinca Island, which is well known for its diverse wildlife, and maybe spot dragons, monkeys, wild buffaloes, and deer as well. From the top of the hills, the scenery is breathtaking.

After breakfast on the last day, enjoy a scenic drive towards Melo Village, where you witness the traditional Caci dance performance. Local strongmen perform a ritual whip-fight between two rivals in which the players, each armed with a rattan shield and a whip, will try to hit each other while dancing to the rhythm of traditional acoustic instruments. After lunch on the boat, you bid farewell to the crew and your fellow shipmates as you disembark and continue onto your next destination.