This is a ready-made package, planned day by day. Transport, accommodation, a local guide, village visits, entrance fees, and all meals are already built in — just ask for current pricing based on your dates and group size.
Why join this as a package: We arrange every village visit ahead of time, so the weavers know to expect you — that's what gives you the best chance of actually meeting them. Travel independently without an arrangement, and there's a good chance you'll find the village quiet, with the weavers out working in the fields.
Arrival in Ende
Arrive in Ende in the afternoon and settle in to your modern city hotel, then round out the day with a short tour of Ende — the historic port city that serves as the gateway into Flores' weaving heartland and the trailhead for Kelimutu.
🍴 DinnerA Lio Weaving Village & Mountain Village
See ikat making in a nearby weaving hamlet that specialises in natural dyeing — cloth colored with dyes drawn from roots, bark, and indigo leaves, a process that can take weeks to months per piece. Continue into the highlands to a traditional Lio village of peaked-roof Sa'o clan houses, where the Mosalaki — the customary clan leader responsible for land, ceremony, and communal decisions — welcomes you with a tour of the village's history and customs. Drive on through spectacular mountain scenery to Moni via a local market, arriving for a two-night stay at an ecolodge set between rice paddies and rainforest.
🍴 Breakfast · Lunch · DinnerNggela Ikat Weaving Village
Spend the day in Nggela, one of Flores' finest ikat-weaving villages, where women still weave natural-dye textiles in the courtyards much as their grandmothers did. Around two dozen thatched clan houses form the cultural heart of the village — meet its weavers and the local Mosalaki, who will invite you inside the sacred interior of one of the houses, before returning to the ecolodge for a relaxed afternoon.
🍴 Breakfast · Lunch · DinnerKelimutu Crater Lakes & Wuring
An early morning walk through the forest leads up to Kelimutu's three color-changing crater lakes — Tiwu Ata Mbupu, Tiwu Nuwa Muri Koo Fai, and Tiwu Ata Polo — each a different hue, and believed by the Lio people to be the resting place of ancestral souls. After a late breakfast, continue to a modern seaside hotel in Maumere. Late afternoon, visit Wuring, a Bajau fishing village built out over the water on stilts and linked by wooden walkways.
🍴 Breakfast · Lunch · DinnerTraditional Market & a Sikkanese Weaving Community
Browse Maumere's incredibly busy traditional market, then drive up into the highlands to a small Sikkanese weaving community, known for its own natural-dye ikat tradition. After a late lunch back at the hotel, spend the afternoon relaxing by the pool.
🍴 Breakfast · Lunch · DinnerFlying Out from Maumere
After breakfast, transfer to the airport for your onward flight out of Maumere — end of the trip, and farewell to Flores.
🌅 Breakfast · FarewellA Closer Look
Photography: Sue & David Richardson, Asian Textile Studies.
Includes: Transportation, accommodation, meals, entrance fees, and village visits.
Excludes: Domestic flight, alcoholic beverages, tipping, and personal expenses.
Need a hand with domestic flights? I can arrange these by request.
The program may be reordered at the guide's discretion. Reconfirm before booking.