Labuan Bajo Boat Schedule: When Every Boat Class Leaves the Harbor
**Boats leave Labuan Bajo on fixed rhythms by class. The public local boat to Komodo Village sails Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 10:00 and 12:00. Speedboat day tours cast off at dawn, roughly 05:30-06:30. Liveaboard boarding runs 11:00-12:30. Lombok crossings depart on Sundays. All times as of 2026, subject to weather.**
That single paragraph is the answer most planners come here for. But a departure day only helps if it lines up with your flight, the season, and the boat class you actually want. Below is the full timetable, the season caveats that quietly rewrite it between January and March, and how to confirm a live seat before you commit.
What is the full Labuan Bajo boat departure timetable?
There is no single official noticeboard at the harbor that lists every boat class, its days, and its price side by side — the information sits scattered across operators, ojek drivers, and hand-painted signs at the pier. Bajo Harborline, operated by Komodo Luxury (a real Labuan Bajo operator founded in 2015), exists to close that gap. Here is the consolidated schedule as of 2026.
| Boat class | Departure days | Departure time | Duration | Indicative price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public local boat (LBJ → Komodo Village) | Mon / Wed / Fri | 10:00-12:00 | ~4 hrs each way | IDR 50,000 per person |
| Public local boat (Komodo Village → LBJ, return) | Tue / Thu / Sun | 10:00-12:00 | ~4 hrs each way | IDR 50,000 per person |
| One-day speedboat tour | Daily (weather permitting) | 05:30-06:30 | Full day, back by sunset | ~USD 50-80 per person (shared) |
| Multi-day liveaboard / phinisi | Fixed open-trip dates | Boarding 11:00-12:30 | Commonly 3D2N | From ~IDR 3,334,000 (~USD 205) shared |
| Luxury phinisi (open trip) | Fixed departure dates | Boarding 11:00-12:30 | 3D2N and up | From ~IDR 8,800,000+ (~USD 545+) |
| Private charter phinisi | Flexible — you pick the date | By arrangement | Per day | IDR 12,000,000-25,000,000+ per boat/day |
| Labuan Bajo → Lombok crossing | Depart Sundays | Multi-day | Several days | USD 250-400 per person by cabin |
| Lombok → Labuan Bajo crossing | Depart Thursdays | Multi-day | Several days | USD 250-400 per person by cabin |
Two structural rules explain the whole table. Shared and public boats run on fixed departure days — you fit your plan to the schedule. Private charters run on flexible dates — the schedule fits you, because you are buying the whole boat rather than a seat. Prices for shared trips are per person; charter prices are per boat.
Which schedule fits my type of trip?
The right column above depends less on budget than on how you like to travel.
- You want the cheapest legal way onto the water. The public local boat at IDR 50,000, bought on the spot at the harbor, only leaves Mon/Wed/Fri. Miss those days and there is no daily fallback for this specific route.
- You have one day and want the highlights. A speedboat tour hitting 4-6 stops — Padar Island, Pink Beach, Komodo or Rinca, Manta Point, Taka Makassar — leaves at first light around 05:30-06:30 and returns near sunset. Daily, weather permitting.
- You want to sleep on the water. Liveaboards and phinisi run fixed open-trip dates, typically 3 days and 2 nights, with boarding between 11:00 and 12:30 at the jetty roughly 10 minutes from the airport.
- You want to depart when you choose. A private charter releases you from the timetable entirely — pick your own date, adjust your own route.
How does the season change the schedule?
The timetable above is the dry-season version. From roughly April to December (some guides say April to November), seas are calm and visibility is excellent, and boats run close to the published rhythm. That window is when the schedule behaves.
January through March is the caveat that rewrites everything. Wind, heavy rain, and big waves can cancel or reshuffle speedboat and liveaboard departures on short notice, and hiking trails such as Padar can close. A Mon/Wed/Fri public boat or a dawn speedboat can simply not sail if the crossing is unsafe. For divers, March to October is best, with good visibility lingering into November-January. Manta-ray sightings actually peak in the December-February rainy season, though many operators skip the choppiest January-March seas — so “best mantas” and “safest departures” don’t fully overlap.
The practical takeaway: in dry season, book the date you want. In January-March, treat any departure as provisional and confirm 24-48 hours ahead.
How does booking a scheduled departure work?
Turning a timetable slot into a confirmed seat is a short pipeline. Here’s the sequence for a liveaboard, which is the most involved class.
- Check availability for your dates. Message the Komodo Luxury reservations team with your travel window and preferred boat class. Fixed open-trip dates fill first in peak season, so this is where date-driven planning either works or forces a pivot.
- Confirm class, price, and departure day. Lock the boat, the per-person or per-boat rate, and the exact departure day and boarding window.
- Plan the airport-to-boat leg. Komodo Airport (LBJ) sits about 10 minutes by car from where liveaboards moor. A taxi to the ferry harbor runs 15-20 minutes and around IDR 100,000; an ojek with light luggage is about IDR 20,000. For a Denpasar arrival, DPS-LBJ economy one-way runs IDR 1.2-2.5M on Garuda or Batik and IDR 700,000-1.5M on Lion or Wings, roughly doubling on busy dates.
- Board. In Neptune Liveaboards’ published example, a driver brings guests to the jetty between 11:00 and 12:30; crew check names and passports, handle luggage, assign cabins, then run lunch and a safety briefing before departure.
- Pay park fees separately. Komodo National Park and Padar entrance fees — listed at about IDR 450,000 (USD 33) per person on a typical 1-day tour — are collected separately and paid directly to park authorities. A 2026 guide confirms tour prices exclude these fees.
The park is a protected UNESCO World Heritage area under Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Don’t litter, feed wildlife, or touch coral; liveaboards run an on-board safety briefing before every departure.
Check a live departure date
> Want to know if your exact date has a boat? A published schedule tells you which days a class can sail — it can’t tell you whether this Wednesday’s public boat is running, whether a 3D2N phinisi still has a cabin for your window, or whether January weather has shifted a departure.
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> Message the Komodo Luxury reservations team on WhatsApp +62 811-3823-875 or email sales@komodoluxury.com with your dates and preferred boat class. Bookings are handled directly by the team — you get a real availability check, not a guess. All prices and times on this page are as of 2026 and subject to change; verify park fees and departures with the operator and park authorities before you travel.
*Published by Juara Holding Group. Bajo Harborline is a neutral boat directory and departure-logistics guide operated by Komodo Luxury; it is not the park authority. Figures are date-stamped as of 2026 and subject to change.*