Labengki Kecil: visiting the Bajo fishing village

By Labengki Island Editorial Desk

Sourced facts: prices in the table carry their source and check month and belong to third parties. We cannot guarantee availability, sightings, safety or weather.

Labengki Kecil is the small inhabited island of the Labengki group, home to a Bajo fishing village that the Ministry of Tourism lists as a tourism village. Travel writers and operator Asik Travel mention homestays, an old lighthouse, a small cave and a shallow clam reef. It is a working community first, so go prepared to behave as a guest.

What is Labengki Kecil?

It is the small, inhabited island of the Labengki group, the one English travel blogs often call Little Labengki. The travel account Voyage in Style describes it as a small island with a fishing village, set against the large and mountainous Labengki Besar. The World Travel Guy, a traveller's blog, reports that most of the population lives here while the main sights lie on the bigger island. The Ministry of Tourism Jadesta portal lists the community as the Labengki tourism village, in Lasolo Kepulauan district. Our Labengki Island overview shows how the village fits into a boat trip.

That split explains how this page differs from the rest of the guide. Lagoons and cliffs are stops on a boat day. Labengki Kecil is where most residents live, fish and host visitors in their homes, so a visit works best when you treat it as someone's neighbourhood first and an attraction second.

Who lives there?

Bajo fishing families, according to ANTARA and a travel blog. Population figures differ, and the differences are worth seeing side by side because they use different units and dates:

None of these rules out the others, since the dates and units differ and the 2018 figure comes from a visitor. Where you need one number, cite the Jadesta count with its year.

How did it become a tourism village?

Quite quickly, and with outside institutions involved at each step. Here is the sequence as reported:

• 2016: Jadesta says Labengki opened to tourism, and has since received visitors from Germany, India, France and China, among others.
• 28 April 2017: A forest farmers group of 22 members formed here, offering homestays, guides, souvenirs and fish products, according to the Forestry Ministry's KSDAE office, which calls Labengki a buffer village by the Teluk Lasolo park.
• By early 2023: BKSDA Sultra, the conservation agency, told ANTARA it had paid to renovate ten homes for guests.
• 2023: Bank Indonesia brought 26 homestays onto digital payments and gave the island its first-in-the-province QRIS village title, as ANTARA reports. Lajur reports the bank giving six dive sets to the local tourism group that March.
• 2024: ANTARA reports Labengki reaching the top 50 of the Anugerah Desa Wisata Indonesia programme, out of 6,016 registered tourism villages.

Read those dates as a record of programmes announced, and not as proof that each one still runs. Whether the dive sets are in use today, for example, is something to ask locally. Our page on Labengki diving weighs what can and cannot be said about scuba here.

What can you see in and around the village?

Three of Jadesta's ten visitor spots are here or nearby: the Bajo village (Kampung Bajo), the pool cave and the lighthouse. Here is what visitors report, along with the reef just offshore:

• The village itself: a fishing settlement where, by the Jadesta count, most residents work as fishers. Expect a place of work more than a set of sights.
• The old lighthouse: The World Travel Guy reports an old lighthouse on the island, and jonnymelon.com described a rickety spiral staircase in 2018, climbed at your own risk. Enjoy it from the ground.
• Gua Kolam Renang, the swimming pool cave: The World Travel Guy calls it a small limestone cave, and jonnymelon.com says rainwater feeds it.
• The clam reef: Operator Asik Travel describes a shallow reef here and asks visitors to look without touching or standing on it. Background is on our page about Labengki giant clams.

The price table on this page shows published room figures for the village, from Jadesta and an ANTARA report. The two come from different dates and the Jadesta row gives no unit, so read each as published, open its source, and ask your host what a rate covers.

Which traditions and village rules shape a visit?

A 2023 article in the journal SALAM says residents keep traditions handed down from their ancestors, naming Gambus Bajau music and the Putri Papu dance. It also lists how tourism money reaches households: marine crafts, local seafood dishes, rooms let as homestays and work as guides. It gives no performance schedule, so do not expect either tradition on an ordinary evening, and ask your host if it matters to you.

The same article sets out the rules behind the tourism village. It cites Village Regulation No. 2 of 2021 on tourism management, which covers homestay tariffs and service, a village levy and supervision of sites, and Regent Decree 86 of 2022 on tourism village classes, placing Labengki in the developing class. The regulation's text is not reproduced, so ask the village office or your host what it requires of you.

