The vessel
From $1,550
per yacht, per night
Deluxe phinisi with crew, fuel, cabins and full board. Not every vessel carries a compressor — dive-capable boats are a subset of the fleet.
Certified divers
Komodo Diving Yacht Charter
Komodo is a drift destination before it is a pretty one. What that means for your certification, your dive plan and the boat you should be on.
In short
A Komodo diving charter is a private liveaboard with dives added on top of the vessel rate — USD 50 to 80 per dive including tank, weights and guide — run around the tides, because the currents here set the schedule rather than the itinerary.
- The vessel is priced per night from USD 1,550; dives are quoted separately per dive.
- Sites are chosen by tide window, so the day is built backwards from slack water.
- July to September usually gives the clearest water of the year.
How a dive day is actually built
Not "three to four dives a day". The tide decides, and a good boat plans backwards from it.
Sites vary with conditions and season. Anyone promising you a fixed list of named sites months ahead is describing a brochure, not a dive plan.
Mixed groups work: non-divers snorkel the same sites from the tender while the divers are down, and the vessel stays put.
What it costs
Vessel and dives are priced separately
In USD. Keeping them apart is deliberate — you can see what the diving costs rather than having it folded into a nightly rate.
Quoted separately
Dives
$50–$80
per dive, per diver
Tank, weights and guide included. Quoted per dive so a mixed group only pays for what it actually does.
Nitrox is available on selected vessels rather than fleet-wide. Ask before you assume it, and tell us your gas preference at enquiry.
Who should not dive Komodo
This is a current destination. Down-currents, up-currents and washing-machine water are normal here, and the good sites are good precisely because of that. It is not a place to log your fifth dive.
A realistic floor is Advanced Open Water with a solid number of dives, recent experience, and comfort with a negative entry and a reef hook. If that is not you, the honest recommendation is snorkelling on this trip and diving somewhere calmer to build hours.
Tell us certification levels and last-dive dates at enquiry. A guide who finds out at the back of the boat has fewer options than one who knew a fortnight earlier, and the group pays for that in sites they cannot do.
Three practical constraints
Worth knowing before you build an itinerary around diving.
Flying after diving
Leave a surface interval before your flight out of Labuan Bajo — plan the last dive for the morning of the second-to-last day rather than the final one. We will build the itinerary that way if you say so.
Photography and charging
Generators run overnight and there are sockets in the cabins, but a group with housings and strobes charges a lot at once. Flag it at booking and the crew will plan the power.
Insurance and O2
Dive insurance is not included and is genuinely worth having in a remote park. Ask us which vessel you are on and what emergency oxygen it carries — a reasonable question, and one we will answer plainly.
Manta encounters are good year-round because Manta Point is a cleaning station rather than a seasonal event. Visibility, not mantas, is what moves with the season.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does diving cost on top of the charter?
- USD 50 to 80 per dive, including tank, weights and guide. The vessel is quoted separately from USD 1,550 per night, and the park adds roughly IDR 25,000 per diver per day on top of the IDR 700,000 entrance ticket.
- What certification do I need?
- Realistically Advanced Open Water with recent, reasonably numerous dives, and comfort with drift, negative entries and a reef hook. Komodo is a current destination; it rewards experience and punishes rustiness.
- How many dives a day?
- Typically three, with a night dive on some itineraries. But the number is an output, not a target — sites are chosen for tide windows, and a good day is the right three dives rather than four mediocre ones.
- Is nitrox available?
- On selected vessels, not across the fleet. Tell us at enquiry and we will only quote boats that carry it.
- Can non-divers come along?
- Yes, and it works well. Non-divers snorkel the same sites from the tender while the divers are down, and the vessel does not move. You only pay per dive for the people who dive.
- When is visibility best?
- July to September generally. The dry season runs April to November. December to March the park stays open and visibility can be excellent, but the seas are rougher and departures are more weather-dependent.
Read next
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- Budget Trips The cheapest honest way in, and the corner that is never worth cutting.
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- With Children Cabins that keep a family together, and which stops suit every age.
Send certifications and dates
Tell us levels, rough dive counts, when everyone last dived, and whether anyone is snorkelling only. We will quote the dive-capable vessels free in that window and build a plan around the tides.
Plan a Dive Trip
+62 811-3823-875
sales@komodoluxury.com