Trip Report Halmahera liveaboard on Ambai - August 2025

[paolobl65]

I made a dive trip in Halmahera on board Ambai liveaboard last August 2025 .


Logistic :
I booked directly in Ambai website ( Premier Indonesia Liveaboards by Wallacea Dive Cruise ) Very easy . All commmucation ( for asking info ) was quick and very informative .
The travel is quite long anyway smooth : from Italy to Jakarta , then few hours in Anara Hotel in terminal 3 and take the 01:10 Garuda direct flight to Ternate arriving there h 7:10 .
The Ambai crew was waiting us in airport and transfer directly to the boat , more or less 9:00 we were on board . All fine .
All other guest arrived from Manado in the morning so we were able to dive in the afternoon ( check dive ) .

The Boat :
the boat was nice , nice cabin with enough space , big bathroom with wide shower . All fine !
The food was OUTSTANDING , really the best I ever had on liveaboard .
Crew also very friendly .

The Diving :
here is our itinerary and dive spot we dove .

What was really good for sure is we do not encounter any other boat during our cruise . Unfortunately the weather was mostly cloudy with some rain , very few day of sun .
Dives were nice but without any WOW factor , I had better diving in Raja , Triton Bay , Konodo , Alor .
Mostly slope , visibility just OK , not really a clear blue water like Alor or Komodo , yes a lot of small reef fish ( especilly in Kusu area ) but lack of medium size fish ( for sure not the density as Raja Ampat , Triton Bay or Komodo ) .
Some black tip shark , bumphead parrotfish , small school of fusilier , no jacks .
Macro night dives also not impressed me so much .
Coral were very healty and untouched indeed , mostly hard coral so the reefscape in general lack a little bit of color compare to Triton Bay .
And on top .... the sensation was we dove super conservatively avoiding current as much as possible .... not a good way to try to see the best part of the reef where the action is .
We were even asked to hook a few times in some spot with just medium current ( really nothing compare to what I experienced in Palau , Komodo , Malpelo , .... ) , yes all very safe indeed .
All in all : nice tripe but not sure if I want to dive this area again .

Here some underwater photos :

 

[paolobl65]

 

[paolobl65]

 

[JustinJRL]

Great, fair report. Thanks for sharing. As Komodo and Raja Ampat get more crowded, there are other tempting options out there, including Halmahera.

 

[Luko]

Thanks for your report, Paolo.

Actually, I was staying in this area almost at the same time but in a resort called Sali Bay located in the Bacan strait SW of Halmahera ( The southernest area of Paolo's itinerary) : hence we could communicate our respective view of the sites almost real time.

It has to be noted the general weather conditions might not have been optimal (as in all of Indonesia this august, it seems) grey clouds and semi-rainy days, although lake like flat seas (even sometimes iceskating park flat).

I concur with Paolo's description and feelings on the area :
- lots of (hard) corals on many sites, although many broken parts on others.
- zillions of small reef fish antias, damselfish, purple queens but NO intermediate sized fish around, no schooling fish, a few blacktip sharks on almost every dive but muck dives.
- the resort dive boat never went into even mild currenty spots, although all of the divers were experienced. (sometimes ridiculously conservative : at a point we skipped a spot where snorkelers with kids looked they were enjoying the dives, that because our guide who jumped first assessed there was too much current!!!). I found myself wanting to exit the dives after 40 minutes otherwise I would just stay around 6-10m deep in the damselfish action and surface with anything like 80-100bars after more than an hour.
On one site near to the Proco Bamboo resort housereef a manageable current picked up, it took 15 minutes for the corals to bloom out, colors to display and better fish action to b seen, this was by far the nicest dive of the trip.
- all in all I would state this dive area had a bit of Raja with less fish, a bit of Alor with much less visiblity, a bit of Komodo without the colors and for the black sand muck dive parts a bit of Lembeh without the critters density.
- Good point is that Sali Bay resort setting and management was perfect ; very comfortable spacious AC bungalows, camera room just in front of the jetty, nice food on general, a small pool, good housereef with walking sharks spotted on every night dive and most of all friendly and efficient staff (except for their safety obsession of not diving into the current).

Bad point and boohs -as always- to LionAir who suddenly decided to cancel our flight back from Manado to Bali and rebooked us directky on a flight departing 4 hours before our landing on Manado (even though that was a single PNR comprising both flights from Labuha to Manado and Manado to Bali). It "only" took 7hours on whatsapp to arrange a more consistent routing with them.

Will I come back? Hmmh... not sure. A pity because Sali Bay resort should get full points with their operation.

 

[Cali_diver]

Oh @paolobl65 I am sad you didn't make it out to Tifore. Did the weather stop you or was it not in the itinerary. To me Tifore is the best part of that area and a can't miss! If you do go back make sure you go that area. @Luko we did most of our dives there in pretty strong current and it was amazing with so many fish. It sounds like maybe current is important there for your experience. Especially around the Tifore and Kusu area! I mean there was a constant river of different fish flying past us. Maybe consider a trip that includes Una Una as well if you haven't been the coral there is spectacular. I have only been to Halmahera in the March/April/May time but I am going back in October so I can definitely compare the seasons.

Regarding current: We had a similar experience with Papua Paradise Eco Resort with them not wanting to dive in any type of current. When we said we wanted current the dive op manager told us the boats wouldn't be able to find us. I told them to follow our bubbles and he proceeded to tell me no one in Indonesia follows bubbles... of course we also found out that the tender drivers were just going to their villages during our dive and they weren't even watching us.

 

[Dan]

@paolobl65,
Thanks for posting the trip report. Beautiful coral scenery pictures.

Did you see walking shark?

 

[paolobl65]

Did you see walking shark?

Hi Dan ,
yes we saw the walking shark during the first night dive close to Ternate .

 

[boletus1973]

Nice report Paolo!! And also luko… i have had the same problem with current dives in raja… they avoid currents at all… they do the checks every time and saying us mid to strong current… and always the current was almost zero! Just one dive in gam i was alone with my guide and we swim to the corner for some action… but the current was nothing compared to what I remember in Komodo or alor…

 

[boletus1973]

Maybe consider a trip that includes Una Una as well if you haven't been the coral there is spectacular.

I was there in 2019… the diving was very nice with superb viz and nice corals/sponges.. but in my opinion not enough to justify the annoying trip to get there…