North Indonesia Snorkeling Safari | Bunaken - Halmahera - Raja Ampat

This tour will begin in North Sulawesi’s Bunaken National Park, one of Indonesia’s oldest marine reserves. From the comfort of a lovely island resort, we’ll be able to explore all the area’s best reefs with ease. Bunaken is famous for a lot of things, but it’s most known for is its massive turtle population. As we explore the shallow coral plateaus that extend from the different islands we are sure to see multiple turtles as they come to the surface for a quick breath or just cruise over the reefs.

Halmahera is the large odd-shaped island just west of the Raja Ampat area. The area we’ll be exploring is in the south, around a small island called Kusu Island. This area is fantastic for snorkeling, offering us unlimited access to a truly amazing house reef and several other nearby reefs which are only 5-20 minutes by boat. Halmahera is relatively new on the snorkeling scene as the area previously didn’t have the infrastructure to support tourism. Now, with several small airports and this brand-new resort, we can indulge in the endless reefs, clouds of colorful reef fish, the lush tropical environment, from a comfortable resort serving delicious food.

The area of Raja Ampat that we’ll be exploring is its northern region around the Dampier Strait. This area has so much to offer snorkelers – with spectacular soft corals swaying in the water, hard coral plateaus that breach the surface at low tide, and sea fan forests that have to be seen to be believed. Where marine life is concerned, we can expect several species of reef sharks as well as wobbegong (carpet) sharks, and Epaulette (walking) sharks. We hope to see oceanic and reef manta rays as they come to be cleaned and feed on the plankton at the surface. Turtles (green and hawksbill) abound too, along with schooling fish like jacks, barracuda, and of course all the brightly colored reef fish like butterflyfish, angelfish, triggerfish, parrotfish, sweetlips, surgeonfish, and more.