About Neptune Cruise Phinisi
We built Neptune Cruise Phinisi to answer a simple request we kept hearing from guests in Labuan Bajo: a boat large enough to feel like a private resort at sea, but personal enough that the crew knows your coffee order by the second morning. At 40 meters, she is one of the larger VIP phinisi sailing Komodo National Park — a traditional two-masted ironwood hull, hand-laid by Sulawesi shipwrights, carrying seven en-suite cabins for a maximum of twenty guests. That ratio matters. Many boats this size squeeze in thirty; we chose space instead.
How we sail
Our home port is Labuan Bajo, a short drive from Komodo Airport (LBJ), and our routes are the ones we would sail on our own days off: sunrise on Padar’s ridgeline before the day boats arrive, ranger-guided dragon walks on Komodo Island, snorkeling with mantas at Karang Makassar, and quiet anchorages like Siaba Bay where turtles graze under the hull. In the dry season from April to November we run our full Komodo calendar, and we also operate a secondary Lombok-to-Komodo crossing for travelers who want to reach the park the slow, scenic way — through Moyo, Satonda, and the whale-shark waters of Saleh Bay.
Private charter or shared cabin — your choice
Neptune sails two ways. Take the whole vessel as a private charter for families, dive groups, or celebrations, with the itinerary, menu, and pace set entirely by you. Or book a single en-suite cabin on one of our scheduled open-trip departures and share the boat with a small group of like-minded travelers at a fraction of the charter price. Either way you get the same crew of twelve, the same kitchen, and the same beds — the only difference is who else is on board.
Part of the Komodo Luxury fleet
Neptune Cruise Phinisi is owned and operated as part of the Komodo Luxury fleet — a luxury yacht charter operator headquartered in Bali with operational bases in Labuan Bajo, more than a decade of experience in these waters, and a TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Award to show for it. Sailing under that flag means our maintenance schedules, crew training, safety equipment, and guest standards are audited to the same benchmark as our sister ships — including the flagship Komodo Signature, Ayvara, and Malca. It also means your booking is backed by an established operator, not a single-boat operation. Official booking runs through komodoluxury.com or directly with our team on WhatsApp at +62 811-3823-875.
The people behind the boat
Our crew are Flores and Bugis sailors, most of whom have worked these straits since before Komodo had an airport. The captain reads the tide tables between Rinca and Komodo the way most of us read a phone. Our chef trained in Bali and cooks Indonesian seafood the way it should be — grilled on deck, hours out of the water. When guests tell us the crew were the highlight of the trip, we take it as the highest compliment a boat can get.
If you are weighing a private charter against a shared-cabin departure, or comparing Neptune with other boats in the fleet, message us on WhatsApp — we will give you an honest answer, even if the right boat for your group is one of our sisters.
