Sorry I missed your question; hope this answer isn’t too late to help you.

“Free” rides to Waisai vary among homestays and resorts: often they are Saturdays, when they are scheduled to pick up “new” customers for the upcoming week. Other scheduled days may reflect days on which the resort or homestay is scheduled to pick up supplies from Waisai. In short, they make it “free” on days when they must go to Waisai for other reasons.

It can be a long ride: my ride from Eco Lodge took almost two hours, and gas is very, very expensive. So if you’re not scheduled to arrive and/or depart on a “free day,” expect to pay several hundred dollars for the lift.

Please, could you explain why on Sunday evening or Monday morning the boat ride from the homestay to Waisai is free?

Thank you very much!

Our trips partner offers a resort based Raja Ampat snorkeling trip, and a liveaboard based one for anyone who doesn’t want to organize their own trip.

Folks might also be interested in Pam and Bill’s post about using home-stays for snorkeling in Raja Ampat.