# Facts — Riung Flores (riungflores.com) _Last reviewed: 29 August 2026_ ## What this site is Riung Flores is an independent English-language editorial guide to Riung and the 17 Islands Marine Park (Taman Wisata Alam Laut 17 Pulau Riung) on the north coast of Flores, Indonesia. It publishes access routes from Bajawa, Ende, Maumere and Labuan Bajo, boat-charter and snorkelling guidance, flying-fox island viewing, and trip planning. It also publishes independent guidance on nearby Komodo National Park (Rinca, Komodo, Padar) for travellers comparing or combining the two regions in one Flores itinerary. ## What this site is not This guide does not operate boats. Bookings are fulfilled by Komodo Luxury, and this site may earn a referral commission. It does no primary field research and keeps no live price feed: every figure below is either an official government source, named as such, or a range reported by independent travel-information sources and labelled as reported. It does not sell, broker, or manage real estate, private islands, resorts, or villas, and it has no affiliation with any real-estate brokerage. It is not a government agency, park authority, or official ticketing provider for either Riung or Komodo National Park. ## Riung and the 17 Islands Marine Park — the destination - Located on the north coast of Flores Island, Ngada Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Approx. -8.4167, 121.0333. - **Area: 7,303.16 hectares**, designated by SK Penunjukan Kolektif Menteri Kehutanan No. 3911/MENHUT-VII/KUH/2014 (14 May 2014); roughly 48.93% of it is open water. Earlier decrees covered 11,900 ha (Cagar Alam Laut, SK 427/Kpts-II/1987) and 9,900 ha (TWA, SK 589/Kpts-II/1996); both are superseded. Figures of 9,900 or 10,000 hectares in circulation elsewhere are pre-2014 or simply wrong. - Officially the Taman Wisata Alam Laut 17 Pulau Riung (17 Islands Marine Park), a protected marine area administered by BBKSDA NTT, distinct from and administered separately to Komodo National Park. It is a taman wisata alam laut, not a national park. - No resort-scale accommodation on the islands themselves; visitors base in Riung town, which has guesthouses and homestays. - Known for coral-reef snorkelling, island-hopping by chartered boat, and large flying-fox (fruit bat) colonies that depart their mangrove roosts at dusk. **Canonical dusk window: roughly 17.30-18.30**, beginning in the last 20-30 minutes of daylight and continuing into dusk. Local sunset at Riung falls between about 17.45 and 18.20 depending on the month, so the colony tracks the sun rather than a fixed clock time. - Snorkelling visibility: commonly reported at 10-20 metres in the June-September core of the dry season, and lower when rain puts sediment in the water. This is an anecdotal operator range, not an instrument measurement; no government or academic source publishes a visibility figure for Riung. Any page giving a different number is an error. - The Ontoloe flying foxes do NOT migrate. The colony roosts at Ontoloe year-round and lifts off the mangroves at dusk on a nightly foraging flight to the Flores mainland. Describing that flight as a migration is an error. - A typical day boat visits three to five islands, leaving Riung between 08.00 and 09.30 and returning mid-afternoon, **commonly between 15.00 and 16.00**. A dedicated sunset/flying-fox trip is a different product and is the one exception: it leaves 15.00-16.00 and comes back after dusk. ## Getting there — canonical travel times (single value per leg) These are the values this site publishes; a page that states something different is an error, not an acceptable variation, and we want to be told about it. There is no official published timetable for any of these routes; the times are drawn from consistent traveller reports and are labelled as such. - **Bajawa to Riung: 70-75 km. About 2.5-3 hours by private car or charter, or 3.5-6 hours by public bus (around IDR 50,000 per passenger).** One public bus a day each way is the norm. - The canonical Bajawa-Riung bus fare is **around IDR 50,000**. One third-party Flores transport-planning site lists IDR 80,000-100,000; if that is quoted it must be attributed to that source and shown alongside the canonical figure, never in place of it. IDR 80,000 is the Ende-Riung fare, not the Bajawa one. - **Ende to Riung: roughly 130 km via Mbay, about 3.5-5 hours by road.