Question Banda or Raja Ampat liveaboard in Oct / Nov?

[scubajunky17]

If you want to see hammerheads, I would book the earlier trip. But don't fixate on hammerheads. I've done 5 or 6 Banda trips and been skunked on seeing hammerheads on several of them. But, there's so much great diving in Banda, that these were still great trips.

Is Banda comparable to Raja then ?

 

[reubencahn]

I don't know that I'd say comparable. I would say Banda is more like North RA, but they're still quite different. Life is at least a bit denser in RA. Topography is different as Banda has a lot of very deep water as well as more lengthy transits. Banda has more hard, less soft coral than RA. They seems very different sites, but I don't feel particularly adept at describing the differences.