How far are the dive sites?

From a Gam or Kri base, Cape Kri, Manta Sandy, Blue Magic and Mike's Point are part of the daily rhythm rather than distant excursions. Most are inside thirty minutes. That short transit is what lets you dive a site three times in a week until it finally works.

Is diving included in the price I have been quoted?

Usually not at the resorts. The headline rate is accommodation; diving, marine park permits and nitrox are added on top. Get the dive rates in writing and add them up yourself before you commit.

Resort or liveaboard?

A resort gives you second chances at the same site. A liveaboard gives you range: Piaynemo, the far north, sites a resort day boat cannot reach. You see each one once. If your best frame usually takes three attempts, stay put.

When do I need to book?

Raja Ampat is busy from October to April and the good resorts fill twelve to eighteen months ahead. The marine park entry permit is bought on arrival and is valid for a calendar year.

What is the flight actually like?

Two long-haul legs to Jakarta or Makassar, then an overnight flight to Sorong, then a ferry or speedboat. Build in a buffer day at each end. The domestic connection is the one that goes wrong.

A two-masted wooden phinisi lying at anchor on flat water, an island low on the horizon behind

Miles Below · Operator · Dampier Strait

Tiare

A traditional phinisi with an expedition feel rather than a luxury one. On my trip, seven of nine and a half days were in northern waters with the balance down in Misool, which is a good illustration of what a boat buys you: range.

01The week 02Scored 03Before you book 04Money 05Prints 06The trip

01The week

The saloon of a wooden liveaboard, benches and cushions built into the timber under a canvas roof

At the resort

What the week is actually like

The trade-off is repetition. A liveaboard shows you more sites and gives you fewer second chances at any of them. If your best frame needs three attempts, a resort is the better tool. If you want to understand how much of Raja Ampat there is, take the boat. The crew were open about it being the boat's maiden voyage, and there were hiccups of the kind a first week has. What I remember better now is how carefully they handled cameras and how small the groups on the boat were, and the boat itself is beautiful. It is one I would take people back to.

02The verdict

Operator · Tiare

Grade

The pale band on each row is the range every scored operator on this site covers.

How the scoring works

Operation

Camera

Food

Setting

Value

Sustainability

Total

45/60

A crew member on the hull of a phinisi, working from the boarding ladder above the waterline

03Before you book

The photographer's questions

For the camera

The camera

StationMedium

Camera roomTemperature controlledsmall area 5 stations, on Galley level, Temperature controlled

Power220V

Camera room outlets4

Extra power barNo

Camera room chargingIn the camera room

Staff handlingConcierge boat, entries and exits

EntrySmall boats ; backward roll

Rinse, resortLimited

Rinse, boatNo

The diving

Dive time60 minutes

Guide ratio6:1 maximum

Photography guideNo

NitroxUpgrade

Miles to edit

Camera and diving facts still missing: Air guns, Unguided.
Same shape as Misool's in operator-facts.json: v, n, src.

Miles, 23 Sep 2026, operator-and-stay-facts sheet

Worth knowing

Three things nobody tells you

We were on the boat's maiden voyage, and it showed — there wasn't enough weight in the bow where our cabin sat, so the ride was bouncier than it should be. They'd already identified it and were planning to add concrete for ballast once back in port.

The camera setup is exceptionally small — room for four rigs at most. I ended up rigging two units in one spot.

Some dive site confusion on our trip — places we'd been told we were going to didn't happen. Early-days wrinkles on the operational side, not a pattern to expect once the boat settles in.

04The money

Flights, transfers and what to sort first

Everything begins in Sorong. From there you either transfer by boat to a resort in the strait or join a liveaboard at the harbour.

DAILY RATE: $300 to $550 a day, USD, at the operator
Flights: Sorong (SOQ). Book first. Miss the group boat and a private speedboat can run well over $2,000.
Wayag: Roughly six hours each way by speedboat. Not a day trip. Plan it as a multi-day excursion or take a liveaboard.
Resort or boat: A fixed base puts Cape Kri and Manta Sandy in the daily rhythm. A liveaboard trades that for range. Both reviewed above.
Marine park fee: Payable on arrival, separate from the trip cost.
Nitrox: Worth taking for the repetition rather than the depth.

05Prints

Prints from Dampier Strait

Every frame here was made in Dampier Strait. Two are limited to editions of twenty, signed and numbered. Prices in US dollars. Printed on Canson Platine and shipped from British Columbia.

$300

Turtles pair fans

Signed and numbered · 17 × 22 in

Edition of 20

$300

Wobbegong table coral fisheye

Signed and numbered · 17 × 22 in

Edition of 20

$150

Manta silhouette

Open edition · 12 × 18 in

$150

Mantas cleaning station

Open edition · 12 × 18 in

06The trip

Would you dive Dampier Strait?

Put your hand up and I will tell you when a trip is planned

There is no trip here yet. Where they go next is decided by who puts their hand up, so this counts as a vote for Dampier Strait — and it also gets you each new guide as it is finished. Four or five emails a year.

Four emails a year, unsubscribe in one click, and the address goes nowhere else.

Back to the top

Previous · Papua Explorers Next · Lembeh Resort