Dear Coprios.
My girlfriend and I went with the liburan on a 16 day exploration trip to Halmahera. Overall I think it was the best trip I have ever done.. The feeling of going off the beaten track was priceless.
Summed up:
The dive boat is not luxury. VERY basic but works. Same with rooms..
The food is not anything special. Plenty of it.
The diving was varied. We did muck, drift etc. What I liked was the very small dive groups. We were 5 in our group with one guide (3 groups total). The diving was very relaxed. The group decided the diving not the divemaster (The divemaster had not dived the area before hence the word exploration). Dont expect large amounts of pelagic action (we did have several shark encounters (white, black and one grey), a manta and other rays but in general this is difficult to find in indonesia). On the other hand there were so much macro and the coral health is incredible in some places.
The hospitality of the people on board was incredible. The owner of the boat, Rudi, is a character. I liked him very much but he is a bit special. The crew became like family and were very helpful.
For comparison I have been to:
Wakatobi - Best Luxury, good diving
Fiji Agressor - Bad weather, ok diving
Roatan - Ok topside, diving nothing special
Jamaica - Lots of rays but nothing else. Worst diving
Costa Rica - bad viz but incredible amount of big stuff..
Apo island - least luxury but best diving ever (corals, turtles, macro etc)
Panglao - Balicasaq and pamilican impressive diving!
Siquihor - Good diving (macro)
Puerto Galera - ok diving but unlucky due to typhoon
Egypt - nothing special (hurghada)
Maldives - Bad weather diving ok but not up to expectations
Bali(padang bai) - ok diving
Bunaken - ALOT of current.. ok diving
Lembeh - WAUU! Critters galore. Incredible if you can be fascinated by that
Great Barrier Reef - Disappointing (didnt do the most far away reefsystems)
Boracay - If you like haggling do it. Diving ok
In my mind the halmahera trip stands out as most value for the money!
