Join This Incredible 24 Day Safari to Snorkel Three of the Best Snorkeling Places in the World
April 20 – May 13, 2026
October 23 – November 15, 2026
Outstanding snorkeling, boutique resorts, what more do you need? This exciting Alor West Komodo and Raja Ampat snorkeling trip will take 14 snorkelers to explore some of the most bio-diverse and abundant reefs in the Coral Triangle, and will offer opportunities to snorkel with majestic manta rays, among other incredible sea life.
Note: The itinerary for this trip has changed. If you have questions contact our partner with the form below. If you are looking for the April 2025 trip, you can see its new itinerary here.
You will first explore Alor from the seculded Alami Alor Resort. The colorful diverse coral reefs there will blow you away, and the sparkling abundance of reef fish will delight you. There is also the possibility of coming across some of the ocean’s most iconic inhabitants, like a superpod of dolphins and melon-headed whales, giant ocean sunfish (mola mola), and even blue whales, as you travel to snorkel sites.
Your next destination is the east coast of the island of Sumbawa, where your group will have exclusive access to four different regions in West Komodo with amazing and unique snorkeling. You will explore the west side of Komodo Island, the Sangeang Island Volcano, Gili Banta, and the eastern coast of Sumbawa Island. The stunning Kalimaya Resort will be your base for this portion of your trip. Expect to find pristine abundant hard and soft coral reefs full of fish, good chances of turtles, manta rays, and reef sharks. Around the volcano you can swim over the bubbling black sand, and see the hyper-rich reefs unique to the area.
Your third and final destination will be Raja Ampat where you will stay at the wonderful Papua Explorers Resort. Located near the Dampier Strait, you will see lush soft corals, sea fan forests, and hard coral plateaus. You will have many chances to see manta rays, wobbegong (carpet) sharks and epaulette (walking) sharks, as well as several types of turtles, and a variety of colorful reef fish.
This trip is being run by our partner and friend Ben and his team. Based in the U.K., they are experts in the Coral Triangle, run amazing excursions, and have a great appreciation for the underwater world.
This small group trip is exclusively for snorkelers. It is a unique opportunity to experience a 24 day guided remote adventure filled with fantastic reefs, and beautiful landscapes. Each of the resorts you will be staying at are exceptional and unique, with fantastic food and service.
Watch This Video to See What This Trip Will Be Like
The Alor West Komodo and Raja Ampat Snorkeling Trip Itinerary
Alor, Komodo and Raja Ampat are all in the country of Indonesia in Southeast Asia, and they are all in the area known as the Coral Triangle. The Coral Triangle has the most biodiversity of ocean life in the world.
This snorkeling trip begins when you arrive at the Jakarta Airport. You will meet your tour leader and your fellow snorkelers over a welcome dinner. Later you will check out for an early morning flight.
Your group will fly together to Alor, via Kupang. Once you arrive you will be transferred by private car to the Alami Alor Resort. You will spend seven nights at this beautiful resort.
After your stay in Alor, you will be taken back to the airport to fly to Bali, via Kupang, for a one night stay. The next morning you will continue your journey and fly to Bima on the island of Sumbawa. Staff from the Kalimaya Resort will meet you at the airport and transfer you by car to the resort. You will spend six nights at this wonderful resort.
After being taken back to the airport, you will fly to Jakarta again for a short stay in a hotel before your early morning flight to Sorong. Once in Sorong, you will be transferred to the port where you will board the boat that will take you to the Papua Explorers Resort. You will spend seven nights at this stunning resort.
After being transferred back to Sorong, your group will have one last flight back to Jakarta where the trip ends.
About Snorkeling Alor and the Alami Alor Resort
You will be staying at the Alami Alor Resort for seven nights. Alor is very remote, and very few tourists visit the area. That, combined with a lack of destructive fishing practices, means that the reefs are exceptional, unspoiled, and full of unique life. The other reason the reefs are so healthy and full of unique life is that Alor has strong currents, that flush the area with nutrients.
