By tight travellers, October 2026.
Raja Ampat, also knows as ‘the last paradise’ is an archipelago made up of 1500+ islands in the West Papua Province of Indonesia. It is remote, it is a challenge to get to, and it can be shockingly expensive if you don’t do your research! Us tight travellers visited Raja Ampat for 2 weeks in August 2026, and we went after very little planning with just a flight and a home stay booked. Now it all worked out in the end, but we were left questioning our life choices en route to our top notch accommodation.
How to Get to Raja Ampat
The Flight
Getting to Raja Ampat isn’t easy, and requires a lot of commitment to the journey; but once you’re there it’s 100% worth the hassle. Your trip starts with a flight to Sorong.
Many tourists opt to get the ferry on the same day and don’t stay in Sorong. A lot of flights, like ours, arrive around 6:30am— and yes, this is enough time to make the 9am ferry if it’s running that day.
The Ferry
The next leg of your journey, is the ferry from Sorong to Waisai. The ferry to Waisai departs at 9am or 2pm so if you miss those, you’ll be staying the night. When you land at Sorong Airport, get yoursen a Grab / local taxi to the ferry port— be prepared to pay a 5000IDR parking fee when you enter.
Or if you choose to stay the night, walk. For us, it was about a 20 minute walk from the hotel to the ferry port— it’ll save you about 50,000IDR (£2). Every penny helps for this trip.
If you have the patience, you can attempt (attempt being the key word) to reserve tickets online by messaging the company. We tried, turns out we didn’t need patience as we never got a response. Or maybe that means we need a lot of patience.
Sorong-Waisai Ferry Departures
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: 2pm ONLY.
Sunday, Wednesday, Friday: 9am and 2pm.
Tickets for the ferry Sorong – Waisai are IDR 125,000 (£5) for economy or IDR 250,000 (£10) for VIP (cash payments only). Us tight travellers chose economy; where leg room is non existent, air con is minimal, and the toilets reek of piss!
And you’re not done with ya wallet yet! There is also a boarding fee, kindly introduced by the government, that you need to pay at the second counter. This is 12,000IDR (50p) and is only payable by cash.
Reyt— now you can board the boat and try get comfortable for the 2 hour journey.
Once you arrive in Waisai, you’ll have to pay the entry fee’s if you haven’t done already. We’ll talk about that daylight robbery in a moment. If you’re staying in Waisai, then you can start your relax. But if you’re not, get ready to fork out for a boat to your accommodation.
The Boat
There are a few options when getting the boat from Waisai to your chosen accommodation; with all of them, you’ll cross your fingers and hope there’s others to share the price with you!
The easiest option: message your accommodation before hand and ask them to pick you up. If that fails, like it did for us, option two: there are Facebook groups where other travellers post their journey in hopes they can find others to share the price. Local boat taxi’s are active on here and this is where we found our chauffeur.
The third option, but not foolproof: don’t plan your ongoing transport and talk to people! Speak to other travellers at the ferry port, on the ferry, waiting for sort fee’s in Waisai. Speak to the staff who are waiting in Waisai ferry port and tell them where you’re heading. Fingers crossed there are others staying in the same home stay / same island that you can catch a ride with!
We stayed on Gam Island, and the boat from Waisai cost us IDR 1,000,000 (£40). Other islands, like Kri were cheaper to get to (but not by much). If you’re travelling to different islands, be prepared to spend a small fortune on transport between! We found there is no space for bargaining here! There is a fixed price, and in this case, us tourists have no other option to just pay it.
Where to Stay in Sorong
If you found yoursen having to stay the night in Sorong, there are a few hotel options. We stayed at Hotel Mariat, which was partially clean, comfortable enough for one night and had a huge breakfast included. We also booked a second night here after our time in Raja Ampat and they kindly let us leave our 65l bags for free (fingers crossed they’re still there when we get back). Update: they were.
A lot of the people we spoke to during our time in Raja Ampat spoke very highly of the Swiss Hotel if you don’t fancy slumming it too hard. As always, compare prices on Booking.com and Trip.com to find the best deal!
Raja Ampat Fee’s
Travellers who decide to explore further afield and head to Raja Ampat, will be rewarded with a lighter wallet and some stunning scenery. There are two fee’s that everyone has to pay; some places check that these are paid (home stays, dive schools) but some don’t— we didn’t have to show anyone proof of payment during our trip.
The Marine Park Entry Permit
The Raja Ampat Marine Park Entry Permit is 1 million IDR (about 40 bloody quid) as of August 2026. You can pay this by cash, or card (for 2 or more people) but expect to pay a 2% service charge. If you have already done this online, you will still need to go to one of the counters so that you can get your physical card. This permit lasts for 1 year— so if you want to make the long journey back, you get to pay £40 less than the first time around.
The Raja Ampat Visitor Entry Ticket
The Raja Ampat Visitor Entry Ticket was also kindly introduced by the government in 2019. This supposedly provides for the installation and maintenance of tourism infrastructure; and is a single entry ticket. This is another IDR 1 million and is payable by cash or card (for 2 or more people). If you pay on card, expect to pay an extra IDR 21,000 per person.
We found that completing this short form while departing the ferry was the quickest way to do it, and then clicking the ‘pay at counter’ button when you’re at the desk.
You can pay these fee’s online, prior to arrival, but we struggled to do so. Doing it at the ferry ports is straightforward enough.
