Komodo NP or Colombia?

[Waffles21]

I‘m thinking ahead to next summer, DS will have just finished his a levels and we’re looking for somewhere amazing to go with friends and their ds. We’ve been very fortunate and have been to places like Japan, Jordan, The Yucatan, Borneo, Vietnam, Peru, The Rockies, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Iceland, on safari, Sri Lanka and we’re going to Brazil this summer and South Korea in October. We don’t want to go to the US, Europe or Canada and I’ve narrowed down to either Colombia or Komodo National Park and Flores. Has anyone been to either and if so what did you think/ any tips/ thoughts on where would be best? We like a real variety on holiday, to experience culture, nature, water adventures etc. I was initially sold on Flores but now veering towards Colombia….. or is there somewhere else I haven’t thought of? Also don’t want to go to the Middle East or Africa on this occasion and weather important ie no monsoons!
thanks.

I’ve been to Flores and Komodo/Rinca, as well as a few other places on your list. It was years ago so I’m sure things have modernised a bit, but it was way behind the other countries you’ve mentioned in SE Asia.

Flores is scenically beautiful, we particularly liked the area around Kelimutu, but travel and communication were very difficult in comparison and if I’m honest we didn’t find the people as lovely as in other parts of Indonesia. Having spent the hottest two days of my life with the dragons (make sure you have lots of water and a sturdy forked stick!) and dealt with a severely food-poisoned husband it’s not somewhere I’d rush back to though I do have happy and funny memories of our week on the island. The schlep:reward ratio put it on the “once is enough” list and I’m not convinced it’s got enough for a two week trip.

I haven’t been to Colombia so cannot compare, but have you considered Costa Rica, Belize, Kerala or the Philippines? They’re all on my to do list!!

That’s really helpful thanks! Hmm, one of the things putting me off was the schlep to get there and travel
logistics. Belize is definitely on my list, must have a look. Kerala and Philippines too but not a great time of year. I’ve always wanted to go to Costa Rica but think we may have missed the boat really. Friends went last summer and found it eye wateringly expensive.

I have been to Komodo. We were on a mini cruise from Bali and stopped at Sumbawa and Komodo. It was an amazing experience. I don't believe you can stay on Komodo, but I am happy to be corrected.

Could you do it as part of a cruise?

Thanks, yes Sumbawa was another place on our list. Sorry you’re right, not staying on Komodo, we were planning a 3d2n boat trip around Komodo and then a land trip around Flores. How big was the boat you were on? Thanks

I think the maximum number of passengers was 160. It wasn't full when we did the cruise. Sadly, the ship was destroyed by fire a few years after we did the trip. It was one of the best ever holidays. Walking through the forest with a guide with nothing but a forked stick was a thrilling experience.

There was a fenced enclosure by a water hole we we could safely stand and take photos. It was very Jurassic Park.

We’re on our way to Colombia - 2 night stop over in Istanbul courtesy of Turkish Airlines then onto Bogota with a trip up the Amazon- will report back!

@Waffles21 following as I've just spent today researching a potential Java/Lombok/Flores trip for similar aged kids.
The planning is hard going! Keen to see the temples around yogyakarta, mount ringani and Komodo NP.

Thanks @user1471557598 have an amazing time, be really interested to hear about it. I was looking at Medellin, Bogotá, coffee region and Cartagena as a start point.
@HappyHolidays75Java is amazing. Yogyakarta and Borobudur are incredible. We wondered about Bali, Lombok and then Flores. We’ve been to Bali before but our friends haven’t. We probably have 17 days so it’s how we maximise and avoid spending all our time travelling, how are you planning to do it, fly into Singapore and then to Java?
@RampantIvysounds incredible, what a shame about the fire. I think we’d probably rather do land based travel other than a 3d2n cruise around Flores but thanks for the suggestion!
I think I’m going to plan and cost both holidays and see where we end up!

Anyone who went to see the dragons, was this a separate trip to the boat? Im
registered partially sighted with no peripheral vision and I have visions ( no pun intended!) of a dragon coming at me from the side!! I’m sure that won’t be the case but I’m slightly nervous!

Visited Komodo, Labuan Bajo, Komodo, Flores highlights:

Flores: Komodo National Park, Dragons at Rinca Island, Homo Floresiensis Hobbit cave, Komodo Island, Cunca Plias Waterfalls, The Rangko Cave, Cunca Wulang Waterfall, diving, scuba, Cancar Spiderweb rice fields, good food, flying fox island, stargazing and magnificent sunsets.

(((But the highlight of the trip was Tanjung Puting National Park highlights: Borneo House Boat and orangutans in wild - magic)))

we flew Jakarta - Pankalanbun - Surabaya - Labuan Bajo.

we flew Labuan Bajo to Ende to visit Kelimutu.

The diving was excellent. Book the dragons in the morning, like 7am, as they’re nocturnal so sleep in the day.

can recommend Sudamala
Resort, Komodo, Labuan Bajo

We too the opportunity to visit Singapore, Laos - Vientiane and Luang Prabang too on the same trip too! It was a blast!

We went to Komodo last October and honestly had the best time!

we currently live in SE ASIA but are moving this summer so have one last trip before we leave and as a family we’ve decided to head back to Labuan Bajo for a few days diving etc and then jump on a liveaboard to lombok via sumbawa.

we went to padar island, pink beach, Komodo np snorkelled at manta point - all amazing and beautiful
really can’t wait to go back as a special end to our 4 years living here.

we’ve been to Bali, Borneo, bintan, Phuket, Bangkok, Chaing mai, Penang, Tioman, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Singapore, Batam, nusa penidina, malacca and Labuan Bali since we’ve lived here - a few places more than once.
Labuan Bajo is worth one last trip though!

We were in Colombia 2 years ago.

