Planning a trip... Komodo, Maumere, Alor- Logistics???

[funscuba]

I agree with all what You say jake11, in Alor awesome diving and chilly in some areas (but not everywhere), this is due to the strong currents of it's bay and coldest I had was 24 degrees brrrrrr..... I was also there in may, with who did you dive jake ?
Just for the flight info to Alor, you need to transit in kupang, that is obligatory. And leaving out of Alor may be cancellations due to merpati's technical usual problems, It happened to me when I was there.
Otherwise yes Alor is truely a jewel in Indo.

 

[Uli Kunkel]

Was it relatively easy to hire a car in Labuanbajo, Luko?

 

[Luko]

Was it relatively easy to hire a car in Labuanbajo, Luko?

Firstly you must hire a driver+car, not the car only (the trip is very tiring for the driver, the Flores highway is winding going up and down, not for nothing they call it the "snake island"!) and yes it's fairly easy to setup with a travel agency in LBJ or beforehand (I booked the car from a hotel in Maumere), for a comfortable car like a Kijang, it should cost you around 40€ per day including petrol and all the driver accomodations. That's even finer if you can share the car with some other people of your party.
I know some tourists cross the island using public bus transport. I wouldn't see myself sitting 6-8 hours a day for three days in a public bus... :shocked2:

Do you also intend to dive Maumere? there are two ops Seaworld (Where I dived) which also propose great bungalows directly on a nice beach, it's run by a german missionary, and the other one's called Ankermi's which is located directly on a muck dive area. Maumere provides quite good or at least interesting diving (athough not up to Komodo or Alor but still worth a few days IMO), If you check my posts, I wrote a report on Maumere last year.

 

[funscuba]

I'd recommend you to stay 1 or 2 nights in bajawa to visit it's surroundings then hit the road to maumere, to do the same thing and if interested, as mentioned Luko stay in one of those 2 resorts. I visited Seaworld, very nice one, but I've been told diving was much better long time ago due to I don't remember what some locals told me. The other resort I haven't seen. Then catch your flight to Alor thru kupang.

 

[jake11]

I agree with all what You say jake11, in Alor awesome diving and chilly in some areas (but not everywhere), this is due to the strong currents of it's bay and coldest I had was 24 degrees brrrrrr..... I was also there in may, with who did you dive jake ?
Just for the flight info to Alor, you need to transit in kupang, that is obligatory. And leaving out of Alor may be cancellations due to merpati's technical usual problems, It happened to me when I was there.
Otherwise yes Alor is truely a jewel in Indo.

I was on the AAII trip before it went out of business. We started in Ambon and went to Maumere. It took 14 nights and it was awesome! I remember freezing on some sites in Alor but we saw awesome stuff and I would do it again in a heartbeat! We had the pleasure of diving with Made who is now on the Damai! He was simply amazing and so much FUN!!! Loved the trip!

 

[Luko]

I'd recommend you to stay 1 or 2 nights in bajawa to visit it's surroundings then hit the road to maumere

Yep, Bajawa area is spectacular, also lots of villages and tribes located right under scenic volcanoes.
Don't forget to stop at Moni and head to the colored lakes of Kelimutu volcano, an alien landscape appearing through the sunrise fog.

 

[komodotravel]

If you need some trip in komodo you can open site: Komodo Tours | Indonesia Hotels And Tours
And for flores Flores Tours | Indonesia Hotels And Tours

 

[Valwood1]

Echoing others: In August 2010, travel to Alor required a flight from Bali to Kupang, overnight stay in Kupang and then on to Alor the next morning. But on returning from Alor, there was a plane connection, so Alor-Kupang-DPS was in one day. The Alor-to-Kupang airline managed to lose my clothes suitcase (not the dive bag, thank heavens) for a couple of days, and it had been thoroughly rifled when it finally got to Bali.

As an aside, accommodations in Alor are pretty modest, though the "resort" on one of the nearby islands did get pretty good reviews.

 

[ocdiver1]

Actually was in Alor March 2011 and was able to go DPS-Kupang-Alor all in one day both coming and going. The Kupang-Alor portion was serviced by either Merpati or Transnusa and I think I did Lion for the DPS-Kupang part. Crazy thing was I had just been in East Timor, where I could SEE Alor on a clear day, but to get there the easiest way was flying back to Bali, spending the night, then going all the way back to Alor the next day. I will say the hassle is worth it though!!

 

[DiveExploreIndonesia]

just a word about how to get to Alor:
if you plan in advance, avoid Merpati, they change schedule to often. Transnusa for the Kupang-Alor-Kupang part keep the same schedule for years at least for the Sunday, Thursday Saturday and Tuesday, Wednesday, Monday.
So by the existing schedule it is possible to fly to Alor from Bali every Thursday, Sunday using :
- Flight Garuda airlines GA 438 from Bali to Kupang 11h00/12h20 and then Transnusa MV 614 from Kupang to Alor at 14h00/14h50.
And possible to fly from Alor to Bali in one day every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday using:
- Fly Transnusa MV 615 from Alor to Kupang at 10h00/10h45 and then Batavia air 7P-758from Kupang to Denpasar at 15h00/16h30.

Of course it has already happened that Transnusa canceled some flights at the last minute, but this is Indonesia.


Hope this was a little help….