Here’s all you need to know if you’re thinking about staying at Komodo Resort with kids. We stayed three nights at Komodo Resort and this would be one of my favourite places to go, due mainly to the fact there was very people there and it’s basically in the middle of nowhere. To get there, you need to take a flight from Denpasar to Lubuan Bajo (which is an experience in itself and you can read more about that here), then either a slow boat taking one hour and a half or hire a speedboat from the resort prior which takes around 30 minutes. We took the speedboat since we weren’t staying long.
When you get to Lubuan Bajo a Komodo Resort staff will meet you when you get out of the airport, then you take a short drive (around 10-15 minutes) to their office where you check-in. Takes a few minutes and no worries. You then get back in the van and drive a few minutes to the speedboat. It’s not one of those fancy or even half decent speedboats, but does the trick. Don’t put anything on the seats or they could fall off. Note that you won’t be asked to put on life jackets so if you care about that kind of thing, you better ask.
A guy meets you of the jetty and we arrived at lunch time so had lunch. Komodo Resort cost about HKD$10,000 for three nights for two people, which I wouldn’t normally pay that much for, but we got free flights and the resort includes all food and drinks (not including alcohol). First lunch Grobbler had a ham and cheese sandwich. The bread was so hard that it broke his loose tooth! Okay that was actually good for us, but maybe not so good if you like decent food. If you have kids with specific dietary requirements, Komodo Resort with kids may not be the best bet, otherwise, it’s totally fine considering you’re in the middle of nowhere.
I had to order him some carbonara which wasn’t great either and my indonesian chicken something was equally not great. Let’s get one thing clear here. You’re in the middle of nowhere. This is not Bali and while the resort is nice, it’s not fancy and posh. The chicken was rock hard and overall the food here isn’t great. But we’re prepared to ignore that because it’s private and not that many people stay here. For dinner the first night we had some Thai, which was okay. Ice Cream was suspect but the Creme Brulee I had was not bad.
Other dishes we had which were ok was pizza (pizza night), Nasi Goreng and Put Thai, all of which were actually okay. Also had a chocolate lava cake which was also surprisingly good being in the middle of nowhere. The two girls who we took a tour to Padar Isand and did some snorkelling with though the food was ok, so perhaps I’m being a bit tough on the food standards.
But you don’t come to Komodo Resort with kids for the food. Oh, the spring rolls were excellent, could have had about 10 of those. Whilst the food is all included, not sure how many dishes you can order before someone cuts you off. After lunch we went back to the room, had a very short rest before some snorkelling. And the snorkelling here is right off the beach, literally a few steps from your room. Go to the jetty, there’s stairs and just snorkel around there.
The snorkelling here is equal to anything I’ve done anywhere and if you need just one reason to visit Komodo Resort with kids, this is it. I haven’t snorkelled at a lot of places but have done so in Hawaii, the Maldives, Cebu, Bohol, Similan Island, Koh Samui and quite a few other places in SE Asia, and the snorkeling just outside the resort is amazing (best of anywhere). There’s loads of big fish all hanging around and under the jetty. The staff are excellent and will tell you where to go and get you gear if needed. We had our own and just needed some flippers. Snorkelled for about 30 minutes then did some jumping off the jetty.
After that we spent the whole afternoon and evening sea creature hunting along the beach. Here you find loads of little crabs, hairy crabs, blue seastars, big crabs, fish and we even saw what looked like a moray eel, right by the shore. Grobbler loved it and was in heaven. Before dinner we talk a quick walk up the hill, missed the sunset but still got a nice view.
They don’t serve dinner until 7p.m which is a bit strange so we were literally doing our version of Coyote Peterson when it was dark with the mobile phone light on. For the other activities you can do at Komodo Resort, including seeing the Komodo Dragons on Rinca Island, a walk up Padar Island, watching the flying foxes and other snorkeling areas, I’ll cover this in out things to do in Komodo section.
The rooms at Komodo Resort are awesome. There’s two types,we stayed in the one level ones. Rooms aren’t huge but all good, mosquito nets on the bed and we didn’t see any anywhere in the resort the entire first day, even by the beach at night. There’s air conditioning, the shower is good, large and enough pressure. Beds are fine, not super comfy but no complaints. Plenty of space, a nice balcony with sea view and also you have your own loungers nearer the sea. Note there’s no swimming pool here, I presume it’s too much maintenance and too difficult to keep clean being so far from anything developed.
The staff here are awesome, especially Nikki, not sure what his position is, but he takes care of all kinds of shit for you and gives advice on where and when to go. All the staff are pretty friendly and I must say that the Indonesians were equally as nice and friendly as the Thai’s. It’s difficult getting good staff at such a remote place so as long as you don’t expect perfect English and a conversation about Van Gogh’s influence on 20th century art, you’ll be fine. I didn’t encounter any rude staff, all of them were super friendly and especially nice to Grobbler.
Komodo Resort with kids is not the best and nicest resort we’ve stayed at but it’s definitely one I liked the most thanks to it’s remote location, excellent staff, snorkeling and beautiful setting. Okay, the food was a bit rank but like the Maldives you can’t expect too much being so far from things, and I’d gladly come back here, despite it being a bit of a mission. If you’re visiting Komodo, definitely consider Komodo Resort especially if you have kids who like to explore sea creatures.
If you’ve got any questions about Komodo Resort feel free to email me on our contact page or ask us via Twitter or Facebook.
