All of 20 passengers agreed with me, we love it. Professional, well taken care of, good safety feature. You will not be disappointed.
We booked the tour directly to their Facebook (sent a message). It is better to book directly as you deal with the owner not an agent. He will take care of you. We chose them due to the bigger boat, new, excellent reviews. The boat can fit up to 33 people, but they cap it to about 20-21 people for safety reason.
They picked us up from our hotel up the hill at 5:30 am, departed from the port at 6 am. Since I booked directly, I paid him at the port. Every guests got a bracelet, to easily identify us among the sea of tourists.
We went to padar island first, boy the waves were huge. You are thankful to book the tour with them. Every seat has a life jacket underneath. Guest can sit outside on the back one person at the time, take turn. The boat has a bathroom.
It was an amazing hike to padar island. Few staffs followed us to the top. Going back to the boat, we were given a snacks of 2 strawberry jam slightly filled buns, and one banana. It's a green color banana but inside it is ripen.
Then Komodo island, please bring some cash as you need to pay for national park fees and rangers' fees. We went weekday, paid for IDR 250,000 per person. Local fees is IDR 75,000. I believe weekend fees is IDR 350,000.
Lucky we got to see 8 Komodo dragons. We even took a picture behind a big dragon near the rangers' house - all of us were not sure first, but the ranger assured us, he Mr. Usman, took pictures for everyone in our boat using our camera/iPhone. Amazing picture!
On the way to pink beach, a lunch was served. One option, rice with sautéed veggies and cooked tuna in a container like airplane food. Inside the boat they have a toaster oven to reheat it. Don't you like to have a hot lunch, I do.
Third stop: pink beach. There are 2 pink beaches on Komodo island. One has a strong current. The other one has some, but not as strong. If you do not want to jump and swim to the beach, you can take a tiny boat for a transfer with a fee of IDR 20,000 per person. This is not part of the tour package. So please bring some extra cash to pay if you do not/can't swim. Several of us dumped our cameras, towels to a wet bag, and pitched in the cost of IDR 20,000 for one of us to be in the boat carrying our stuffs. Win win situations.
The corals are gorgeous, not so much fish. Be aware of the current.
Last stop: kanaka island, a private island. There is a dock so no more jumping to the water. The corals are not as great as pink beach, more fish by the dock, a lot of sea urchin, and cushion star fish closer to the shore. Please snorkel to the lett if you start swimming from the beach, the right side is not good, dead corrals.
Tips:
1. Book directly to them. There were some issues with 8 passengers who booked thru perama tour. They didn't tell the name of the guests to be picked up at their hotel, alba's driver and the hotel staffs were having hard time to find who booked it. And perama told them at a later time which caused us to have a late start.
2. No flip flops, sandals for hiking padar island. Two of us broke their sandals. Please wear hiking or trails shoes or sneakers/runner shoes.
3. It is super hot hiking padar, grab a bottled water, light on personal stuffs to bring
4. I saw two young children hiked up, one of them was 8 years old. Yes you can bring your children but watch them closely as going down is super dangerous, loosen rocks and dirt path, some of us fell.
5. When book directly, please tell Mario your shoes size, he will find a set of flippers for you. Don't expect him to provide it. It is not included in the price. But he will try to provide it for you. If you book thru perama. They should provide you with snorkeling equipments that fits you. The problem was that perama didn't communicate well with Mario, and some of us were expected him, which was not his fault.
6. Please let them know ahead of time of your dietary. They can arrange a vegetarian meal.
7. They bought another smaller boat that cater the need of half a day tour. Maiden trip mid of August to end of August to rinca island and one beach for snorkeling. Price is IDR 750,000 per person.
8. Highly recommended this. It is a little bit higher but you have a peace of mind if you bring your children with you or your concerns for safety.
