Raja Ampat National Park (9 Days / 8 Nights - 25 Dives)
Trip highlights: shark action, manta rays, turtles, great macro life/ marine diversity, schooling fish & big pelagics
Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving
Dive sites and activities: Raja Ampat - Misool: Balbulol, Sagof, Wagmab, Farondi, Wayilbatan, Warakaraket, Fiabacet, Yillet, Kalig and Pele Islands; Strait of Dampier: Penemu, Yanggefo, Kawe,Arborek and Sawanderek. Climb to viewpoint.
Day 1
You will be collected from Sorong Airport or your city hotel and taken to the harbour where you will soon notice the beautiful Mermaid 2 liveaboard. Its crew will welcome you on board and give you a boat and safety briefing. You can then spend the rest of the day as you like while they get ready for the overnight trip to Misool. Here the diving will start the next day. A sunset dinner will take place on the main deck on the first evening.
Days 2-8
Welcome to Raja Ampat, a diver's paradise, where you will enjoy 3 daily dives and a night dive for most of the days of your safari. Experience a great variety of environments such as deep dives around pinnacles surrounded by schools of fish, walls covered with soft corals and gorgonian fans that are home to nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses, mantas hanging out at cleaning stations, bigeye trevally, wobbegongs, crocodilefish, and an endless list of other underwater possibilities. On night dives you will discover nocturnal critters, mainly crustaceans like lobsters, crabs and shrimps.
4 full meals will help you through the days. A continental breakfast if offered before the 1st dive. The 2nd dive will follow a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast and hot drinks. Lunch and more snacks come after the 3rd dive. Eventually dinner will be served after the night dive. Main meals are buffet style and cooked by a Thai cook that does a fantastic job of combining the best flavours from Thai, Indonesian and Western cuisine. Both great memories from your underwater moments, and also the food enjoyed on board will linger long in your memory.
Please note that there will be only 2 dives in the Dampier Strait on the last full day of the safari; then Mermaid starts its cruise back to port.
Day 9
You will be transferred to Sorong Airport, after breakfast and farewells.
Raja Ampat, Banda, Forgotten Islands & Alor (16 Days / 15 Nights - 49 Dives)
Trip highlights: hammerhead sharks, shark action, manta rays, turtles, great macro life/ marine diversity, schooling fish & big pelagics
Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving
Dive sites and activities: Kawula: Cape Bacatan and Lewaling Bay; Alor, Wetar: Cape Nunukae and Pulau Reong; Damar: Neus Leur, Terbang Seletan and Terbang Utara; Nila: Dusborgh and Nil Desperandum; Serua, Manuk, Banda Islands, Koon, Raja Ampat: Misool, Dampier Strait; plus Banda Neira land visit
Day 1
You will be collected from Sorong Airport or your city hotel and taken to the harbour where you will soon notice the beautiful Mermaid 2 liveaboard. Its crew will welcome you on board and give you a boat and safety briefing. You can then spend the rest of the day as you like while they get ready for the overnight trip to Misool. Here the diving will start the next day. A sunset dinner will take place on the main deck on the first evening.
Days 2-15
Welcome to Raja Ampat, a diver's paradise, where you will enjoy 3 daily dives and a night dive for most of the days of your safari. Experience a great variety of environments such as deep dives around pinnacles surrounded by schools of fish, walls covered with soft corals and gorgonian fans that are home to nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses, mantas hanging out at cleaning stations, bigeye trevallies, wobbegongs, crocodilefish, and an endless list of other underwater possibilities. On night dives you will discover nocturnal critters, mainly crustaceans like lobsters, crabs and shrimps.
The Forgotten Islands in the eastern Banda Sea are a remote chain of islands that offer some of the best diving in Indonesian waters. Attractions include gin-clear waters, patch reefs and coral bommies, and spectacular wall dives on impossible drop-offs. The nutrient rich currents can bring sunfish, dogtooth tuna, reef sharks, as well as maybe sailfish. Prepare your camera gear for pelagics, muck diving, schooling hammerheads, surgeonfish, and large schools of barracuda at Serua. You will see lots of sea snakes at Manuk.
Alor has some amazing critters like hairy frogfish and Halimeda ghostpipefish, rhinophias, hairy and tiger shrimps, wonderpus octopus, pygmy seahorses. The diving in this area is more than just macro though. Whitetip reef sharks, bamboo sharks, schools of fusiliers, oversized bumphead parrotfish. Spanish Dancers and other nocturnal critters can be seen on several dives. It will be a blast of colours and emotions.
There will also be a land visit to Banda Neira, one of the Banda islands, for a visit to a local market, the local museum and a nutmeg plantation. Alor is a place that always gives great pleasure to divers, with its healthy reefs and a high variety of underwater conditions, from strong currents to protected bays, from diving in cooler waters to warmer ones.
