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The cheapest way to see Komodo National Park is a slow boat tour to some of the most amazing destinations including Padar Island, Pink Beach, Manta Point, and of course, Komodo Island itself. But here's the twist - the experience was NOT what we were expecting! We were blown away by the majestic landscapes, but to be honest, seeing the Komodo Dragons was a bit disappointing. 🐉 If you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up to help us grow! watch full video here: #komodonationalpark #indonesiavlog #labuanbajovlog #indonesia #whatdotoinindonesia #thingstodoinflores

(What to Expect on the Cheapest option) Let me start by saying that the Komodo Islands are not a cheap place to be a tourist. There's been a steady increase in the cost of things for the last few years and this includes the famous 'Jumping off' point of Labuan Bajo. Although it isn't as cheap as its counter parts in Bali and Java, it was very close to being all the more unaffordable in 2022 when the government decided to increase the Komodo National Park entrance fee from 150,000 Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) to 3.75 MILLION IDR. That would mean just to visit the park you would be forking out $250 USD per person BEFORE you are paying for any tours or transport. I digress. Anybody trying to stick to a budget that's supposed to be strung across multiple years and multiple countries (Like this foolish author) you might have chosen the wrong island my friend. Never-the-less, we endure by finding the cheapest way to see Komodo Island. This guide will explain in detail everything that happened on our Komodo Island slow boat tour including how to book and a 'was it worth it' wrap up so you can see if it's the right fit for you. Booking the tour.. After looking online at options to see the Komodo Island you are shown mostly the options that involve an overnight cruise (or two) these include both private and shared options but both were firmly beyond our budget. When we arrived in Labuan Bajo we went straight to the main Street in search of alternatives. Very quickly we found that there were in-fact, several alternatives. The road is lined with tourism offices all offering multiple night cruises, one-day speed boat tours and our favourite (AKA the cheapest option) the Komodo Island slow boat tour. We were greeted by a friendly attendant who took us through all the options before we agreed to the slow boat tour departing the following day. We paid him 600,000 Per person ($40 USD), he scribbled off a ticket and told us to meet back at the office tomorrow morning at 4:30! The Journey Begins.. Waking at 4:10 to darkness and belting rain we made our way to the office where we stood outside with a handful of other tourists. Each trying to get as close to the wall as possible to avoid the rain. The tour operator arrived at 4:45 and lead us 2 minutes away to the Labuan Bajo harbour, where we met with the rest of the people on the tour. It's safe to say every tour office on the road was selling the same ticket on this boat. We shuffled on board and were greeting with some bananas, tea and coffee. Our guide spoke about what to expect for the day and we set off to Padar Island. He then collected our Komodo national park fee of 150,000 per person so that we didn't need to worry when we arrived on the island. The first stop.. Three hours of rocky wave riding later, we approached the island and the weather improved slowly until the sun was out in full-force as we tied the boat to the dock. Hopping off, we followed the single path on the island which lead 800 steps to the summit. About half way up there was another guide who had run ahead and was taking everybody photo with the iconic 3 beach background. Thats the impressive photo that you see on instagram and facebook lots. We hiked on further, even passed the 'no entry' sign and reached the summit. Hot and sweaty we conceded that the extra steps where not really worth it so if you find yourself in a similar situation and your not sure about making it to the top, save yourself the effort and stop at the photo point! Sufficiently sweaty and regretting not applying more sunscreen we boarded the boat once more and set off to the Main event. The Second Stop... This boat journey lasted about one hour as we all settled into the boat life. Arriving at Komodo Island we disembarked from the roof of the boat and walked down a long pier to the park entrance. Anticipation growing with every step. We had read that Komodo dragons are incredible in size and ferocity, they've even been responsible for killing people on this island, most recently a boy in 2007. We had visions of being dragged off into the jungle by a venomous monster never to be heard from again. The reality was starkly different. Once through the gates we were grouped together and taken on a tour into the jungle to find the dragons. We were still excited at this point and darting our eyes around into the trees. Ultimately, the jungle trek turned out to be a 200 meter walk on a well-worn path to a waterhole and an unused Komodo nest. Our guide on the island (Komodo park employee) was saying through the walk that 'we won't see any dragons on this walk' and 'None of them are out here' which took some shine off the experience. Then when we did a 180 turn and walked back out the way we came, we felt like it was a bit of a kick in the guts. This was not the adventure we had been pitched. Instead the guide lead us to the beach where there were 5 or so Dragons completely surrounded by tourists taking photos. There was no sense of danger or adventure it felt more like a zoo. To be honest it seemed like a bit of a cruel zoo for the dragons. We shuffled from dragon to dragon before be guided through the dozens of stalls selling Tourist knick knacks. We left the island defeated. Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear but that's how it went. I have heard that sometimes you can arrive at the island when there are less tourists and it's a better experience but for us, it was our lowlight. The third stop... After feeling a bit down on our luck we boarded the boat and set off for our third stop. On the way we we're fed a piece of chicken, with some rice and cucumber. Our third stop was the (other) instagram famous spot of Pink Beach. This is one of 7 pink beaches in the world and this one gets its colour from red coral just off shore that have been smashed by the tide and mixed with the white sand. We arrived to one of the most gorgeous docks we had of the day where the water was either crystal clear of gatorade blue. The beach itself wasn't in high season so it didn't boggle the mind but the pink hue was cool to see and the beach itself was really nice. The only downside would be the forced walk through people trying to sell you the same things as on the first two islands, but that was short lived. After a snorkel (Which was included on the boat) we headed back to rebound for the part of the day I was most excited for. The fourth and final stop... Swimming with manta rays is one of those things I didn't know I wanted to do until I knew it was a possibility. then it instantly became something I NEEDED. The excitement was palpable as the boat slowed and half the crew were hanging off the sides scanning the water for these huge creatures. When we thought we had seen some deep deep down (They can swim at a depth of 300 meters!) we all through our snorkels on and jump off the front of the boat. As soon as my feet left the bow I hear another tourist yell. "JELLYFISH". When I resurfaced there were a others complaining of stinging and we realised we had jumped right into the middle of a Smack of Jellyfish. When we realised where we were everyone swam to the boat ladder and one by one climbed to safety. It took me a while to be stung but just before I started the climb I joined the ranks of the 'Just-been-stung-tourists' luckily the boat crew had a medicine and started giving people the tobacco from their cigarettes to rub on their stings. Still not sure if that works but we all blindly followed along. Now adrenaline and jellyfish sting was pumping through our veins we were still on the looking for the Mantas. But alas, we had to start our3 hour return journey back to port in order to beat a pretty vicious storm system that was closing in. Was it worth it?... Final thoughts are difficult on this one. Yes, ultimately I think it was worth it because if you're spending the money to get to the island of Flores in Indonesia and you're not considering AT LEAST taking this cheap option to see the Komodos, you've probably wasted your money getting here. However, the tour could have been a lot better. The Komodo Island itself has sucked all sense of adventure from the experience and now it seemed almost completely designed as a photo opportunity and a way to sell things to tourists. The Manta rays were never guaranteed but that would have just tipped us over the edge to saying that no matter what, it's worth it. Unfortunately it left us with a little but of as our taste in our mouths. Maybe a speed boat tour or even overnight cruise would have fit the bill better, we'll never know! If you would like to see the full day in video form follow this link to our channel!

Selamat siang from Indonesia! get our newsletters sent to you inbox sign up by clicking here! week in review This week we posted probably one of my favourite videos we have ever made! We sat down and talked through our first whole year of full time travel. It was so nostalgic to look back on and WOW did we do a lot of cool stuff! (watch it here) At this momement I should be packing up my things becuase we have a boat back to the mainland of Flores in about an hour, instead we are trying to get some work in last minute. next week We are about to enter full on planning mode for the Americas! If you have any reccomendation PLEASE let us know. Our next video to come out was a super quick travel day from Australia to Indonesia - it was honestly one of the easier travel days we have had in a long time! behind the scenes I thought it would be fun to pull the curtain back a little bit and add some BTS bits and pieces - if you think this is interesting let me know and we will keep doing it! Posting weekly - knowing that we were going to be home alot over the Dec-Feb months we wanted to keep our videos coming out consistently which is why they are currently weekly rather than twice a week! It feels weird being this 'out of sync' with when our videos are posting but seemed like the best option given we weren't going to be filming in Adelaide. Whats nuts is that we aren't as far ahead on the editing side as I thought we would be. For example, our next video to post isn't even finished yet! Which is crazy because at the end of 2023 I was about 2 videos ahead editing wise! Shorts - YouTube, and the world, is still LOVING short form content. We aren't the best at this style however, would like to get better. At the moment, the aim is to upload atleast 1 short a week to our YouTube channel that sticks with the 'timeline' we have there. What do you think? Do you like short form content? What would you like to see from us in short form style? Instagram/TikTok - This is where we update things more inline with when they are happening! It is also a lot more 'rough' and 'unrefined'. To be brutally honest - this is where we spend the least amount of time and I want to get better at that in 2023! recommendations this is a weird one but we have been using this sunscreen multiple times a day throughout our Indonesia trip and it is one of the best sunscreens I've ever used. Bondi Sands Daily Suncreen Face Lotion FUN FACT: Australia has some of the stictest rules and regulations for sunscreen in the world - thanks hole in the ozone layer! social pipes & shameless plugs ☕️ Support us directly here​ 🚀 check out our website! 📸 want to know what gear we use? check out here! p.s please reply to this with any feedback, comments or questions! ☺️

