Triton Bay or Halmahera?

[MissMango]

@MissMango We did Halmahera in March of 23 and had a great time (it was my second visit to the area). At the time it was great... super fishy and great mix of critter diving and reef diving. We saw way more sharks than we have ever seen in Raja. Our trip started in Raja and at that time Misool was coming off a rough algae bloom which really took a toll on many sights. We were blown away by the fish in Halmahera coming from Misool. Misool has since bounced back thankfully. We are heading back to Halmahera next month. What makes the itinerary that you mentioned great is that you can start your trip with a nice resort in Lembeh for a few days before the lob and have some spectacular critter diving and still end the trip with Raja. I would highly recommend that itinerary. Which boat are you looking at?

Thank you so much for your reply! This gives me hope.
The idea was indeed to dive from a resort before heading on the LOB! We had booked Sulawesi twice now and had to cancel twice...3rd time may be the charm!

We are looking at White Manta. We just returned from a trip with them and it was simply perfect!

 

[Cali_diver]

You can't beat Lembeh for the critters and you for sure have better dives with local resorts but I can also tell you that so many of the Indo guides on LOBs are actually from Manado so you get the best of both worlds. I really like trips where you are basically repositioning the boat from one area to another area it is really amazing to travel and see more than just one area. The other great thing about Halmahera is there just aren't as many boats doing it so you don't have to worry about fighting for space on dive sites or having other boats jump right on top of you. I will give you an update after my trip next month. We are doing 2 back to back trips ending in Raja so I should have a good idea of how things are looking nowadays.

 

[MissMango]

You can't beat Lembeh for the critters and you for sure have better dives with local resorts but I can also tell you that so many of the Indo guides on LOBs are actually from Manado so you get the best of both worlds. I really like trips where you are basically repositioning the boat from one area to another area it is really amazing to travel and see more than just one area. The other great thing about Halmahera is there just aren't as many boats doing it so you don't have to worry about fighting for space on dive sites or having other boats jump right on top of you. I will give you an update after my trip next month. We are doing 2 back to back trips ending in Raja so I should have a good idea of how things are looking nowadays.

We juuuust returned from Misool/Raja!
It had been our first liveaboard experience and now we're hooked....

Kri area had, unfortunately, very obvious signs of mass diving and coral bleaching. Don't get me wrong, it was still very very good diving!

Misool was magical! I really like how, in Misool, the dive sites are managed and only one operator at a time can dive a site.

The schedule we are looking at for 2026 starts in Lembeh beginning of June and finishes in Sorong mid-June. It could be interesting diving Raja outside of the busy season.

I think we'll go for it!

I appreciate everybody's input!