Even when I was a kid living in Jakarta, Bali was always the place to go—whether on family long weekends to Ubud or, as a teenager, on rebellion-fueled Spring Breaks to the southern beaches. One exception was more than 15 years ago, when on a school sailing trip we skirted the coast of an island named Flores, making landfall on a desolate white sand beach for just long enough to take in the island’s wildness and learn of its mystique: It’s a place with hills so steep they’re uninhabitable and mineral-rich crater lakes that shine kaleidoscopic colors; until 17,000 years ago, it was home to Homo floresiensis, a relative to Homo sapiens, nicknamed “hobbits” for their short stature. This year, I finally made it back, and I braced myself for an island overrun by selfie sticks and tour buses. But the crowds, it turned out, haven’t descended on Flores, despite it being just an hour’s flight from Bali.
The September opening of the modern, ocean-facing Ayana Komodo Resort at Waecicu Beach may change all that. Each of its 205 rooms has floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony, which means full-on views of the fluorescent-blue Flores Sea. There’s also an 820-foot private jetty and a fleet of boats at the ready so you can get this close to Komodo dragons at Rinca Island or snorkel over healthy, dense beds of soft and hard coral. You could even bake in a few days aboard the hotel’s own ship, the Lako di’a, a 177-foot traditional phinisi that’s been updated with nine guest rooms.
Ayana is taking steps to ensure that Flores doesn’t suffer the same fate as Bali, where environmental regulations were nonexistent as its popularity soared, leaving coral reefs decimated and some beaches littered with plastic. There’s an in-house marine biologist tasked with growing a coral nursery, and the property is committed to funding parts of Komodo National Park (a dollar from every room booked goes to the park).
If the construction sites and rumors of land purchases on the island’s northwestern coast are any indication, this won’t be the last luxury resort to set up shop on Flores—but it’s worth getting there while it’s still the only one.
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