The Alami Alor Resort has a wonderful house reef to explore. It is a shallow shelf, accessed from the pier, that is full of coral life, small reef sharks, nudibranchs, spadefish, mandarinfish, crustaceans, and lots of other reef fish.
For six days, your group will snorkel nearby reefs from small boats twice a day, returning for lunch. Every spot you visit in Alor is very unique, from plateaus of colorful reefs, with clouds of small reef fish, to larger drop-offs, with larger species. Just some of the unique life you can see in Alor are mola mola, dolphins, frogfish, mandarinfish, and blue whales.
Alor is very special in our hearts for how untouched and diverse the reefs are. While you will see lots of fish, particularly a crazy abundance of smaller reef fish, and larger fish schools of spadefish, fusiliers and jacks, what really stands out for us about Alor is how incredibly diverse the fields and walls of coral life are, and how healthy they are. Every spot we visited seemed like a different ecosystem, with very different colorful corals, sponges and anemones, and the most marine biodiversity we’ve seen.
Also of note about Alor, and probably one of the big reasons the reef is so healthy, is because there is a large tidal range, and with that strong currents in the area. This flushes a lot of water through the reefs, full of nutrients. Because of this, Alor is a place to snorkel with a very experienced guide. Because of the currents our guide would often have us dropped off at one end of a reef, we would drift with the current, and we would be picked up at the other end of the reef by our boat.
The resort has two boats with shade covers that hold six guests plus crew. So each day your group will go out in two boats. These boats are big enough to handle a bit of weather, but small enough to drop you off and pick you up right up close to the reefs. You drop into the water from the sides of the boats, and get back on from solid stainless steel step ladders on the side of the boats (you can just see the ladder retracted in the picture below). You return to the resort for lunch between outings.
Alami Alor is an intimate resort situated on a remote and quiet bay which combines luxury accommodation and delicious locally inspired food. There are seven waterfront bungalows, and it will be only your group at the resort. The bedroom is air-conditioned, and there is an open air garden bathroom. There is a pool next to the community building and many comfortable outdoor seating areas.
Guests can enjoy full breakfast, lunch, and dinner served in the dining room, family style, at the communal dining table. They serve an assortment of dishes influenced mostly by tropical Indonesian and Asian style, but also international cuisines. We found the food to be healthy and delicious, with excellent cocktails available at your own cost.
Alami Alor can accommodate most special diets such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and so on.
About Snorkeling West Komodo and Kalimaya Resort
During your six night stay at Kalimaya Resort on eastern Sumbawa, you will have access to outstanding snorkeling spots previously only accessible by liveaboard. These spots are in four different regions: West Komodo National Park, Gili Banta, Sangeang Volcano Island, and the eastern coast of Sumbawa. There is a high probability that you will have these wonderful snorkeling sites all to yourself. You will have five days of boat snorkeling sessions from Kalimaya.
The snorkeling in West Komodo National Park and Gili Banta are known for their currents which move nutrients through the area. This creates vibrant coral reefs full of sea life, and attracts large schools of fish, like tuna and jacks, along with big pelagic creatures like sharks, manta rays, mobula rays, and eagle rays. Your guides will time your snorkels for slower currents and you will always drift with them.
The Sangeang Volcano sits on an island to the north of the resort. It is still semi-active and you can snorkel in the bubbles that rise from the black sands surrounding it. You can also explore the hyper-rich reefs which are unlike any of the other reefs in the region as a result of its nutrient-dense volcanic substrate. These colorful coral reefs pop against the black sand background, and there are many unique creatures to spot, too.
The east coast of Sumbawa, including the Kalimaya house reef, is home to a variety of creatures, including octopus, shrimp, nudibranchs, eels, frogfish, stingrays, and more.