Flores, Indonesia is a Paradise! In this short (sorry) Video, we are back on the road for 2023 and starting our second year of full time travel. We fly from Adelaide, Australia into Labuan Bajo, which is the capital city of the island of Flores in Indonesia. Although we fly through Bali on this travel day we are super excited to see a different and less touristy side of Indonesia. Over the next few weeks we are exploring Flores island from the beautiful port city of Labuan Bajo and the Komodo island to a small mountainous village called Ruteng we'll even climb an active volcano and stay in a couple of resorts! If all goes to plan, it should be a bit of a rollercoaster! If you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up to help us grow! Watch full video here: #indonesia #flores #labuanbajo #labuanbajofirstimpressions

If your more of a video person you can learn how to visit ANZAC cove if you Click here for our full video explaining the day Skip to 2:15 for the ferry! ANZAC Cove sits on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey and is visited in abundance on ANZAC Day (April 25th) Which marks the date when the cove became famous as the landing spot for The Australian and New zealand Army Corps in World War 1. If you are visiting around that time or even during peak travel periods for Turkey you won't have any trouble finding tours to take you along and see the sights. But what if your visiting when the tours are no longer running and other tourists are few and far between. Then this is the How to visit anzac cove guide for you. Step one - Get down to Canakkale In all our research and just by physically looking at the map above we deemed the best jumping off point to be the town of Canakkale on the other side of the dardanelles. This is a common place to begin the journey from as the town itself is built up enough to offer a lot of comfort but still local enough to feel like your melting into the culture! We flew into Istanbul and caught a bus down to Canakkale using a company called Kamel Koc that were the only bus company we felt comfortable booking online ($26 AUD per person). You just go to the Flixbus website and book as you normally would any bus through Europe. It's just, a kamel koc bus shows up! These busses have comfortable seats, TV's In the back of the headrests and serve you drinks and food through the journey. You can see what a Kamel Koc journey is like by watching our video here. You can reach the Istanbul bus terminal easily with the train system and when you arrive you will be dropped at a bus station a little bit our from the actual town of Canakkale (This is normal in Turkey) but there is a local bus just out the back of the bus terminal that will give you a ride right into town for $2 each. Step two - Canakkale to Ecaebat Ferry If you've got the luxury to pick a good weather day, it's worth waiting for that. When you decide on the day all you need to do is head to the ferry port at Canakkale (It's right near the big Trojan horse) also, side note, try some of those oysters with rice they are selling around there, they are genuinely delicious even if you don't like seafood like me. There are ferry time listed at the terminal but the one you are looking for is the one to Ecaebat which runs almost every hour of the day. The Journey takes around 20 minutes, costs $2 per person and will plop you on the other side of the dardanelles. Where they are selling Simit's (Delicious circle bread) from carts that only cost $1. I apologise for all these food tangents, but there's so many good ones! Step three - Crossing the peninsula There are two options for this part, both of which we had no idea about before we started the journey (There is very limited information online). When you land, turn right and walk for about 20 meters. There you should see a parked bus waiting with a Kabatepe sign. This is a bus who's only job is to meet ferry's and shuttle passengers from one port to another port on the other side of the peninsula. This was also $2 per person and takes about 10 minutes. This will drop you to Kabatepe pier, NOT Anzac Cove, so you'll have a bit of a walk after this if you manage to catch it! (About 1 hour ) HOWEVER when we arrived, the bus didn't fill up and the next ferry wasn't arriving for another hour, so we sought other options. Luckily right near the bus there was a vacant taxi, we asked a group of men sitting at a cafe if they knew where the driver was, one man stood up, finished his coffee and announced that he was! We asked how much a ride to Anzac Cove would be and he said that he doesn't work like that and it's all metered (That's what you want!) so we jumped in and were taken right to our drop off spot. Step Four - The Return I won't go into details about ANZAC cove, i'm sure you've done your research and know what there is to see, but lets talk about how we got back because that taxi driver left us there on our own! The plan was to flag down another passing taxi but we quickly realised that we were at the Cove almost alone, the only other people we saw on the entire coast was someone on a private tour (This is also an option to see the cove but too expensive for us) So we had no way of flagging a taxi, LUCKILY we took down our drivers WhatsApp in case we couldn't figure out another way back. We decided to do the hour long walk down the coast to meet the returning shuttle at Kabatepe pier. This is PERFECTLY possible although it really doesn't seem like it when you start. We walked on the beach, on the side of the road and through forests but we got to see stretches of the coast that most don't (Like old war bunkers!) and it turned out to be lovely if a little bit toasty. In our YouTube video we don't recommend this option but upon reflection it worked really well for us. We arrived at the port asked around about the bus back to Eacebat and where shown where the bus was waiting (The very same one we decided not to take earlier) we jumped on and waited for about 10 minutes, a ferry arrived and the bus filled up and we were off. Step Five - The Bonus tip Getting back to Canakkale is super simple you just catch the same ferry back and right into port. But once your there, you need to turn right and head a little bit up the coast. On the main road there is a shop selling Tantuni called '33 Efsane Tantuni' which is like a Turkish Burrito. It's incredible and you need to try it. That is all. again. Sorry about all the food recs. (Not sorry, go eat them) Thanks for reading!

