Here Be Dragons... and a Lavish New Launch Point for Komodo National Park

IT’S TEATIME AND I CAN’T STOP taking photos. I quite literally can’t stop myself—everything in eyeshot is just too stunning. There’s the tea itself, steeped in delicate glass that reveals the most surreal turquoise hue nearly matching the ocean behind it. And vibrant nibbles including magenta kue tok (“red turtle” cake), fanciful martabak (crispy pancake), watermelon-looking kue lapis (layer cake) and coconut-dusted cenil (tapioca snacks), presented on an elegant ceramic platter patterned like the Manggarai culture’s spider web–shaped rice fields. The panorama before me, stretching out to the Indian Ocean, dotted with cone-shaped islands and boats, is the kind that inspires paintings. And then there’s the coffee table: a shimmering mosaic of blues and greens and golds that seems to encapsulate exactly this destination. 

I’m the last person to ever imagine that high tea could be so visually compelling, but here at Nera Lounge, in the main building of new Flores resort Ta’aktana, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Labuan Bajo, at the doorstep of Komodo National Park, I’m enthralled by the tradition, turned on its head and customized so completely for a place that most people don’t know anything about.  

It was 10 years ago that I first visited Labuan Bajo, the fishing village that happens to be the gateway to Komodo National Park and all those prehistoric dragons whom at the time, I found to be a tad underwhelming, perhaps sleepy. But since then, Labuan Bajo has gone luxe, and Ta’aktana is the very best example of this evolution: it’s consciously and sustainably operated, the team is overwhelmingly local and infinitely accommodating, the cuisine and cocktails are crave-worthy, the spa is a bastion of indulgence, and the programming feels original and special.  

And the 70 accommodations at Ta’aktana teeter on perfection thanks to a delicate balance of rich craft and artisanship—think local artifacts, carved wood and woven materials—with luxurious modernity. My ocean-view villa, not one of the seven circular overwater ones (fortunately, as I’m traveling with my infant daughter who has recently begun crawling furiously) sits on land with its own private pool, terrace and grand living room with bar and, for my daughter, a teepee stocked with a rotating cast of towel animals. Call it a first-world problem, but there are so many beautifully plump, cozy places to sit or lay (or soak, as in the perfectly sized tub) that I feel a teeny bit of stress trying to experience them all.  

But as content as I could be never leaving the villa—I mean, there are house-made snacks, potent bottled cocktails, bath salts and very efficient butler service—I do indeed find much joy in emerging. Had I not, for example, I would have missed the wonderfully Indo-centric breakfast buffet—and pandan iced coffee—at the all-day restaurant Leros, where I snag favorites such as soto ayam (chicken noodle soup) and discover new addictions like trancam, a raw veggie salad with seasoned coconut as dressing.  

Highlights pile up as I navigate through and around Ta’aktana. On a morning SUP outing I spot starfish, clownfish and anemone (and learn that staff go out in boats every morning to collect floating rubbish nearby). When we hop into an SUV for an overland adventure to Melo village, I discover the fascinating Manggarai culture—and witness a ceremonial whip-fighting tradition called caci—I knew nothing of and try my feet at a dance that feels something like jumping rope… if the rope was made of bamboo.  

During a cocktail masterclass I shake up a delectable tamarind paloma and daiquiri featuring sopi, the region’s homemade liquor made from sugar palm sap, and another night, I dive practically headfirst into nearly a dozen dishes—including my fave tuna gohu, iga babi ribs and super-spiced fish—presented in rantang (tiffin) at the chic Indonesian restaurant Umasa.  

There isn’t time for laps in the Olympic-sized swimming pool, but I thoroughly enjoy playing with my baby in the infinity-edged one just behind the beach, where I take her to the swim-up bar just to say hi, knowing that the warm staff will greet her genuinely like a princess. Later, Di’a Spa, which means beautiful in the local language, is my grand finale: a flowing massage and then Hygge Harmony scalp treatment involving floral tonics and poultices, concluding with a Dyson hairdryer blowout.  

I leave feeling far more confident than when I walked in and marvel at yet another happy surprise, like the high tea. Ta’aktana, it seems, is full of that kind of magic, I think, walking downhill toward the luminous seascape to my villa. Because there is nowhere else in the world quite like this.  

marriott.com; from $490 USD per night.

BOOK YOUR STAY AT TA'AKTANA, A LUXURY COLLECTION RESORT & SPA VIA BOOKING.COM

Images courtesy of Ta’aktana, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Labuan Bajo.

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