Bogota for 2 nights with driver and car for day trips.
Flight to Letitia for 3 nights in the Amazon with boat, guide / translator
Back to Bogotá and car to Medellin with overnight in Honda
2 nights Medellin
flight to Santa Marta for 5 nights on the coast. We stayed near Palomino.
Back home via Bogotá. We could have driven to Cartagena and flown home from there but I had been before.

Superb holiday.

Thanks, that sounds like an amazing trip! We looked at Tanjung Puting but we don’t have time ( and went to Borneo a couple of years ago so can’t justify tile from this trip) but it looks phenomenal.
Silly question but do the 3d2n boats include the dragon walk?
@whatthelumphow lucky you are living there, it’s my favourite part of the world!! Would you mind sharing the details of the liveaboard, that sounds great!
Ive been doing some planning this morning and so far the trip looks like this

fly to Singapore and straight up Bali- 3 nights in Ubud
ferry to Lombok for 2-4 nights
flight to Labuan Bajo, overnight before 3d2n boat and then probably 4 more nights there before flying back via Bali. Does that sound ok? We would def flex if the live aboard option worked though!

@Cismyfatarsethat sounds amazing too. This thread isn’t helping me decide 🤣

im veering towards Indonesia for 2 reasons- I travelled overland from Bali to Bangkok many years ago and just loved it, have fabulous memories and the dragons are once in a lifetime aren’t they? And we’re off to Brazil this summer which I know is completely different to Colombia but in my head I think South East Asia may be next!!

Silly question but do the 3d2n boats include the dragon walk?
@Waffles21 we private chartered a boat from Labuan Bajo for the day; very easily done. The dragon walk is with a ranger included in the price. Rinca Island was our best experience; Komodo was good too! This way, we could plan our time better. It was a small speed boat with a toilet, snacks, water and lunch stop off! Chartered it twice. Also a separate diving trip too! And sunset flying foxes trip! Early start, back early evening. Ende, south of Flores was spectacular and warrants a visit.

@Waffles21wjat is your Brazil itinierary? We are thinking of going next summer but can’t work out which bits to see/ it’s so huge.

Ooh that sounds good thanks, going to add those things to my spreadsheet!! There are 6 of us so actually a private speedboat may be really nice! Love the sound of the flying foxes too. Getting excited!!

Hi @FlatStanley50i know. It’s so vast and we didn’t want to spend all of our time travelling! We looked at a few options, we ruled out the Amazon quickly as we went in Peru 2 years ago. We consider Ilha grande and Paraty, the panatal and Lencois for the dunes but eventually decided on a beach resort near Salvador, then Salvador, Iguassu and Rio. We have 2 17 year olds with us and decided those places would be best for them, combined culture, music, beach, nature and beautiful people watching!! Hope that helps?

Really helpful, thankyou!

@Waffles21 We used Waikiko boats https://waikikoboat.com/ I’m sure you can haggle and make your own itinerary! They were good! Just get straight to the dragons, as early as possible, as they’re nocturnal, they’ll sun themselves ‘til around 9am then get out of the sun to sleep. Only teenage dragons and injured dragons out in the midday sun (avoiding the perils of the adults.)

We LOVED Komodo and this was the boat we stayed on, it was like a pirate ship and Max and Nanna were incredible hosts.
https://anandacruises.com

If you like to do alternative holidays I can also recommend the Arctic
https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/the-arctic/spitsbergen my kids said it’s their best ever trip, and it was pretty incredible.

I wouldn’t write off Costa Rica, but it is pricey and I wouldn’t go in our Summer because of the weather.

We are off to Brazil this summer too, but I’m jealous of your S.Korea adventure, we are now trapped by exams!

Colombia lost out to Hawaii for us…. booked before Trump went totally insane.

Thanks so much, looks great. Will add to our planning discussions, think we need to sit down and agree what we all want! Hoping I’ve convinced everyone we need 3 weeks!

Ooh that looks amazing! And only for 6 people, will need to look at costs but thank you!
on the Svalbard trip I wanted to do similar last year but DS studied it for geography GCSE and wasn’t interested!! Hoping to go with DH once ds is travelling/ at uni so keeping the details thank you!!

Whereabouts in Brazil are you going? Hawaii will be interesting. We visited many years ago.

I feel your pain with exams, luckily for us A level mocks are in Feb so making the most of 2 weeks in Oct half term!!

Our A level mocks are Nov, so it writes off the autumn, but then they do another set in Feb. Unfortunately we have GCSE’s too.

Svalbard was like a huge geography field trip, which I think is why mine loved it. Lots of other teens there too rather surprisingly.

We had a bit of a shift with Brazil as we’ve been to the Amazon before (Peru), but I wanted to visit Lençóis Maranhenses, but it just ate up so much time going that far. We start in the Pantanal, Salvador, Rio, Paraty, Iguazu and home. 3 weeks and it feels like we are barely touching the sides. I’ll go back one day when school hols aren’t an issue

Ds is doing geography A level too so not sure why he didn’t want to go! We went to Iceland instead which was incredible!

we only have 16 days in Brazil and like you struggled, we had Lencois on our list but logistically it was just too much. We looked at Paraty too but decided to keep it simple this time, there’s so much to do in Salvador and Rio and like you say hopefully we can go back if we love it!

I’d lean Colombia tbh - way more variety (cities + jungle + beaches), just watch the rainy seasons by region or you might get stuck in daily downpours.

It felt like Lencois was going to take about a week on its own! A shame though as it looks other worldly.

We loved Iceland but it is very different, although we went in Summer not winter. I think the history in Svalbard was also very engaging with all the polar exploration and the whaling, but it was also a bit like a safari. It’s hard isn’t, so many places and little time. I doubt our kids have any real understanding how lucky they really are.