Solomon Islands or Eastern Indonesia

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Pacifico

Registered
Messages
30
Reaction score
10
Location
Ottawa, Canada
# of dives
100 - 199
Good afternoon all,

I am planning on taking a 14 - 18 day dive-based trip sometime between September - November of this year. As I debate my options, I am calling on the scubaboard community to give me their advice or suggestions.

Budget: ~ $2000 - $2500 excluding airfare.
Countries/Regions of interest: Banda Islands/Ambon, Halmahera, Solomon Islands (Munda or Marovo Lagoon)
Interests/What am I looking for: marine biogeography, relatively remote tropical coastal areas, biodiversity, underwater photography.

I will also note that I intend this to be a land-based dive vacation and that I will be traveling alone.

While I know that I will be able to get much more diving done in Indonesia than the Solomon Islands for the same price, I am really attracted to the Solomon Islands because of the high levels of biodiversity, the good health of many of its reefs and the possibility of seeing silvertip sharks. Admittedly, the fact that the Solomon Islands are so remote really does represent an added allure for me. The two possibilities in the Solomon Islands would be either Dive Munda or Solomon Dive Adventures in the eastern part of Marovo Lagoon. 3 tank dives runs around $200 at either of these two places and that doesn't include meals nor accommodation. I would probably have a budget of $1800 - $2000 for the two weeks food, accommodation and diving at either of these two places. This would mean around 20 dives over 7 - 8 days.

Obviously, I could many more dives in a Banda Island/Ambon combined trip where dives run at betweem $25 - 35 with Blue Motion (if I do many dives). Could I also add on southern Ambon, Saparua and/or Nusa Laut? I figure that with a budget of about $2500 for meals, accommodation and diving, I could get around 30 - 40 dives.

However hard it may be to compare the Solomon Islands to the Moluccas, would it be worth it to dive less in the Solomon Islands for the same price of diving more in Eastern Indonesia?

Thanks for feedback.
 
Good afternoon all,

I am planning on taking a 14 - 18 day dive-based trip sometime between September - November of this year. As I debate my options, I am calling on the scubaboard community to give me their advice or suggestions.

Budget: ~ $2000 - $2500 excluding airfare.
Countries/Regions of interest: Banda Islands/Ambon, Halmahera, Solomon Islands (Munda or Marovo Lagoon)
Interests/What am I looking for: marine biogeography, relatively remote tropical coastal areas, biodiversity, underwater photography.

I will also note that I intend this to be a land-based dive vacation and that I will be traveling alone.

While I know that I will be able to get much more diving done in Indonesia than the Solomon Islands for the same price, I am really attracted to the Solomon Islands because of the high levels of biodiversity, the good health of many of its reefs and the possibility of seeing silvertip sharks. Admittedly, the fact that the Solomon Islands are so remote really does represent an added allure for me. The two possibilities in the Solomon Islands would be either Dive Munda or Solomon Dive Adventures in the eastern part of Marovo Lagoon. 3 tank dives runs around $200 at either of these two places and that doesn't include meals nor accommodation. I would probably have a budget of $1800 - $2000 for the two weeks food, accommodation and diving at either of these two places. This would mean around 20 dives over 7 - 8 days.

Obviously, I could many more dives in a Banda Island/Ambon combined trip where dives run at betweem $25 - 35 with Blue Motion (if I do many dives). Could I also add on southern Ambon, Saparua and/or Nusa Laut? I figure that with a budget of about $2500 for meals, accommodation and diving, I could get around 30 - 40 dives.

However hard it may be to compare the Solomon Islands to the Moluccas, would it be worth it to dive less in the Solomon Islands for the same price of diving more in Eastern Indonesia?

Thanks for feedback.

Munda is a great place to dive, wrecks, reefs, sharks,rays, and lots of stunning coral. Topside islands are also very pretty with lots of war history. I really enjoyed Munda.
I have travelled throughout Indo , including Ambon. The reefs are not as nice but bio-diversity of huge, lots of macro, lot of reef fish.

Due to budget i would recommend you visit Indo.
 
Thanks for your reply and advice Kev,

Would you have any idea of how low I could keep accomodation costs in Munda. If I can keep them reasonably low, I would consider opting for a trip to the Solomon Islands despite being able to dive less.

Thanks again!

J
 
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