Georgie’s Wanderlust

Raja Ampat is an archipelago located in the north eastern corner of colourful Indonesia. Banded over the equator, it is a divers absolute dream destination.

I was blessed with two beautiful weeks of island hopping adventure in January, 2025.

Raja Ampat absolutely blew me away, I was delighted to be exploring the water between moments lazing in the hammock and eating rice.

If you are contemplating, Raja Ampat is the place for your next tropical adventure.

Read on to learn more about how to get there, where to stay, estimates on costs, and what you can see and do!

Safety first

I always, always travel with travel insurance! Peace of mind is forever welcome to come along for the ride, and if things get out of hand, I feel comfortable knowing I am covered for any mishaps! I use SafetyWing Nomad insurance for all of my travel adventures! They are super affordable and you can even purchase your policy while you are travelling, so if you want to extend there is no hassle.

They also have a range of add ons so you can cover your scuba diving all in the one policy! Their communication is great too, I highly recommend them.

Getting there

Raja Ampat is located in the coral triangle in north eastern Indonesia. You can take direct flights to Sorong (a modest town on the island of West Papua) that acts as the gateway to Raja Ampat.

As of January 2025 there are direct flights to Sorong from Jakarta, Denpasar (Bali), Manado and Makassar (Sulawesi).

My friend who I travelled with was living in Bali at the time of our travels, so we flew together from there to Sorong.

Once you reach Sorong, you have a few options:

You can take a passenger ferry from Sorong to Wasai, a town in the centre of Raja Ampat on the island Waigeo.
This cost 125,000IDR for a standard seat, and 250,000IDR for a VIP seat. There was also a small travel fee of 12,000 that needed to be paid at the office when purchasing the ferry tickets.
Once you reach Wasai, you will then need to pay park fees (300,000IDR) and environmental maintenance fees (700,000IDR).

From Wasai, you can take a longboat to your homestay accommodation. I would recommend to arrange this through WhatsApp prior to your arrival so the boat can meet you there when you get off the ferry.
The price of this is charged per boat, so if you are a solo traveller you will have to cover the whole thing. Our first stop was a 2 hour and 15 minute ride that cost 2,000,000IDR. We were lucky enough to split this with two other people we met in Wasai, so it brought our costs way down. Other longboats we took between the islands were less, and are priced based on distance.

You can take a cargo boat to Batanta, Pam islands, or Misool
I didn’t take this option myself, but I heard it is quite cheap.
You can read a bit more in detail on Stay Raja Ampat about the cargo boats. You will need to keep your stay flexible for this option as the boats do not leave everyday!

Where to stay?

Prior to arriving in Raja Ampat I felt absolutely spoiled for choice. So many islands and homestays to choose from, but where to actually stay?? I honestly don’t think you can go wrong with your choice. We stayed on four islands and I absolutely loved all of them.

I used Stay Raja Ampat’s interactive map to read reviews of various homestays and to choose our accommodation. They have accommodations in central and the north.

You will find that Raja Ampat is split into north, central and southern, with central being the easiest to access. Misool is in the south, if you are interested in staying there I would recommend to find accommodation through Google Maps, I didn’t make it down there this time but when I go back I will write about it!

A lot of the homestay rooms are without bathrooms, and actually 3 out of the 4 that we stayed in didn’t have one in the hut. There was a communal bathroom on land that we all shared. Showers varied with fresh water or salt. The only accommodation we had that had a bathroom was on land and not the magical hut above water, so it felt like little tradeoffs for whichever was chosen. However, I loved all the accommodation we had, and was happy to island hop each time.

We stayed in the central area for our two weeks, so I will give reviews of the islands and accommodation that we stayed:

Pam Islands, Meos Ambower Homestay – this accommodation was incredible, the huts over the water with small sharks patrolling below, you can see an incredible diversity of fish from just jumping in the water off of your personal deck! We also walked to see the coconut crabs after dark a short ways from our accommodation, they are very cute.

It is also close to Piaynemo, an iconic lookout point, and also Rufus and Mellissa’s Garden reefs which are incredible to dive or snorkel or free dive! Tours to Piaynemo can be very expensive from the other islands we stayed at, so I highly recommend visiting it from the Pam islands if you choose to stay there. We paid 1,800,000IDR for the boat for a half day tour that included Piaynemo, Rufus, and Mellissa’s Garden.

Arborek Island, Kayafyof Homestay – This small island in the centre of everything boasted some of the most colourful reef we saw! The jetty for Kayafyof homestay served up many hours of entertainment, in and out of the water. Many people from other accommodations would come to use the jetty as it has some of the most gorgeous reef! Although it was “high season” it never really felt busy.
Again, we stayed in a hut over the water, which I felt like I could live in forever. I loved laying over the side and watching the fish, octopus, and various sea creatures below us.

Gam Island, Binn Betew Homestay – This was a very small homestay, with just four rooms, all over the water. The family was gorgeous, the food they made here was the best we ate, and they also took us for a boat trip for 800,000IDR for three hours. We swam with stingless jellyfish and massive beds of beautiful coral. From the homestay we also swam with a Banded Sea Krait (a sea snake) that was super cool to observe hunting for twenty minutes.

It is possible to see the red Birds of Paradise on Gam, and I had originally planned to hike the forty minutes to see them from Binn Betew. I struggle with endometriosis and so happened to end up spending a solid 36 hours whacked out in bed on pain meds during our time here and simply had to embrace that in the moment (it just gives another reason for me to come back!). If you get the chance to hike to see them, I was told that dawn and dusk is the best time! Bring mosquito repellant.

