Raja Ampat

Where is Raja Ampat?

The world class Indonesia liveaboard diving destination Raja Ampat is situated off Bird’s Head Peninsula, which is on the northwest corner of the island of New Guinea – in Indonesia’s West Papua Province (formerly know as Irian Jaya).

Also known as “The Four Kings” - Raja Ampat is an archipelago made up of four main islands - Misool, Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo - and 1,500 smaller ones covering an area (sea and land) of 40,000 km2.  This locale also includes Indonesia’s largest National Marine Park, the five star dive site Cenderawasih Bay - famous for its Indonesia Whale shark diving, and to such an extent that the name Cenderawasih Bay is synonymous with Whale sharks!

The area of Raja Ampat gets its name from a local legend, that tells the story of a beautiful woman who finds seven eggs.  Three of these eggs simply become a ghost, a woman and a stone.  However the other four eggs hatch, and become great Kings - who each rule one of Raja Ampat’s four main islands of Misool, Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo, which is why Raja Ampat is also sometimes known as the “Four Kings”…

Like Komodo National Park, Raja Ampat is also part of the ‘Coral Triangle’.  However, Raja Ampat has been citied as the richest coral reef ecosystem on planet earth, hence its reputation as one of the world’s top liveaboard diving destinations - showcasing the very best scuba diving Indonesia has to offer!

As a result in recent years Raja Ampat has literally taken off as the premier Indonesia diving liveaboard destination.  There are now a number of high quality Raja Ampat liveaboard dive boats, offering Raja Ampat diving liveaboard tours that you can choose from for your Indonesia scuba diving liveaboard holiday of a lifetime!

How to get there

Due to the remoteness of Raja Ampat (some of its islands are the most northern pieces of land in the Australia continent!) the world-class 5 star dive sites Raja Ampat has - are almost exclusively reached via Indonesia liveaboard dive boat on a Raja Ampat liveaboard diving safari.

Because of the time it takes to reach this far-flung location, many Raja Ampat scuba diving liveaboard cruises tend to be of a longer trip duration, than those found in other top liveaboard dive destinations.

As a result, the most popular Raja Ampat diving liveaboard trips are the 8 to 9 day Raja Ampat liveaboard tours.  Indonesia scuba divers have the option of joining either Sorong liveaboards departing from Sorong in West Papua, or Ambon liveaboards originating from Ambon in the Maluku Islands.

Now at the time of writing, there are no International flights to Sorong – with Manado, Makassar, Jakarta and Denpasar (Bali) being the only International Airports in Indonesia that have direct flights to Sorong.

However, for Indonesia liveaboard divers, arriving from outside of Indonesia, looking for the fastest way to Raja Ampat there are a couple of options.  

You can fly into either Jakarta or Denpasar, and then take a connecting flight to Sorong to join your Raja Ampat scuba diving liveaboard safari.  Alternatively, fly from Singapore to Manado, and then take an internal flight to Sorong, to meet your Raja Ampat diving liveaboard cruise.  Or catch a flight from Kuala Lumpur or Singapore to Makassar, and then take an additional internal flight to Sorong to meet your Raja Ampat liveaboard dive tour. 

Raja Ampat the best dive site in Indonesia?

Read any text/literature on Raja Ampat and you will surely discover that the word ‘biodiversity’ or ‘diversity’ are mentioned a lot!

Biodiversity is defined as “The degree of variation of life” and there is perhaps no other word that better describes Raja Ampat - possibly the world’s top dive site.

This area of West Papua is home to 500+ types of corals (75% of the world’s total coral species can be found here), more than 1,300 kinds of tropical fish, 5 species of threatened Sea turtles including Leatherback and Hawksbill turtles, 13 marine mammals including the endangered dugong, 57 kinds of Mantis shrimp and roughly 700 varieties of mollusk including 7 different types of Giant clam!

By the same token, Raja Ampat has more than 10 times the number of hard coral species found in the Caribbean, and a marine life diversity citied by ‘Conservation International’ as the highest recorded on earth!   Combine all these factors together - and one can see why Raja Ampat is highly regarded as Indonesia’s number one dive site, offering truly world-class scuba diving (with over 200 dive sites) and five star Indonesia liveaboard diving.

Raja Ampat’s world class dive sites are made up of pristine coral reefs, awash with beautifully colored sea fans and soft corals, with assorted mixes of amazing hard corals – forming wonderful underwater forests.  Contrasting diamond white and black volcanic sands, mangrove flats and seagrass beds await Raja Ampat divers – along with breath taking blue water drop-offs and dazzling underwater caves!

These diverse habitats make Raja Ampat not only a top Indonesia scuba diving destination for Four Kings liveaboard divers, but are also home to more species of fish than you can shake a stick at!  In fact there are more fish here in different shapes, sizes, configurations and colours than ANYWHERE else in the world! 

Coupled with this, is that all levels of the marine food chain can be seen on a Raja Ampat liveaboard – from Indonesia macro diving with the very smallest Pygmy seahorses to scuba diving Raja Ampat with the very biggest predatory fish such as sharks.  

So if you like the sound of a Raja Ampat diving liveaboard itinerary where you can see 75% of all known coral species on beautiful, unspoiled coral reefs FULL of marine life, Indonesia muck diving in black sand in search of weird & wonderful Indo macro life, fast current drift dives (don’t forget your reef hook!) and the chance of Indonesia Manta Ray dives, then you will love liveaboard diving Raja Ampat!

Highlights you may see on a Raja Ampat scuba diving liveaboard tour include:

Sharks including Wobbegongs, Blacktip & Whitetip reef sharks and the Epaulette “walking” sharks, Mantas, five species of Sea turtles, Napoleon wrasse, massive schools of fish, Wunderpus & Blue-ringed octopus, Frogfish, Bobtail squid, Flamboyant cuttlefish, Ghost pipefish, Nudibranch, Squat lobsters, Pygmy seahorses, and more species of coral reef fish than ANYWHERE else on planet earth!

All this ‘diversity’ combined together makes Raja Ampat one of the world’s top dive sites and the number one Indonesia liveaboard scuba diving destination.

This has made Indonesia scuba diving liveaboard safaris extremely popular – so early booking Raja Ampat liveaboards is strongly advised to avoid disappointment.  By advance booking Indonesia diving liveaboard cruises you will guarantee your space, plus you can sometimes qualify for advance booking Raja Ampat diving liveaboard discounts or any Indonesia liveaboard special offers, which may be available!  For possible Raja Ampat diving liveaboard early booking discounts please visit our Special Deals page.

IF (?) you can put together a big enough dive group for a private Indonesia liveaboard half/full charter, then for the best private dive charter liveaboard destination Raja Ampat could be your top choice!  To find out more about Indonesia private dive boat charters, free liveaboard places and special Raja Ampat group liveaboard discounts – please send us an enquiry below.

From time to time, we also have discounted Raja Ampat diving liveaboard special offers – with cheap last minute Indonesia diving liveaboard deals! To see if there are any wicked diving last minute Raja Ampat liveaboards available – again please check out our Special Deals page.