I'm sure there's a lot of pink beaches in the world (7, to be precise), but not as beautiful as this one. When you think about Indonesia, you can understand is one of the countries with more versability, for every different traveller's taste. The pink beach (or Pantai Merah) is located in the edge of the country, in the Komodo island, between Flores and East Nusa Tenggara Island, on the Indonesian part called "East Nusa Tenggara" or "Sonda Oriental" in portuguese.
This exceptional beach gets its striking color from microscopic animals
called Foraminifera, which produces a red pigment on the coral reefs.
For this reason, it is called Red Beach in the local tongue. When the
tiny fragments of red coral combine with the white sands, this produces
the soft pink color that is visible along the shoreline. Aside from Pink
Beach itself, a few small segments along Komodo’s eastern bay also have
a pinkish tint. It's a great place for snorkeling and diving actually, since the corals are almost intact! And animal lovers can observe the giant lizard, famous Komodo Dragon.
Interestingly, the island is home to 2,000 people and 2,500 Komodo
Dragons.
How to visit:
The best time to visit the island is from April to June when the long
rainy and monsoon season is over, and it's not too hot yet. The months
of September–November are also great due to moderate weather, as well as
whale and manta season. Summer is usually too windy and packed with
crowds and boats.
People typically visit the pink sand beach in Komodo Island as part of an island-hopping or Komodo National Park boat tour, but there are no public ferries stopping at Pink Beach or
Komodo Island. Therefore, you’ll need to book a “tour” from Labuan Bajo
harbor. You can get to Labuan Bajo from Bali by plane, just for 50-80€.
Or... if you think like me... I would probably go to an island hopping boat trip between bali and east timor, stopping here. Maybe 3 weeks/1 month is good to this kind of trip, since the boats don't exactly have the best... timming! Always late, and very little information, maybe one once a week, so you really need to plan carefully.
Here I drop you some links if you prefer a tour:
Happy journeys in Indonesia!
