Best travel itinerary for Flores, Indonesia

Flores is an island with endless rice fields, paradise beaches, volcanoes and stunning crater lakes. While Komodo is already on everyone’s list, Flores is still relatively unexplored. Most people will fly into Labuan Bajo, take a Komodo boat tour and continue on their way. However, Flores deserves some credit! The landscapes are stunning, the people welcoming and there are plenty of adventures to be had here. It ended up being one of my favorite parts of Indonesia. Here’s my itinerary for a week long overland trip in Flores. There’s a few things I would have added if I’d had more time, so I’ve include those spots as optional additions to this Flores travel itinerary.

Flores Overland Travel Itinerary

Day 1: Labuan Bajo to Ruteng

We took the 07:00 am Gunung Mas bus to Ruteng and arrived early afternoon. Plenty of time to explore, so after having lunch you can visit the spider web rice fields and the local market.

Where to stay in Ruteng? Without a doubt, Cha Cha homestay! The owners are such lovely people and incredibly helpful. The rooms were clean and the food was lovely!

Day 2: Wae Rebo

I’m not sure I’d recommend driving all the way from Ruteng, but the traditional village of Wae Rebo is a beautiful place to visit. The village is located in the mountains and is well preserved. Unfortunately the road from Ruteng to Wae Rebo, although beautiful, is extremely bad. Google maps will tell you it’s about a 2 hour drive, but it will take you at least 3 hours to get there. From the trail head it’s about a 1,5 hour hike to the top. You can choose to sleep in the village for a night or just take a day trip. If you’re not staying in the village, it’s good to arrive around lunch time, because lunch is included in your ticket. They’ll start out with a welcome ceremony asking the ancestors for permission to have you explore the village. During this ceremony you are expected to donate 50.000 IDR. After that you get a small explanation and a book with the history of the village. We arrived around lunch time and had food in one of the huts before exploring a bit more.

Entrance free: 200.000/€10 IDR for day visit+lunch, 350.000/€18,5 IDR to stay overnight.

Day 3: Ruteng to Bajawa

We took the Gunung Mas to Bajawa. This took around 4 hours. The bus arrives early afternoon, so you will still have some time to explore. We decided to visit the Mengeruda hot springs.

Where to stay in Bajawa? The best option we could find was Cinnamon Guesthouse. Not quite at the level of Cha Cha Homestay in Ruteng, but the owner helped us arrange scooters and drove us to the pickup spot for the bus. Rooms were simple and clean.

Find my full guide to Bajawa here.

Day 4: Bajawa: Viewpoint’s and traditional villages

The best way to explore Bajawa and its surroundings is by renting a motorbike/scooter. There are several beautiful viewpoints giving you epic views of Mt. Inerie. Start your day hiking to the viewpoint ‘Watu Nari Wowo‘. In the morning you’ll have a good chance at having a clear view of the volcano. From there you can continue to the Bena Traditional Village. Spend the late morning learning about their traditions and the local crafts. For a lunch with a spectacular view, head over to Heaven’s Door Bar & Restaurant and end your day by soaking in the hot springs or watch the sunset from Wolobobo Viewpoint.

Day 5: Climb Mt. Inerie

If we’d had a bit more time, we might have climbed the volcano that we kept looking. However, with only a short week before our boat trip around Komodo we chose to skip this hike. It would have meant getting up at 02:00 am to make it up for the sunrise. Usually, I love a good sunrise mission, but at this point of the trip I was quite tired.

Optional: Add Riang to your itinerary

Riang is a great spot to add to your trip around Flores. It’s a remote spot known for islands with white beaches and amazing snorkeling. We had to make some choices in our itinerary. Since I’d just done the most incredible diving and snorkeling in Raja Ampat, I felt that it was better to visit other spots for more variety. However, I have heard it’s absolutely beautiful

Day 6: Bajawa to Moni

Again we took the Gunung Mas shuttle. We reserved our seats on whatsapp and waited at the same spot it dropped us off a few days earlier. Unfortunately there was no early morning bus so we didn’t arrive until the evening.

Day 7: Explore Kelimutu and Dhaekale Waterfall

In the morning it was time for one of the highlights of Flores in my opinion! Seeing the sunrise over the crater lakes of Kelimutu. The Kelimutu Volcano is around a 20 minute drive from Moni. If it’s not too cloudy, the view is spectacular!

After a beautiful morning on the volcano, explore some of the waterfalls or hot springs. A particularly impressive waterfall is the Dhaekale Waterfall. But beware, it’s not easy to reach and you’ll need to ask some locals to guide you down.

Find my full guide to Moni & Kelimutu here.

Where to stay in Moni/Kelimutu? We stayed in Farila Lodge. The owners are very kind, it has an incredible view of the village and the rooms are clean.

Day 8: Fly back to Labuan Bajo

We had to get back to Labuan Bajo to start our boat tour. Choose to c0ntinue your overland trip to Maumere or fly back to Labuan Bajo from Ende.

Day 9-10-11

Obviously your trip wouldn’t be complete without visiting the Komodo Islands. I’d recommend doing a boat tour of at least 3 days and 2 nights. You’ll see the famous Komodo dragons, Padar viewpoint, pink beach and many more beautiful spots! I highly recommend the Soe Besar vanrei Phinisi. The staff is incredible and the boat is beautiful, it even has a hot tub!

How to get around in Flores, Indonesia

Rent a motorbike

There’s a few different options for traveling around Flores island. If you’re not t0o heavily packed, like I am, consider renting a motorbike and driving yourself. This a great way to have full freedom of where to stop. If I wasn’t carrying so much photography gear this would be my preference. Unfortunately I’m carrying a slightly insane amount of luggage so driving a motorbike was not an option.

Gunung Mas shuttle bus

The second option is a local shuttle bus company called ‘Gunung Mas’. They run between most towns and are reasonably priced. It’s slightly more expensive then the local bus, but more comfortable. We mostly traveled with Gunung mas and then rented a scooter in each destination.

Phone Number Gunung Mas: +62 812-3663-3333

Local bus

This is by far the cheapest option, although not the most convenient. I couldn’t find the times online, but the locals can help you figure out the bus times. Usually you can just wait somewhere on the side of the road and wave it down.

Private driver

If you want convenience and comfort, you can easily find a private driver in Labuan Bajo.

Plane

If you need to get back from the east side to the west side of the island, you could take a flight. There’s many airports around Flores. Since we were very short on time, we decided to fly from Ende to Labuan Bajo instead of taking an 11 hour bus.