A budget Komodo liveaboard trip, priced cabin by cabin

It is the same long table, the same plates from the galley and the same sunset off Kalong. What separates Cabin 3 from the next fare up is a bathroom.

Cabin 3 is on the upper deck, with a double bed and a single beside it, air conditioning, power sockets and a sea-view window, like every cabin on Princess Lala. Its bathroom is outside the cabin and shared. Five cabins have their own. Cabin 3 carries the lowest fare for exactly that reason, and we say so before we say anything else about it.

The sums are short. For three days and two nights Cabin 3 is IDR 3,250,000 (≈ USD 199) per person. For two days and one night it is IDR 2,750,000 (≈ USD 169) per person. Both apply to a Monday or Friday departure between 1 January and 31 July 2027, per person, two to a cabin.

For sailings after 31 July 2027, write to us for the figure.

The third guest sleeps on the single berth next to the double and pays the extra-bed fare, which is below the cabin fare for that cabin. That is how three friends bring the average down.

On the two-day trip, three in Cabin 3 come to two fares of IDR 2,750,000 (≈ USD 169) plus one extra-bed fare of IDR 2,000,000 (≈ USD 123). Three in Cabin 2, 4 or 5 come to two fares of IDR 3,400,000 (≈ USD 209) plus IDR 2,250,000 (≈ USD 138). The three-day extra-bed fares are in the last column of the table above.

A child under 3 travelling with a parent or guardian pays nothing, so a small child on the single berth adds nothing. From that age the berth has a fare. Cabin 6 has no extra bed on the open trip.

A whole boat of eighteen friends is another way to divide the cost. At that headcount a charter comes to IDR 2,560,000 (≈ USD 157) a head for two days and IDR 3,310,000 (≈ USD 203) for three, without the guide and photographer that the open trip includes. We give the arithmetic and leave the choice to you.

Inside the open-trip fare: the hotel or airport pickup and the transfer back, every meal on board, water, tea and coffee all day, snacks and soft drinks, a mask and snorkel, bed linen and a towel, a local guide, and the open-trip photographer. The photographs are part of the sum.

Outside it, and paid by you:

• Park fees: IDR 250,000 a day for an international visitor, plus the ranger and other levies. Bring cash.
• Tips for the crew and guide.
• Flights to and from Labuan Bajo, and a hotel night there. After the two-day trip you land between 19:00 and 20:30, so that night is yours to book.
• Fins, which the boat does not supply. Bring a pair or rent a pair in Labuan Bajo.
• Travel insurance and personal spending.

Prices include 11 percent VAT. The deposit is 50 percent.

If a private bathroom matters more to you than the sum, then Cabin 2, 4 or 5 is the better choice. If you want the whole boat to yourselves at the price of one cabin, no fare on this page does that.

Princess Lala is a six-cabin timber phinisi, and the open-trip fare pays for a chef, a guide, a photographer and a drone as well as the cabin.

The way to judge it is to put the same four lines next to any other offer: what the fare includes, which meals, whether the bathroom is yours, and what the park will charge you on the day. Then write to us with the date. We reply with what is free and the figure for your sailing.