In 2018 I first learned about the incredible diving opportunities in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. After much research, I decided a book a weeklong stay at Misool Resort in the Misool archipelago within Raja Ampat. Now, this resort comes with waiting lists and thus the trip was planned to take place in November 2020 – so of course, it was delayed.

The resort moved everyone’s bookings to two years later and thus I was rebooked for November 2022, it was certainly a long time in the making and lucky for me, it was absolutely worth the wait.

Getting to Misool is an adventure on its own. You first need to fly into Jakarta and transfer to a domestic flight to the remote city of Sorong. From Sorong, you then need to sail for several hours to actually reach the resort. This area of the world is pretty remote, but that is part of the magic and well worth the humbug that comes with actually getting there.

Once we arrived we had lunch before settling into our room – one of the incredible overwater cottages.

This was the view from our cottage! To make it even better, we had stairs that led from the deck directly down onto the house reef – it was amazing.

We opted not to dive on our first day and instead to settle in and relax after what had been a big journey. However, the call of the water was too tempting and it wasn’t long before we had jumped in for a snorkel on the house reef and boy, did the house reef not disappoint.

Misool and Raja Ampat in general have a reputation for being one of the most biodiverse marine spots on earth and furthermore, is one of the few ocean sanctuaries where biomass and biodiversity are both increasing rather than declining.

So it was no surprise when we jumped in the water and were pretty much immediately making friends with turtles!

There were literally turtles just about everywhere we looked, as well as thriving corals, huge schools of fish, gorgeous black tip reef sharks and big giant clams – I remember telling my travel buddy Chelsea that I would happily snorkel that same spot every day and spoiler alert, I did.

The next day we went out on our first dives and they were absolutely phenomenal. I had heard a lot about the difficult to manage currents for divers in Raja but luckily none of the diving was so technical that it couldn’t be managed by us.

We promptly settled into a delightfully indulgent routine that was as follows:

0600ish: Wake up before our alarms could go off! We would rise with the sun and have a cheeky pod machine coffee on our villa’s deck
0700: Have a barista made coffee and a small little sweet pastry at the main restaurant
0800: Head down to the dive centre to gear up and head off for our first dive of the day
0930: Return from the dive and indulge in a big breakfast (and another coffee)
1100: Head out for dive number two!
1230: Return for the lunch of the day – I should mention that we did not have a single meal at Misool that wasn’t incredible, I genuinely looked forward to each and every meal
1430: In the afternoons we had a few options! We could head out for dive number three, go for a snorkel on the house reef or even borrow a kayak and go for a paddle
1700: Grab some snacks from the restaurant and settle in for evening G+Ts on our deck
1900: Eat dinner with a bintang or two
2030: Head out for a night dive if you haven’t indulged in too many alcoholic bevvies or read no more than five pages of your book before passing out into blissful slumber

We did have a couple of small but wonderful deviations to this routine. On one day we headed out for a two tank trip – instead of heading back to the resort for breakfast we stopped on a gorgeous island between dives; and when I say gorgeous, I bloody mean it.

We also spent a day on the lagoon tour run by Misool. This tour was so not hyped up by the resort but it should be – it was phenomenal, I genuinely could have done the same trip each and every day! We first set sail towards the Gorgonian passage. This between passage between islands is home to beautiful corals, huge sea fans and has a lovely current, so you can literally jump in with your snorkel and let the current carry you through – it was so good that we did it twice!

We then stopped on one of these islands for lunch and of course, I couldn’t resist a dip and a little flight for Droney Boi.

From there we sailed through some beautiful lagoons that reminded me a lot of El Nido in the Philippines, just with way less (read, no other) people or boats.

Despite being well aware that there was an influx of jellyfish coming into the lagoon, I still couldn’t resist diving in – there is something about diving from a boat into the ocean that just hits different.

I also couldn’t resist flying the drone again, but I will say that landing it back onto our tiny boat was an exercise in stress management and then some.

One afternoon after our lunch we borrowed one of the resorts kayaks and went for a paddle to the south side of the island. Home to an idyllic white sand beach and some stunningly turquoise water, this was the perfect spot to read our books and float in the shallows.

But, by far, my absolute favourite afternoon activity was to go snorkelling on the house reef in front of our villa – but half the time I wouldn’t even make it to the actual reef. The sandy seabed that precedes the reef doesn’t look like much, but in this spot grows an abundance of sea grasses that turtles enjoy to snack on.

Each afternoon I would sit on the villa steps and as I put my sunscreen (reef safe of course) on I would watch the water to look for surfacing turtles – it literally never took me longer than five minutes to spot a turtle! Then I would simply swim in their directions and each evening I would have world class wildlife interactions.

I mean, is this not a contender for the best selfie I’ve ever taken?

Oh, and the nightly cocktail hour followed by sunset swims? Well they were simply perfection.

But hey, let’s get back to the diving, because after all, that is what Raja Ampat is renowned for.

On our arrival day we were put into small groups – the resort gauges individual experience levels so that each group is a suitable mix. Chelsea and I were paired with two solo travellers and they were our group for the entire trip. Our group had a dedicated divemaster (who was an angel) and each morning the whiteboard would be updated at the dive centre with the allocated dive sites for the day – this allowed all guests to have the opportunity to dive each site.

We would go down each morning and choose which dives we wanted to do each day – I did a minimum of two dives each day but some days opting to do a third. It meant that sometimes the entire four people from the group went out on a dive and sometimes it was just myself and the solo American traveller in our group.

The Misool resort has been the largest driving force behind the incredible conservation work that is being done in Raja Ampat and this staying at the resort comes with some notable perks. Multiple times we would zoom out to dive sites to find liveaboards getting their divers ready to launch, however, the resort has priority and only one group can dive each site at a time, so we would zoom in and jump the queue!

Raja Ampat is well known for being a manta ray hub but unfortunately we didn’t see any during our visit. It was warmer than normal during our visit and interestingly, scientists were present during this week and after checking all their receiving, they informed the resort that mantas were still in the area, but at depths of 50-100m – likely avoiding the unseasonable warmth.

Despite the lack of mantas, we still had incredible dives – we spotted turtles, reef sharks and so many fish!

If Misool looks like paradise to you but you aren’t a diver, it can absolutely still be worth a visit. We met a lovely elderly couple during our stay – he was a diver but she wasn’t and they both opted to just do snorkelling trips during their visit and honestly, they couldn’t rave about their experience more.

Our week in Misool was easily one of the most fabulous trips I have ever done and though it is admittedly expensive, I felt really good about splurging and spending the money because all of the money made at the resort goes straight back into conservation.

All too soon it was time for us to leave Misool. We sailed back into Sorong underneath a gorgeous sunset and I knew that I’d be back one day. In fact, as I write this post Ella and I have just booked our return trip… for 2027!

Misool has incredible demand and thus books out years in advance – if this blog has you wanting to jump on a plane, I highly recommend emailing them as soon as possible and no, this blog is in no way sponsored, this is just genuinely how good it is.

THE LOWDOWN

Getting to Sorong: This remote city can be reached via domestic connections through Bali or Jakarta
Misool Resort: This resort does everything right – the diving, the food, the conservation and literally everything else. I genuinely cannot recommend them enough! To learn more click here and to make enquiries or to book, fill out the form located at this link
Remember: Bring USD or IDR for tips and souvenirs, reef safe sunscreen is essential and whilst you don’t have to be a diver to enjoy the resort, I would highly recommend getting certified prior to your visit