Should You Visit Raja Ampat, Indonesia? | Top 7 Impressions & Tips for Visiting Independently

Should you visit Raja Ampat, Indonesia? We put together a list of our top 7 tips and impressions we think people should be aware of before visiting Raja Ampat. There is not a lot of information online for people who plan to visit independently, meaning without a boat or tour, so we thought this might help you decide if you want to visit Raja Ampat. We enjoyed our time there, but the tourist infrastructure still seems to be in the beginning stages for those traveling without an organized tour.
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0:00 Introduction
0:36 if you do not scuba dive (unless you are with a boat tour perhaps)
1:27 Raja Ampat is not budget friendly
2:33 Beware of hidden costs
3:42 Hardly any tourists : However signs of this changing soon
4:18 Not sure how much longer their coral reef will last, due to poor garbage management infrastructure
5:16 Rent a scooter
6:03 Learn some Indoneisan or download Google translate (offline)

[@zaboslav]

Just comment based on experience from december 2022, we spend three weeks in Raja Ampat on four destinations. Nothing like hidden cost, garbage was a problem on some places, but it does not demaged corals like high water temperature, garbage just float away. It was so nice experience, but if you do a home stays with locals, you have to tolerant, like 9 am means 10 am maybe... We visited: Marine guest house on Fam Islands - own equipment needed and be really tolerant, but experience was amazing in the end Corepen homestay - really professional place, really recommend it Arborek dive shop - little bit complicated to get commitment on diving because of all festival in place during Christmas Nyande Raja Ampat and diving with Divevolution dive center - amazing diving and accomodation was incredible Just the best place to go, we did around 50 dives and we enjoyed all of them,

[@mariashaffer-gordon3561]

Thank you for sharing this advice. My husband and I are snorkelers, and Raja Ampat is at the top of our list. We're just about ready to spend the big bucks and take a once in a lifetime trip.

[@septianacuy8317]

Hi there. Thank you for creating this very valuable content. I work in Raja Ampat and your testimonials are very valuable that I can taking notes and would like to give to my colleagues here to improve the tourism here. Well, Raja Ampat is not for mass tourism, but indeed for tourists who like adventure in nature ^^ and we are developing terrestrial tours, such as trekking for bird watching esp. Bird of Paradise (Wilson's BOP and Red-BOP). Greetings from Raja Ampat, hopefully after the pandemic ends you can come back here and find something better and another kind of Fun! ^^ Salam~

[@PursuingMountains]

Septiana Cuy aww thank you! We’d love to go back some day! It’s so beautiful there!

[@viv-oh7qj]

Hai Septiana I'm from India,I want to ask you can a person who is not a diver(scuba diver) can visit underwater without any hesitantwith gears and equipments, Like I have already scuba dive in Andaman and nicobar without any experience with help of experienced drivers

[@septianacuy8317]

@@viv-oh7qjHi there... Actually, the underwater beauty of Raja Ampat can not only be reached by scuba, because there are many shallow waters, shores and jetty in several spots that can already be enjoyed, simply by snorkeling or using basic diving equipment. If you don't have the equipment, in Raja Ampat there are also many Dive Shops/ Dive Centers that rent out equipment. Also, usually tour and travel have these tools on their ships. Even though there are diving facilities for amateurs, or even diving certification here, also most special interest tour guides, especially diving, in Raja Ampat are already certified, it is not recommended to dive without any expertise or experience, considering that Scuba is extreme sport. :) Maybe you can check at a glance at newnormal-rajaampat.com/ . Even if it's not complete yet, who knows you might get an idea. Please ask again if there is still something you want to know, who knows I can help. :)

[@sc705]

I hope the environment can be cleaned up, so sad to see such beautiful nature be mucked up by pollution

[@rafski-travels-1984]

I knew it best off going to Sumbawa cheaper with corals and volcanoes

[@udaypawar4101]

Very well put !!

[@PursuingMountains]

Thanks!

[@johnlyback4912]

Thanks for putting this together, I'm heading there in May for a few weeks.

[@PursuingMountains]

That’s awesome!!! Aww we want to go back ☺️☺️ Are you diving there?

[@johnlyback4912]

@@PursuingMountains No diving planned we have a on the island near Friwen wall, island of Kri, island of on Mansuar. And another week over at Gam near

[@johnlyback4912]

My wife and I tried to find you video showing you and your wife stranded on the island it looked like some of our adventures. Can you help us locate that?