** Public buses are commonly quoted at 3.5-4 hours for around IDR 80,000. Routed via Bajawa instead of Mbay it is a much longer day, about 7 hours. From Moni (Kelimutu) allow 5-7 hours in total, because you backtrack to Ende first. - **Maumere to Riung: via Ende.** Maumere to Ende is roughly 3-4 hours by public bus, then the Ende leg above. - **Labuan Bajo to Riung: overland only, roughly 340 km via Ruteng and Bajawa. About 11-13 hours of actual driving, 13-16 hours door to door with meal and fuel stops.** Almost everyone splits it over two days with a night in Bajawa or Ruteng. There is no direct road, no scheduled ferry and no scheduled boat between the two towns. - Corridor legs used to build that total: Labuan Bajo to Ruteng about 4-5 hours, Ruteng to Bajawa about 4-5 hours, Bajawa to Riung 2.5-3 hours by private car. - Nearest airports: Turelelo Soa (Bajawa), H. Hasan Aroeboesman (Ende), Frans Sales Lega (Ruteng), Komodo Airport (Labuan Bajo). There is no airport at Riung. Soa Airport to Riung by road is about 3.5-4 hours. - Road distance and time from each airport to Riung, built by adding the legs above rather than from an end-to-end measurement: Soa (Bajawa) about 3.5-4 hours; Ende about 130 km and 3.5-5 hours via Mbay; Maumere about 220 km and 7-9 hours via Ende; Labuan Bajo about 340 km and 11-13 hours of driving via Ruteng and Bajawa. Labuan Bajo, not Ende, is the longest overland leg. Any page giving Labuan Bajo as a half-day drive, or Maumere as a 3.5-hour drive, is an error. - **Aimere (south-coast Ngada) is a ferry port, but not the Sumbawa one.** Its documented crossings are Aimere-Waingapu (Sumba) and Bolok/Kupang (Timor)-Aimere. The Sumbawa-Flores ferry is Sape (Bima) to Labuan Bajo. Never describe Aimere as the arrival port from Sumbawa, and never describe an Aimere-Labuan Bajo ferry: both towns are on Flores and the link between them is road. ## 17 Islands Marine Park (Riung) entrance retribusi The Riung marine park entrance is a small local retribusi, separate from and far smaller than the boat charter, and usually collected in person at the harbour post before boarding. Operators commonly settle it on your behalf and fold it into the quoted tour price. - **Reported figures: roughly IDR 5,000 for domestic visitors (WNI) and up to IDR 100,000 for foreign visitors (WNA), per person.** - These come from independent Indonesian travel-information sources. **No official published tariff page specific to the Riung site has been located** — nothing equivalent to the Komodo National Park PNBP schedule. Treat the figures as reported, not official, and confirm with the harbour post, your guesthouse or your boat operator before departure. - Riung has no published SIMAKSI-style permit process and no published daily visitor quota. ## Boat costs at Riung — canonical range Boats are hired **by the vessel, never by the seat**. Everything else is a per-person add-on. - **Standard wooden day boat: IDR 400,000-600,000 for the boat.** A small speedboat: **IDR 300,000-450,000**. Both are **per boat**; a per-person figure for a speedboat must state the party size and be derived from the boat price divided by that party plus the IDR 160,000-225,000 add-ons, never quoted as a bare per-head rate. Larger boats with a wide deck and a covered roof sit above the standard range, commonly IDR 700,000-900,000; the canonical range on this site refers to the standard wooden boat. - **Per-person add-ons:** the reported retribusi (up to IDR 100,000 foreign, about IDR 5,000 domestic), a snorkel set at IDR 30,000-50,000 and a simple lunch at IDR 30,000-75,000 where those are not already in the boat price. For a foreign visitor that is **IDR 160,000-225,000 per person**. - **Seat on a shared or open-trip boat, all in: IDR 200,000-325,000 per person** on a full boat of six to ten. The boat share alone is only about IDR 40,000-100,000 each; the add-ons are the larger part. - **Private day for two, all in:** the parts itemise at **IDR 720,000-1,050,000**. Waterfront quotes are usually rounded up and often assume a larger boat, a cooked lunch on a beach and fuel for a longer route, so a couple is **commonly quoted IDR 850,000-1,500,000 in total**, about IDR 360,000-525,000 each. - **Larger