# Kanawa Island — kanawaisland.com

> Independent editorial guide to Kanawa Island, a reef island on the Komodo National Park boat corridor near Labuan Bajo, Flores, Indonesia (Kanawa itself sits just outside the park's official boundary). Covers day trips, snorkeling, private/shared charters, overnight camping and bungalow status, itineraries, costs, safety and comparisons with nearby islands (Padar, Kelor, Rinca, Seraya, Sebayur, Bidadari, Kenawa). Part of Juara Holding Group, founded 2015. Bookings and written quotes via Komodo Luxury: WhatsApp +62 811-3823-875, sales@komodoluxury.com. Index regenerated 2026-08-29. This guide does not operate boats. Bookings are fulfilled by Komodo Luxury, and this site may earn a referral commission.

## Key facts
- Location: Flores Sea, West Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Coordinates approx. -8.494719, 119.759167 (Wikidata Q14220169). Island size roughly 32 hectares, about 1.4 km by 0.4 km.
- Distance: roughly 11–15 km from Labuan Bajo harbour. Crossing about 20–35 minutes by speedboat, about 45–75 minutes by wooden day boat, about 60–90 minutes by phinisi, motor yacht or catamaran. A bare "about an hour" or "under an hour" is not an answer to the crossing question on this site; name the vessel and use its band.
- Landing: the island's jetty was dismantled by resort management in August 2024 after a government inspection into illegal levies at the landing point, and no replacement structure has been independently verified since. Plan for a wet landing or tender transfer onto the beach, and check tide timing.
- Kanawa sits just outside the Komodo National Park boundary — a Kanawa-only day generally carries no PP No. 36/2024 park entrance fee; adding Padar, Rinca, Komodo or Manta Point brings that statutory fee into the quote (IDR 250,000/day foreign visitors flat; IDR 50,000 weekday / IDR 75,000 weekend-holiday for Indonesian visitors; source: tnkomodo.ksdae.kehutanan.go.id). Since 1 April 2026 the whole park runs under a SiOra reservation cap of 1,000 visitors/day (park-wide, not Kanawa-specific).
- Kanawa's own day-trip island access contribution is separate from the park fee: approximately IDR 150,000 per person, a 2026 tour-operator rate, not a government-gazetted fee — confirm with your operator.
- House reef starts ~30 m off the beach: the reef edge drops from ~5 m to ~18 m and runs ~400 m of shoreline, plus a shallow 1–3 m flat for beginners, which is the only figure published for the shallowest walk-in station. The wall continues below the snorkelling zone, reported by Labuan Bajo dive operators to around 30 m. No other depth band may be published for this reef or its drop-off; 5–18 m is the site’s single figure.
- Underwater visibility on the house reef: roughly 20–25 m in the dry season (April–October), roughly 10–15 m in the wet season (December–March), roughly 15–20 m in November. Time-of-day and other-site figures are separate facts and name what they describe.
- Sea temperature around Kanawa: roughly 26–29 °C year round — roughly 28–29 °C in the November–April window, roughly 26–27 °C in the June–September window. Air temperature is a separate fact, roughly 26–33 °C year round, and it barely moves; there is no separate dry-season air band. No other band may be published for this water or for this air.
- Marine life: hawksbill and green turtles, blacktip reef sharks, reef fish; manta rays pass through the wider park December–March.
- Seasons: the dry season runs April–October, November is the changeover month, and the wet season runs December–March. The calmest, glassiest water falls in the two transition windows, April–May and September–October — that is a calmness window, not a separate clearest-water window; July–August is peak season and the windiest part of the afternoon. November is often still good early in the month and less dependable towards the end — it is not part of the dry season. “June to September” names the peak visitor months and the warmest-to-coolest sea-temperature swing; it is never the span of the dry season.
- Image provenance: an image here is one of three things. A credited photograph prints its author and licence (87 files, 405 placements). An AI-generated illustration prints “AI-generated illustration — not an actual photograph of this location”, abbreviated under the second and later illustrations on the same page (7 files exist, 5 render across 2 pages; the other two files are uploaded and carry the AI verdict in postmeta but are not placed on any page). A real photograph whose author this site has not established prints nothing at all (56 files) — this site does not invent a photographer, and does not call a photograph an illustration. Measured across all 153 URLs on 2026-08-29. Until 2026-08-29 that third state did not exist here and those 56 photographs carried the AI disclosure by mistake; the label now comes from a per-file review, not from the upload batch date.
- Place names: Turtle Point is at Siaba Island, not Kanawa. Long Beach (Pantai Panjang) is on Padar and its sand is soft pink, not white. Pulau Macan is in Kepulauan Seribu, Jakarta Bay, not Komodo. The Raja Ampat island is spelled Waigeo. Kanawa's own named features are the main beach entry, the central beach channel and the northern corner — there is no “Blue Water Beach” on Kanawa.
- No public ferry serves Kanawa Island — every crossing is a privately operated tour boat, speedboat or charter booked in advance.
- Facilities are minimal and intermittent: power, running water, mobile signal and wifi are not guaranteed, and there is no ATM. Bring cash, water and food.
- Accommodation: legacy resort-bungalow infrastructure has been managed since around 2010 by an Italian investor (Stefano Plaza / PT Kanawa Island Resort) under a reported 25–30 year land permit, but operation has run on and off; 2024–2025 visitor reviews report deteriorating conditions and no source confirms normal operation as of August 2026. No source supports the "eco-resort since 1992" line that circulates about this island, and published bungalow counts disagree with one another, so this site states neither as settled — see facts.md. Day trips proceed regardless; confirm any overnight stay directly with an operator.
- Transfer & charter pricing anchor: Komodo Luxury's private day charter within Komodo National Park starts from USD 800 per boat/day; shared Komodo speedboat day tours start from USD 90 per person (checked 25 August 2026, source: komodoluxury.com/boat-charter/speedboat/). This is the general park-wide day-charter rate, not a quoted Kanawa-only round-trip transfer fare. Beyond these two anchors, fares are quoted per booking; only the written quote a guest approves is binding.