The coral reefs in all these areas extend out in slopes from the shoreline and drop off in walls, both of which offer wonderful opportunities to see a wide range of fish and sea creatures, including sea turtles.
Kalimaya’s house reef is available for you to snorkel at any time. If the tide and weather cooperates, you can even snorkel the house reef at night and be able to see nocturnal creatures like crabs, eels, rays, cuttlefish, squid, octopus, and more.
In addition to the snorkeling, you will have a trip to Komodo Island to see the wild Komodo Dragons. This is a fantastic opportunity to see the dragons in their true natural habitat away from typical areas frequented by tourists.
Your daily snorkel boat from Kalimaya is a large fiberglass speedboat with a covered interior area, and marine toilet. You will exit the water by a sturdy ladder.
Kalimaya Resort is built right on the edge of a beautiful white sand beach where the sand quickly merges with a stunning coral reef. Your group will occupy both the Beach Bungalows and Sea View Bungalows. Each bungalow has an en-suite open-air bathroom with hot water, air-conditioning, cold drinks, coffee station, and a private veranda with chairs that face the sea.
The restaurant serves up a variety of Indonesian and international meals throughout the day. Kalimaya is a very remote resort and resources can be quite scarce, particularly when it comes to special diets. But, with proper notice they can accommodate most dietary requirements. Note: alcohol is not served at Kalimaya.
There are lounge areas around the pool and beach that are a great place to get together at the end of the day. There is also a spa for relaxing massages and treatments.
About Snorkeling Raja Ampat and Papua Explorers Resort
You will be staying at the Papua Explorers Resort for seven nights. The resort is located in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, in the Coral Triangle, which is the most bio-diverse marine environment in the world.
You may have heard of the incredible underwater biodiversity of the Coral Triangle area of Indonesia. Well, Raja Ampat is known to have the most species of marine life in all of the Coral Triangle. There are nearly 1,500 species of reef fish, 600 species of hard corals, seven giant clams species, seven species of sea turtles, and 57 species of mantis shrimp. And pelagic life is abundant in the area.
You will have unlimited access to the house reef and six days of three boat snorkel sessions per day. On both the house reef, and the many other reefs close by that you will visit by boat, you can expect to see healthy coral gardens dense with hard and soft corals in perfect snorkeling depths. You will find large volumes and varieties of fish schools, and will have good chances seeing bigger fish such as manta rays, reef sharks, and schools of barracuda and jacks.
Why is there so much life around the Papua Explorers Resort? The resort is located on the edge of the Dampier Strait, in the central region of a marine protected area. The strait pumps nutrient rich waters through the area which supports an abundance of marine life, large and small.
You will experience a great variety of underwater ecosystems, all close to the resort, from shallow fringing reefs to sea mounts, walls, mangroves fringed by reef, and manta cleaning stations.
Beneath the surface swarms of small fish such as damsels, fusiliers, and anthias mill about on the reef flats, while not too far away large schools of tuna, trevally, and mackerel congregate. Spadefish, surgeonfish, and barracuda gather under docks and around reef points, while angelfish and butterflyfish decorate both the reef flats and jagged coral towers. Expect fields of soft corals like you’ve never seen them before, and hard coral reefs are healthy and abundant as well.
Papua Explorers has a large fiberglass speedboat with a full canopy that is used for the daily snorkel excursions. It has plenty of room to store items that need to stay dry, like cameras. The boat has a large wooden ladder, but no toilet on board.
At Papua Explorers Resort your overwater bungalow is built in traditional Papuan style with local materials, but with modern comforts. All bungalows are equipped with a bathroom, including a shower with hot water, a ceiling fan, a mosquito net, a working desk, and a comfortable seating area.
The rooms do not have air-conditioning, but with the rooms being over the water and with the ceiling fans, they are cool. Enjoy sunsets and sunrises on your spacious veranda, with a hammock and comfortable lounge chairs. You also have your own stairs down into the sea. There is satellite based WiFi internet available in the common areas.