sign up here to get our newsletter delivered straight to your inbox the day its published! week(s) in review After an amazing (but busy!) break at home we are finally back on the road and we have started 2023 with a bang! With Indonesia only being a 5 hours flight from Adelaide, we have been here before! But this time, we decided to get outside of Bali and the 'normal tourist route' and explore the island of Flores. Porbably best know as the gateway to the Komodo Islands! So far, it has been the perfect blend of busy travelling and sight seeing mixed with induglent relaxing by the beach. whats next? After we are done with Indonesia we are heading back home for a quick few weeks to meet the newest memeber of our family! We will officially be Aunty Emily and Uncle Jordan! 🥰 Then we are flying from Australia to USA and.... thats all we have planned. Hopefully a couple weeks at home will be enough time to plan this next leg of our trip! recommendations social pipes & shameless plugs ☕️ Support us directly here​ 🚀 check out our website! 📸 want to know what gear we use? check out here! p.s please reply to this with any feedback, comments or questions! ☺️ SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER HERE #travelvlog #newsletter #floresindonesia2023 #2023travelplans

AN ENTIRE YEAR OF FULL TIME TRAVEL ✈️ 2022 was an unforgettable journey, we set off on our first year of full-time travel! From breathtaking landscapes to new cultures and experiences, this video showcases the highlights of our travels and the adventures we encountered along the way. 23 countries, 1 scooter crash and a lifetime of memories! If you like this video please hit the like button to help us grow ❤️ Big thanks to: @KaraandNate @flyingthenest For the inspiration to follow this dream! Watch full video here: #fulltimetravel #howtotraveltheworld #oneyearoftravel

We recently spent 3 weeks in Flores Indonesia. Exploring from Labuan Bajo to Maumere and most places in-between! Having spent the time there we wanted to create the FLORES INDONESIA ULTIMATE TRAVEL GUIDE. So we did! The island boasts some amazing views and things to do but lacks a lot of infrastructure most tourists can take for granted. Before arriving we were VERY confused about a few things, even just getting from city to city. With not much information on online - we decided to fix that! Watch our Flores, Indonesia Vlogs here In this Flores Indonesia Ultimate Trvavel guide we'll explain our itinerary and share some helpful tips/tricks we picked up along the way About Flores Getting to Flores, Indonesia How to get around Things to do in Flores Where to stay Transport we used Good to know What would we do differently? Three week Flores itinerary! About Flores, Indonesia: Flores is an island in the East Nusa Tengarra region. The capital city of Labuan Bajo was a small fishing village for most of it's existence, only recently blossoming into a tourist hot spot with some amazing diving locations. Today, there is still incredible diving spots around the island but the biggest attraction is the proximity to the Komodo National park where you can see the only endemic link to dinosaurs! (dutch settlers literally called them land crocodiles, they're big) Getting to Flores, Indonesia: All flights to the Island are smaller national flights, so if you are coming from overseas you will need to pass through Java or Bali first. Once your in Indonesia getting to Flores is relatively simple, there are several flights daily with: Air Asia, CitiLink, Lion Air, Garuda and Others. Small heads up, generally the Indonesian internal flights do NOT include luggage so you'll need to pay for that too. Our internal flights cost us $90 AUD per person per way with luggage and we used Citilink and LionAir (After Air Asia cancelled on us twice!). How to get around Flores, Indonesia: This is probably the thing that was on my mind the most when planning our trip. "What if there's literally no transport between places and everyone rides motorbikes" "What if we get taken advantage of, we don't know how much things should cost" "What if we miss out on something" "What if we have bad weather" The list is endless but I'll aim to answer as much as possible in this post. If you are stressing about transport in Flores, you can stop right now. Transport between cities and towns ended up being remarkably easy and there are several options. Let me put your mind at ease. Moped/Motorbike ($6-$12 a day) Firstly, you can rent a moped/Motorbike and drive yourself (A great option for those who didn't fall off in Thailand and have a crippling fear from driving one every again) and honestly allows you more access to things because some roads are too small for a car. It ALSO allows you to stay in potentially better accommodations because you don't need to worry about being within walking distance to everything AND a lot of places will allow you to drive one-way across the island for a small fee... Maybe I should get back on the bike.. Catch a Bemo ($4-$15 Depending on distance) Second option is to catch local transport. They are known locally as Bemo's and on paper can sound like a great option, but let me finish. Yes, it is one of the cheapest options possible and yes it will get you where you need to go. The majority look like someones Van that has been converted to have 2 rows of seats facing each other and painted vibrant colours. However, from what I can tell they don't have a schedule. Most people have told us that you just wait on the side of the road, ask where it's going and jump on if there's room. They are VERY busy and often play music incredibly loud without any air conditioning (When it's busy or hot enough you often see people sitting on the roof, especially as you get into the mountains). When the journey to other towns are often 5 or more hours, you can see why we steered clear of this option. Shared Taxi ($12 - 30 Depending on Distance) The option we picked was a "Shared Taxi" This was the best by far for us and isn't really what I sounds like. The Taxi is more often than not a Bus acting as a pick-up and drop-off service. Which is great! you share the bus with others so