Kendari Travel Guide: The Gateway to Labengki, Sombori and Wakatobi

Kendari is the capital of Southeast Sulawesi and the gateway to the karst islands of Labengki and Sombori, which lie 40 minutes by road and about two and a half hours by wooden boat to the north. Most visitors spend one night in the city on each side of an island trip. Those trips run three to six days and start at IDR 4,100,000 (about $230) per person with six travellers sharing.

This guide covers the practical side: flights, the harbour, what to sort out in town and how the timing works. Kendari is also a common way in to Wakatobi.

Where you can go from Kendari

Labengki and Sombori are almost always visited together, because reaching one already needs the boat and crew for the other. Sombori has no accommodation, so you sleep on Labengki and cross by day. Our Sulawesi travel guide shows where all three sit on the wider island.

What there is to see from Kendari

The sights people fly here for are out on the water. On Labengki they are Long Sand Beach, a wide bank of white sand under leaning coconut palms, the enclosed Blue Lagoon and Teluk Cinta, a bay shaped like a heart. On Sombori they are Allo Cave and Diamond Cave, Red Sand Beach and the climb to Puncak Kayangan for the view over the lagoons.

Longer trips reach Mbokita, a Bajo village built over the water on stilts and the only real settlement on the route. None of this can be done as a day out from the city, which is why Kendari works as a base for one night at a time and not as a place to tour from.

Getting to Kendari

Haluoleo Airport sits outside the city and handles domestic flights only. Makassar has daily flights to Kendari, about an hour away, and Makassar itself connects to Jakarta, Bali and Surabaya several times a day. Direct flights also run between Jakarta and Kendari.

Book the whole chain on one ticket where you can. Domestic connections in Indonesia are not protected across separate tickets, so a delay on the first leg becomes your problem on the second.

Book in this order. Fix the trip dates first, because boats, beds and guides on the islands are limited. Then buy flights that land the day before the 08:00 pickup. Add a hotel night in Kendari before the trip and one after it, since you get back to the city at the end of the last day.

From Kendari to the boat

Boats for Labengki leave from Tanasa in Soropia, about 40 minutes from the city by road. Other harbours are used too: Sawa and Lasolo further up the coast, and boats from Kendari city harbour itself take four to five hours on the water. Our Labengki and Sombori guide compares the routes.

Tanasa is a working harbour. There is no waiting room and nowhere useful to buy what you forgot, so do your shopping in Kendari.

What to sort out in Kendari before the boat

• Cash for the whole trip. There is no ATM once you leave the city.

• Snorkel gear, if you want your own. A set rents for about IDR 40,000 a day on Labengki.

• Extra snacks and anything you forgot. There is no shop at the harbour.

• A power bank. On the islands the generator runs only from about 18:00 to 06:00.

• A dry bag and sandals with grip for the boat and the limestone.

Phone signal is patchy on Labengki and mostly absent around Sombori, so send your messages before you board.

What a trip from Kendari costs

The three-day trip is priced by group size: IDR 10,785,000 for one traveller, IDR 7,150,000 each for two, IDR 5,840,000 for three, IDR 5,010,000 for four, IDR 4,565,000 for five and IDR 4,100,000 for six. The boat, the fuel and the guide cost the same however many of you board, which is why the rate falls so fast.

Add your flights, two hotel nights in Kendari and about IDR 40,000 a day if you rent snorkel gear. Shared open trips sold by others ran IDR 1,300,000 to 1,500,000 per person in September 2026, with the whole group in one boat. Our page on Labengki Sombori tour packages compares all four lengths.

How many days to allow

A day trip to Labengki does not work. The crossing is about two and a half hours each way, which leaves almost nothing in the middle. The shortest trip that makes sense is the three-day Labengki and Sombori trip, and with a hotel night at each end that is five days in all.

If you can spare one more, the four-day version adds a full day on the Labengki side and is the one we suggest most often.

The best time to travel through Kendari

The drier, calmer months run from around April to October. The crossing is the part of the trip the weather touches most, and it happens first thing on arrival day. Wind matters there as much as rain.

Our crew have not had a month when trips could not run at all. What changes in the wet season is comfort and the stop list: the guides swap exposed sites for sheltered ones, and Twin Lagoon and Tobelo Lake are the two most likely to drop. For the boat itself, wear a long-sleeved shirt and a hat, keep anything that must stay dry in a dry bag, and take a seasickness tablet before you board, not once you feel it.

Wakatobi from Kendari

For Wakatobi, fly to Kendari first, then take the propeller flight to Matahora airport on Wangi-Wangi. Those flights are infrequent and get cancelled, so build in spare days. The overnight ferry from Kendari to Wanci is the backup.

Wangi-Wangi is the arrival island, with the only town of any size and the last dependable ATM before the outer islands. Flights from Kendari are often only a couple a week, and the route stopped for most of a year until October 2025, so keep a spare day at each end. The dry season, roughly April to October, has the calmest sea, and our Wakatobi or Bunaken comparison helps decide whether the extra travel is worth it.

Deposit and cancellation for trips from Kendari

A deposit confirms a Labengki and Sombori trip and the balance is due before it starts. Cancel 14 days or more ahead for a full refund of what you have paid, or 7 to 13 days ahead for 50%. Inside 7 days there is no refund. Trips need at least two days of notice, and in practice the flights decide how early you book.

Planning a trip through Kendari

Tell us your dates and group size. We confirm the boat first, then you book flights around the 08:00 pickup. You can start a Labengki trip request here.