About Us

We run boat trips from Kendari to Labengki and Sombori. That's the whole business.

Not Komodo, not Bali, not a Sulawesi grand tour with these islands attached as an afterthought. One region, one route, four trip lengths. It is a narrow offering and it is deliberate.

Why that matters to you

Most of what is written in English about Labengki and Sombori comes from people who visited once. Some of it is very good writing. None of it can tell you what happens when the sea gets up on a Tuesday, which caves are unreachable on a falling tide, or what the difference between the two room tiers actually is, because the people who wrote it were passengers.

We are not. Our crews make these crossings regularly and they know which stops work in which conditions.

That shows up in two places. It shows up on the trip, where the day is planned around the water rather than around a printed schedule. And it shows up across this site, where we have tried to write down the operational detail nobody else has bothered to.

How we work

Private trips only. The boat is yours. We do not sell individual seats on shared departures. That makes us more expensive per person than an open trip, and we explain the trade-off honestly on why we run private Labengki trips, not open trips rather than pretending open trips do not exist.

Four trip lengths. Three, four, five and six days, on the same route logic. Most operators here sell a single three-day product. We would rather you picked the length that fits your trip, and we'll tell you when a shorter one is enough.

Two accommodation tiers. Homestay and cottage. The itinerary is identical in both.

Enquiry, not checkout. There's no shopping cart on this site. You tell us your dates and group size, we tell you what is available and what it costs, and you decide. Trips out here depend on boats, crews and rooms being free on specific dates, and a booking button that can't check any of that would just be a way of taking your money before we know we can deliver.

What we'll tell you that others won't

We would rather lose an enquiry than land an unhappy guest on a boat a long way from anywhere. So a few things we say routinely:

• This is a karst, cave and lagoon trip with snorkelling attached. It is not a dive destination. If reef quality is why you travel, we'll say so before you book, and we do on whether Labengki is worth visiting.
• The accommodation is basic, structurally so, and if you need a hot shower and air conditioning this is the wrong trip.
• The weather rearranges itineraries here as a matter of routine. Any operator promising you every stop is guessing.
• Sometimes the shorter trip is the right one, and sometimes we'll tell you to book a different length than the one you asked about.

Who we are

labengkisombori.com is run by Asik Travel, an Indonesian tour operator based in Depok, West Java. This site is our specialist arm for Labengki and Sombori.

Asik Travel runs trips to parts of Indonesia the standard itineraries skip: Luwuk Banggai, Labuan Bajo, Sumbawa, Flores and the wider Sulawesi. Labengki and Sombori got a site of their own because a route this specific is badly served by one page on a general operator's website. There is more to say about four islands and a boat than fits in a listing.

We are a small team, and that is most of the reason this site reads the way it does. Nobody here has a job title that depends on making the trip sound better than it is, and a booking from someone who wanted a different holiday costs us more than it earns.

On Labengki and Sombori, the crew is ours. Not a boat we book for you and hope goes well. That is worth knowing because it is the difference between an operator who can tell you what the crossing actually takes and one who repeats a figure from somewhere else, and it is why this site says "our own crew" and means it literally. When a page here refuses to give you a number, it is because we asked the people who would know and they said they were not certain.

If you want to reach us, the contact page has the fastest routes. The registered address is Villa Mutiara Indah, Blok B No. 3, RT 04 RW 02, Kalimulya, Cilodong, Depok 16471, and email reaches us at info@asiktravel.com.

Photography

Every trip includes photo and video documentation, shot on a DJI action camera and iPhone. It is not an upsell and it is not a stock library.

The reason it exists is simple. A lot of this trip happens while you are in the water, on a boat, or climbing something with both hands occupied. Guests consistently come home with excellent pictures of the scenery and almost none of themselves in it. The crew fixes that.

If you're shooting seriously yourself, drones are welcome at our sites and we require no permit from you. National regulations still apply and are yours to check.

Getting in touch

Tell us your dates, how many of you there are, and which trip length you are considering. If you're not sure about the length, say that instead and we'll work it out with you.

Start on how to plan a Labengki and Sombori trip, or go straight to every Labengki Sombori itinerary side by side.