Coralia Itinerary

Raja Ampat, South Halmahera and Lembeh

On embarking day, you will be greeted by the Coralia team and get time to settle in, prepare your gear and relax from your travels. Coralia cruise directors will also give you an orientation about the amenities on board, the safety features and procedures, and the cruise itinerary. Typically, we use the afternoon and night to make our way to the first dive destination. So the first dive will be the next morning. 

Starting from Sorong in West Papua we head to the south of Raja Ampat’s largest island, Waigeo to the famous Dampier Strait. Here you can expect to dive at some world-class, adrenaline-packed dive sites such as Cape Kri, Chicken Reef, Sleeping Barracuda, Sardine Reef, Mioskon and Blue Magic. At the other end of the Dampier Strait is Lalosi, a drift dive completely full of fusiliers and with a chance to see wobbegong sharks. The well-known manta aggregation sites of Manta Sandy and Manta Ridge are also in this area. 

Sawandarek is on the island of Mansuar and features a great jetty dive. You can also visit Papua Explorer’s coral restoration project here. For those interested, we can take a walk around the village at Sawandarek or Arborek. After a night dive on our first day of diving we will travel to Penemu for two dives. Famous Melissa’s Garden awaits us with its spectacular, healthy and widespread hard coral plateau in the shallows. At Keruo Wall we can admire large gorgonian sea fans and lovely reef tops, and we might also explore My Reef and Batu Rufus. A short hike to the viewpoint of Penemu offers a spectacular view of the lagoons and their surrounding islands. 

Next stop is Misool where we will spend one and a half days. Misool can be divided into many areas where we can spend the whole day at a selection of amazing dive sites. Daram is in the very east of these islands and has inviting names such as Candy Store, Andiamo and Warna Berwarna. In the areas of Boo, Fiabecet and Yuliet we look through the iconic Boo Windows, with tonnes of fish surrounding us. We explore fabulous dive sites like Shadow Reef (aka Magic Mountain), Nudibranch Rock, Batu Kecil, Whale Rock, Boo West Corner and Yuliet Kecil. And, if we are lucky, we can see both reef and oceanic manta rays. Our eagle-eyed dive masters will look for a ‘walking shark’ on a night dive at Romeo. 

Sagof, Wagmab, and Farondi offer us stunning underwater walls, overhangs and cave structures, plus amazing macro, such as nudibranchs, flatworms, anemone crabs and all kinds of shrimps. In this area, we also have the opportunity to visit the wonderful lagoons, including the Love Lagoon. The hike up the steep stairs is well worth the view. A drift dive through a channel covered in sea fans at Neptune Fan Sea is the perfect place to cool off after the hot walk. Wedding Cake and Barracuda Rock are other stunning dive sites in this area. 

Between Misool and South Halmahera, there are two small rocks and two islands. This area is called Pisang Island. Here we will do two dives before traveling overnight to South Halmahera. 

The next two days will be spent around South Halmahera. There are pinnacles, walls and coral gardens to enjoy. The pinnacles are full of schooling fish, the walls are covered in stunning soft corals and sea fans, and reef sharks swim around the coral gardens. Napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrotfish, turtles, blacktips, whitetips, schools of jacks and barracuda all populate the reefs here. There are black sandy slopes providing excellent critter-filled muck diving, especially for the night dive. 

The Goraici Islands with white sandy beaches are our next stop. The people here have been actively protecting their reefs here, keeping them healthy and in good condition. 

Tifore is a small island between Halmahera and Lembeh and is home to a huge school of barracuda. Just off the island there is a submerged reef that slopes down to healthy hard and soft corals and huge shoals of schooling fish. Grey reef sharks sometimes pass by here too. 

Our last two dives are in the famous Lembeh Strait. The black sandy slopes here provide habitats for numerous weird and wonderful critters. We can look for octopus, frogfish, nudibranchs, pipefish, and much more. After the dives, we will head to Bitung and enjoy our goodbye dinner inside the harbour. 

On disembarkation day, the Coralia team will equally assist you from Coralia to the airport.

Sample itineraries are for guidance only. Actual itineraries may differ slightly due to factors such as weather, wildlife, logistics and local regulations.