Land Excursions: All you Need to Know

komodo dragon with tongue out

While the emphasis of all of our tour itineraries is largely based around getting our guests as much snorkeling time as possible, we do make sure to include one or several excursions on land during our tours so everyone can experience the terrestrial nature, historical sites, or indulge in cultural traditions. From the ancient pyramids of Giza, Komodo dragons, and remote beaches, to charming local villages, we always make sure you get the full experience of that particular area-above and below the water. Here’s a quick description of what you can expect from our land excursions and some things to pack for them.

What to Expect

Transport

The transportation method and distance to our designated land excursion varies by location. For some tours, it could be a quick ride on the liveaboard’s dinghy to a local village or beach, while others could be in air-conditioned vans or busses. Depending on the location, travel time can be anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. Regardless, we make the journey there as comfortable as possible with all transport organized in advance and reserved exclusively for us.

Duration

Most of our excursions will only occupy a portion of the day, usually the mornings as that’s when temperatures are the coolest. After breakfast onboard the liveaboard or at the resort we’ll hop into the vehicles or boat and make our way to the destination. Once everyone is satisfied with the sites or encounter—usually an hour or two—we’ll make our way back to the vessel or resort for lunch followed by some afternoon snorkeling. For the land excursions that involve a bit more transport time, we will have a delicious lunch organized for us at or around the area where we’ve been visiting. Don’t worry, we won’t ever let you miss a meal!

Local Egyptian food

Difficulty

None of our excursions are overly difficult from a physical point of view. Most of the time we are walking over flat ground or through well-maintained paths with distances kept under a mile or so in total. Our Komodo trek may be the most difficult as the trek does have one incline to a viewpoint at the end. For those that have difficulty with steeper inclines, there is an alternate route one of the guides will escort you on. Don’t worry, you won’t miss the dragons.

Guest photographing Komodo dragon on island

Guides

Wherever we go we always have a local tour guide or guides to lead us to the most interesting areas and feed us those tasty facts about the area you wouldn’t otherwise find in a guide book.

What to Pack

Sun Protection

As all of our tours will take place outside, it’s always advised to bring some form of sun protection. This could be everything from reef-safe sunscreen, hats, and buffs, to SPF clothing. All of our tours take place in hot tropical climates and there’s no quicker way to ruin a day or two of a snorkeling holiday than by a massive sunburn.

White sand beach with Kayaks and jungle

Shoes and Clothes

Most of the terrain on our land excursions is quite flat and could easily be done in a sturdy pair of sandals, however, we always suggest a pair of trainers or light hiking shoes if you have difficulty with your ankles. Shorts and t-shirts are normally what everyone wears, but if you are particularly prone to sunburns a lightweight long sleeve top would be advised.

Money

Somewhere between $10 and $50 dollars in the local currency is not a bad idea to bring along on the excursions as most of them will at some point have people selling souvenirs who will not take credit cards.

 

Like all the organized activities on our tours, nothing is mandatory. If a morning trek or village tour is not something you fancy doing, then you are absolutely welcome to lounge around the resort or go for a snorkel on the house reef. We’ve found that the majority of the guests will join in on the land excursions, but we also understand that people might prefer to spend that time snorkeling or sleeping in! If you do decide to hang back, we will make sure you are well looked after.

guest being massaged over a coral reef

How to Pack for a Snorkel Venture

First of all, this is not a blog on what to pack for a snorkeling safari, that information is here. This blog is all about how to pack for a snorkeling adventure with us. It may sound like a simple enough subject—just toss in a week’s worth of tropical clothes and your snorkel and mask into a bag and off you go—but with the varying restrictions between your international and any domestic flights we may need to take to reach our ultimate destination, it’s a good idea to pack with a bit of a plan.

International Flight

Your main international flight from your home country to any one of the countries where the tour will be held is fairly straight forward. Just make sure you are within the weight restrictions for both checked and hand-carry bags and all should be well. With that in mind though, do also keep in mind the weight requirements for any upcoming domestic flights you may have once in the country our snorkel safari is in. For exa

mple, if our domestic flight from Bali or Jakarta to Komodo only allows for a maximum of 30kg for our checked luggage and 7kg of hand-carry baggage, you wouldn’t want to have a total luggage weight exceeding 37kgs even if your international flight allows for more than this.

Air asia baggage guide

Domestic Flights

For some of our snorkeling safaris we will be taking one or several domestic flights, particularly in Indonesia. So, it’s a good idea to adjust your packing a bit once you landed in the designated country. First of all, many of our domestic flights will be on smaller planes that will have more restrictions on hand cary luggage size and weights than a large international flight. For most domestic flights the hand-carry maximum weight is 7kg. Along with that, some of the overhead storage compartments are quite narrow so if you have a larger hand-carry bag it’s a good idea to confirm with us or the domestic carrier what their luggage size restrictions are.