it's much cheaper than private transport but it still picks you up from your hotel and drops you off to your hotel* The bus has air-conditioning and while they don't stop frequently, they do stop for quick 10 minute rests on long journeys (Please try to use the toilet before you start your journey though, the stops along the way are less than ideal on cleanliness) Booking these busses or "Shared Taxis" was probably our number one stress before arriving however, as soon as we asked out accommodation about a transfer we were given a WhatsApp number for a local office of Gunung Mas Travel. The hotel will either give you the WhatsApp number or organise the transfer on your behalf! It's important to keep in mind we tried Facebook messaging the company directly and the contact online which both didn't work but every hotel we've been at has had the correct number for their local office. Little tip on this one also - If you're hotel DOESN'T have a contact don't be afraid to reach out to other hotels in the area with a message on booking.com, they may have guests doing the same trip as you who are wanting to share and split the cost in a car (This happened to us twice and Think is common in the low season) *The Bus MAY not go all the way to your hotel as some roads are pretty thin, for example we had to get dropped off about a 10 minute walk from our accommodation in Ruteng as the road tapered. But this is the exception not the rule. Private Car With Driver ($80-$130 per day) You could always rent a private car with driver. Our budget didn't allow this and I think it would have definitely impeded our sense of adventure. But it is absolutely possible. Most enquiries about renting a car will result in renting a car AND driver. You can organise to use a driver point to point of recruit them for the entire trip. We heard of a couple doing a very similar travel to us on a much shorter time frame and they were quoted $450 for about a week of driving. Honestly, if your considering doing this I would think again about the shared taxi, it was actually quite well done. Renting a car to Drive yourself ($60 - $100) Renting a car for your own is probably the least viable option (I know, I was mad about it too) Pricing is generally as much as it would be to have a driver anyway AND the roads are really not built for rentals. I would be worried as anything if I was in a rental car and had to drive into bushes to let another speeding local passed on some of the super thin and bumpy roads. No thank-you. Now that we've sorted your transport, let's talk about things to do: What to do in Flores, Indonesia: I can't cover everything because there is SO much, so I'm only giving reference to the things we actually did. Komodo Island Boat Tour (Pictured): Komodo national park is the only place the in world where Komodo dragons live in the wild! Almost all tours are on a boat that leaves from the Labuan Bajo port and there are dozens of tour operators lining the main road of Labuan at all times selling these options: - Slow Boat Day Tour ($60 per person) This option leaves at 5am and is all in the name. You jump on a slow boat that takes you to; Padar Island (The hike from all the instagrams, Komodo Island, Pink Beach and then to swim with manta rays before you start the journey back to Labuan. (We did this one and there is a video about the entire day on our YouTube channel) - Overnight cruises (2 day 1 night $175pp for private cabin) are also extremely popular, this is where you will essentially share a boat with other tourists in a dorm or private cabin and all food is supplied fro you. They typically include an additional 2 stops in their itinerary and get to the islands at better times! - Private boat (Expensive) We barely looked into this one but found MOST of the advertisements online are for a private charter. It would absolutely be the best way to do it provided you have a group to make it fiscally reasonable (It might even end up being one of the cheapest option if your group is big enough) Things to know: The above info does NOT include the Komodo national park entrance fee which sits at 150,000 IDR or about $15 Australian. There was recent news of changing that figure all the way up to 3.75m IDR which would have meant $350 per person for entry. But understandably tour operators weren't keen and the protests stopped it from happening. Unfortunately if there is any significant price raise we wouldn't be able to recommend visiting the park as value for money was already teetering on the edge! The Private car Tour in Ruteng ($80 for the day) Ruteng was a stop we used to break up the trip to Mount Kilimutu but turned out to be a great and fun stop. We had no moped and nothing organised and were staying at an accommodation (Hobbit Hill Homestay) that was quite a bit out of town. Nevertheless we had incredible homestay hosts who offered to do a full day trip for us and take us to see everything and anything we wanted. The Private car was definitely an expensive way of seeing the sights but as I've said, the hosts were so fantastic we didn't even look to compare prices. Almost all hotels have this option and would be easy to organise the day before you need it. We saw, the Hobbit caves which was pretty cool and had an interestin museum attached, we then went to the spiderweb rice fiels which were also pretty cool, then to a traditional village (Similar to Wae Rebo but smaller and easier to access) which was good to see but wouldn't say is a definite need to go to, especially if your heading to another traditional village and finally we finished at the local market in the town of Ruteng which was really beautiful! it was full of friendly locals and the colours of all the fruits and vegetables was incredible. We were also going to head to a waterfall and a lookout but the weather got the better of us. Overall, we would encourage you to see Ruteng but we can also see why some people would pass it by. Mount Kelimutu Hike ($45 driver + $30 entry): Is a BIG must when your in Flores! Provided you can find a good way there it is absolutely worth it. Again, we arrived at our accommodation in Moni (The small