It speaks to a discerning crowd accustomed to global standards in finery. For athletes on retreat, the resort boasts the island’s only Olympic-sized pool; a hot tub and cold plunge in the spa; and kayaks designed for professional racers. For mixology mavens, there’s Maiga! Bar, which recently hosted Nico de Soto, the man behind Paris’ Danico (No. 49 on The World’s Best Bars list).
All this in a pocket-sized town of about 7,000 souls. A drive through the town, which hugs the curvaceous coastline, reveals a clean, well-maintained settlement that echoes the Bali of yesteryear: Streets lined with cafes, restaurants, small boutiques, homestays, dive shops, vehicle rentals, and tour operators. Very charming, made all the more so by the joyful, carefree attitude of the locals.
Clarissa Eckold, 32, a yoga instructor who visited in 2018, said that her first impression then was that “the city area was not great, [it] felt a bit stale”. But much has changed since then, thanks to the Indonesian government’s efforts to develop alternative destinations to Bali to solve overcrowding.
William Tan, 39, a commercial director who holidayed here in 2025, shared: “I visited [Labuan Bajo] many years ago. I’m just amazed at the [current] development and ease of travel.” The launch of Jetstar’s twice-weekly direct flight to and from Singapore in March 2025 gave the town a shot in the arm; following the cessation of the airlines’ Asian operations in July, Scoot will fill the void from October.
The Jetstar flight brought travellers like Tan and Andy Joshua Lim, 46, a creative manager whose itinerary included three full days of diving. He enjoyed “exploring the sights of Komodo National Park, Cunca Pilas waterfall and Rangko Cave”, as well as observing “reef sharks, octopi, manta rays, green turtles and scorpionfish” on his dives.