Pay The Marine Park Entry Fee here.
Pay The Raja Ampat Visitor Entry Ticket here.
There is the potential for other unofficial fees when you arrive to your chosen home stay. These are usually requested by local community’s and are often paid by boat, not by the number of people. We didn’t experience this when we arrived at Gam Island, but did pay a few small fee’s for parking the boat when we were out on day trips.
Check out the Stay Raja Ampat Website for up to date information.
How Long Should I Stay in Raja Ampat?
There are over 1500 Islands that make up Raja Ampat, so there is a lot to explore! How long you decide to stay is completely up to you, we met fellow travellers that were staying for 4 days, others that were staying for 3 weeks. But for the price that you pay to get there (transport and entry fee’s) we say that the longer the better!
We stayed for 8 nights and based ourselves at one home stay on Gam Island. If we were to do the trip again, knowing what we are sharing with you, we would probably stay for at least 2 weeks. We spent a ridiculous £575 to get to Raja Ampat (including flights and the fee’s). That eye watering amount alone makes it into a ‘once in a lifetime’ destination; so, I would spend as long as possible exploring Raja Ampat (unless you’re absolutely minted and want to splurge on more than one occasion).
Which Island Should I Stay On?
With so many islands to choose from, it is hard to pick which islands are worth the visit. And to be honest, they probably all are. Where you stay depends on what you want your trip to look like. Do you want dive schools nearby? To be able to snorkel with vibrant coral just off the jetty of your home stay? Do you want to be completely of grid or stay connected? Do you want to be surrounded by other travellers so it’s a guarantee that you can split prices of boat trips?
As apparent Type B travellers when it came to this trip, we did not do much research into which island we wanted to visit and what each offered. Instead, we scrolled through our favourite booking platforms and looked for the nicest accommodation within our budget. Not the best way to do it, but it worked and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay on Gam Island.
Arborek is a small island roughly 1 – 1.5 hours away from Waisai and is popular amongst travellers. Arborek Reef was one of our favourite snorkel spots, with healthy coral and an incredibly diverse number of fish. We even saw a sting ray! It is also close to the popular Manta Point (Manta Ray season runs from November to April). There is also a small village with it own cell tower, so you aren’t completely cut off from civilisation and can get yoursen a pint!
Freedom Home stay – Raja Ampat
Angelfish Guest House Raja Ampat
Friwen is less and 1 hour away from Waisai and is also home to an incredible snorkel / dive spot, the famous Friwen Wall. This was totally different from any other place we have snorkelled and is 100% worth the visit. Friwen also has a small village selling cold beers and fresh coconuts, and there is a beautiful beach here perfect for relaxing. In good weather, you may be able to get signal from the not so near cell tower.
Korain Home stay
Gam Island is roughly 1 -1.5 hours away from Waisai and is one of the largest islands in the archipelago. Not only is Gam surrounded by vibrant reefs, but the island is also home to Birds of Paradise and lined with mangroves. There are small villages along the coast, often where you start guided jungle treks and there are basic shops. Signal here is erratic and you may have to walk to the end of the jetty to find a bar or two.
Kri is one of the most popular islands for international tourists thanks to all the lonely planet readers out there, it is about 1 hour from Waisai. Travellers flock here for diving and snorkelling, and at low tide you may be able to cross the sandbank to the popular island of Mansuar. Cell reception is very good at Kri, it has tried to keep up with the large amount of people that visit. We chose not to visit Kri Island, mainly due to it having the most international tourists, but also because it seems like this small island was never meant to have such an influx of tourism. Make sure to check home stay reviews before booking, there is an increasing number of rats on the island and also some home stays on offer saltwater showers due to lack of fresh water.
Frits Home stay
Mansuar is just over an hour from Waisai and is home to rich coral reefs and also dense jungles home to an array of birds and other wildlife. Treks can also take you to a mid-island lake which looks pretty spectacular. Mansuar has great phone reception in the home stays and villages.
You can also use the Stay Raja Ampat website to look at and book home stays.
How much did us tight travellers spend ?
We stayed for 8 nights in Gam Island Bungalows and spent a total of £1,058 for 2 people (!)
Transport: £425 (excl. flights out of Sorong)
Fees: £170
Accommodation: £355 for 10 nights (8 nights Gam Island, 2 nights Sorong)
Food / Drinks: £25
Boat Trips: £78
E-sims: £5
What are your thoughts on this price breakdown? Looking back for us, it was only £5.30 over our daily budget of £50 each per day. As much as we loved our time at Raja Ampat I think it will have definitely been a once in a lifetime destination.
Our Tight Travellers Tips
- Use Skyscanner for cheap flights, but always shop around on different platforms (inc. the airlines website)
- Shop around when booking your accommodation. We primarily use Trip.com, Booking.com and Hostelworld.
- Try to do it yoursen before booking through a company. Whether that is transport, day trips, sightseeing.
- Eat local.
- Ask yoursen, do you really need that? As budget travellers, you’re gonna need to compromise and you can’t have everything (unfortunately).
- Look for potential work exchanges; work a few hours a day in exchange for your accommodation and food. We use Worldpackers and have done two exchanges so far!
- Us affiliate links to make back a little bit of the money you’re spending. We have started to use Travelpayouts; create links (like the ones on this blog) and earn a small commission from bookings. Thank ya btw.
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