town at the foot of the volcano) without anything but out homestay booked and asked them the cost of a transfer to the trail head. The price was $45 per car, as there was only 2 of us it was more than we wanted to spend for what would be a 30 minute drive, but if you can get another 2 people wanting to see the mountain at the same time, Boom, Half price. Entry into the park was $15 each and can be mroe on public holidays. Most people elect to do the hike super early for sunrise. The hotel gave us that option too, but we had free breakfast at the homestay so decided to go once we finished. It was awesome! it only took us about 20 minutes worth of hiking to reach the summit but overall we spent about an hour and a half on the trail because we were constantly stopping to check out the views. Reaching the summit you can see it's where people spend most of their time and we were no exception. The view of the lakes and the fast moving clouds almost entranced us. Then we had Mokeys arrive and steal some other tourists chocolate bars. Where to stay on Flores, Indonesia: (Where we stayed) Labuan Bajo - Bajo Sunset Hotel (14$pn) Our little hostel that could. We picked this one because of the price and aaaalllmost rebooked when we saw the room. It was super dark, the ceilings were cracked and leaking and the wall between rooms didn't go al the way to the top. The wifi didn't reach the room and the aircon wasn't very impressive. BUT, for the price? that's about right. we ended up being sufficiently shielded from street noise, had a mosquito net on the bed and one of the most comfy beds we've had in Flores. After sleeping well, we decided to stay and just do work in the common area which is where we discovered two puppies that were one week old and their mum as hotel employees. we were in and even returned when we came back to labuan weeks later. Labuan Bajo - Blue Ocean Hotel ($36) (book here) This place we booked to have an upgrade over Bajo, the internet did reach our room, which was massive and the shower actually had hot water so we were stoked. Until the night came and we found ti really hard to sleep. The noise from the street is intense and the blaring prayer from the mosque wakes you up at 3am. I do not recommend staying here unless you've got ear plugs. Breakfast was included and held on a great rooftop though! Ruteng - Hobbit Hill Hotel (24$pn) (book here) This was one of our favourite stays of our trip. Theres something a bout being greeted with a huge smile. The host family here was epic and moved mountains to make you feel welcome, they even invited us to have some lunch with them one day. Although the rooms and bathrooms where nothing special they did the job and where an upgrade from the Bajo Sunset not to mention the views. You get to each an included breakfast every morning from your door steps which looks over rice fields and onto a huge gorgeous mountain. Luckily the mountains are slightly cooler than the coast because there was no air conditioning in the rooms! Ende - LCR Hotel (40$pn) (book here) This was as close as we came to a full western hotel. Air conditioning worked great, staff were fantastic wifi was strong and everywhere. The only let down was the included breakfast. Lots of choice, none of it really for us! Moni - Gecko's Homestay (35$pn) (book here) A cabin in a forrest, almost. This wooden hut also had no air conditioning as most of the homestay don't (Especially in Moni). But the weather didn't really call for it. The bed was okay and had a great mosquito net that didn't get in the way. But the bathroom was outside without any shelter. Outside showers sound fantastic and I really do like them. But when nature calls and bucketing down in the dark of night, you'll wish there was some kind of cover. Maumere - Coconut Garden Beach Resort (65$pn) (book here) Stay here. Enough said. The staff were fantastic, the food (Which is only seafood and vegetarian) was delicious and everything was cooked fresh. They have stand up paddle boards, Kayaks and snorkels. Again, the bathroom is technically outdoors but at least this one does hav a partial roof that completely covers the toilet and sink! Transfers to and from the airport cost $12.50 per car. Labuan Bajo - Bajo Sunset Hotel ($22pn) Back to the OG. Slightly more expensive this time around and we did get a better room. This one had a better air-conditioning, no leaky walls and a bed that was just as comfy! oh AND the WIFI JUST reaches the room when there's not too many people using it. Bonus. Labuan Bajo - Le Pirate Island ($80pn Average) (book here) We stayed in two different variations on Pirate island, once was the cheaper option Beach huts (These are basically a box on stilts with a mattress) and once in the glamping beach front hut. Let's just say, you should pay the money and get the clamping option. Not having to share a bathroom and being able to keep the sand out of your room is reason enough! (You might not need the food package though) Labuan Bajo -Seasta Hotel ($80pn) (book here) We stayed at the Seasta Hotel for our last night in Indonesia and for those with cash to burn it's an awesome pick for Labuan Bajo Accommodation. Transport WE used: Airport to Hotel: Taxi on arrival (Had to haggle a little bit) - $5 Labuan Bajo to Ruteng: Shared Taxi (bus) booked through Gunung Mas WhatsApp -$24 Ruteng to Ende: Shared Taxi (bus) booked through Gunung Mas WhatsApp - $34 Ende to Moni: Shared Taxi (car) Booked through our hotel in Ende - $ Moni to Maumere: Shared Taxi (car) Booked through another hotel in Moni - $50 Hotel to Airport: Transfer organised by hotel with hotel staff - $13 Maumere to Labuan: Flight with luggage - $130 Labuan to Airport: Same driver as original -$5 Good to Know: WhatsApp: Basically everyone will want to have your WhatsApp number, it's probably a good idea to get this sorted before you leave as it's how we organised boat tours and busses between towns. SIM cards: We originally planned to pick up a SIM card on our way through Bali Airport however, we got distracted and didn't. We didn't spot anyone selling them at LBJ either. Luckily once you are in Labuan Bajo there is a Telkomsel