Best Raja Ampat Diving Area

[amclaughlin200]

Good Day Divers,

I'm planning a trip to Raja Ampat and would love to hear your opinions on the best areas to dive. Is there a specific area within Raja Ampat that most of the liveaboards focus on? Is it broken up into different areas with some being way better diving than others, or are there must see dive sites throughout the whole park? The reason I ask is because we are almost exclusively interested in diving, so I don't want to plan out an entire trip of moorings and anchorages all around the park just to find out theres only a few popular dive areas. From what I read so far it seems like pretty world class diving all around the park. Feel free to comment the areas and or specific dive sites you enjoyed most. I plan on diving into some research of the areas myself in the coming weeks but always seem to get good advice here and enjoy chatting about destinations. We also plan on hiring a local guide so if anyone has contacts of any local female (due to cabin arrangements) dive guides I'd be interested as well. At this time I'm not necessarily interested in dive operators or specific liveaboard choices because we already have accommodation and transport around the park.

Happy Diving!

 

[stepfen]

I very much doubt there is any boring dive site in the whole area. Reputable operators want to keep their customers happy (to retain their reputation but also because happy people tip better). Don't overthink about it. No sane operator will bring you to boring sites. Most LoB's focus in the area around Dampier Strait to Piaynemo , as most of the highlight sites are around there, but sites further out are fantastic too.

About specifics, I'm mixed up. Are you doing LoB (you mention cabin), or land based (you mention you already have accommodation/transport) or both? To get better answers you need to tell us your budget and preferred style of traveling (some are happy to stay in homestays, some need AC in the room, some need even a sauna and private Jacuzzi). Also stating your past diving experience (familiarity with currencts?) and expectations (prefer pelagics vs reef diving vs macro) will also help to get you better answers.

About private guides, usually in Indonesia the divers per guide ratio is quite good (usually max 4 divers per guide) so you might not even need to make special arrangements. Finding a female private guide might be tricky as they might be rare.

All the best.

 

[JustinJRL]

Agree with above, dive sites are great all over, depends what you are looking for and what kind of dives you prefer. Some may prefer the big fish action of the main central dampier sites (cape kri, sardine reef, lao lao etc). Others might prefer a slightly more relaxed dive on the reefs around Manusar or Arborek - these are often more colorful. Finally, I really do recommend a trip to the Fam area (Piaynemo) as the coral is unreal!

I'm starting to ramble, but you get the idea. None of those sites will be missed as long as you've got a good week or so of diving. There's no shortage of epic sites in raja - I haven't even mentioned Misool (heard great things, never been, more difficult to get to) or eastern Gam (also epic!)

 

[Dan]

Magic Mountain is my favorite.

 

[Dan]

Melissa’s Garden is 2nd favorite

 

[Dan]

Here’s a video of my latest trip to Raja Ampat in February 2024. The video was made chronologically with dive site location, name and what I saw there.

 

[Dan]

Here’s in 2022

 

[Dan]

And you don’t want to miss night dive in Misool’s Batu Barracuda.

 

[Centrals]

Forget the over priced LoB.

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Island hopping is dead easy.

Trip Report - Raja Ampat [10 weeks diving with 9 different operators]

My wife and I had the good fortune to have 10 weeks of diving in Raja Ampat, starting end of October 2023 with our last dive on the 3rd January 2024. We did approx 100 dives with nine diving operators, consisting two liveaboards, two dive centers, and five diving homestays: Liveaboards: You...

scubaboard.com

 

[cozcharlie]

It sounds like you are trying to pick up a guide and see the park by yacht or sailboat.

I think this could be very very tricky. Almost every dive is current/tide dependent —you want someone who dives the area a lot (not a little ). Even very experienced operators have to adjust quite a bit for changing conditions. Another issue is that I gather there are things that go on behind the scenes that divers may not realize are happening. While in theory your park permit should give you access to the whole park —some villages don’t see it that way and demand some sort of tribute (I know one operator gives diesel since that can only be used for generators that usually benefit whole village ). Another thing is that sites can get crowded and I believe at least sometimes there is coordination between operators in terms of timing (especially around Misool down South maybe at some of the popular sites in Central Raja). It is obviously possible I could be mistaken about the above , but that is what I have gathered from various comments by resort managers and liveaboard cruise directors . I really wasn’t paying super-close attention since it was more their problem than mine but that is what I gathered.