Komodo from October to December 2026: the daily cap, sea warnings and the sailing approval

Komodo National Park's annual quota for 2026 is 365,000 visitors, and according to CNN Indonesia on 29 September it was gone by August. The park authority, BTNK, responded with a tighter limit of 500 visitors a day for September through December, set out in a written notice signed on 22 September. The same report puts the previous daily ceiling at 1,000.

Part of the problem, BTNK says, is visitors turning up before the date printed on their ticket, which eats into the quota faster, and it plans to change how the quota is shared out. It also gives a figure of 429,509 visits for 2025. Now some arithmetic of our own, not BTNK's: 500 a day across the 122 days from 1 September to 31 December comes to 61,000 entries at most.

In practice that means fewer slots on the busiest days and very little room to swap. Park entry is paid on top of our fare, and the international fee in our table currently stands at IDR 250,000. You'll see higher bundled figures in some operators' FAQs, but the official per-day entry fee is the one in our table. It's worth reading the park fees page before you price up a trip.

On 10 October CNN Indonesia reported a BMKG warning covering the park's waters and the southern Selat Sape. The forecast was for north-west to south-west winds of 17 to 22 knots and waves of 1.25 to 2.5 metres on 10 and 11 October, possibly higher in open water. Vinca is 31 metres long and the supplier brochure lists no stabilisers. As on most boats, the lower deck moves least and the upper deck most.

As a precaution, the harbour authority (KSOP Labuan Bajo) issued Maritime Notice No. 01/MP-X/2026. When conditions are unsafe, the harbourmaster can hold back a sailing approval. KSOP has mapped 10 high-risk points, including the waters off Kelor, Batu Tiga, Molo Strait, Padar Strait and the waters off Komodo. Kelor, Padar and Komodo all feature on our published routes.

This is a two-day warning, not a season. We found no official list of closures for October to December, and we're not going to make one up. If the swell picks up, the likely result is a late approval or a reshuffled island order, so confirm your departure the day before.

According to the same report, captains have to hold a safety briefing before they sail and stay clear of the ten flagged points. We've only seen the article, not the text of the notice, so we're quoting the article rather than the notice.

The paperwork side comes from a separate story. On 3 July detikTravel reported that the Manggarai Barat regent had written on 29 June asking KSOP to issue sailing approvals (SPB) only to tour boats that have paid their regional taxes, including a 10 percent levy on accommodation and on food and drink served aboard. KSOP said it would follow up but gave no start date. In other words, a boat that owes tax could be kept at the dock. Ask any operator, us included, which approval covers your trip.

ANTARA reported the same day that a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck near Mbay, in Nagekeo, on the morning of 15 August. Sea level rose by up to 0.3 metres, BMKG judged the tsunami not dangerous, and KSOP let tour boats sail again from 10:00 WITA. All 986 tourists on Padar were brought back to Labuan Bajo safely.

West Manggarai's regent reported no damage to the harbour or the airport. One hotel in town suffered structural damage and moved its guests, and the signboard wall at Loh Liang on Komodo collapsed. That article is the most recent official account we've read, so check on your own hotel and flights directly.

There's one detail worth keeping in mind when you plan. Boats were cleared to sail again at 10:00 WITA that same morning, which means a regional shock halted sailing for hours rather than days. Still, one event is a thin sample, and we're not claiming it predicts the next.

On the evening of 1 October a police official told detikBali about a new fraud report; the story ran on 2 October. Three Chinese tourists say an online-only seller took 7.65 million rupiah from them in three instalments, on 3, 27 and 29 September, for a two-day, one-night liveaboard in the park, and then stopped replying. The coverage mentions at least one earlier report, filed on 12 August. These are allegations and no court has ruled on them, so we're leaving the individual unnamed.

The pattern is what to watch for: three payments over 26 days, a booking made entirely online and a seller nobody could check. Before you pay anyone, make sure the payee name matches the company on the invoice, ask for the registration number and get the itinerary in writing. Ours is PT Komodo Explorer Indonesia, registration number (NIB) 1805260128363. We take a 50 percent deposit, and the balance is due 30 days before departure.

BTNK hasn't said how it will reorganise the quota, or whether the limit of 500 a day will stay after December. We haven't seen how many of those slots go to guests on tour boats, nor the text of the maritime notice itself, and the tax-linked approval rule still has no start date. Nobody has said whether the warning for 10 and 11 October will be extended. The articles are silent, too, on whether park tickets can be moved to another date, or refunded, if a trip slips.

So on the day you pay a deposit, check three things: the daily limit, the sea forecast and your operator's approval. If a seller can't give you a straight answer, that tells you what you need to know.