4 full meals will help you through the days. A continental breakfast if offered before the 1st dive. The 2nd dive will follow a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast and hot drinks. Lunch and more snacks come after the 3rd dive. Eventually dinner will be served after the night dive. Main meals are buffet style and cooked by a Thai cook that does a fantastic job of combining the best flavours from Thai, Indonesian and Western cuisine. Both great memories from your underwater moments, and also the food enjoyed on board will linger long in your memory.
Please note that there will be only 2 dives around Kawula Island on the last full day of the safari; then Mermaid starts its cruise on to port.
Day 16
You will be transferred to Maumere Airport, after breakfast and farewells.
Please note that the trip sometimes runs in reverse or has differing ports - check above for details.
Raja Ampat, Lembeh & Halmahera (12 Days / 11 Nights - 32 Dives)
Trip highlights: shark action, manta rays, turtles, great macro life/ marine diversity, schooling fish & big pelagics
Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving
Dive sites and activities: Raja Ampat: Dampier Strait: Cape Kri, Yanggefo, Gam; Misool: Fabiacet, Farondi, Boo; Pulau Pisang, Strait on Pantinti, Procco, Halmahera: Goraichi islands; Pulau Tifore; Lembeh Strait
Day 1
You will be collected from Sorong Airport or your city hotel and taken to the harbour where you will soon notice the beautiful Mermaid 2 liveaboard. Its crew will welcome you on board, give you a boat and safety briefing, then you can spend the rest of the day as you like while they get ready for the overnight trip to Misool where diving will start on the next day. A sunset dinner will take place on the main deck.
Days 2-11
Welcome to Raja Ampat, a diver's paradise, where you will enjoy 3 daily dives and a night dive for most of the days of your safari. Experience a great variety of environments such as deep dives around pinnacles surrounded by schools of fish, walls covered with soft corals and gorgonian fans that are home to nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses, mantas hanging out at cleaning stations, bigeye trevallies, wobbegongs, crocodilefish, and an endless list of other underwater possibilities. On night dives you will discover nocturnal critters, mainly crustaceans like lobsters, crabs and shrimps.
The marine biodiversity at Halmahera is also exceptional and its pristine coral reefs offer exceptional conditions for scuba diving and snorkeling; it is a secret gem with so much still to be discovered. You will have the chance to do some wreck diving and experience some of the best coral gardens that Indonesia has to offer. Dive sites range from ridges, pinnacles, caverns, swim-throughs, muck and ancient volcanoes, creating a diversity of diving and coral habitats. Schooling reef fish such as spadefish and surgeonfish, and bait balls attract numerous hunters, tunas, and mackerel and you can also search under the docks at Makian and Lilai for critters. Other encounters can include hammerheads, barracuda, oceanic whitetip sharks, mantas, mobulas, bumphead parrotfish, trevallies, Napoleon wrasse, bonitos and wahoo.
No place on the planet gives you the chance to see more shy critters the Lembeh Strait, such as the mimic octopus, flamboyant cuttlefish, harlequin shrimps, skeleton shrimps, seahorses, frogfish and innumerable nudibranchs. Day after day you will want to extend your bottom time!
4 full meals will help you through the days. A continental breakfast if offered before the 1st dive. The 2nd dive will follow a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast and hot drinks. Lunch and more snacks come after the 3rd dive. Eventually dinner will be served after the night dive. Main meals are buffet style and cooked by a Thai cook that does a fantastic job of combining the best flavours from Thai, Indonesian and Western cuisine. Both great memories from your underwater moments, and also the food enjoyed on board will linger long in your memory.
Please note that there will be only 2 dives on the last full day of the safari; then Mermaid starts its cruise to the port in Lembeh.
Day 12
You will be transferred to Manado airport, after breakfast and farewells.
Please note that the trip sometimes runs in reverse or has differing ports - check above for details.
Banda, Ambon, Alor & Forgotten Islands (12 Days / 11 Nights - 34 Dives)
Trip highlights: hammerhead sharks, shark action, turtles, great macro life/ marine diversity, schooling fish & big pelagics
Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving
Dive sites and activities: Flores: Kawula: Cape Bacatan, Lewaling Bay; Alor, Wetar: Reong, Cape Nunukae; Neus Leur, Terbang Selatan, Terbang Utara, Nila: Dusborg, Nil Desperandum; Serua, Manuk, Banda Islands, Nusa Laut, Ambon
Day 1
You will be collected from Maumere Airport or your city hotel and taken to the harbour where you will soon notice the beautiful Mermaid 2 liveaboard. Its crew will welcome you on board, give you a boat and safety briefing, then you can spend the rest of the day as you like while they get ready for the overnight trip to Kawula island where diving will start on the next day. A sunset dinner will take place on the main deck.
