Flores itinerary questions

Not sure about the public transportation. I had my own car with driver when I travelled across Flores.

It's definitely worth visiting west Timor even for four days only, but you will need your own car with driver because some places can't be reached by public transportation. See here what loop I did there: http://www.molon.de/travelogues/Indonesia/2016/

Regarding traveloka.com: for flight bookings I used nusatrip.com and the website of Garuda.

Loved West Timor! If you decide to cut Riung, maybe add the days to West Timor. We spent over 2 weeks there and wished we had more. While traveling on Flores we heard bad reports about Riung as well. But, truthfully, we did not go there.

We hired a car and driver on Flores too and spent over 3 weeks slowly making our way across. However, an acquaintance of mine did it all by public transport and said it was easy enough.

Hi,

This a good itinerary to my opinion. It would have been more logic to go first to Moni and then to Maumere but you said you have to leave from Ende. I really liked Maumere area. I posted a lots of pictures online if you wanna have a look : http://thespicerouteend.com/category/indonesia-travel/nusa-tenggara/flores/

1) Yes you can arrange everything by public transport (either shared minibus or shared car).

2) I had never been to Riung because I'm a diver and Komodo is already amazing. As far as I know you go on boat trips for some snorkeling. Not sure it's worth the ride indeed, especially if you go to Komodo before.

3) Traveloka is a reliable website. But for sure there will be plenty of accomodation not available through any online platform.

Have a good trip

Thank you so much!!
After many of you confirmed that Riung is not worthy we decided to kick it out. byebye Riung, maybe another time:)

And yes, we know it would be much better/logical to get out from Maumere, or Larantuka airport, but our main ticket from Europe is booked with miles, and they could only find Ende or LabuanB in their system. Either way, thank you, your answers, and your site is absolute fantastic, very up-to-date infos :)

Also Chromakey, we saw your Tana Toraja, now we are thinking, IF we can get direct flights from Maumere to Makassar, would it be worthy to go there for 5/6 days (Day 9-14)?

Hi, glad that it helps.

Tana Toraja is a really interesting place but there is no direct flight from Maumere or Labuan Bajo. You would have to connect either through Kupang or through Denpasar.

It's gonna depend mostly on your budget.

As above, I would drop Riung and add extra time in West Timor. West Timor's lovely, and very different from Flores.

Yes, it's possible on public transport. You might want to hitchhike as well. There's only one main road in Flores: stand next to it, and something will stop for you. Often (but not always) you'll have to pay. It's often more efficient than waiting for a bus. Hitchhiking is also very easy in West Timor.

I've never booked anything in advance on Flores before....

I did a similar itinerary a couple of years ago and it was awesome!

Ruteng didn't have much going on but Wae Rebo sounds great. Bajawa was loads of fun, I can reccomend Edelweiss to stay, they had bikes to rent and a map to all the cool spots and it's an adventure riding through the mountains. Riung was super chilled out and nearly deserted when we were there, the islands are gorgeous and we had some awesome fresh fish but below the surface it didn't compare to Komodo.
Around Maumere is cool, definitely check out Ankermi Happy Dive, loads of fun with an incredible sunset. If it's out of your price range stay at the hostel down the beach and walk over for a few drinks at the bar.

The detour from Bajawa down to Riung was the only part that we did with a private driver the rest we did on public transport which was great fun, it's worth learning a bit of bahasa to help things run smoothly.

Hope this is helpful

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