More and more travellers are choosing to break their cross-island journey at the port town of SAPE . The town itself is no worse than Bima, and staying there means you get a full night's sleep before catching the 8am ferry to Komodo and Flores. Nearby Gili Banta is a good day-trip should you get stuck, with nice beaches and a burgeoning turtle population. Many hotels in Sape, however, are dirty brothels, infested with bedbugs. The best are probably the reasonably clean Friendship and Mutiara losmen (both under $5), on the single main street that leads down to the port.

At present there are two ferries to Labuhanbajo on Flores, stopping in Komodo every day except Friday. The larger ferry (Rp17,500) is more spacious and relatively clean, with a tourist-class deck for an extra Rp3000. The other ferry (Rp11,100) is slow and overloaded and some prefer to wait in Sape for an extra day rather than subject themselves to it. The trip from Sape to Labuhanbajo through the tempestuous Sape and Lintah straits takes nine to twelve hours.