Komodo Liveaboard Cost 2026: Prices, Fees and a Real Budget

A week on a liveaboard in Komodo costs less than most people expect and more than the headline fare suggests. The fare is the big number, usually around three quarters of the bill. The rest is park and port charges, a possible fuel surcharge, the crew tip, the short flight into Labuan Bajo and a night in town, and those lines are where budgets quietly go wrong.

This guide uses the fares on our own schedule for 2026 to 2028 on three boats that run Komodo liveaboard trips, so every figure below is a real price you could book today, not a market average pulled from a forum. Prices are per person in US dollars, with rupiah at roughly Rp 18,100 to the dollar, the rate on our current price list.

How much does a Komodo liveaboard cost?

A Komodo liveaboard costs USD 1,985 to 4,480 per person for four to seven nights on our boats, plus roughly USD 700 to 1,200 in fees, tips and travel.

• Cabin fare: USD 1,985 to 4,480
• Park and port fees: USD 180 to 250
• Fuel surcharge, where it applies: up to USD 200
• Crew tip: USD 15 to 25 a night
• Flight and hotel: USD 200 to 300

The formula is fare plus fees plus tip plus travel, and on a six-night trip the fare is about 76 per cent of the total.

You will find these fares on:

• Year-round departures on Komodo Sea Dragon
• Dry-season weeks on the King Neptune flagship
• Whole-boat yacht charter in Komodo

In short: plan on about USD 2,700 for a short, simple trip and USD 5,650 for a week in the best cabin.

Komodo liveaboard vs day trips from Labuan Bajo: what is the difference?

Price comparisons go wrong here more than anywhere else, because a day trip and a liveaboard are sold side by side in Labuan Bajo and look like the same product at very different prices. They are not the same product.

A Komodo liveaboard

You sleep on the boat inside the park for three to seven nights, eat every meal on board and dive three or four times a day, including sites in the far north and south that a day boat cannot reach and get back from. The price covers the cabin, the food, the diving and the crew for the whole stretch.

A day trip from Labuan Bajo

You leave the harbour in the morning, dive two or three sites within reach of town and come back to a hotel at night. The per-day price is lower, but the hotel, dinners and transfers sit on top of it, and the boat spends a good part of each day travelling rather than diving.

Key distinction:

• A liveaboard buys time at the sites; a day trip buys a hotel bed.
• The two daily prices are not comparable, because only one includes the bed, the meals and the fourth dive.

If you want Castle Rock, the southern manta sites and a night dive in the same week, only a liveaboard reaches all of them. If you want two easy dives and dinner in town, a day boat is the cheaper and more honest choice.

Komodo liveaboard prices on our boats, 2026 to 2028

Three of our boats sail Komodo, and they do it on different calendars. Komodo Sea Dragon, a 35-metre wooden phinisi with six cabins for twelve guests, is based in Labuan Bajo and runs the park all year. King Neptune, our 46-metre flagship with ten cabins for twenty guests, and Neptune One, 39 metres with eight cabins for sixteen guests, spend most of the year in Raja Ampat and the Banda Sea and come to Komodo for the dry season, roughly late May to August.

These are the full per-person fares on our schedule for round trips from Labuan Bajo, before any promotion. The three prices are the entry, middle and top cabin on each boat.

On Komodo Sea Dragon the three categories are the Second Twin (15 square metres), the Main Twin (18) and the Double cabins, which at 23 square metres are the largest on board and the only ones with a furnished private balcony. The difference between the cheapest and the dearest is about 22 per cent on every trip length, so the balcony costs roughly USD 600 extra on a six-night trip.

Read the King Neptune row carefully. Its entry fare belongs to the Sea View Single, an upper-deck cabin built for one person (it converts to bunks for two friends who do not mind close quarters). Couples go into the main-deck or upper-deck sea view doubles, so for two people sharing, King Neptune's real starting point on a seven-night Komodo trip is USD 4,340 each, not 3,300.

Neptune One is the opposite case. Its steps are small and even, USD 300 apart, from the lower-deck Deluxe Suite through the Deluxe Sea View to the Deluxe Sea View with Balcony. Neptune One also runs shorter "Best of Komodo" trips in July and August, at USD 2,450 for five nights and USD 2,800 for six in the entry cabin.

