Padar Island

Interesting facts

Komodo dragons were last reliably seen on Padar in the mid-to-late 1970s, after poachers had wiped out much of the deer they depended on.

The pink tint of some beaches comes from tiny fragments of red foraminifera, single-celled organisms with chalky shells, mixed into white coral sand.

Padar is indented by four deep bays, but from the summit viewpoint only three of them can be seen at once.

Padar is the third-largest island in a national park that covers some 1,733 square kilometres, of which only about 603 are land.

Padar lies in Wallacea, the transition zone between Asian and Australian wildlife, and is divided from Rinca by the narrow Lintah Strait.

Why it is worth it

Padar is the island that made Komodo National Park famous for something other than dragons. Lying between Komodo and Rinca in the Komodo archipelago of eastern Indonesia, it is a knot of steep volcanic hills cut into by deep bays, and from its central ridge a single viewpoint takes in three of them at once: long scalloped arms of land curving around turquoise water, each bay ending in a beach of a different colour. Most of Padar's sands are white, but some are grey-black and some faintly pink, and seen together from the crest they make one of the most recognisable panoramas in Indonesia.

The landscape owes its look to a dry climate. Instead of rainforest, Padar is covered with grassland and scattered shrubs, a savanna-like cover in which every ridge line and gully stands out sharply in low sun. The island is uninhabited and is the third largest in Komodo National Park, established in 1980 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Komodo dragons were long thought to have vanished from Padar, though in 2004 a conservation group reported at least a dozen, including a hatchling; the larger populations live on neighbouring Komodo and Rinca.

The classic visit is a climb at sunrise or late afternoon. A stepped trail, with around 800 steps on its steepest stretches, leads up from the landing in roughly half an hour, and the view keeps widening as you rise until the three bays appear at the top. Below, the reefs and channels around Padar are among the park's well-known snorkelling and dive sites, and most boats combine the island with a swim at a pink beach and a dragon walk elsewhere in the park.

Getting there

Padar is reached only by boat. The base is Labuan Bajo on the western tip of Flores, about 39 km away, served by Komodo International Airport (LBJ) with flights from Jakarta, Denpasar and Surabaya, and international links to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The nearest airport by straight line, Sultan Muhammad Salahuddin Airport (BMU) at Bima on Sumbawa, about 98 km away, is far less practical. From Labuan Bajo the crossing takes about two hours by traditional wooden boat or about one hour by speedboat; day trips and liveaboard cruises of the national park both stop at Padar.

Padar Island

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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