All the help you need to plan your amazing Raja Ampat adventure
Reading the information linked in the steps below will provide you with everything you need to independently plan and book your Raja Ampat visit.
- Find out if traditional Papuan homestay accommodation will suit you by reading this important introduction.
- Check to see if it will fit your budget. Raja Ampat is great value but West Papua is more expensive than other regions of Indonesia.
- Decide when to go. Check our weather info page for the best time of year.
- Decide which islands have to be on your itinerary. See these island information pages.
- Choose your accommodation – here are all the Raja Ampat homestay options, and here is our Raja Ampat maps page so you can see where everything is.
- To quickly find accommodation that offers diving and any other services and facilities that might be important to you, use the accommodation page search filters.
- If you plan to dive in Raja Ampat, be sure to read this important diving safety information. (Links to all accommodation with an on-site dive center included.)
- Boat travel in Raja Ampat is expensive! Plan your trips carefully to avoid backtracking. This article will help you estimate trip and transfer costs.
- Make a booking by using our online booking form to automatically translate and send your request to your chosen host. Please do read this important information so you understand how our booking system works.
- All homestays provide tours and guides, but if you have a special interest, need help in Sorong, or want to visit areas without homestays, here are the guides that can help.
- Find your flights to Sorong, West Papua. Read our How to get to Raja Ampat page.
- Check out some of the activities you might enjoy while you are there.
- Keep up with the latest news, and contact other travellers to share the fun and the costs. Follow our facebook page and/or join our Raja Ampat Travellers’ Forum facebook group.
- Get a medical and dental check up, and organise some medicines – see our Health and Medical FAQ
- Organise your visa. Citizens of most countries can apply for 30 day tourist visas online. If you purchase your visa before arriving in the country, then you can also apply online for a further 30 day extension. If you purchased your visa on arrival, or if you don’t have access to the internet, then you will have to visit the Sorong Immigration office to arrange an extension.
- Organise the Indonesian Rupiah you’ll need before you get to Sorong (see the Money, Banks and ATMs page).
- Unless you want to be offline and uncontactable, get a Telkomsel SIM for your phone.
- Catch that plane to Sorong!
- Get your Raja Ampat Marine Park entry permit and Visitor Entry Ticket.
- Top up your Indonesian Rupiah – there are no ATMs outside Sorong and Waisai.
- It’s island time – get that ferry!
- Have an amazing time. It’s not hard.
- Don’t forget to observe cultural sensitivities and leave the islands as beautiful as you found them.
- Please, leave feedback about your experience.
- There are few voluntourism enterprises in Raja Ampat. Instead, please support local communities’ own Raja Ampat conservation initiatives.
- Tell your friends. A well patronised locally-owned ecotourism economy is (provided that tourists visit responsibly and don’t overburden local infrastructure) the best chance Raja Ampat has of protecting its environmental treasures from the lucrative but incredibly damaging resource extraction and mass tourism development pressures that could destroy it.