Komodo Sea Dragon still has a few late-2026 departures at last season's fares, which are about 5 per cent lower: USD 2,646 for six nights in the Second Twin, for example, against USD 2,779 from January 2027. In 2028 the boat also adds three-night trips from USD 1,588, the cheapest way onto a Komodo liveaboard we sell.

What the Komodo fare includes, and what it leaves out

A liveaboard fare covers far more than a hotel room, which is why comparing it with a resort night rate misleads. On all three boats the fare includes your cabin with its own bathroom, towels and linen, every meal and snack cooked on board, unlimited tea, coffee, soft drinks and drinking water, up to four guided dives a day with tanks, weights and a dive guide, snorkelling gear, the tender trips to beaches and viewpoints, group transfers between Labuan Bajo airport or your hotel and the harbour, and VAT.

The land visits are part of the trip too, on most routes. The ranger walk to see the dragons on Rinca or Komodo, the climb to the Padar viewpoint and the stop at Pink Beach happen on the tender from the boat, and they cost you nothing beyond the park and port fees covered in the next section.

Outside the fare, the list is short: alcohol, rental gear, insurance, crew tips, the park and port fees, and a fuel surcharge on some departures. Nitrox is the one real difference between the boats. King Neptune includes it; Komodo Sea Dragon and Neptune One charge for it, along with a private guide if you want one to yourself, and Neptune One charges for PADI courses too.

How a Komodo liveaboard budget adds up

A Komodo budget takes six steps. The first three are fixed by the departure you book; the last three are partly in your hands.

1. Start from the fare for your cabin and dates

Pick the boat, the trip length and the cabin, and read the fare off the schedule. It is per person even when you share a cabin, and on our boats it does not change by month.

2. Add the park, environment and port fees

On our Komodo departures these charges are collected together, per person, as one line of roughly Rp 3,258,000 to 4,525,000, which is about USD 180 to 250. They cover entry to Komodo National Park, the environmental charges and the port and harbour costs of leaving Labuan Bajo. We confirm the exact figure for your departure before you travel, and until then the sensible thing is to budget the top of the range.

Every visitor also has to be registered with the park before the boat sails. We do that from your guest form, so the name on it must match your passport exactly.

3. Allow for the fuel surcharge

A fuel surcharge of Rp 2,715,000 to 3,620,000 per person (about USD 150 to 200) may apply, depending on the departure and the price of fuel at the time. Whether it applies is confirmed when you book; until then, keep the top figure in the budget.

4. Add what you will use on board

This line is personal. If you dive nitrox on Komodo Sea Dragon or Neptune One, a week of fills across the market typically runs USD 100 to 150, and we will quote the exact rate when you book; our guide to whether nitrox is worth it on a liveaboard explains when it pays off on Komodo's dive profiles. Rental gear (BCD, regulator, wetsuit) usually runs USD 25 to 40 a day for a full set. Drinks depend entirely on you.

5. Add the crew tip

Tips are not compulsory, and nearly everyone gives one. The usual range on an Indonesian liveaboard is USD 15 to 25 per guest per night, pooled across the whole crew and handed over on the last evening. Our liveaboard tipping guide for Indonesia explains how the pool is shared and why percentage rules work badly on a trip of this price.

6. Add the trip to Labuan Bajo

Almost everyone flies in from Bali, a little over an hour, for roughly USD 100 to 200 return. Most guests also spend a night in town first, because a delayed morning flight leaves no margin before boarding; a decent room runs roughly USD 50 to 150. Our guide on how to get to Labuan Bajo for Komodo covers the routes in from Jakarta and abroad.

A worked example: six nights on Komodo Sea Dragon

Here is the whole calculation for one real departure: two certified divers sharing a Main Twin cabin on Komodo Sea Dragon, six nights from Labuan Bajo in January 2027, diving nitrox and bringing their own gear. Six nights usually means five full diving days between a check-out dive on the first afternoon and a short final morning, so somewhere around 18 to 21 dives in total, give or take the weather.

Two things fall out of that table. The fare is USD 3,010 of USD 3,935, about 76 per cent, so the extras add roughly a third on top of the price you first saw. And the trip works out at about USD 656 a night, or roughly USD 200 per dive, all in.