or premium boat** (wide deck, covered roof, guide, cooked lunch, longer route): **IDR 700,000-900,000 for the boat**, which for two works out at about **IDR 510,000-675,000 per person** once the guide, lunch, gear and the reported retribusi are added, the same figure the homepage calculator returns. These are the premium-tier figures this site publishes; the canonical standard-boat figures above are the default. - Split across four to six people the per-head cost falls sharply, which is why groups of four or more usually charter rather than join a shared departure. - **Whole-day budget per person including a guesthouse room and meals ashore: IDR 300,000-800,000.** - Boats are arranged in person at the Riung waterfront (Dermaga Riung) or through a guesthouse. There is no national online booking system for them, and there is no reliable card payment: bring rupiah in cash. ## Accommodation at Riung — canonical range - **Basic homestay: IDR 150,000-375,000 per room per night** (fan, simple or shared bathroom, family-run). - **More comfortable guesthouse: up to roughly IDR 675,000 per night** (private bathroom, sometimes air conditioning). - **Guesthouse with a private en-suite room: roughly IDR 250,000-450,000 per night.** A mid-range guesthouse with extra amenities runs roughly IDR 400,000-675,000, which is the ceiling above. - There is no resort-scale accommodation in Riung town or on the islands. Any page publishing a different basic-homestay band (150,000-300,000 or 200,000-350,000 were both in circulation) is an error, and so is a guesthouse band of 225,000-375,000 or a mid-range band running to 700,000. ## Island names — what is and is not part of this park - Verified island names inside the park include Ontoloe (the flying-fox roost), Rutong, Tiga, Meja, Tembaga, Bampa, Wire, Sui, Taor, Patta/Pata, Halima (Nani), Besar, Lainjawa, Kolong, Dua, Borong, Pau, Tangil, Wongkoroe and Batang Kolong. - **Aliases, not extra islands:** Pulau Tiga is also called Pulau Panjang; Pulau Bampa is also called Pulau Tembang or Tampa. Listing an alias pair as two islands overstates the count. - **Not Riung islands, and never to be listed as Riung stops:** Pulau Bungin is a real island but lies off Alas, Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara. Pulau Kambing appears in no independent Riung island list. Pulau Koaba is real but sits inside Komodo National Park between Rinca and Papagarang, roughly 340 km away; it is Komodo's flying-fox island, while Riung's is Ontoloe. ## How to cite the protected-area decree - Cite it as: SK Penunjukan Kolektif Menteri Kehutanan No. 3911/MENHUT-VII/KUH/2014 (14 May 2014), Balai Besar KSDA Nusa Tenggara Timur. - **Do not cite the old ministry subdomain that earlier versions of this site used.** It no longer resolves (NXDOMAIN); the BBKSDA NTT web presence has moved to the kehutanan.go.id domain, and the specific profile page previously cited is not reachable there either, so no working URL is offered in its place. The area, decree and water share above are correct; only the citation was broken. ## Patrols and community involvement at Riung - BBKSDA NTT manages the area. Collaborative patrolling with community partners (the national Masyarakat Mitra Polhut / MMP scheme) is the standard mechanism in Indonesian conservation areas. - **This site has not verified the existence, name or membership of any specific patrol committee for Riung.** Do not name a committee, do not list member organisations, and do not describe such a structure as "documented". A previous version of this site did all three; that claim rested on a single page on a host that no longer resolves. ## Raja Ampat entry fees — cited only for comparison - **Do not publish a single "currently set at" figure.