Question Itinerary help in Raja

[Darnold9999]

Given your thoughts here, I assume 12 days would be preferable to shorter itineraries as well.

Strong preference for longer itineraries. A week is much too short, 10-12 days works.

A liveaboard will cover most of Raja giving you a sample of each area while land based will give you more sites in a limited part of Raja. Neither is intrinsically better, just different. For your first trip I would do a liveaboard as you get a little bit of everything.

I like to do 2 - 4 days somewhere else in Indo before RA to get over jet lag and dial in my diving before getting on a liveaboard. Bali and Lembeh both work. Not always possible, but I find it takes at least a couple of days to change time zones and doing that on a liveaboard is expensive.

 

[cozcharlie]

This is actually extremely helpful. I know that liveaboard itinerary’s typically have to follow more rigid routing, and that doesn’t always work out with mother nature.

I wasn’t sure if sorong to sorong routes would cover the most territory in RA given how large it is. Many of these ships only give vague sample plans so was hard to plan off that. Given your thoughts here, I assume 12 days would be preferable to shorter itineraries as well.

While I am sure it varies a lot between the dozens of liveaboards in Raja, when I was on the Damai I it seemed like the crew made numerous adjustments around sites and times. They would generally send a couple of crew out to check the current at each site before/ during the dive briefing and if necessary we would either delay our dive slightly or go to an alternate site. Maybe it was just that week on that boat with that particular group, but it just didn’t strike me as a particularly rigid dive schedule.

 

[outofofficebrb]

While I am sure it varies a lot between the dozens of liveaboards in Raja, when I was on the Damai I it seemed like the crew made numerous adjustments around sites and times. They would generally send a couple of crew out to check the current at each site before/ during the dive briefing and if necessary we would either delay our dive slightly or go to an alternate site. Maybe it was just that week on that boat with that particular group, but it just didn’t strike me as a particularly rigid dive schedule.

That's really good. A good liveaboard op does this and the current checking is important.

On land, one would have the option to go east to Cape Kri or Blue Magic (or beyond), south beyond Mansuar and towards Batanta or decide to go far west over towards Fam and Pianemu to Melissa's Garden or Batu Rufus, or go north up to towards Gam. That decision can be made up to the morning of, or after lunch for the next outing.

A liveaboard usually looks for nearby/closer alternative dive sites to minimize or avoid having to double back or go in the opposite direction of where they ultimately want to be sailing towards at the end of the day or overnight.

The nice thing on a liveaboard is the transit time which is downtime to relax whereas land-based, you're on a speedboat. Obviously, liveaboards can reach further areas since they don't need to double back. Pros and cons.

 

[SaltyWombat]

I'll echo previous posts which say Sorong to Sorong is best. The best dive sites in Raja4 are in the central area, the Dampier Straight.

For my next trip to Raja4, I'll prioritize land-based resorts over liveaboards for the reasons mentioned by @outofofficebrb.