Your timing
Leave at dawn for flat water and empty viewpoints, or later if that suits your group.
Private charter
The whole boat for your group, and an itinerary set around your dates rather than a fixed departure. Same boats, same licensed local captains — you just are not sharing them.
Plan a Private TripA private Raja Ampat charter means you book the whole boat rather than a seat on it, so the route, the pace and the departure time are set around your group.
What it changes
Less than the word suggests, and more than you would expect. The boats and crews are the same ones we use for shared trips. What changes is control over the day.
Every trip we run is chartered per boat, so a private booking is not a separate price list — it is the same day rate with nobody else splitting it. We quote a speedboat day charter on request, since the number depends on route distance, boat size, season and fuel.
That is the whole arithmetic: two people on a private boat pay the same total as six, so the per-head cost is three times higher. If cost matters more than control, a shared departure will always win. We will tell you that rather than sell you the upgrade.
The marine park permit sits outside the charter at around IDR 1,000,000 per person for foreign visitors, valid for the calendar year and checked on the water.
Cost per head
Departure
Route
Best for
Both use the same licensed local boats and captains. Neither is a better experience on the water — they are a different trade between cost and control.
Dates, group size, and whether you are after viewpoints, reefs or a slow day on the water. We will come back with a route, a boat and an itemised price — and say so if a shared departure would serve you better.