Indonesia: spiritual Bali & Komodo cruise

Here, you’ll board your home for the next week, the luxury boat Aqua Blu. Its small size means it can reach many of Komodo National Park’s wonders that plenty of other cruise ships can’t, while still ensuring you island-hop in style. Your Komodo National Park tour will begin among the footprint-free sands of Gili Lawa Laut, where you can snorkel straight from the beach for encounters with sea turtles. Next, you’ll meet the archipelago’s namesake dragons among mangroves and savannah-coated hills on a Rinca Island tour; a meeting with these ancient creatures is one you won’t forget. The following day, you’ll search for sea eagles and more Komodo dragons aboard Aqua Blu’s skiffs in the volcanic caldera of Horseshoe Bay before reclining on the blancmange-tinged sands of Pink Beach.

Dragons may be the primeval drawcard but Komodo National Park’s diving hotspots are its trump card. You’ll discover this when you explore the depths of the Linta Strait, where you’ll glide alongside manta rays, trevallies and barracuda. After you’ve dried off, clamber up a peak on Padar Island for an epic view of its glittering bay and curving rugged coastline, before toasting to nature’s magic with a sundowner cocktail on the beach. You’ll uncover more idyllic beaches and rainforest hiking trails on Gili Banta, become reacquainted with Komodo dragons in the wild on West Komodo before waking up to inquisitive whale sharks in Saleh Bay.

Your last day in the Komodo archipelago will quite possibly be the wildest: tread the wild jungle paths of the remote Moyo Island to stumble upon secret waterfalls, off-the-map fishing communities and the kaleidoscopic Angel Reef. After all that adventure, you’ll spend a few decadent days winding down on Bali’s south-western shores at The Bvlgari Resort, twinning Italian elegance with tropical chic isolation.