store right in the heart of town. We got two SIM cards with 6GB each for $10 and then upgraded one online to have 50GB for $25. It's worth noting that paying for the upgrade online was tricky and we couldn't actually do it through the telkomsel website as they only took payment through ATMs or apps such as GoJek. Instead we found a third party called Ding and purchased the upgrade through them. (If your from Australia, this is really weird for us and it looks dodgy. But it worked!) Drinking water: Specifically Labuan Bajo you will be served drinking water in some restaurants. That is typically safe because of the new fancy way they are getting water from the air, we did this twice with no issues but we always felt uneasy and were buying bottles of water each day to see us through, Including brushing teeth! Mosquitos: I don't officially know if they are more common than Bali but it feels like it. Lot's of people online wonder if taking malaria pills is worth it, and it might be for piece of mind but if you've got a good bug repellent you should be fine, Almost every place we've stayed (Apart from the bigger hotels) supply a mosquito net too so you can feel relatively safe at bed time. Booking tours ahead of time: Honestly, don't worry about it. If your going during the peak season you might want to try to get something lined up before you arrive but you will be paying more than just organising locally. If you're worried, approach the tour operators on your first day to book for a couple of days time. But the general consensus if one boat fills up (for example) they will just send a second boat too. And there is no shortage of boats in the harbour! The people: The local people of Flores are some of the nicest we've come across. There are endless smiles, big waves and 'Hello Miss'. ('miss' is also used for the men by the kids trying to say Mister) Or they will yell to their friends BULE, BULE (Bully) as you pass which mean foreigner. Some good phrases to say back and how I remember them; Good Morning: Selamat pagi - remembered by thinking of Salami made from a pug Thank you: Terima kasih - Remembered by saying 'Tear up my castle' Be careful: Hati Hati - this one is just fun to say and we remember it by thinking of bringing your partner a hot coffee when they're in bed. "It's Hati Hati" What Would We Do Differently? Relax - If I could go back in time and talk to the me that was planning our trip to Flores, Indonesia I'd tell myself to chill out. even though the infrastructure isn't great (Particularly as you head deeper into the island) everything seems to work out and if you get in a bind, the local people are amazing and will help out. Tours - Having more money would be a blessing and I probably would have gone for an overnight cruise to see Komodo. Both because the cruise sounds like a lot of fund and there are more stops but also we may have arrived at Komodo Island when there were less people there which could have been a lot better! Our FULL travel Itinerary for Flores, Indonesia - Flight into Labuan Bajo we spent 4 nights at a hotel right next to the fish market on the water called Bajo Sunset Hostel (After this section I'll list our hotels, cost and a bit about them for quick reference) We did this to give us some time to organise ourselves on the island and on the second day went on our Slow Boat Tour to Komodo National Park - After the four nights we moved to a new hotel that was supposed to be an upgrade Ocean Blue Hotel even thought the rooms were a country mile better we didn't sleep at all because of the noise from the street right outside and the loudest mosque of all time blaring at 3am. - Nevertheless, the next morning we jumped on a Shared Taxi which we organised through WhatsApp and took the 4 hour drive to Ruteng. In Ruteng we stayed at the Hobbit Hill Homestay which we highly recommend before getting a Private day tour of Ruteng inclding the hobbit cave, spiderweb rice fields, local village and local market. - From there we took another Shared Taxi to the LCR Hotel in Ende, a pretty large coastal town on the south of the island. We used Ende as a rest stop to catch up on work and order room service (Budget be damned) From there the Hotel organised a share taxi (are you noticing a pattern) to Moni -where we stayed at Gecko Homestay and organised our hike up the Kelimutu Volcano. -The following day we took another Shared Taxi three hours north to Maumere where we indulged in a bit of luxury spending 5 nights at the Coconut Garden beach resort which was totally worth it. We liked it so much we made a youtube video about it (How many times can this guy plug his YouTube channel) - Once we were sufficiently relaxed we caught a flight back to Labuan Bajo on Lion Air and checked back in where we started at Bajo Sunset Hostel. From there we organised a few nights on Pirate Island which is an Adults only Resort. We didn't plan on staing in multiple expensive places on this trip, but it happened. - After 2 nights on the island we took a boat transfer back once again to Labuan Bajo to spend one night in the Seaesta hotel before flying home. This is a very basic itinerary and had we eliminated our rest days we probably could have seen a lot more. But we need rest! #flores #floresindonesia #indonesia #whattodoinflores #thingsdotoinindonesia #howtogetaroundflores

