If you’re considering a Raja Ampat Snorkeling Tour, your mind is in the right place. There’s no place quite like Raja Ampat in the world. It’s the epicenter for marine life biodiversity; as such, you’ll find that over the course of your snorkel tour you will have snorkeled over and alongside more species of reef and fish than anywhere else in the world! All of this underwater awesomeness is only complemented by the surreal topside beauty that Raja Ampat has also become famous for! Before you book your Raja Ampat snorkel tour, though, there are a few things you’ll want to take into consideration; for example, it’s a good idea to understand just how massive Raja Ampat is—approximately 46,000 square kilometers or 29,000 square miles—with the north and south offering very different snorkeling experiences. You’ll also want to decide how you’d like to snorkel in Raja Ampat, by which I mean: would you rather do so from a snorkel liveaboard or from a snorkel resort, which again will impact your final decision. If this all seems a bit more decision-making than you expected, not to worry, we’re going to break down all these different aspects so you can be sure you’ve made the correct decision for your next Raja Ampat snorkeling tour. The North of Raja Ampat - Dampier Strait and Fam Islands Where snorkeling is concerned, the north tends to offer a bit more diversity when it comes to types of snorkeling sites. You of course the have the iconic limestone islands characteristic of Raja Ampat with their classic mushroom shape, but you also have stunning mangroves that seem to grow right out of the reefs in clear blue water, a few places where mantas come to feed and clean, and several different villages whose large wooden piers or
If you’re considering a Raja Ampat Snorkeling Tour, your mind is in the right place. There’s no place quite like Raja Ampat in the world. It’s the epicenter for marine life biodiversity; as such, you’ll find that over the course of your snorkel tour you will have snorkeled over and alongside more species of reef
Misool Resort has, quite possibly, one of the largest house reefs of all the resorts we visit in Indonesia. You could also argue that Misool's reef is one of the best as it's not only beautiful, but there are so many different features to it, like the blacktip reef shark nursery, the turtle feeding grounds, or the resident school of bumphead parrotfish that always keep it interesting! One thing that a lot of guests love, particularly those staying in any of the North Lagoon villas or water cottages, is that you can access the house reef from your front porch at higher tides. That being said, out of convenience for storing your snorkeling gear and the tidal changes, the easiest place to enter the reef is from the main jetty/dock in front of The Hive—where all your snorkeling gear can be conveniently stored. I say the jetty/dock is the best place to enter the reef by because you can do so at any time. At lower tides you can not enter from your villas or water cottages as there is just not enough water in the lagoon for you to swim out of, also, at times the current can be a little bit strong, and exiting the lagoon to access the main reef can be a bit of a challenge. Part of what keeps Misool Resort's house reef so active with marine life and corals are the currents that it regularly has. Current = Life. At most times of the day, the currents will be quite mild, but you will most likely notice some current especially in the channel and on the point of the island. In mild conditions, you can swim against the current without too much effort, especially in the shallows, which will allow you to snorkel the
Misool Resort has, quite possibly, one of the largest house reefs of all the resorts we visit in Indonesia. You could also argue that Misool’s reef is one of the best as it’s not only beautiful, but there are so many different features to it, like the blacktip reef shark nursery, the turtle feeding grounds,
Alami Alor has a very unique and beautiful house reef that runs the entire length of the resort and a bit beyond. While the reef is right in front of the bungalows, you can not access it from your rooms as the entire shoreline is made up of large lava rocks, not to mention as soon as you get to the waterline the reef begins, so there's not real area to safely enter the water. Instead, the reef is accessible from Alami Alor's private pier which is right in front of the dive center where all your snorkeling gear is stored. You can either jump in from the pier, do a seated entry, or climb down the wooden ladder at one end of the floating platform. There is rarely a current on the house reef as the resort is situated on the side of a bay where the current doesn't affect, at least not in a significant way. On stronger tides there can be a bit of a current, but it's never really something we need to be concerned about as you can almost always swim against it. The house reef starts with a shallow plateau that runs the entire length of the resort's property and beyond. At very low tides this plateau can be inaccessible to snorkelers as it can only be a few centimeters deep, however, at medium to high tides you can access the whole thing. As you swim further away from the bungalows the plateau turns into a gentle slope which again runs the entire length of the reef. A standard house reef snorkel route would be to jump in at the pier and then swim with the bungalows on your left. As you pass the last bungalow you'll start to notice that the reef turns
Alami Alor has a very unique and beautiful house reef that runs the entire length of the resort and a bit beyond. While the reef is right in front of the bungalows, you can not access it from your rooms as the entire shoreline is made up of large lava rocks, not to mention as
Next to Marsa Shagra Resort’s house reef, Marsa Nakari Resort's house reef is one of the biggest house reefs we visit on any of our resort-based snorkeling safaris. Similar to Marsa Shagra's, Marsa Nakari's reef starts just a few meters offshore where the northern and southern sections of the reef come together to make the point of a sort of V. While these two reefs may look very similar from an aerial perspective, they are quite different underwater. This unique topographic feature offers lots of different opportunities to us snorkelers. You can enter from the beach by walking in, the bottom is a fine white sand so there’s no real need for booties, and then head north or south. Or, if you want to explore a bit further, you can jump on one of their available tender boats which you board from their offshore jetty that sits just at the water line and is accessed by a couple of wooden steps. Depending on what you want to do, the tender will take you around the northern or southern corner where you’ll drop in and then you can choose to swim back to shore, or have the tenders come and get you at a designated time. With all these options you can easily explore the house reef for many snorkels. Marsa Nakari's reef itself is great as the corals come right up to the surface, and depending on where you are, will either form more of a wall, a slope, or some very large coral heads that rise up from the sea flore fifteen meters below and come up to about three to five meters from the surface. In some sections of the reef you’ll find little alcoves that cut into the reef offering even more territory and interesting features to
Next to Marsa Shagra Resort’s house reef, Marsa Nakari Resort’s house reef is one of the biggest house reefs we visit on any of our resort-based snorkeling safaris. Similar to Marsa Shagra’s, Marsa Nakari’s reef starts just a few meters offshore where the northern and southern sections of the reef come together to make the
Kusu Island Resort is located on Kusu, a small island in the south of Halmahera Indonesia. The resort is located on the southern side of the island, and the house reef sprawls out in front of the resort. At high tides you can access the reef from your villa if you are on the mangrove side, if you are on the beach side you can access the reef from the beach in front of your villa. The best and easiest place to access the house reef, at any point of the day, is from the jetty that extends out to where the reef drops off and you can enter and exit via the wooden steps that lead right into the water. The ladder is made of nice wooden planks and spaces between steps are comfortable for most able-bodied people. Kusu Island Resort's house reef is fantastic, it’s huge as it pretty much wraps itself all the way around the island. It has some really fantastic shallow hard coral gardens that start about twenty meters off of the beach or mangroves and can be explored at high tides. At lower tides you won’t be able to access the plateau, instead, you can explore the reef slope which is also great as you have the hard coral reef on one side and the blue water on your other. Where there's hard coal reef you are likely to encounter many schools of anthias and chromies as well as many other types of reef fish like anemone fish, crocodile fish, lots of fusileers in the blue, lionfish, and quite a few blacktip reef sharks. On a night snorkel, there are good chances of finding walking sharks, cuttlefish, and octopus on the hard coral areas. The area directly in front of the beach or mangroves
Kusu Island Resort is located on Kusu, a small island in the south of Halmahera Indonesia. The resort is located on the southern side of the island, and the house reef sprawls out in front of the resort. At high tides you can access the reef from your villa if you are on the mangrove
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The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
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