Outside of luggage size and weight restrictions, it’s also a good idea to really plan what you pack in both your checked bag as well as your hand cary bag. Our Wakatobi safari, for example, involves a private charter flight from Bali to Wakatobi resort where our checked bags will be dropped of at our rooms several hours after we arrive at the resort. So, with situations like this in mind, it’s a good idea to pack an essential toiletry kit, a spare change of clothes, any medication, glasses, or prescription goggles, and any personal electronics you may need like a laptop or camera in your hand-carry bag. Something else to consider bringing is a power bank to keep your mobile devices charged during flights and car/boat rides.

carry on essentials

You may also find that for some domestic flights the regulations for what items can be carried on and what needs to be checked are more stringent, so we’ve included a generalized list of what items should go where. Please note, this is not an official list of what can be checked and what can not, just a generalized list of items often overlooked by guests.

Liquids: All liquid items over 100ml need to go in your CHECKED BAG

Aerosols: Things like shaving cream and aerosol deodorant or sun cream also need to go in your CHECKED BAG.

Tripods: All tripods and selfie sticks—basically anything stick-shaped—need to go in your CHECKED BAG.

Prescription Masks/Glasses & Medication: Any medication or prescription masks/goggles/glasses should go in your HAND CARY.

Batteries: All batteries, including power banks, need to be in your HAND CARRY bag. We strongly suggest keeping your batteries together in one container rather than scattered about in your bag, just in case the gate agent needs to see them.

Snorkeler’s Guide to Misool Resort

Snorkeler surrounded by baby sharks

At the beginning of December 2020 I had the absolute pleasure of being invited to Misool Resort in Raja Ampat to take a short (ten day) tour of their iconic resort island. Long story short I was absolutely blown away in just about every possible way. The location—of a remote tropical island in the heart of what is widely considered to the best snorkeling in the world is the first thing is the first that made my jaw drop. My mouth remained in this position as we settled into our eco-elegant water bungalows where dozens of blacktip reef sharks and juvenile green sea turtles paraded about below. I did eventually have to close my mouth around a snorkel though as Montse—my fiancé and snorkel partner for life—and I proceeded down our bungalow steps into the pristine waters for a snorkel session on their famous house reef. Through a combination of eco-awareness, natural and creative aesthetics, and world class service Misool Resort has cultivated an experience and atmosphere at a level like I’ve never quite seen before, and right now I want to highlight those different elements in detail for you.

Misool Resort Map

Arrival in Sorong

I’ll be the first to say that arriving to Sorong in West Papua—the port town to Raja Ampat—is not quick hop, not even from Bali. I promise you though the trip is well worth the reward and the moment you collect your bags at the carousel in Sorong you can begin to relax as the Misool staff pick us up in comfortable Air Conditioned vans and drive us around the corner to their own Cafe for a complimentary breakfast. While we relax in their cozy cafe the resort’s staff load our large bags into their custom built 1,500 horse power luxury transfer boat—Merantau.

Misool resort transfer boat

After breakfast we’ll be shuttled the ten minutes to the harbor where Merantau is waiting and ready for us to board. This boat is phenomenal. It has a fully enclosed main cabin with more than enough seating and even a little “cafe” where you can grab a drink and a snack for the ride. The main cabin is also equipped with air conditioning, a large restroom, and a specialty built rack for storing hand carry luggage. There are also plenty of outdoor seating areas upstairs, on the bow, and in the stern of the boat so you can watch for whales and dolphins. The trip from Sorong to Misool takes 3-4 hours depending on sea conditions.

Arrival at the Resort

Upon arrival at the resort we’ll of course be met by the outstanding staff and escorted to the sea-side restaurant for a quick resort introduction and a freshly prepared lunch. Our big bags will be taken to our individual bungalows so we won’t have to worry about lugging any heavy bags around. As people finish up their meals they’ll be shown to their exquisite rooms.

The Rooms

The resort offers a variety of room styles with the most “basic” being their water cottages. Let me just quickly say that there is nothing basic about these rooms. These eight water cottages fringe the north lagoon and seem to hover over the reef below with their stilted design. You can quite literally watch sharks, turtles, and schools of fish swim directly under your expansive veranda all day long. Each cottage is equipped with air conditioning, it’s own wall fan, mini bar, mosquito net, a huge veranda with a sort of hammock built into the floor so you can relax directly above the reef. Oh, and then there’s the fantastic open air bathroom and where you have amazing views of the limestone cliffs above. As I said, there is nothing basic about these rooms.

two girls paddleboarding in front of the water bungalows at misool resort

The other accommodation styles on the north lagoon are also stilted over the water but feature larger living areas with cleverly designed sofa beds and larger verandas. There is even a two bedroom villa with it’s own dining area over the house reef, a small kitchen, and an additional loft bed.