For the couple, the total is USD 7,870 before international flights. If the fuel surcharge turns out not to apply, it drops by USD 400. If they rented gear instead of bringing it, it rises by roughly USD 360.

Three Komodo budgets, side by side

Here is the worked example next to a lean version and a top-end one, built the same way from the same 2027 fares, so you can see which lines grow and which barely move.

Look at the fixed lines first. The fees and the surcharge allowance are the same USD 450 whichever cabin you book, which is why they hurt most on the short trip: on the lean budget they are 17 per cent of the total, on the top one about 8 per cent.

The top budget assumes rented gear at USD 35 a day, a tip at the upper end of the range and a better hotel. Swap King Neptune for the Double cabin with balcony on Komodo Sea Dragon over the same seven nights and the fare falls to USD 3,864; add back nitrox, which that boat charges for, and the whole top budget comes to about USD 5,160.

None of these include international flights to Bali or travel insurance, which we would not skip on any of the three.

Why shorter Komodo trips cost more per night

Trip length changes the price in a way that is easy to miss. Shorter is cheaper overall but dearer per night, because the first afternoon and the last morning are part-days whatever the trip length, and they cost the boat roughly the same to run.

Komodo Sea Dragon's entry cabin shows the pattern cleanly. In 2028 a three-night trip costs USD 1,588, about USD 529 a night. Four nights in 2027 work out at USD 496 a night, five at USD 476, six at USD 463 and seven at USD 454. Going from four nights to seven adds USD 1,191 to the fare and three more full diving days, which on most weeks is another 10 or 11 dives.

The fixed costs sharpen this. The flight, the hotel night, the fees and the surcharge cost the same on four nights as on seven, so a lean four-nighter comes out at around USD 200 per dive all in, and seven nights on the same boat and cabin at nearer USD 170. Least money means the short trip; most diving for the money means the longest one you can fit in, and seven nights is our longest round trip from Labuan Bajo.

When Komodo prices move, and when they do not

On our boats, the month does not change the fare. A six-night trip on Komodo Sea Dragon costs the same in January as in August 2027, whatever online advice says about cheap wet seasons. The calendar moves your total in other ways: Bali flights cost more in July and August, town hotels fill, and the best dry-season cabins sell out months ahead. Our Komodo best time to visit guide covers what each month is like underwater, and why mid-January and March are quiet weeks in the park.

What does move the fare is the year. Komodo Sea Dragon's 2027 fares are 5 per cent above its 2026 ones, on every trip length and cabin, and fares tend to rise a little each season.

Promotions are the other mover, and they are not predictable. Some departures carry a discount, usually when the trip is close and still has space; one of Komodo Sea Dragon's seven-night trips in late 2026 is 10 per cent off as we write. They appear on the schedule as they happen.

And if one of you is not diving, there is a straightforward saving. Snorkellers and non-divers get 10 per cent off the trip price on our boats, which on the six-night Main Twin fare is USD 301. It cannot be combined with another discount on the same departure. Our guide to Indonesia liveaboards for non-divers and snorkellers covers what a non-diving partner actually does all day.

What to check before you book a Komodo liveaboard

Two trips with the same headline fare can end up hundreds of dollars apart. These questions find the difference before you pay a deposit, and we would ask them of any operator, ourselves included.

1. Are the park and port fees in the fare or on top?

Many operators charge them on top, as we do, but the amount and what it covers vary. Ask for the per-person figure in rupiah, and whether it covers port and environmental charges as well as park entry.

2. Does a fuel surcharge apply to this departure?

Get a yes or no, and the amount. If the answer is "it depends", ask when you will know. Our surcharge, where it applies, runs Rp 2,715,000 to 3,620,000 per person, and we confirm it at booking.

3. Which cabin is the "from" price?

On King Neptune the entry fare is a single cabin, so a couple pays from the next category up. Always ask which cabin the advertised price buys.

4. How many full diving days are there?

A six-night trip has five full days, not six; a four-night trip has three. Compare trips on the planned dive count, not the night count.

5. Does the route reach the north and the south?

Short trips do not always reach both the northern pinnacles and the southern manta sites. Check the itinerary against our guide to the Komodo dive sites before comparing prices.