The resort restaurant also sits over the water, and is an excellent place to view the stunning surroundings. You will be served traditional Indonesian cuisine as well as international comfort foods and snacks between snorkels. The resort can accommodate most special diets such as vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and so on. But, it is a remote destination and specific food items may not be available.
Trip Details and How to Sign Up
This is a small group trip and we expect it to fill quickly. Your spot is reserved with your deposit. Contact Ben below for deposit instructions.
Trip Dates and Prices:
April 20 – May 13, 2026 – Available.
October 23 – November 15, 2026 – Available.
2026 Trip Price:
$10,250 US per person (Twin/Double Share)
Single Person Supplement: $2500 US
The initial deposit for this trip is $800 US per person. At twelve months before departure there is a $1000 US per person interim deposit. At six months before departure there is a $1000 US per person interim deposit. The final balance will be due three months before departure. A few payment options are available including debit and credit cards.
Individual travelers – Ben will happily find someone of the same sex for you to share a room with to avoid the single person supplement. If he cannot find you someone, no single supplement surcharge will apply.
Inclusions:
- 1 day stay at a Jakarta hotel
- All flights, transfers and connections, includes 44lbs luggage allowance on flights – Jakarta – Alor – Bali – Bima – Jakarta – Sorong – Jakarta
- 7 nights Alami Alor Resort in a Seafront Bungalow Double Occupancy with full board
- 12 boat snorkel sessions over 6 days in Alor
- 6 nights Kalimaya Resort in a Beach or Sea View Bungalow Double Occupancy with full board
- 5 full day snorkeling tours in West Komodo
- Half day Komodo Dragon land tour
- 1 day stay at a Jakarta hotel
- 7 nights Papua Explorers Resort in a Deluxe Bungalow Double Occupancy with full board
- 18 boat snorkel sessions over 6 days in Raja Ampat
- Unlimited house reef snorkeling at all resorts
- Services of guide from Ben’s team and local snorkel guides throughout
- Marine park fees for Alor, West Komodo and Raja Ampat
Exclusions:
- International flights and visas
- Snorkeling equipment rental
- Gratuities
- Travel insurance (recommended)
- Health insurance (compulsory)
- Soft drink and alcoholic beverages, and general sundries
- Spa services
Trip Organizers
Ben and his U.K. based team are the organizers and leaders of this trip (more about them below). Galen and Nicole from TropicalSnorkeling.com are promoting this trip, but all signups, trip organization and payments are made to and managed by Ben’s team. TropicalSnorkeling.com does receive a referral fee in exchange for promoting the trip, at no extra cost to attendees.
How to Sign Up or Learn More?
Use the contact form below to contact Ben and his team to request more information about them and express your interest in signing up. They will get back to you shortly with full details.
More About Ben and Our Partnership
Ben (pictured with Nicole) is our friend and snorkeling trips partner. He and his team are based in the U.K. and have over 20 years of experience guiding in Asia and beyond. He has been running his own business since 2010 and is primarily offering guided snorkeling trips, but he started with diving. He began offering snorkeling specific trips because he was aware that snorkelers often get the short end of the stick when thrown in with divers. He and his team love the freedom and low stress of snorkeling, and are very aware of the different needs of snorkelers versus divers, in terms of the reef depth, and calm surface conditions needed.
From our experience going on some of his snorkeling trips we found them very well organized, the guides were fantastic and very helpful, and the underwater experiences were exceptional. Snorkeling groups really get the benefit of all of Ben and his guides’ years of experience in the water, and with different resorts and liveaboards.
All of his trips are small groups of 12-18 guests, or with a similar ratio of snorkelers to guides. These are premium trips including nearly everything you will need, accommodation, meals, transportation, and more.
His company is licensed and insured. Barring extreme circumstances they do not cancel trips.
Learn More About the Resorts
Papua Explorers Resort Website