[@johnlyback4912]

We are big snorkelers due to my wife's fear of diving. A few bad dives had us stop. Mostly because of the equipment issues she's pretty small so it's been difficult.

[@alexg4902]

Very useful video ! Thanks

[@PursuingMountains]

Hi Alex! So glad you found it useful! Thanks for commenting to let us know :)

[@winnysmit4816]

Good video. I am considering cutting our upcoming trip to indonesia short in order to include a week of snorkeling in RA. It sounds like Indonesia is not taking care of its natural wonders. Last year in Coron Philippines I was so impressed. The only garbage I saw was the Christmas tree build by the locals with green sprite bottles.

[@CKology]

Excellent tips!

[@PursuingMountains]

Thanks!

[@antoniuserijantolunardhi102]

Very informative tips...nice video

[@PursuingMountains]

Thanks!

[@toneejaky5420]

Cool

[@PursuingMountains]

Thanks!

[@holydiver3141]

Thanks for sharing! I was travelling indonesia in 2017 up diving in Sulawesi and Banda Neira... Banda Neira was so far out and population so sparse that garbage wasnt a big deal... but up in Sulawesi and in Ambon... fish was nesting and living in garbage... sometimes thriving like morays but it did look really bad. As you said the waste management suck (i hope it has improved) but people also really didnt seem to realize the consequence of throwing the plastic garbage from like breakfast straight out the balcony hanging over mangroves as happened with the staff at a really beautifully located BB where i was staying in Ambon.

[@LIFEmedicaltourismconsulting]

Thank you & this is real perspective as a budget traveller. This is great & new subs. here👍

[@PursuingMountains]

Anne Pasek thank you for subscribing! Welcome! I’m glad you liked the video! ☺️

[@LIFEmedicaltourismconsulting]

@@PursuingMountains yhere is a movement called Trashheroworld and they help Indonesia, in fact is an ongoing project.

[@PursuingMountains]

Anne Pasek just looked it up. That organization sounds great! We’ve been surprised by the amount of trash throughout our travels. It’s made us so conscious of reducing our own plastic use more. Thanks for letting us know!

[@LIFEmedicaltourismconsulting]

@@PursuingMountains lots of changes going on in Indonesia especially the changing of capital. I think it is Borneo Will look into your vlog & Happy New Year!

[@redouanguedoura8101]

Thanks for sharing this info and video! Has someone visited Raja Ampat in August? How is the weather and climate there? Also want to know what the best snorkeling areas are in the region? Thanks to all!

[@PursuingMountains]

We did a lot of scuba diving there but I bet some of the sites we did could be snorkeled. I know my cousin did Melissa’s garden as a snorkel and enjoyed it. We put together a video with our top dives we did there if you want to check it out :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/eH_Ln3WJgq56ocU

[@aidaramirez4254]

😮 Wow that’s a lot of garbage I hope they do something about it because it’s a beautiful place to visit but a face like that thank you for the information I don’t think I’ll be going there

[@PursuingMountains]

Yeah it’s really unfortunate 😔 I’ve heard recent reports that the coral has been really negatively effected the last few years too ☹️

[@heiponr5057]

Good raja ampat

[@PursuingMountains]

Raja Ampat was so beautiful

[@monitorjain7806]

Hi there. I’m considering visiting Raja Ampat (the other option I have shortlisted is Nha Trang, Vietnam). Would you consider R.A a good destination for a 4 year old? We are not into diving, though, really looking forward to snorkelling there. Also, we live in Melbourne and are planning our next trip during Easter break next year. We aren’t strong swimmers either. Lol. Aside this, thanks a ton for the video. Really appreciate your concern about over pollution of waters. I was shell shocked to see the bad infrastructure and water management in Perhentian Islands, Malaysia during a recent visit. Apart from that, the island and the marine life there was spectacular.

[@PursuingMountains]

Hi Nik. That is exciting you are planning a future trip! I can’t speak to that time of year as we visited at the end of September but there were some dives with very strong currents so that is my main concern especially with a 4 year old and you mentioned you aren’t strong swimmers. I’m not sure how that would impact the snorkeling experience that time of year. But it is beautiful there!

