Living in Rote is run by people who live on Rote Island, Indonesia. We help others do the same — find and buy land, choose the right visa, set up a household, and keep it running while they’re away — and we publish what we’ve learned doing it.
Who runs this
Living in Rote is founded and edited by Pietro Bonomo, who lives on the island. It began as a set of working notes for people arriving on Rote with real logistical questions — which visa class matches a stay longer than 60 days, how the ferry and flight routes through Kupang actually connect, what a plot of land really costs once you stop being a stranger — and grew into both a working services business and a public reference.
The focus is narrow on purpose. We don’t cover Indonesia; we cover Rote, plus the wider context — immigration rules, the Kupang gateway, the Bali comparison — that directly shapes living here.
What we actually do
We are a small services business, not a travel agency and not a listings portal:
- Property Finder — we scout plots and villas, walk them, verify the owner, and negotiate in Bahasa Indonesia at the local price. Flat fee, no seller commission.
- Concierge — the arrangements between deciding to come and being settled in: transfers, accommodation, guides, introductions.
- House sitting — someone who checks on your house, garden and staff while you’re in your other life.
- Procurements — sourcing what the island doesn’t stock, from build materials to the things that make a house liveable.
- Visa guidance — which route fits your plans, what it costs, and the agents we use ourselves.
We charge flat fees and take no commission from sellers, which is why we can tell you when the honest answer is “don’t buy that” or “Rote isn’t right for you”.
Why we publish
The guides and notes on this site exist because the decisions we help with are expensive and badly documented. Anyone weighing up a move deserves the real numbers and the real friction before they commit — including the parts that argue against coming. Readers who find that useful tend to be the people we end up working with.
How this reference is maintained
Accuracy on pages that touch visas, money, or legal residency matters more than volume, so every reference here is built to be checkable:
- Official sources first. Visa and immigration pages are grounded in primary government sources — the Direktorat Jenderal Imigrasi visa register and application portal (imigrasi.go.id, evisa.imigrasi.go.id) and the UK government’s Indonesia entry-requirements advisory. Where a detail depends on ministerial regulation that changes, the page says so and points to the portal to confirm at the time of application rather than stating a figure as settled.
- Cited and dated. Reference pages carry a visible sources list and both a published and a last-updated date, so a reader can see when a page was last checked and where its claims come from.
- First-hand where it counts. Costs, logistics and daily-life details come from living here, not from aggregating other websites.
- Corrections welcome. Rules on Rote and in Indonesian immigration shift. If something here is out of date or wrong, the fastest way to get it fixed is to flag it — see Contact below.
Who this is for
People seriously weighing up Rote for the long term: working remotely from the island, retiring here, or spending several months a year. If you’re planning a two-week surf trip, much of what we publish will argue against it — deliberately.
How to navigate
The site works on two levels. The pages below explain the island at a glance; the guides go deep on one question at a time.
The island at a glance
- Live - village life, food, costs, internet, getting around.
- Surf - the breaks, the seasons, and who Rote actually suits.
- Property - ownership structures, costs and process for foreign buyers.
- Visas - which permit covers which kind of stay.
- Work from here - connectivity, workspace and the remote-work reality.
- Directory - places, services and contacts on the island.
Guides
Longer references, one question at a time: visas and permits, cost of living, long stays, working remotely, Kupang, property, slow surfing. We are rewriting them from scratch and publishing as they are ready - see all guides.
Contact
For corrections, source updates, or to talk about working together, see the Contact page.