April - May
Shoulder season. The seas have settled, the hills are still green from the rain, and the boats have not arrived yet.
There is no bad month, only different trade-offs
April to October is the settled season. November to March is greener, quieter and the best stretch for mantas. What you are optimising for decides which one is yours.
Plan your journeyIn short
The park is open all year. The dry season buys calm water and reliable landings; the wet season buys green hills, fewer boats and the strongest manta activity. Neither is a compromise, they are different trips.
- April-October: settled seas, peak visibility
- November-March: green landscape, fewest boats
- Mantas peak December-February, whale sharks vary
Dry season against wet season
Sea state
- April - October
- Settled, reliable landings
- November - March
- More swell, some days rerouted
Landscape
- April - October
- Golden, dry savanna hills
- November - March
- Green after the rain
Visibility
- April - October
- Best of the year
- November - March
- Variable, still good on the north sites
Manta activity
- April - October
- Good, most reliable Jun-Aug
- November - March
- Peak, especially Dec-Feb
Other boats
- April - October
- Busiest Jul-Aug
- November - March
- Quietest of the year
Rates
- April - October
- Highest in the peak weeks
- November - March
- Best value windows
This compares seasons, not operators. Conditions in any given week are set by the weather that week, and the crew reroutes around it either way.
Month by month
What each stretch is good for
Four windows, each with a reason someone chooses it.
June - August
Prime dry season and the most reliable dragon-watching. Also the busiest, so book the window early.
September - October
Still settled, noticeably quieter than midsummer, and often the best value inside the dry season.
November - March
Wet season. Green hills, the fewest boats on the water, and the strongest manta activity of the year.
Crowds, and how the route dodges them
The famous landings — Padar at sunrise, Pink Beach at midday — have a rush hour. It is roughly the same two hours on every boat in the park.
A liveaboard can simply be somewhere else during them. The advantage of sleeping aboard is arriving before the day boats have left Labuan Bajo, and staying after they have gone back.
In the peak weeks of July and August that is the single biggest difference between a good week and a crowded one.
Read next
Not sure which month?
Tell us what matters most — mantas, quiet water, green hills or value — and we will tell you the window that fits.