6. Is nitrox included?

On King Neptune it is. On Komodo Sea Dragon and Neptune One it is extra, so ask for the price for the week rather than per fill. Komodo's dives are mostly moderate in depth, and over four dives a day the shorter surface intervals add up.

7. How many divers does each guide lead?

In Komodo's currents the group size matters more than the cabin. Ask how many guests a guide takes in, and what a private guide costs.

8. What are the payment and cancellation terms?

On our boats a 50 per cent deposit confirms the cabin and the balance is due 60 days before departure. Cancel 90 days or more ahead and you get a full refund less a processing fee of Rp 1,810,000 per person, about USD 100; from 60 to 89 days it is 50 per cent back, from 30 to 59 days 25 per cent, and inside 30 days nothing. That last step is why trip cancellation insurance is worth its price on a fare this size.

How to choose a Komodo liveaboard by budget

Start with the number you can spend all in, not the fare, and work backwards. Take off USD 700 to 1,200 for the extras and what is left is your fare budget. It usually decides the trip length before it decides the boat.

Under about USD 3,000 all in, you are looking at three to five nights on Komodo Sea Dragon in a twin cabin, a perfectly good first taste of scuba diving in Komodo. Go in the dry season if the northern pinnacles matter, because a short trip has little room to wait out weather.

Between USD 3,500 and 4,500 you get six or seven nights on Sea Dragon or Neptune One, where the per-dive cost bottoms out and the route has time for the north, centre and south. For the money, it is the trip we would book ourselves.

Above USD 5,000 you are paying for space more than diving: a balcony cabin, a bigger boat, nitrox included. That is where a luxury liveaboard starts to make sense, and in Komodo it means King Neptune's dry-season weeks.

Weighing Komodo against Raja Ampat? On Neptune One a seven-night trip starts at USD 3,250 in Komodo and USD 3,650 in Raja Ampat, about 12 per cent more, before the dearer flight to Sorong and higher fees. Our Raja Ampat liveaboard cost guide runs the same sums for the other side.

A group of eight to twelve should price a private charter of Komodo Sea Dragon against buying the cabins one by one; with a charter, the route is yours to choose.

How to spend less on a Komodo liveaboard without a worse trip

There are honest savings, and there are false ones. A cheaper trip that skips the north and the south is not a saving; it is a different trip. These, by contrast, cut the bill without cutting the diving:

• Bring your own BCD, regulator and wetsuit, which saves USD 175 to 280 on a week.
• Book the twin cabin rather than the balcony double: USD 371 less on a six-night Sea Dragon trip, for a cabin you mostly sleep in.
• Take one of Sea Dragon's late-2026 departures while last season's fares, about 5 per cent lower, still apply.
• Choose seven nights over four if you can: it costs more, but each dive costs less.
• Travel outside July and August, when the Bali flights and town hotels are usually cheaper.

Two false savings: skipping trip insurance on a fare this size, and flying in from Bali on the morning of departure. If that flight is late, the boat may sail without you.

Who this trip is for, and who it is not for

At these prices a Komodo liveaboard suits certified divers who want three or four dives a day at sites a day boat cannot reach, couples where one dives and the other snorkels, and photographers who want the same sites at different tides.

Our Komodo Sea Dragon liveaboard is the default for most of them: the only one of our boats in Komodo all year, with trips from three to seven nights and twelve guests at most. Its limits are size, since at 35 metres it is the smallest of our three, and nitrox at extra cost.

Neptune One comes to Komodo in July and August with the most even cabin pricing of the three, and runs a one-way Bali to Labuan Bajo trip in June. King Neptune is the top of the range at 46 metres with nitrox included. It is also the dearest, and in Komodo it only sails from late May to August.

It is not for everyone. Divers below Advanced level, or with fewer than 30 or so logged dives, will find the northern drifts at Castle Rock and the Cauldron hard work, and should either pick a calmer month or build experience first. A phinisi is a poor choice for anyone who needs step-free access, since the decks are usually joined by steep stairs. And if your total budget is under about USD 2,500 including travel, a few nights in Labuan Bajo with day trips will show you more of the park for the money than the shortest liveaboard will.