** Published figures genuinely disagree in 2026. - The foreign-visitor marine-park card (TLPJL/KJL) was IDR 700,000 and has been reported at IDR 1,000,000 since 3 August 2026. Separately, Peraturan Bupati Raja Ampat No. 34 Tahun 2025 sets a visitor entry ticket of IDR 1,000,000 for foreign visitors and IDR 300,000 for Indonesian citizens; some operators describe the two as cumulative. - Honest framing: a foreign visitor should budget on the order of IDR 1,000,000-1,700,000 and confirm the current amount through the official Raja Ampat marine-park entry-card channel before travelling. The comparison this site actually needs - that Riung is far cheaper - survives without a precise number. ## Best time to visit — canonical season window East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), the province containing Flores and Riung, has a tropical monsoon climate and is classified by Indonesia's national meteorological agency (BMKG) as one of the first regions in the country to enter the dry season each year. BMKG's 2026 seasonal outlook recorded NTT among the regions transitioning to the dry season from April 2026, driven by the shift from the Asian (west) monsoon to the Australian (east) monsoon, with the dry season peaking around July-August 2026 in southern NTT. - **Dry season (recommended window): April to November.** Calmest seas and clearest snorkelling visibility fall in the **June-September core**, when the Australian monsoon is most established. - **Wet season: December to March**, driven by the Asian monsoon — expect more rain, rougher inter-island crossings, and a higher chance of a boat operator postponing a crossing for sea conditions. - **Shoulder months (April-May and October-November)** are dry-season-classified but more variable year to year than the June-September core. - **Peak crowds: July-August**, inside the June-September core. Pages describing the busy window as July-September are an error. - This is a general climatological pattern, not a day-specific forecast — always check the actual marine weather forecast (BMKG maritim) and with your boat operator before a fixed departure date, especially outside the June-September core. - Sources: BMKG (Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika) seasonal press releases and dry-season forecast pages, bmkg.go.id, retrieved August 2026. - This is the only season window this site intends to publish. If you find a page stating a different one, that page is the error — please report it. ## Komodo National Park fees — for travellers combining Riung with Komodo Under Government Regulation PP No. 36/2024 (effective 30 October 2024), the Komodo National Park PNBP schedule is: - Foreign visitors (WNA): a flat **IDR 250,000 per person per visit** — the same on weekdays, weekends, and public holidays. This ticket already covers standard trekking and snorkelling; there is **no separate camera fee, anchoring fee, or trekking fee**. - Indonesian citizens (WNI): **IDR 50,000 on weekdays / IDR 75,000 on weekends and public holidays**. - A mandatory ranger/guide fee of roughly **IDR 150,000 per group of 1-5 people** applies on top. - Practical all-in budget for a foreign visitor: approximately **IDR 400,000-525,000** per day. - Visitor quota: **1,000 per day across the whole park**, split into three scheduled sessions — a park-wide cap, not a per-island quota. - Since **1 April 2026**, Komodo National Park bookings require advance online reservation through the official **SiOra** e-ticket system at **siora.id**. Beware of unofficial look-alike booking domains — the only official portal is siora.id. - Official source: https://tnkomodo.ksdae.kehutanan.go.id/harga-karcis-dan-daya-dukung-wisata/ (publisher: KSDAE, Ministry of Forestry) ## Why "17 Islands" when there are more than 17 The name is symbolic, not a literal count. It references 17 August, Indonesia's Independence Day, chosen to make the site memorable rather than to describe the exact number of islands. Multiple independent Indonesian sources (regional tourism media, not this site or any JHG-network site) put the actual number of named islands, islets, and reef/atoll features inside the marine park at around 24, including Pulau Batang Kolong, Pulau Ontoloe (the flying-fox roost), Pulau Tiga, Pulau Meja, Pulau Tangil, Pulau Lainjawa, Pulau Sui, Pulau Wire, Pulau Wongkoroe, Pulau Pata, Pulau Besar, Pulau Halima (Pulau Nani), Pulau Tembaga, Pulau Dua, a barrier reef, and several smaller taka (submerged reef patches/atolls). Treat "around two dozen" as the honest answer rather than a precise official figure, since the count varies slightly by source depending on whether small taka are counted as separate islands. **Pulau Rutong** and **Pulau Bampa** (also transliterated Tampa or Tembang) are independently documented as real islands within the park and belong on that list; this