Days 2-11
The Forgotten Islands in the eastern Banda Sea’ are a remote chain of islands that offer some of the best diving in Indonesian waters. Attractions include gin-clear waters, patch reefs and coral bommies, and spectacular wall dives on impossible drop-offs. The nutrient rich currents can bring sunfish, dogtooth tuna, reef sharks, as well as maybe sailfish. Prepare your camera gear for pelagics, muck diving, schooling hammerheads, surgeonfish, and large schools of barracuda.
The Banda Islands never fail to deliver great diving on pristine and colourful corals that attract hundreds of different species of fish, from big pelagics to tiny critters, with high a chance to see endemic species like the Ambon scorpionfish. Even dolphins and whales can be spotted from the boat in the Banda Sea. Schools of fish will welcome you in their habitats, especially reef fish such as damsels, anthias, soldierfish and angelfish. There will also be a land visit to Banda Neira, one of the Banda Islands, for a visit to a local market, the museum and a nutmeg plantation.
Alor has some amazing critters like hairy frogfish and Halimeda ghostpipefish, rhinophias, hairy and tiger shrimps, wonderpus octopus, pygmy seahorses. The diving in this area is more than just macro though. Whitetip reef sharks, bamboo sharks, schools of fusiliers, oversized bumphead parrotfish. Spanish Dancers and other nocturnal critters can be seen on several dives. It will be a blast of colours and emotions.
4 full meals will help you through the days. A continental breakfast if offered before the 1st dive. The 2nd dive will follow a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast and hot drinks. Lunch and more snacks come after the 3rd dive. Eventually dinner will be served after the night dive. Main meals are buffet style and cooked by a Thai cook that does a fantastic job of combining the best flavours from Thai, Indonesian and Western cuisine. Both great memories from your underwater moments, and also the food enjoyed on board will linger long in your memory.
Please note that there will be only 2 dives at Nusa Laut or muck diving in Ambon Bay on the last full day of the safari; then Mermaid starts its cruise to port.
Day 12
You will be transferred to Ambon airport, after breakfast and farewells.
Please note that the trip sometimes runs in reverse or has differing ports - check above for details.
Raja Ampat National Park (10 Days / 9 Nights - 29 Dives)
Trip highlights: shark action, manta rays, turtles, great macro life/ marine diversity, schooling fish & big pelagics
Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, cage diving, caverns, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, very popular, wall diving, wreck diving
Dive sites and activities: Raja Ampat - Misool: Balbulol, Sagof, Wagmab, Farondi, Wayilbatan, Warakaraket, Fiabacet, Yillet, Kalig and Pele Islands; Strait of Dampier: Penemu, Yanggefo, Kawe,Arborek and Sawanderek. Climb to viewpoint.
Day 1
You will be collected from Sorong Airport or your city hotel and taken to the harbour where you will soon notice the beautiful Mermaid 2 liveaboard. Its crew will welcome you on board and give you a boat and safety briefing. You can then spend the rest of the day as you like while they get ready for the overnight trip to Misool. Here the diving will start the next day. A sunset dinner will take place on the main deck on the first evening.
Days 2-9
Welcome to Raja Ampat, a diver's paradise, where you will enjoy 3 daily dives and a night dive for most of the days of your safari. Experience a great variety of environments such as deep dives around pinnacles surrounded by schools of fish, walls covered with soft corals and gorgonian fans that are home to nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses, mantas hanging out at cleaning stations, bigeye trevallies, wobbegongs, crocodilefish, and an endless list of other underwater possibilities. On night dives you will discover nocturnal critters, mainly crustaceans like lobsters, crabs and shrimps.
4 full meals will help you through the days. A continental breakfast if offered before the 1st dive. The 2nd dive will follow a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast and hot drinks. Lunch and more snacks come after the 3rd dive. Eventually dinner will be served after the night dive. Main meals are buffet style and cooked by a Thai cook that does a fantastic job of combining the best flavours from Thai, Indonesian and Western cuisine. Both great memories from your underwater moments, and also the food enjoyed on board will linger long in your memory.
Please note that there will be only 2 dives in the Dampier Strait on the last full day of the safari; then Mermaid starts its cruise back to port.
Day 10
You will be transferred to Sorong Airport, after breakfast and farewells.
[Information is best estimate in ideal circumstances and subject to changes beyond our control. The itinerary is a guide only and may be adapted to best suit the weather, tides, currents, availability and other prevailing events. Price is for the cruise, not for an exact number of dives].