One phinisi, six cabins, and your own party alone on board

A private charter gives your party the entire boat. Nobody else sleeps in the other cabins, nobody else shares the dining room, and the stops are set around your own pace. Elrora Liveaboard is a VVIP-class phinisi based in Labuan Bajo, with 6 cabins on three decks and room for 14 guests.

The whole-boat price is on request, because it moves with your dates and the number of days. Message us both, with the number of guests, and a written quote follows within one working day. Nothing is paid until you have read it.

Three limits sit beside that quote. Park tickets are never inside the fare. Neither a guide nor photo and video work is built into a private charter; both are added on request and priced separately. And July and August are open-trip months only, so a private charter needs another month.

The cabins are four different kinds of room, not six copies of one. The Master cabin sits on the main deck with a king bed and its own balcony. Two Deluxe cabins on the upper deck have a queen bed each. Two Superior cabins on the lower deck also have a queen bed, with a porthole in place of a window onto the sea. The Family cabin takes four, on one double bed and two singles.

Each cabin has a bathroom of its own and air conditioning. A party of six can therefore take three separate rooms and keep the other three empty, or fill all six with fourteen guests.

Advisor's note. Nobody on this boat queues for a shared bathroom, because each cabin has one inside it. Grandparents and children sleep behind their own door, in an air-conditioned room with its own bathroom.

Boarding is at 10:00 in Labuan Bajo. The first afternoon holds Kelor Island, a snorkel stop at Manjarite and the bats of Kalong at dusk. The boat spends the night at an anchorage that the captain picks with the weather in mind.

The second day opens with Padar, then come Pink Beach, the dragon walk on Komodo, and the sandbar and the current of Taka Makassar and Manta Point. Tide and weather shift the sequence, and the final call belongs to the captain. The last morning brings one more snorkel stop, Sebayur or Kanawa, and the boat is back at the pier at 11:00.

Book flights that leave after 14:00 on the last day. A flight at noon leaves too little room after check-out between 11:00 and 11:30.

Start on WeChat. The same thread carries the quote, the cabin plan and the payment links. Team hours: Daily 08:00–20:00 (WITA). WhatsApp and the contact form reach the same people.

Pay 50% to secure the date, and settle the rest 30 days before you sail. The options are a credit-card payment link, Wise, Revolut, PayPal (which adds 7.2%), QRIS and a bank transfer in rupiah. Ask us before you assume another method, and plan a transfer a few days ahead.

Your passport details are collected 7 days before sailing, because the park and the harbour ask for them. A short message on WeChat with the dates, the number of guests and any special wish is enough to start. If you do not yet know the dates, say so; we can show you which ones are free before you decide.

Not every party needs the whole boat. Open-trip seats are sold by cabin type, per person, for 3D2N only: IDR 11,500,000 in the Master cabin, IDR 9,750,000 in a Deluxe cabin, IDR 7,500,000 in a Superior cabin and IDR 6,500,000 per person in the Family cabin when four share it.

A sailing goes ahead once three cabins are booked. Dates are listed from the sailing schedule, the next on Friday, 6 November 2026, and we confirm each cabin before you pay. Other guests share the deck on these dates, which is the trade you make for the lower fare.

The Family cabin has the lowest fare per person, and the Master cabin the highest. A couple who want the Master cabin pay two seats at IDR 11,500,000; four relatives in the Family cabin pay four seats at IDR 6,500,000. Check-in is between 10:00 and 10:30 and check-out between 11:00 and 11:30, so the day of arrival and the day of departure are both fixed. The table below lists the fares and the next dates.

A honeymoon asks for different days than a family with grandparents, and a company retreat asks for different papers than a group of friends. Each occasion page below changes the cabins, the pace and the paperwork, and gives an example in seats and fares. Pick the one closest to your party, then bring the questions to your advisor.

Eight occasions are listed. Three of them cover most requests: a honeymoon for two, a family across three generations and an executive retreat for a company. The other five are for groups of friends, couples marking a birthday or anniversary, photographers, walkers and snorkellers, and parties who want the whole boat at its most private. Every page ends with the same offer: send the dates and the head count, and we reply with a plan that fits.

The routes use nine stops inside Komodo National Park, from the first short climb on Kelor to the open reef at Manta Point. Each stop has its own page with timings, footwear and what the water is doing.

The matrix shows the general pattern of the sea by month. Calm, clear water is the rule in April, May and June, and returns in October and November. Wind and busy anchorages mark July and August, while January and February bring rain, the roughest water and the best odds of seeing mantas. These are seasonal patterns, not a forecast for your date.

Chinese holiday weeks fall on very different seas, and one of the guides sets them side by side. If your dates are fixed by school or work, read that guide first and then choose the cabins.

Read the fit list before you write. Elrora suits a family spanning three generations, a couple or a small senior team after the whole boat, and guests on a shared sailing who want a cabin with its own bathroom and a fixed route.

A party larger than 14 does not fit and would need a second boat. It does not suit anyone who needs a window onto the sea in every cabin, because the Superior and Family cabins have a porthole. It is also the wrong choice for a private charter in July or August, which are open-trip months. For a couple on a tight budget, the lowest open-trip fare is the Superior cabin, and the trip sails only once three cabins are booked. Bookings are made through PT Komodo Explorer Indonesia, registration number 1805260128363, which is the company you pay and the company that answers if plans change.