Raja for 5 days? Worth it?

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orenbvip

Contributor
Messages
539
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Location
Montreal
# of dives
500 - 999
I am trying to piece together my trip.

I am flying into KUL Dec 4th then thinking of going to Lembeh for a week. I have already booked a trip to Palau on the 20th of Dec (flying from manila).

There is a week or so in-between. I've already some Bunaken (found it boring after 4 days) and saw that I can fly MDC to Sorong for $90 each way!

Is it possible to do 5 days of diving in Raja for around $1000 or less? Would resort or Livaboard be better? Or is that too little time for Raja and better to head to Bangka or somewhere in the Philippines for a week (already been to PG and malasapcua).

Any help or ideas is greatly appreciated.
 
We book both Misool Eco and raja4divers but they tend to be high end as far as price, maybe outside your budget. I have also started to book Wicked Diving and they offer both land based and liveaboard trips to Raja Ampat and Komodo depending upon the season. You can get 5 days for about $1450 USD on the RA trips. They also offer 3 day trips. The liveaboard is very basic but reasonable in cost and gets decent reviews.
 
Ah looked into the wicked livabaord it's one day too long to make it to Manila. Anyone know any other companies around $1500 or less?
 
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Thanks. Already been to Komodo 3 times. Prob going to head there after Palau.
 
Liveaboards in Raja Ampat are typically longer than the time you have available--most are 10-12 days, a few are 7-8 days. You could conceivably stay land-based, but most resorts also work on a 7-day cycle and offer transfers from and to Sorong (where the airport is) only once a week. If you can find a resort that's accessible by public ferry, you could probably manage a shorter stay.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but only that it's going to pose logistical problems for you, especially if you don't have much flexibility in regard to which five days you want to be there. Additionally, it would be fairly time consuming for you to sift through the different ops to figure out how they transfer guests and which days of the week they offer transfers to see if anything fits perfectly into your schedule.
 
Hi Oren, just throwing some ideas out here.....

You say you are "thinking" of going to Lembeh for a week. Not yet booked. That means you really have 14 days to fill before your Palau trip. You are not even in Indonesia. You are flying out from Manila. Why not go Anilao and somewhere else in the Philippines? Then go to Indonesia after Palau. You say you are probably going to head to Komodo after Palau. I'm not sure conditions in Komodo will be good in Jan - please check that out.

Or, since you are flying in to KUL, why not consider Sipadan/Mabul? Maybe also Kota Kinabalu for a couple of days.

Or, if you are determined to go to Lembeh before Palau, you could try Bangka and Manado/Bunaken. Did you have bad luck in Bunaken earlier, or was it just that the diving there was fine for others but just did not appeal to you? Alternatively, after Lembeh, you could make a trip down to Gorontalo which is still in northern Sulawesi, but you'll have to fly from Manado. It's worth a short trip and is within your budget. It's a small place, the one diving operation is very well run, not that much fish life, but amazing sponges. So - worth a short trip. (But it isn't RA - that's for sure!)


Sorry for trying to be your itinerary guide - you didn't ask that question!

Your specific question - Is RA worth a short trip? That depends! You will have fantastic diving and you will want to go back because it is a vast area, so you decide if this would be worth your time and your money. One problem with short trips is the risk of 1-2 days of bad weather has the potential to spoil the trip.

Good luck - sounds like it's going to be a good trip.....


 
Thanks Madclub,

I really do appreciated the info. I was considering the head to Anilao instead route. I really enjoyed lembeh but I hear that anilao is pretty good. Bangka might also be cool. I could also perhaps do lembeh then apo reef. ah the choices...

---------- Post added September 30th, 2013 at 10:04 AM ----------

Found out the day for a wicked diving LB was wrong so I found a way to work Lembeh -> raja -> Palau with one day in between.

10 days back before I fly home after Palau any ideas? Stay in Philippines?

Thanks for all the help!
 
Something to keep in mind is that flights in and out of Sorong have a high probability of something going wrong. In three trips only one outbound flight and one inbound was on time. Another trip was only a couple of hours late, another was 9 hours late arriving and 6 hours late leaving. Missed an ongoing connection.
 
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