First time in Indonesia, and what to sort out before you sail to Komodo

Start with your passport, because nothing else matters if it is short of time. It needs six months of validity from the day you land and two blank pages, and you will be asked for a ticket that shows you leaving again.

Most nationalities then take the thirty-day visa on arrival, or the same visa bought online before the flight, the e-VoA, and it can be extended once. Citizens of the ASEAN countries enter without one. The table below gives the list of countries, the fee and the length of stay; read it with your passport in your hand.

Two things to do before you fly. Check the current visa fee on the official immigration portal and pay only there, since agents charge extra for the same form. And fill in the free All Indonesia arrival card online in the three days before you land; a site that asks you for money for it is not the official one. If you come in through Bali, the table also names the separate tourist levy there.

Labuan Bajo has its own airport, Komodo International, ten minutes by car from the harbour, and you reach it on a domestic flight. Bali, Jakarta and Surabaya are the usual connections, and international visitors change planes in Bali or Jakarta. The table below gives the routes, the airlines and the flight times. Schedules change through the year, so look up the flight itself on the day you book it.

For a trip with us, fly in the day before your sailing, so that a late plane costs you an evening and not your cabin. On the first morning of an open trip we collect you from your hotel or the airport between 10:30 and 11:55, and your guide sends you the hour the evening before.

Then the flight home. The three-day trip docks between 10:00 and 11:00 on day three, so an afternoon flight after 13:00 works. The two-day trip docks between 19:00 and 20:30 on day two, so plan a night in Labuan Bajo and a flight the following day. Our hotels page sets out both.

Rupiah is what you spend, and cash is what you carry. Cards work in hotels and larger restaurants, some with a surcharge, but the warung, the market stall and the taxi want notes. Cash machines stand along the harbour road and at the airport and nowhere on the islands, so draw what you need before you board. The table below has the machines, the withdrawal limits and what a card costs you; its exchange rate is a guide, and the rate on the day is the one you pay.

Small notes are the useful ones, for a driver, a porter, a stallholder, and for a tip at the end of the trip. Tipping is never compulsory and we set no amount: the table shows what visitors commonly give, and what you give the crew and the guide is yours to decide. If a machine offers to convert the amount into your home currency, decline.

What you pay us for the trip follows our terms: a 50 percent deposit, the balance 30 days before you sail, and prices that include 11 percent VAT.

The phone first. A SIM card in Indonesia is registered against your passport, Telkomsel reaches furthest around Labuan Bajo and out at sea, and an eSIM can be installed at home and switched on when you land. On board, the Wi-Fi is the crew's hotspot on the mobile network. It works where a phone works and drops between islands, and the boat has no satellite link.

Then the plug. Indonesia runs on 230 volts with two round pins, types C and F, so bring an adapter if your plugs are different. Power cuts in Labuan Bajo are short and come more often than in Bali; charge everything the night before boat day and carry a power bank. Every cabin on Princess Lala has power sockets.

And the water. Tap water in Indonesia is not safe to drink, so buy sealed bottles in town. On our trips drinking water, tea and coffee are in the fare, all day. Each of the three has its own short table below.

The dry season runs from April to November and the wet season from December to March, when the downpours are short and heavy and the sea is rougher. The harbour authority holds boats in port most often in the wet months and in spells of strong south-east wind, and it has closed the port in the dry season too. The first table below sets out both seasons, and our best-time page goes through the sea month by month.

Most people on Flores are Catholic, and Labuan Bajo is a port town with a Muslim minority. Cover shoulders and knees in town, in villages and in places of worship, keep swimwear for the beach and the boat, and ask before you photograph someone. The second table adds the small courtesies, such as giving and receiving with the right hand.

For health, buy travel insurance with medical cover and evacuation, because hospitals ask for payment first. Dengue and malaria are present, so protect yourself against mosquito bites; no vaccination is required to enter. On board there is a basic first-aid kit, and the nearest hospital is in Labuan Bajo. The third table lists the hospitals and the emergency numbers: save them in your phone before you sail.

Book only with a company you can check. Ask for its business registration number, an office in Labuan Bajo, a written itinerary and an invoice that names the company, the boat, the dates and what is included, and never pay a personal account without one. Ours is PT Komodo Explorer Indonesia, registration number 1805260128363. Very cheap or resold open-trip seats have left tourists at the harbour with no boat, and the first table lists the warning signs.

The harbour master decides whether boats sail and can close the port at a day's notice for weather. The name on your boarding pass must match your passport, so send us your full name exactly as it is printed there. If the boat cannot sail, we put you on another phinisi of the same class or better, on the same dates; if the port is closed, or you would rather not take the other boat, the trip is refunded in full. The second table covers the port rules and the recent closures.

Park fees are paid separately, per person and per day, by e-ticket in your name: IDR 250,000 for international visitors, and for Indonesians IDR 50,000 midweek and IDR 75,000 at weekends. The ticket is issued through the park's own online system, and the third table gives the entry rates, the daily visitor quota and how tickets are bought. Our park-fees page works through the sums.