When is the festival held?

The date moves, so check each year. ANTARA reports Festival Labengki 2026 running from 29 to 31 May at Labengki Kecil, featuring seven sites and described as the third edition. An earlier ANTARA report says the festival was also held on 2 to 4 December 2022, and the SALAM article dates another to 3 December 2021. May in one year and December in others make a fixed-month plan unwise. Those dates and the year before 2026 also add up to more than three editions, so do not lean on the numbering.

Attendance figures for 2026 differ even within one news agency. One ANTARA report gives about 300 visitors, against nearly 200 the year before. A second ANTARA report quotes the travel agents association Astindo Sultra giving 210 participants and eight passenger boats, with a programme including a boat race and a beach clean-up. If you travel for the festival, expect more boats and guests than in an ordinary week on a small island, and sort out your room early.

How should visitors behave in the village?

These are editorial suggestions based on one fact: you are a guest in a small community.

• Ask before photographing people, children or the inside of homes.
• Keep clear of nets, catch and boat work. The Jadesta listing describes a population of mostly fishers, so that is their working day around you.
• Stay off the clam reef, as Asik Travel asks, and keep your hands to yourself in the water.
• Take your rubbish back with you. The festival's own programme includes a beach clean-up, which says something about local priorities.
• Learn a few Indonesian phrases. English is scarce in the villages, according to The World Travel Guy.
• Agree any fee or donation before the activity, and pay the person providing it.

Should you sleep in the village or just visit?

Sleep here if you want evenings among residents and can accept simple rooms. The World Travel Guy calls the homestays very basic but says meals are included, and Jadesta lists six by name without recommending any. Homestay work is part of what the programmes above set out to support.

If you need a private bathroom or round-the-clock power, sleep elsewhere and come over by boat for an hour or two. Where to stay on Labengki compares the options. To check where the group sits on a map, see where is Labengki Island.

What else do people ask about Labengki Kecil?

Who lives on Labengki Kecil?

Bajo fishing families. ANTARA says about 100 families live on the island, all of them Bajo, and the Jadesta portal describes residents as mostly working as fishers.

How many people live on Labengki Kecil?

The Jadesta portal gives 523 for Labengki in 2021. A travel blog gave 470 for Little Labengki in 2018, and ANTARA counts about 100 families. Each uses a different date or unit.

What is there to do on Labengki Kecil?

By the accounts of The World Travel Guy and Asik Travel, you can walk the fishing village, see the old lighthouse from the ground, look into the small swimming pool cave and snorkel over the shallow clam reef without touching it. Most lagoons and cliffs are a boat ride away on other islands.

Can you visit the Bajo village at Labengki?

Yes. Jadesta lists Kampung Bajo among its visitor spots, and homestays operate in the village. Treat it as a place where people live, ask before taking photos and keep clear of working boats.

Is the Labengki lighthouse open to climb?

A travel blog described a rickety spiral staircase in 2018, climbed at your own risk, so this guide does not encourage the climb. View it from the ground.

Which sources support this page?

• Voyage in Style: Labengki and Sombori islands
• The World Travel Guy: Labengki Island
• Ministry of Tourism Jadesta portal: Labengki tourism village
• ANTARA Sultra: Labengki, miniature Raja Ampat (2023)
• jonnymelon.com travel blog: Pulau Labengki (2018)
• Forestry Ministry KSDAE: community work in Labengki village
• ANTARA Sultra: Labengki Kecil named a QRIS village (2023)
• Lajur: Labengki Kecil digital conservation tourism village (2023)
• ANTARA Sultra: Kima Boe handover and tourism village ranking (2024)
• Asik Travel: Labengki Kecil lagoon and giant clams
• ANTARA Sultra: Festival Labengki 2026 programme
• ANTARA Sultra: Festival Labengki 2026 results
• SALAM journal: tourism villages in the Labengki islands (2023)

How do I reach the desk?

If you want a village stay or a festival-week plan, send the desk your dates and how many are travelling on WhatsApp +62 811-3941-4563 or at bd@juaraholding.com. Any booking that follows would be a commercial one for us, with its price and contracting company stated in a written offer. Until then, no room is yours.