Raja Ampat Resort / Land Based Dive Options / Recommendations

[John Trecker]

It has been some time since there has been a thread on recommendations and input for Raja Ampat / R4 resort and land based dive options.
Am planning a trip in Dec / Jan for 2 weeks and have been a bit surprised at how limited the options are.
Many places are booked up for large parts of the year (Misool Resort is completely full for all of 2022 with prior rebookings).
Any recommendations, suggestions, hints, concerns, or other input appreciated! Please feel free to add in other input. Thank you everyone!

1. Location / Dive Site Access: Are diverse sites close / far? Long boat rides? House reef?
2. Dive Ops / Team: Safety / boats? Especially any recs for good guides / spotters.
3. Dive Equipment : Considerations on Nitrox / tank size / type, etc. Concerns with quality?
4. Accommodation / Food: Basic / Luxury / Value? Aircon? Food quality / variability. Recs on room type / location?
5. Wifi / Mobile Access Experience: Especially in these days of remote work.
6. Overall Impressions / Recs: Would you go back? Good value? Cater to serious divers? Anything you would do differently?

PS: Of course any input is in the context of Covid 19 pandemic and related impacts which we all know obviously has affected and will continue to affect ops, but his is not intended to be a posting to discuss Covid 19 (such as entry requirements) which has been covered in depth elsewhere.

 

[Centrals]

All resorts would like you to dive as often as possible. Why would they want to restrict that? That is how they make a living.
Maybe you will now understand a bit better ?

I have been to dive operators who could not let me dive as often as possible. They have to look after the clients and the diving staffs.

 

[Indah]

I have been to dive operators who could not let me dive as often as possible. They have to look after the clients and the diving staffs.

as often as the weather, logistics, laws and safety allows.

 

[drrich2]

I wonder if you have any idea what it takes to run a resort on the Raja Ampat islands.

I imagine one would have to run one, or at least work at one awhile, to get a good idea of that. Thanks for your insights, it's interesting.

Many businesses went under during the pandemic. The ones who survived did this often by using all financial reserves they had, borrowing money from friends, selling parts of their property or getting another loan. ZERO support from the government.

Not only did the pandemic hit the world economy hard, but much of the world is facing high levels of inflation right now. The Russian war on Ukraine and resultant energy supply restriction isn't looking good, plus I read OPEC is cutting production which will drive up cost.

So people in the U.S. and elsewhere will have tighter budgets with less discretionary income and try harder to wring the most value for their dollar (or euro.), at a time when service providers have seen their surviving businesses severely strained. That's not a good combination.

it takes at least 1 running high capacity generators to have the rooms equipped with aircon. These machines take 250 USD per day in fuel. Fuel which is often hard to get and have to brought in by boat. The days that only 1 or 2 bungalows are occupied the costs are almost the same.

Very interesting. And as a chubby American raised in the hot, humid summers of the South, I'm A.C.-dependent when it's hot.

I don't envy you guys struggling to make the logistics work.

 

[Centrals]

as often as the weather, logistics, laws and safety allows.

Safety is the No.1 priority.
Dive as often as possible is definitely NOT.

 

[Indah]

I imagine one would have to run one, or at least work at one awhile, to get a good idea of that. Thanks for your insights, it's interesting.


Not only did the pandemic hit the world economy hard, but much of the world is facing high levels of inflation right now. The Russian war on Ukraine and resultant energy supply restriction isn't looking good, plus I read OPEC is cutting production which will drive up cost.

So people in the U.S. and elsewhere will have tighter budgets with less discretionary income and try harder to wring the most value for their dollar (or euro.), at a time when service providers have seen their surviving businesses severely strained. That's not a good combination.

Very interesting. And as a chubby American raised in the hot, humid summers of the South, I'm A.C.-dependent when it's hot.

I don't envy you guys struggling to make the logistics work.

I agree with you. For Europeans Indonesia already became 15% more expensive only because of the weak Euro. And indeed the energy prices will hit many people very hard this coming winter. My post did not have the intention to complain. I live a very happy and meaningful life. But I wanted to explain why many things are not that obvious here now, as they would be in other places or times.

 

[YSU]

Spent 10 days at Papua Paradise a few years ago and was impressed. West facing huts on stilts over the water, very comfortable. I don't recall if their was aircon but wouldn't have used it and didn't need it. Meals were buffet style and very good with lots of variety. Guides were very good. Diving was good, boat travel to both sides of Dampier Straight. Some sites are really close to the resort, some a bit further away, and some quite a bit further away so you are on the boat all day for those sites. They have two house reefs, one on each side of the island so one side is always diveable.

The trip was a test to see how I liked diving from a land resort in RA. Was really nice, but I prefer a liveaboard. You get to see more of the entire RA area rather than just one area. With a resort you always have people coming and going, on a liveaboard you are with a specific group the entire time. Both work, just different.

My recollection is that WiFi existed and I was able to email home, but doing remote work would have been iffy as the speed was fairly low and I suspect latency might b an issue. For keeping in touch sure, more than that I doubt it.

Was there last week. Wi-Fi existed, not enough to work on, felt like a shared LTE connection. My ATT SIM picked up a local 3G signal most days which outperformed the Wi-Fi.

Otherwise utterly fantastic resort

 

[Bill McDavid]

For some of my dive buddies there is an issue of how much they can spend on a vacation so staying at the cheaper homestays is for them.
Not everyone is minted

So, if you have not already done so, why not share some specifics about those cheaper homestays for those among us who are looking for that rather than making a backhanded comment about me being "minted"? I am only relating my own experience which I do feel very fortunate to have. I feel a deep sense of gratitude every time I get to breathe underwater wherever it may be.

 

[Blackcrusader]

So, if you have not already done so, why not share some specifics about those cheaper homestays for those among us who are looking for that rather than making a backhanded comment about me being "minted"? I am only relating my own experience which I do feel very fortunate to have. I feel a deep sense of gratitude every time I get to breathe underwater wherever it may be.

I never made a comment about you being "minted" I have one UK dive buddy when we dive together and he requires nice resort style so for Raja Ampat it would be staying at Misool


For my other UK buddy he spends less on a place to stay and more for diving so posted a cheaper place to stay. He doesn't have the budget for the resorts. Then again electricity only from 6pm to 12am in the cheaper homestays.

I have already done so on page one it is post number 2.

 

[Bill McDavid]

I never made a comment about you being "minted" I have one UK dive buddy when we dive together and he requires nice resort style so for Raja Ampat it would be staying at Misool


For my other UK buddy he spends less on a place to stay and more for diving so posted a cheaper place to stay. He doesn't have the budget for the resorts.

I have already done so on page one it is post number 2.

Sorry. Guess I was sensitive because I had just finished dealing with another guy who felt the need to attack me in an unprovoked way for simply sharing my experience.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Sorry. Guess I was sensitive because I had just finished dealing with another guy who felt the need to attack me in an unprovoked way for simply sharing my experience.

No problem. I dive with different people with different lifestyles. I am lucky I can dive with my different friends on what ever budget they want to spend. Luckily not an issue for me. I'm off to Bohol next week catching up with 3 UK dive buddies but we all stay in different places. I have a house I stay in so one friend comes over and I cook him breakfast before we go diving. He's not an early morning lad so I can so an early dive, come back we do breakfast then get 2 more dives in that day. Maybe 3 more if a night dive as well.

Thanks for sharing your experience as I like to read from different posters what they do.