The Savu Sea separates East Nusa Tenggara & West Timor, so overland travel is out – find out how to travel between Ende & Kupang by sea & air, including official ferry schedules & prices!
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Ende-Kupang by Sea
Ferry services between Ende & Kupang are provide by Pelni.
The official Pelni website has a full schedule with times & prices, but only in Indonesian – use Google Translate or a local friend.
You can search dates up to 6 weeks in advance though beware that in Indonesia, nothing can be certain.
More ferry schedules can be found at Lavalon Bar & Hostel although they may not be up to date.
A random search on the Pelni website brought up the following routes:
ENDE – SABU – ROTE – KUPANG
- Ship KM.A W U
- An economy ticket is 97,000 IDR
- Departs on Wednesday
- The trip takes 25 hours, departing Ende at 20:00 & arriving in Kupang at 21:00 the next day
ENDE – SABU – ROTE – KUPANG – LARANTUKA – KALABAHI – KUPANG
- Ship KM.A W U
- An economy ticket is 484,000 IDR
- Departs on Wednesday
- The trip takes 64 hours, departing Ende at 20:00 & arriving in Kupang at 12:00 three days later
ENDE – KUPANG
- Ship KM.WILIS
- An economy ticket is 97,000 IDR
- Departs on Saturday
- The trip takes 15 hours, departing Ende at 07:00 & arriving in Kupang at 22:00 the same day
ENDE – WAINGAPU – LABUAN BAJO – BADAS – BENOA/DENPASAR – BADAS – LABUAN BAJO – WAINGAPU – ENDE – KUPANG
- Ship KM.WILIS
- An economy ticket is 484,000 IDR
- Departs on Friday
- The trip takes 8 days, departing Ende on a Friday at 15:00 & arriving in Kupang at 22:00 on Saturday week
Ende-Kupang by Air
You gotta love it sometimes when there’s no alternative to taking the easy way out.
The ferry times didn’t work out for us here at DIY Travel HQ so we took to the skies to travel from Ende to Kupang!
We flew from Ende to Kupang with TransNusa for 350,000 IDR / $26.25.
The ride took approximately 1 hour.
Wings Air, Garuda Indonesia & Merpati also fly between Ende & Kupang.
From the runway to the skies, it was great to get some good ol’ customer service from TransNusa.
Onboard, we got lollies & a drink!
It was old-school all the way, flying on a small, old-school propeller plane.
The weather was perfect & the flight was perfectly scenic:
Flying into Kupang was awesome, especially when the transformer-style wheels came out!
How to Get Out of Kupang Airport
Kupang’s El Tari Airport is 15km from the city center, where there are several interesting things to see & do in Kupang.
Taxi’s cost a fixed 50,000 IDR / $3.75 or you can take a bemo/microbus.
First, walk out of the airport along this lovely road:
When you reach the main road, turn left & walk 1km to the main intersection with this roundabout:
Cross the roundabout, take a right walking towards the city & wait at the bus shelter up ahead – bemos will stop here.
We negotiated a ride to Lavalon Hostel for 5,000 IDR / $0.35; when we arrived there the driver wanted 50,000 IDR / $3.50. The going local rate is 3,000 IDR / $0.20.
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*** The Final Word: Cross by ferry to Kupang or treat yourself to an old school flight ***
How did you get to Kupang?
Accessible DIY travel to more distant locations via multiple connections or longer forms of public transport
Visited in October 2015