Hi all!
We are looking to book a liveaboard in Komodo (thinking about August) and one in Raja Ampat (thinking about December or March) but our past experiences in both areas have been very hit or miss so thought we'd tap into the experiences of folks here to try and pick a better-suited liveaboard option / itinerary for us.
We are most focused on good diving (e.g. good local dive guides who know the area well, can help find critters, and will dive safely (preference for 1-to-4 dive guide to people ratio)). We want better than basics (e.g. will pay for toilets that will flush and AC in the room), but don't care about "luxury" (e.g. very spacious rooms, really amazing food, etc.). I know there are some high-end boats that typically have good reviews (like the Damai or Arenui) but I'm not sure if the extra money is for more luxurious cabins / food experience or for actually better diving (itinerary or guide, etc.)? Do folks have a view on that and do you have some top favorites / definite repeats from a purely diving perspective? (We are willing to pay more for a "luxury" boat if that is what it takes to ensure safer and better diving experiences in the region, but would prefer not to if it doesn't impact diving.)
As some background, I have ~100 dives and my partner has ~40 dives. We are by no means very experienced but we have been on boats where the makeup of other divers significantly limited our itinerary (including ones where the paper profiles of other divers looked way more experienced, e.g. with 200+ quoted dives, but the actual reality was people struggled with basic buoyancy and ascent/descent), so it is important to us that we can get a boat better suited to our level / will split groups by level and not limit the itinerary too much. I understand dive count is not always a good measure so the best way I can think of to describe our level is we are still actively thinking about/making minor adjustments for buoyancy as we dive so neutral buoyancy is not "steeped in our bones" but we also don't need a dive guide to monitor / adjust buoyancy for us; we can go down and up and maneuver around formations when / how we intend / need to. We can't compete with dive guides in terms of air usage, but we have done currents (ex: Shotgun around new moon) and deep dives and won't run out of air on normal deep / current dives at 20-30min, but probably aren't at 60 min+ for those either.
We would also love opinions on best itineraries for Komodo and Raja Ampat. I've historically heard it's best to book LBJ-LBJ Komodo only or Sorong-Sorong RJ only trips as they stay in the region and are definitely not repositioning trips but noticed that a lot of the Komodo offerings seem to go through other areas (Moyo, Sangiang, Gili Banta, Alor etc.) even in peak season so was curious if any of those are good? We like diversity in our dives and enjoy looking at gorgeous coral gardens, massive schools of fish (big or small fish), and big stuff (sharks, mantas, dugongs, etc.) the most but will happily take a bit of macro diving too. I've previously done Komodo via Komodo Dive Resort and liveaboard in Raja Ampat (north route). I personally loved pretty much all my Komodo dives and thought Raja had some amazing schooling activity and biodiversity but the liveaboard dives were more hit or miss. Based on our interests, is Misool a must-hit? And how differently do folks think north Raja Ampat can be on a boat with more experienced divers or land-based resort with very localized dive guides (our Raja boat was the one where half the boat were "200+ dive" divers who struggled with descents and had frequent buoyancy "accidents" where they'd just shoot up to the surface when we hit 10meters and so our cruise director said we can only do the sites he thought they would be safe at)?
We are looking to book a liveaboard in Komodo (thinking about August) and one in Raja Ampat (thinking about December or March) but our past experiences in both areas have been very hit or miss so thought we'd tap into the experiences of folks here to try and pick a better-suited liveaboard option / itinerary for us.
We are most focused on good diving (e.g. good local dive guides who know the area well, can help find critters, and will dive safely (preference for 1-to-4 dive guide to people ratio)). We want better than basics (e.g. will pay for toilets that will flush and AC in the room), but don't care about "luxury" (e.g. very spacious rooms, really amazing food, etc.). I know there are some high-end boats that typically have good reviews (like the Damai or Arenui) but I'm not sure if the extra money is for more luxurious cabins / food experience or for actually better diving (itinerary or guide, etc.)? Do folks have a view on that and do you have some top favorites / definite repeats from a purely diving perspective? (We are willing to pay more for a "luxury" boat if that is what it takes to ensure safer and better diving experiences in the region, but would prefer not to if it doesn't impact diving.)
As some background, I have ~100 dives and my partner has ~40 dives. We are by no means very experienced but we have been on boats where the makeup of other divers significantly limited our itinerary (including ones where the paper profiles of other divers looked way more experienced, e.g. with 200+ quoted dives, but the actual reality was people struggled with basic buoyancy and ascent/descent), so it is important to us that we can get a boat better suited to our level / will split groups by level and not limit the itinerary too much. I understand dive count is not always a good measure so the best way I can think of to describe our level is we are still actively thinking about/making minor adjustments for buoyancy as we dive so neutral buoyancy is not "steeped in our bones" but we also don't need a dive guide to monitor / adjust buoyancy for us; we can go down and up and maneuver around formations when / how we intend / need to. We can't compete with dive guides in terms of air usage, but we have done currents (ex: Shotgun around new moon) and deep dives and won't run out of air on normal deep / current dives at 20-30min, but probably aren't at 60 min+ for those either.
We would also love opinions on best itineraries for Komodo and Raja Ampat. I've historically heard it's best to book LBJ-LBJ Komodo only or Sorong-Sorong RJ only trips as they stay in the region and are definitely not repositioning trips but noticed that a lot of the Komodo offerings seem to go through other areas (Moyo, Sangiang, Gili Banta, Alor etc.) even in peak season so was curious if any of those are good? We like diversity in our dives and enjoy looking at gorgeous coral gardens, massive schools of fish (big or small fish), and big stuff (sharks, mantas, dugongs, etc.) the most but will happily take a bit of macro diving too. I've previously done Komodo via Komodo Dive Resort and liveaboard in Raja Ampat (north route). I personally loved pretty much all my Komodo dives and thought Raja had some amazing schooling activity and biodiversity but the liveaboard dives were more hit or miss. Based on our interests, is Misool a must-hit? And how differently do folks think north Raja Ampat can be on a boat with more experienced divers or land-based resort with very localized dive guides (our Raja boat was the one where half the boat were "200+ dive" divers who struggled with descents and had frequent buoyancy "accidents" where they'd just shoot up to the surface when we hit 10meters and so our cruise director said we can only do the sites he thought they would be safe at)?