interior and exterior view of the rooms at misool resort

Then there’s the south beach villas which look as if they are a completely separate resort. These fantastic beach villas are on the other side of the hill from the main resort and set on their own private bay complete with a football field length white sand beach and backed but a lush tropical jungle. These rooms are truly exquisite in their location and design and will offer the most privacy for those of you that want to disconnect a bit more.

panorama of misool resort's south beach

However, I should point out that they are a bit removed from the main resort and restaurant and every meal time you will either need to arrange for the resort’s little ferry boat (a large aluminum dinghy) to pick you up and take you the 2 minutes around the corner to the main resort, or walk about eight minutes over the hill through their well paved stairs. It’s really not a major effort by any means, but it is something to consider for those of you who are not particularly keen on steps or would prefer a more simplified route to breakfast.

Map of Misool resort's south beach

The Food

With their own hydroponic garden system on the island and a regular supply of fresh meats and produce arriving regularly you’ll be treated to a vast array of creative culinary delights and mouth watering pasteries at every meal thanks to Misool’s team of skilled chefs.

Snorkeling guest admiring the fantastic food at misool resort.

What’s more is that the restaurant is situated at the head of the lagoon which is also the main thoroughfare for the baby sharks and main foraging ground for the green sea turtles.

Dozens of sharks swimming in front of Misool Resort's restaurant

Non Snorkeling Activities

While Misool is a full service snorkel and dive resort where most of the guests arrive for one or both of these activities, you could easily spend your entire holiday doing neither and still depart on the final day feeling as if you’d fully experienced the area. Paddle boarding and kayaks are the most popular non snorkeling activity as the main island and the small neighboring islands are well suited for both with their many lagoons, secret beaches and just jaw dropping scenery.

stand up paddleboarder in hidden lagoon

Misool also offers a variety of day trips to nearby mangroves, a hidden lagoon system where once again you can paddleboard, kayak, snorkel, or search for the exquisite birds and carnivorous plants that live within these unreal ecosystems. These day trips will typically include a stop at one of the areas pristine beaches where they will have bean bags and a snack buffet set up for us.

guest being massaged over a coral reef

If it’s leisurely activities you are after, there’s always the stroll on the beach, reading a good book on your verandah, or indulging for a massage right over the reef from the resort’s fantastic masseuse.

The Snorkeling

Misool Resort is not only a five star snorkeling and dive resort in the heart of the most biodiverse marine ecosystem in the world, but also an industry leader in marine conservation. Since Misool Resort helped establish a marine protected area (MPA) around the most vulnerable parts of the Misool in 2005 they’ve seen rebounds in marine biomass by up to 600%.  What that translates to is a snorkeling experience like you would’t believe, particularly on their house reef.

snorkeler floating above green sea turtle

As you take that first plunge into Misool’s house house reef theres a very good chance that the first creature you are greeted by will be a member of their blacktip reef shark population or a green sea turtle, or both!  The turtles and sharks here are so used to people snorkeling by that they will casually swim beside you without giving you a second glance.

blacktip reef shark swimming through a school of fish

The house reef is absolutely massive as it extends for hundreds of meters in all directions and continues on around the corner and will eventually leader you to other small islands. The coral is outstanding and comes right up to the water line, and even above it with a low tide. The resort’s pier is buzzing with life and it’s also where you’ll see the resident grouper and a friendly napoleon wrasse, both of who could easily outweigh me on a scale. Other residential fish include a large school of adolescent big-eye jacks and even a group of about thirty bumphead parrot fish who can be found grazing on the coral right up in the shallows. Even mantas are a common occurrence as they will occasionally found feeding in the channel.

snorkelers over coral reef

While the house reef is world class, you’ll defiantly want to explore the other neighboring sites which are just a five to fifteen minutes boat ride away. Every day we’ll visit at least two of the different sites in the area with each offering something unique. The style of sites range from gentle drift snorkels, placid mangroves, to small limestone island with unreal underwater topography, and even several manta ray hot spots. Regardless of the site though, what you’ll experience underwater will be sure to sate your appetite for tropical reef snorkeling and big marine life.

Scooters

Misool is the first resort I’ve been to which has a well stocked supply of underwater scooters for rent. This was the first time I’ve ever used one of these underwater propulsion devices and I’ll admit I was hesitant at first as I’m quite set in my traditional snorkeling ways, but my traditions were quickly shifted once I pressed the throttle button.

Not that you’ll need it with all the marine life action surrounding us, but if you want an additional injection of adrenaline then take one of these sleek scooters for a ride. They pull you along at any pace you like and even allow you to duck dive down with very little effort. What’s more is that you can explore huge swaths of reef with little to no effort and in a fraction of the time.