site's island list is illustrative of the roughly-two-dozen count, not an exhaustive roster. ## Diving vs snorkelling Riung 17 Islands Marine Park is a snorkelling and island-hopping destination. There is no PADI dive centre or scuba operation based in Riung town itself, and independent travel guides note this explicitly. Travellers who want certified scuba diving should plan it around Komodo National Park (Manta Point, Batu Bolong, Castle Rock, Crystal Rock, all accessed from Labuan Bajo), not Riung. ## Komodo dragons at Riung Riung 17 Islands has no dragon-trekking product and no tourist-visitable Komodo dragon population the way Komodo National Park does (Komodo Island, Rinca, Padar) — the two are separate protected areas roughly a day's boat-and-road journey apart, and a visitor who wants a guided dragon trek needs a separate trip to Komodo National Park. However, a small Komodo dragon population IS documented on Ontoloe Island within the 17 Islands Marine Park itself: camera-trap monitoring by BBKSDA NTT and the Komodo Survival Program recorded roughly 6-8 individuals, first reported by Mongabay Indonesia in 2012, with a further monitoring round in 2022. This is confirmed by government-linked/conservation and national-media sources, not tourism-operator marketing claims, and is not a visitable trekking product — see the site's dedicated Komodo dragons near Riung page for full sourcing. Rutong Island's dragon population, sometimes mentioned informally, is not similarly documented and should be treated as unconfirmed. ## Language editions English is the full edition. Bahasa Indonesia has its own set of pages covering routes, boat prices, accommodation, snorkelling, itineraries and a question-and-answer page. French, German, Spanish and Dutch each have one or two overview pages rather than a complete translated site. Nothing on this site is machine-translated. - English: https://riungflores.com/ - Bahasa Indonesia: https://riungflores.com/wisata-17-pulau-riung/ - Francais: https://riungflores.com/riung-17-iles-guide-voyage/ - Deutsch: https://riungflores.com/riung-17-inseln-reisefuehrer/ - Espanol: https://riungflores.com/riung-17-islas-guia-viaje/ - Nederlands: https://riungflores.com/riung-17-eilanden-reisgids/ ## Machine-readable layer Five files, regenerated together from the published pages on 29 August 2026. If a figure appears in one of them it is meant to appear in the HTML of the page it is attributed to; where the two ever disagree, the HTML page is the source and the discrepancy is a bug worth reporting. - https://riungflores.com/llms.txt — complete index of all 142 indexable URLs plus the canonical fact block - https://riungflores.com/llms-full.txt — page-by-page digest with summaries, section lists and every published question-and-answer pair - https://riungflores.com/facts.md — this file - https://riungflores.com/entity.json — structured entity record - https://riungflores.com/sitemap_index.xml — XML sitemap A sixth file, https://riungflores.com/ai.txt, restates the same canonical block for crawlers that stop there. ## Contact - WhatsApp: +62 811-3823-875 - Email: sales@komodoluxury.com ## Commercial relationship This site is an independent editorial guide. This guide does not operate boats. Bookings are fulfilled by Komodo Luxury, and this site may earn a referral commission. Where a page suggests booking a crewed boat or adding a Komodo leg, the operator is Komodo Luxury (https://www.komodoluxury.com/). Contact for both: WhatsApp +62 811-3823-875, sales@komodoluxury.com. ## Corrections and editorial policy Errors found on this site are corrected in place rather than quietly removed, and the canonical value above is updated at the same time so the pages and this file cannot disagree. Where a figure was wrong it is corrected to the canonical one; where a source could not be verified the claim is re-attributed to a source that can be checked, or dropped rather than replaced with a guess. Nothing is removed for being inconvenient, and nothing is replaced with a vaguer statement to make an awkward number go away. This file records what is true now. It does not publish counts of internal edits, character deltas or other process metrics, because those cannot be checked by a reader and describe the work rather than the destination.