Coralia Itinerary

Raja Ampat, Banda Islands and Ambon - 12N

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 the island of Arborek with a great jetty dive. Lalosi is 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 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. 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, we head south to Misool. 

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 iconic areas of Boo, Fiabecet and Yuliet, we look through the iconic Boo Windows, with tons 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 reef and oceanic manta rays here. 

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 shrimp. In this area, we also have the opportunity to visit the wonderful lagoons. 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. It is a long crossing to Koon, so on the last day of diving in Misool, we will do two dives before heading south. 

The dive site at Koon is called Too Many Fish, which is all the explanation you need! Large groupers hang out on the deep wall, and there are large schools of jacks and snappers. Reef sharks and even dolphins have been seen here. We will do two dives here before cruising to the Banda Islands. 

At the Banda Islands, also known as the Spice Islands, we will visit the museum, an old Dutch fort, and a nutmeg plantation to learn about the incredible history of these remote islands. The diving here includes the typical deep walls of the Banda Sea, as well as seamounts and drift dives along fish-packed reefs. At Batu Kapal the whole pinnacle is covered in schooling pyramid butterflyfish and red-tooth triggerfish, which mix in with hundreds of fusiliers, creating a myriad of colour. Hammerhead sharks have been known to visit some of the reefs here, as well as turtles, bumphead parrotfish, eagle rays and Napoleon wrasse. 

Nusa Laut is a small island close to Ambon, and the village here protects the fantastic dive site of Amet Reef. Eagle rays, a huge school of jacks, hammerhead sharks and even a dugong have all been seen here.

The remainder of our adventure will be spent diving in Ambon Bay. Ambon is a world-class muck diving destination. Inside the bay there are numerous dive sites full of critters. Rhinopias can be seen here along with frogfish, ghost pipefish, nudibranchs, leaf fish, zebra crabs, cuttlefish, mandarinfish, harlequin sweetlips, and lots of interesting shrimps and octopuses. An excellent way to finish the trip!

Day 13:
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.