[@momentoflifeprojects3741]

Hi, just came accross your video.. I agree with you about the point that Raja Ampat is not budget friendly tour destination. Most of Tourist do diving in Raja Ampat via Live a board diving trip..These kind of trip would cost huge. I myself went to Raja Ampat 2 years ago by joining in a group tour agency.They provide everything for us, accomodatio, ship for island hoping and meals. Despite what you went through in Raja Ampat, I wish you still had good travel experiences in Indonesia..

[@PursuingMountains]

Moment of Life Projects thank you for watching and commenting. We spent 40+ days traveling around Indonesia and had a great time! Raja Ampat was mostly positive for us as well. How did you like Raja Ampat?

[@momentoflifeprojects3741]

Pursuing Mountains As we have been many places in Indonesia, such as Wakatobi, Kei Island and Sabang ( seen in our Video), Raja Ampat offer the most unique expirences .. We did snorkling in Raja Ampat and “play around” with White tip Shark.. which can not be found in other part of Indonesia Raja Ampat is a complete package of snorkling, diving, meet animals in their life habitat as well as climbing hills and getting the most instragramable view ever..

[@Shahrear_sz]

let me know if you guys have a local contact

[@MrSmithToday]

Where were you based at? As google didnt give me that name with a location. Thanks

[@PursuingMountains]

We were on Waigeo

[@robinbrown7028]

Sad about the Garbage 🗑️😂 They need to address this ASAP Education might work but it is purely a spiritual cultural attitude

[@KimAhrina11]

They have local governments etc, but idk what they are doing. So useless, they can just put more campaigns to clean garbage & put garbage bin etc. They only did that to main cities/places

[@PursuingMountains]

Unfortunately, I’ve heard it’s only gotten worse in the 3.5 years since we were there 😢

[@marco1324661]

I just came back from Raja Ampat, I have to say I was on the disappointed side, I came all the way here in the Far East of Indonesia to get “off the beaten track”, but it was way too touristy for my tastes. If I wanted Bali I would go there, but I don’t. I stayed in Waigeo, I am thinking next time to stay in Misool, or is it also there so touristy? I had literally zero interaction with the locals and just other western tourists. In Sumba I was way more satisfied

[@pustakarileks7404]

If you want visiting natural (not touristy) visits to Banda Neira, there is existed the forgotten island (pulau rhun) the island which exchanged for manhattan, banda neira is has so many history, like the history of the bloodiest spice in the world, race to sailing around the world (Marcopolo vs Magellan), history of evolution (A.R. Wallacea) and many things

[@AmericanScumCleanser]

She mumbles towards the end of every sentence. I can clearly understand her when she starts an idea but it slowly turns into a lazy mumble that I can’t understand.

[@dhruvsethi1811]

Thanks for the useful info ... but you guys look depressed and traumatised.

[@PursuingMountains]

😅we were recovering from being sick I believe

[@semsemeini7905]

A Russian tourist got attacked by a crocodile in Raja Ampat.

[@PursuingMountains]

Wow that is so horrible!

[@jorgemontecillo3715]

@@PursuingMountains you should visit El nido and Coron Palawan if you want a budget friendly, but don't expect that there's no tourist on the area. Palawan voted Best island in the world multiple times it's because the island there are not too far to each other unlike other countries also pinoys knows how to speak english which is not hassle for the majority of the tourist, also it is cheap and it's hard to find beautiful places on earth that are budget friendly, but amazing sceneries and jawdropping landscapes and seascapes. Keep in mind that there are over 700 islands in the Northern part of Palawan and many of them are not already explored by tourist, also Palawan region in the Philippines has a total of 1780 islands. If you want to visit island hopping without mass tourism you should go Boat Expedition 3 days or 5-7 days and you can experience filipino island life and helping the local communities of Palawan. Check this video if you want to visit and swim to the part of the clearest waters in the World. there are many boat tour Expedition in Palawan, but this 2 are one of the best. Check this. Tao Expedition and Isla Expedition. By the way you can check the reviews of Tao Expedition if you want to know before traveling :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIvJZX6QZZiqaqc kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHSkdX-hi96td6c

[@septianacuy8317]

That's right, because unfortunately he didn't heed the rules from local residents not to swim at certain hours and areas.

[@aluminiumsloep]

Soon to be overrun by tourists...shame...

[@PursuingMountains]

Raja ampat wouldn’t be the same with the crowds that’s for sure!