Question Raya Ampat - end of august - Beginner

[Tapamosa]

Hello!
I'm a beginner but fell in love with diving! I did my first dives in Thailand and have been diving in the Caribbean - and Egypt on a liveaboard since then.
This year I'm on Bali and Lombok during the first three weeks of August and I want to join a liveaboard in Raya Ampat afterwards from earliest 25/8 for around 7 nights.
During my research I gladly stumbled upon this forum and I already learned so much! Thank you for that!

Though, I read that it's the wettest wet season right now and heavy coral bleeching in the north of RA and people came back disappointed.
The weather is what it is - but where to dive in RA now? Central? Dampier? Or is North still worth it?

My budget is max 3K and I'm not into heavy videoing yet - I'm looking at Epica or Jaya - Best of Dampir and Pearl of Papua - Raya Ampat Northern.
But also a lot of boats are going to Komodo. Could be an alternative but I'm wondering if it just might be too crowded?
Any other recommendations?

Or am I just overthinking?
Thanks in advance! I'm really a bit lost right now..

 

[stepfen]

You are overthinking it. Choose an itinerary that fits your dates and budget and go for it.
LoBs won't knowingly bring you to places that diving is not good for whatever reason (weather, bleaching, overcrowded etc). As a first timer, you will love any of them.
Make sure you take into consideration logistics (traveling times, flight connections etc) as those are quite different between Komodo, RA and Bali.
All the best.

 

[Searcaigh]

Make sure you take into consideration logistics (traveling times, flight connections etc) as those are quite different between Komodo, RA and Bali.
All the best.

This is very important when traveling by air in Indonesia.

Try and work out an itinerary with the least number of flights and short connection times, and make sure you have insurance to cover delays due to weather and natural disasters (e.g. volcanic activity).

 

[scubaozy]

I did R4 around the same time of the year, last days of August to early September, though it was 12 days trip. Overall it was not too bad but going at that time, you by default exclude Misool as due rough weather it is rare to find an itinerary that goes there during off season. We also were not able to venture to northern parts as much as we would have liked due rough weather. But visibility was better than high season; I actually went again following February and it was great in terms of manta sightings but viz was not as good.
My recommendation is to do resort diving in Dampier (e.g. Papua Explorers) where you can access classic dive sites like blue magic or even melissa's garden. Those boats you suggests are a little too small for my liking to be honest, especially off season more likely to have rough weather, I think size might matter.

 

[Bookworm11]

How beginner are you? Raja Ampat has some killer currents-I mean STRONG!!! You may be better off going to a resort and staying and having your own DM. Dive into Raja Ampat is 2 hours from Sorong , is reasonably priced, and has a super dive shop. They gave me my own DM for free. The mantas I saw with them were far superior to the mantas I saw on the LOB. In fact, the diving with them was far superior than the LOB.