Loccal Collection Hotel

Picture this: you're sipping a cocktail surrounded by whitewashed walls and blue-domed architecture, but instead of the Aegean Sea stretching before you, it's the Indonesian waters where Komodo dragons patrol their ancient territory. The Loccal Collection Hotel in Labuan Bajo has committed fully to this geographical identity crisis, and somehow, it works.

Perched on the cliffs overlooking the Flores Sea, this 98-room property has embraced the Santorini aesthetic with an almost theatrical enthusiasm.

Think whitewashed walls meeting cerulean accents, infinity pools that seem to spill into the horizon, and terraces that practically beg for sunset photography sessions. It's Instagram bait, certainly, but there's a sincerity to the execution that prevents it from feeling entirely contrived.

The Loccal Collection represents this transformation perfectly – it's ambitious, slightly surreal, and utterly committed to its vision. The hotel's designers have taken the bold step of transplanting Mediterranean aesthetics into tropical Indonesia, creating something that shouldn't work but somehow does.

Strip away the Santorini styling, and you'll find a property that takes its local context seriously.

The hotel sources ingredients locally for its Sangkar Lobster restaurant, where the menu celebrates both Indonesian flavors and international cuisine.

The rooms themselves are straightforward affairs – air-conditioned sanctuaries with flat-screen TVs, rain showers, and those essential balconies or terraces.

Some of you might find them compact, but the real estate here is clearly the communal spaces and that all-important view.

The infinity pool, while undeniably photogenic, genuinely offers spectacular views of the surrounding archipelago.

There's no escaping the fact that this is a hotel built for the sunset economy.

People gather each evening like pilgrims, cocktails in hand, to witness the daily spectacle of the sun disappearing behind the scattered islands. It's become ritual, performance, and shared experience all rolled into one.

The hotel's marketing materials make much of having the "best sunset spot" in Labuan Bajo, and while such claims are subjective, the elevated position certainly doesn't hurt.

There's something both beautiful and slightly melancholic about this daily gathering – a reminder of how natural wonder has become commodified, packaged, and sold back to us.