Komodo National Park attracts a growing number of scuba diving passionate each year. However, it exists two different ways to approach the park and its richness: the day trip and the liveaboard.
It should be the first question when you plan your dive trip in the Komodo National Park: is it better to stay in a resort or to embark on a liveaboard? As a matter of fact, these two options don’t offer you the same advantages, so if you are as passionate as we are when it comes to scuba diving and if you want to make your diving trip an unforgettable experience, here are 5 reasons that make liveaboard the best option to dive Komodo.
1. Access to the whole park
The main advantage of the liveaboard is the opportunity to access the entire area of the park. Its 1733 km2 represents a vast playground of which only a tiny zone may be discovered when you must come back to your starting point at the end of each diving day. The liveaboard does not have this imperative. It continues its way through the park to reach all the dive sites… even the most isolated and secret ones.
2. Optimization and comfort of navigation
During a day trip, you may have to navigate for hours in relatively good comfort to reach some of the dive sites considered as MUST dive and if for any reason you are not able or willing to do every dive planned for the day, you will have to wait on the boat until everyone is done before coming back to your hotel. On a liveaboard, the boat is your resort! Specially adapted for the comfort and needs of scuba divers. What a great pleasure to take a nap on the sun deck or in your cabin after a good meal while cruising to the next dive spot. The huge advantage here is the optimization of navigation. You never feel like you are waiting to arrive somewhere because the boat always moves during surface intervals, meals, or even at night for long distances. In other words, you are always where you need to be!
Samambaia liveaboard leading dives and excursions
3. More dives a day
Keep in mind that if you come from far away to Komodo, this is before all to go scuba diving. Not having to come back to the mainland and optimized navigations has another important advantage: to dive more! No need to transfer from your hotel to the dive center, from the dive center to the pier, from the pier to the dive sites… and back. Since you are always where you need to be, you have more time to jump in the water. A liveaboard can propose up to 5 dives for the real diveholic. And if it is too much for you… pick up the dives you will like the most, skip some whenever you want, and enjoy a cocktail at sunset while waiting for the others.
4. Flexible diving schedule and itinerary
Another advantage is that liveaboards have total control of the diving schedule and itinerary. Komodo is known for its potential strong currents so some of the dive sites will reveal their best or even be only accessible at certain times during the day according to the tides and weather conditions. A liveaboard will always allow you to dive at the best time and in the best conditions by adapting the schedule and itinerary according to daily parameters. More, liveaboard can offer early dives and night dives inside the national park and we all know how great they are!
Photo credit : Martin Raymond
5. Discover mainland
Komodo national park has more to offer than stunning dives. On the 1733 km2 of its perimeter, 603 km2 are lands divided into 29 islands. The biggest are Komodo, Rinca, and Padar. A liveaboard will allow you to discover the earthly wonders of the park. In addition to observing the world’s famous komodo dragons that exist only on these islands, you can visit traditional fishermen’s villages, take a kayak or paddle board tour to explore the islands and find your secret beach or ascend to the many breathtaking viewpoints for unforgettable sunsets. (look later this year for our future post about land activities in Komodo National Park).
Wonder what are the dive site not to miss? Check this bucket list.
Access to the whole park, optimization and comfort of navigations, possibility for more dives, the flexibility of daily schedule, and opportunity to enjoy the secret beauty of the lands are the main reasons for the success of a diving trip to Komodo National Park from a liveaboard.
Interested? Contact us now!