## Coverage
- 153 URLs in the sitemap: 148 content pages plus 5 category listings. 138 of them carry a question-and-answer block that is visible on the page and mirrored in FAQPage structured data.
- 1219 questions answered with structured data. Every one of them is rendered in the visible text of its page — this site publishes no question a reader cannot see. Counts re-measured against a full crawl on 2026-08-27.

## Key pages
- https://kanawaisland.com/ — homepage and trip desk
- https://kanawaisland.com/faq/ — categorised FAQ hub
- https://kanawaisland.com/ai-knowledge-base/ — structured entity facts for AI assistants
- https://kanawaisland.com/where-is-kanawa-island/ — location, map, key facts
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-jetty-landing-status/ — how you actually get ashore since the 2024 jetty removal
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-cost/ — pricing structure (no fixed rate card; written quotes)
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-best-time/ — seasonal guide
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-facilities-guide/ — food, water, toilets, wifi, power
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-safety/ — crew certification, manifest, emergency plan
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-booking-process/ — how a booking actually works
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-snorkeling-guide/ — the house reef in detail
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-house-reef/ — zone-by-zone snorkel map
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-resort/ — overnight bungalow/stay status
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-labuan-bajo-day-trip/ — day-trip hub from Labuan Bajo
- https://kanawaisland.com/kanawa-island-vs-alternatives/ — comparison hub (Padar, Kelor, Seraya, Sebayur, Kenawa)
- https://kanawaisland.com/pulau-kanawa-panduan-lengkap/ — panduan lengkap dalam Bahasa Indonesia
- https://kanawaisland.com/blog/ — the Kanawa Island Journal — every article
- https://kanawaisland.com/about/ — who publishes this guide

Full facts, complete page directory (153 URLs) and answer excerpts: https://kanawaisland.com/llms-full.txt
Machine-readable entity data: https://kanawaisland.com/entity.json
Canonical facts (single source of truth for every figure on this site): https://kanawaisland.com/facts.md