WOOOOO UNDER 1K LOSS FOR THE MONTH (It's not as good as it seems haha) So why record our expenses? We wrestled with the idea of spending all our money on experiences versus knuckling down at work in an attempt to set ourselves up for the future. Ultimately, we decided that houses can burn down, investments can be lost and money can be wasted but memories can never be taken from you. We wanted to solidify those memories by creating videos. But also wanted to show people a realistic view of what a full-time travel lifestyle would cost. When I went looking for something similar they were few and far between, so I wanted to do something for the next person who comes looking. And so, a terrible and laborious google sheet was born. It's since been updated many times and is much easier to manage. All of the data here is from that sheet. Where did the money come from? When we tell people that we are travelling full-time, they tend to have the same few comments. We must have wealthy parents who are paying for everything, or that we have come into inheritance or a lottery win or something else crazy. While we both acknowledge we are very privileged to be able to earn an income (and both have jobs unaffected by the pandemic) - all the money we have saved up has been solely from working full time. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed putting it together! What you came here for: Breakdown of what's below: Expenses YouTube Analytics Summary Expense Report Expense by category This is a quick reference category breakdown of our expenses. Welcome to 2023! We plan on making this a great one and hope you do to! We started the year how most of last year went. Over Budget. *Sigh One day we will get a handle on this, but not this day. We have spent a considerable amount of time at home over the holidays so the overall number's look pretty great, but when you consider we were only on the road from Jan 17th, the numbers start to look a bit more frightening. Accommodations Expenses We spent the first half of January at home being arguably MORE busy than our days are on the road. We we're moving my dad into a new home and Emilys siter into a new place, it was a very busy couple of weeks! Luckily we were living at Emilys parents house for the duration so our accommodation expenses where nil for the first 2 weeks of the year (Thank you Julianne and Tony) From the 17th of Jan we were on a plane flying to Indonesia. Typically Australians would usually stop in Bali and holiday there but because we wanted to try something a little different we boarded a second flight to Labuan Bajo on the Island of Flores. Where, unfortunately, it seems like accommodation isn't as affordable as Bali! Transport Expenses Things to note: The numbers are different to the 'Expenses by Category' Section. that's because in that section I use the Master sheet which includes small transports like Ubers, Grabs, Taxis and short cheap trains which I thought wouldn't add any value in this section! (I kept the total the same) This transport section is a real killer. I knew the flights internally in indonesia where supposed to be cheap, but I was thinking $50 cheap. once we added on a bag we were checking in the prices got a little out of control. We spent almost a thousand dollars on our Indonesian flights alone. Which for us is painful considering we flew home from Europe in the holiday season with full service airlines for only $237! Fixed Costs Insurance is expensive but worth it. Safety wing is our insurer of choice, they seemed to offer the most comprehensive cover especially when lots of countries needed specific types of insurance during the pandemic, they were great! Adobe is the software we used to edit our YouTube videos Epidemic sound is where we get all our music from, you can get a free trial with this link*: https://share.epidemicsound.com/i1nhpc Income Report Affiliate Income Amazon - No New clicks! Get your Guide - We have been fortunate enough to have a few people use our link to book experiences with Get Your Guides! this has resulted in income howvere as it is less than $50 we can't withdraw it yet. Happy for this one to keep going up slowly until we can claim it! We havent pushed anything get your guide related lately and it shows!(only 11 visits and no new bookings) Viator - A great addition to our affiliate income has been a link we made to Viator from our Ha Long Bay cruise video. We are kicking ourselves that we didn't create this link earlier as we are sure we've missed out on some income. We even had someone click on our link and purcahse the same cruise we did which resulted in some commission - we need to wait until they complete the tour before we can withdraw and add it to our income report. But it's a great start! (2 clicks, no new bookings in January) Licensing Agreements No licensing this month, I'm hoping it wasn't a one time thing! YouTube Analytics What a surprise! we had been told that January is among the worst months for income on Youtube and not to expect much. Plot twist. It was our highest earning month ever! We think this has a big amount to do with some videos that started to see some traction combined with travelling through areas that have a higher average CPM. (Thanks Helsinki) Even though our Finland video didn't take off like we'd hope, our one in Tallinn did pretty well as well as the Ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki and there is a lot of cross over between those two cities! As well as this, we had our Lithuania video continue to do well which lifted the rest of our baltic videos. Unfortunately it was a little bit of a flash in the pan as all of our views across all videos have subsided dramatically now and I'm not looking forward to our February results! Summary Final balance at the end of January. A half month of travel + our best income month means our balance change for the month of January was under $1000! a great achievement I don't expect will happen again for quite some time! Expenses: -$1821 Income: +$821.63 Change - $999.37 Thank you so much if you have read this far! and of course, for watching along! Editorial Note - Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post. User Generated Content Disclosure - Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered. *affiliate links - we may earn commission

WE SAVED $4,000.00!! 🤯 Today we have a 40+hour journey from Helsinki, Finland to Adelaide, Australia as we share our budget travel hack for saving over $4000 on our flights. Learn how we book multi-city flights, use layovers to your advantage, and navigate different airlines and continents on a budget. If you've been following along our journey around the world for the last year this video might be a little different but never-the-less, might have some interesting info for you, particularly if you're Australian! as always, Thanks for watching! Watch full video here: #travelhackingaustralia #australiatravelhacking #creditcardpoints