Raja Ampat, West Papua
Raja Ampat diving liveaboards and phinisi cruises
The cruise is the trip. Dive liveaboards out of Sorong, phinisi cruises for people who do not dive, and private charters of the whole boat. We publish what a cabin actually costs against a charter, what the Raja Ampat park permit really is, and what a non-diver does all day.
- Trip length
- 3 to 11 nights
Our shortest is three nights and it stays in the Dampier Strait, because that is what three nights reaches. What no operator publishes is a Misool itinerary under eight nights. We counted across seventeen operators who publish both a route and a night count. The distances set the floor, not the marketing.
- Where you board
- Sorong
Every one of our cruises. Some operators board at Waisai instead, which means flying to Sorong and then taking a ferry across, and most people only discover that after booking the flight.
- The park permit
- IDR 700,000
International visitors, valid twelve months, under-12s exempt. That is the marine park authority’s own published figure. The market quotes four different numbers on four different bases.
Three kinds of trip, and they are not interchangeable
Most sites list boats. The harder question is which sort of trip you are buying, because the wrong one is uncomfortable for everybody aboard. A dive liveaboard organises the whole day around the dive schedule. A leisure phinisi does not dive at all. A charter is the entire boat, and the route is yours.
Three ways to do it
Our Raja Ampat tours come in three shapes, and this is one of each: a dive liveaboard, a cruise for people who do not dive, and a whole-boat charter. Prices are "from" figures and the basis is stated on every one, because a charter shown as a per-person number is not a comparison.
Why eleven nights
Misool is a long way from the Dampier Strait
No operator publishes a Misool itinerary under eight nights, and the eight-night versions visibly compress it. Eleven is the shortest round trip from Sorong that covers Misool and the Dampier Strait without rushing either.
How many nights you needDepth, current, level and season for every site
No scientific body, marine park authority or conservation organisation publishes per-site depth and current data for Raja Ampat. It does not exist. The best available source is operator experience, so that is what these are, and every page says so rather than dressing it up as something firmer.
Raja Ampat is not one place, and the distances decide your trip
The Dampier Strait is current and fish, and it is where most short trips stay. Misool is soft coral and colour, and it sits far enough south that reaching it properly costs two travel days. Waigeo carries the far north and Wayag. Fam and Piaynemo sit between them and are what stops a long trip becoming relentless. Which areas a cruise reaches is the biggest single thing separating one itinerary from another, and it is why night count and route have to be read together.
"Non-diver friendly" is a claim, not an answer
We read every Raja Ampat operator site we could reach. Fourteen publish nothing at all about what a non-diver does. Most of the rest publish that one phrase and stop. Not one describes the actual day.
So here it is. On a dive boat the schedule belongs to the divers. The boat sits at a site for a couple of hours, there is a long surface interval between dives, and on a crossing day there is nowhere to be but on board. Some people love exactly that. Others find out on day five that they have paid a diver’s price for a reading holiday.
If nobody in your party dives, a leisure phinisi is a better trip and usually a cheaper one. If you are a mixed pair, a charter is the honest answer, because the tender can take one of you somewhere else while the other is down.
The questions people actually ask us
- A Cabin on a Shared Boat, or the Whole BoatThe two ways to buy a Raja Ampat cruise, and why the quotes you are comparing are usually not comparable.
- What Certification Do You Need for Raja Ampat?Match the route to demonstrated current skills and recent diving, not a certification label alone.
- What a Day Aboard a Raja Ampat Cruise Looks LikeThere is no single timetable. Learn the five day types and what each asks from guests.
- Dive Boat or Leisure Cruise in Raja Ampat?Two similar-looking boats, two different days. Choose by what the group wants to do before choosing a cabin.
- How Many Dives Per Day on a Raja Ampat Liveaboard?A daily maximum isn't a trip total. Read the itinerary, crossings and final dive cutoff before comparing boats.
- Gear and Nitrox on a Raja Ampat LiveaboardCompare the actual equipment sheet, not an all-inclusive label. Nitrox, rental gear and spare parts vary between boats.
Tell us your month and we will tell you what is free
No payment and nothing booked. We come back by email within 24 hours with what is genuinely available for those dates, and what it costs.
Check availabilityPhotographs: I Made Adi Dharmawam / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Fakhrizal Setiawan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Qeedz / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Anazlombu / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Max Mossler / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Buena Ventura / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0) · Hadi Nyali / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Akbar raf / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Hulivili Pro-Mitglied / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Rizalubun / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · pete Weis / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) · Nugroho Arif Prabowo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Lefaan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Lord Mountbatten / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) · James Mamoto / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)