Kri Island, Warahnus Dive Homestay – This was our fourth and final homestay of our two weeks in Raja Ampat. While I was feeling mildly devastated that we were swapping our huts over the water for one on land, upon arriving it was a warm welcome, and I was actually so happy to have our own freshwater shower and toilet attached to our room, what a joy to feel proper clean after a week of salt water showers.
Kri has an excellent house reef, Warahnus Dive Homestay faces the south, and it is also possible to hike a short ten minutes up and over the island to the north facing side to check out the reef over there. We met other travellers over this side at Yenbuba Homestay who recommended us to book the Wayag boat tour from there. It was the most we paid for a tour, 3,000,000IDR per person with a minimum of 8 people for the boat to leave. It was well worth it in my opinion, the boat ride is 2.5 hours one way, and very scenic. We hiked to a beautiful lookout point (wear runners, the hike is more like a scramble) and swam with black tip reef sharks.

The photo of the ramen shark above kind of sucks but is a reality that we can’t hide from. There was trash circulating the waters of Raja Ampat at times, sometimes it was bad, sometimes it was super clear. Hopefully with more education, more waste facilities, more help from the governments and better options for the people who live in these areas, it can be reduced.

It did not however, take away from the majesty that is Raja Ampat.

How much does Raja Ampat cost?

I’m going to go ahead and allow you to calculate the cost of your flights, as these will vary greatly depending on where you live! I will however offer up the suggestion of using Skyscanner to search for the best deals. I use it to find flights for a good price and a route that I like, and then I book direct with the airline.

For accommodation, it is paid for per person, with your three meals included. We paid between 400,000-600,000IDR per person per day.

The boat transfers between the islands varied depending on the distance covered. You pay for it per boat, so if you can share with other travellers this will reduce your costs. We paid between 150,000-650,000IDR per person for our island boat transfers.

Tours varied in price, we paid 100,000IDR per person for a 3 hour manta ray tour (we saw four mantas! from Arborek). Our most expensive tour was 3,000,000IDR per person to Wayag.
Other tours we took were 400,000IDR per person.

We were also able to enjoy many days enjoying the waters around the homestays, so it is not necessary to pay for a tour everyday.

It is ESSENTIAL to carry cash when you are visiting Raja Ampat.

Some homestays and dive centres will accept transfers through WISE or have a card machine for tours. It is advised to prepay your accommodation before you arrive, and to have cash for your boat transfers as all of the transfers we took accepted cash only.

Some islands will have small kiosks to purchase Coca Cola or Sprite or chips. Some islands will have nothing. The snacks when available are cheap. If you are like me, and have dietaries (wheat allergy), I would recommend to bring your own, and to keep them in a sealed container as I heard stories of rats and ants, although they were never an issue for me.

What can I do in Raja Ampat?

If you are coming to Raja Ampat, you are likely here to get in the water! The diving here I have been told is absolutely world class. Upon arriving here and getting in the water to simply snorkel and practice my free diving, I decided not to scuba dive. I saw something new every time I got in the water! This place is absolute magic! And I really didn’t feel as though I missed out by exploring on my own breath.

• Diving/free diving.

• There are some small hikes on islands like Gam and in the Pam islands.

• You can laze in your hammock. I recommend to bring your own as 2/4 of our homestays had one, the others did not.

• You can slow down, time goes at a comfortable pace in Raja Ampat, embrace the island living.

• Talk to your homestay about tours available from your island of choice.

• Explore the house reef at your island.

• Enjoy the rice, you’re going to eat a lot of it.

You can also take a liveaboard trip in Raja Ampat. You will see this pirate-esk boats floating between the islands. They are usually dive charters, and sit at a much higher price point than what it costs to stay at the homestays.

Other tips and thoughts

Honestly, two weeks absolutely flew by here. If you can stay longer, do it

I had a few small issues arise with my skin during my stay, which I felt deeply thankful for my little bottle of tea-tree oil to help clear them up. There are no pharmacies on the islands, and the nearest hospital is Wasai (with limited facilities) or Sorong.

I always carry a small first aid kit with bandaids and leukotape (sports tape, good for preventing and covering blisters).

Bring your own fins and mask, the homestays rent them, but they are very well used and you’ll honestly be in the water so much, its great to have your own!

Bring a book, I always travel with my kindle.

Bring snacks, in a sealed container. A jar of peanut butter is great for this, I also found a natural coconut chocolate spread when I was in Bali that we finished in the first few days.

If you have dietaries, I strongly suggest going directly to the kitchen to talk to the people cooking the food to let them know what you can and can’t eat. I have a wheat allergy, and breakfast is going to be cake or fried bananas so fortunately I had eggs every morning, special cooked just for me. They also use a lot of soy sauce in everything, so it’s good to let them know if you can’t eat this as not everyone knows it has wheat in it.

Final thoughts

I haven’t actually stopped thinking about Raja Ampat since I left, I’m already dreaming of when I will get to go back.

If you are thinking about booking your trip to Raja Ampat, I cannot recommend it enough. I felt childlike in the waters, it was an absolute delight to spend two weeks here, and I can’t wait to go back.

I hope you enjoy the magic of Raja Ampat as much as I did.

As always thanks for reading my blog! It means the world to me that you are here with me on my adventures. Like and comment below what you think!

With love, Georgie ✨🩵🌿