Departure from the Resort

On the final day of our Misool adventure we will have a breezy morning with breakfast and lunch as usual and then around 1:00 we will once again hop onboard  Merantau, their spacious high speed transfer boat and make the journey back to Sorong. Upon arriving Sorong we will be met by more of the Misool staff who will load our large bags into air conditioned vans and then drive us the ten minutes to the Swiss-Belhotel, Sorong’s nicest hotel, where we will relax and enjoy a nice group dinner and a good nights sleep before our departure flight to Jakarta the following morning.

girl floating in the water above a school of juvenile blacktip reef sharks

Where to Find Big Fish

Schooling scads over a coral reef

While everyone loves snorkeling over pristine reefs with all the colorful fish that explode out of it, there’s still nothing quite like schools of big fish. Despite what movies and wildlife documentaries might covey with their their careful selection of images, big fish can be tricker to find than you might imagine. For example, on a five kilometer stretch of reef full of what look like the perfect habitat for big fish there may be one point or ridge where the big fish collect, or you may see a lot of big fish but they are deep and well out of snorkeling range. If you’ve spent any amount of time snorkeling in the tropics you will surely understand what I’m talking about. So, with all of this in mind, here are a few tips for finding the big fish!

 Depth 

Depth does play a small role in being able to find big fish in that you need to be snorkeling in an area that has access to deeper water. What I mean by this is that if you are snorkeling right up in the shallow reef flats you are not likely to encounter many big fish. However, if you swim to the point in the reef where it turns into a wall or starts to slope off, then you’ll increase your odds of finding big fish as they like to have unlimited access to the open blue water.

Diagram of where to find big fish on a reef

Current

Current plays a big part in where big fish congregate and when. Generally speaking, when the tide is slack—that time between rising tide and falling tide where there is no current—most big fish will sort of just scatter into the blue water away from the reef. When the current starts to run again the fish will come back into their schooling formations on the up current side of the reef

DIAGRAM

Topography 

Topography and current sort of work together in that schools of big fish will generally congregate around ridges and channels, or basically any topographic feature that helps accelerate or funnel the current and bring in food. The fish will almost always be on the up current side of that particular feature, which is why your Snorkel Venture guides are always paying attention to which way the current is running.

Specific Destinations 

School of Mobula rays in cablo san lucas

One of the biggest tips for finding big fish is to figure out which destinations are well known for having big fish. By destination I don’t mean countries, I mean specific snorkeling destinations within a country like Komodo or Raja Ampat in Indonesia and the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. While a country like Indonesia may be famous for having lots of big fish, it will be these specific snorkeling destinations that have made it so. Before booking a snorkeling adventure it’s really important to know which places offer the best chances of big fish.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

school of batfish in coral reef

Destinations like Raja Ampat and Komodo who have had their waters protected as an MPA for years will offer the absolute best big fish encounters for a couple reasons. First reason being that there will just be more big fish as fishing is restricted or prohibited within the MPA boundaries. Second reason being that fish know when they are being fished and will descend to deeper waters. If you’ve ever snorkeled in places where they are still actively fished you’ll no doubt find that all the big fish will be deep, and in much smaller numbers. In successful MPAs like Raja Ampat you’ll find that almost all the schooling fish will be in the first fifteen or so feet of water and in very large numbers, perfect for snorkelers.

Critters

Juvenile frogfish yawning

Wondering what we mean by critters? Basically, we and everyone else in the snorkel and dive community are applying the broad generalization of “critters” to all the weird and wonderful creatures like frog fish, nudibranchs, octopus, scorpion fish, and moray eels. There’s no real qualification for something to be labeled as a critter, they are basically anything that is small, spends most of it’s time hiding in the reef, and just doesn’t look your traditional fish.

squid in black water

What’s fascinating about these critters is that there are so many different species within just a single genus. Take octopus for example, in North Sulawesi (critter capital of the world) there are at least ten different species of octopus. Some of these octopus species are hairy, some are as small as your finger nail, some have fluorescent blue spots all over them, and some have the ability to mimic the shape and behavior of other marine creatures like the jellyfish or even sea snakes. Within the frogfish family there are at least  another ten unique species, and three-thousand different species of nudibranchs. Basically every type of critter will have many many different variations and it becomes like a scavenger hunt to find them all.

As you first begin your critter crusade it may seem a bit frustrating in just being able to find them as most of them are very well camouflaged. Your local guides will always assist though as their eyes are well tuned at deciphering what is reef and what is actually a living animal. As you begin to noticing the shapes, patterns, and the habitats of the different species you’ll quickly catch on and start to rely less and less on the guides to find critters for you. For a lot of people this ‘hunt’ soon becomes an obsession and it actually becomes difficult to pry your eyes from the reef. That excitement you experienced as a kid on easter as you scoured your house and garden for those brightly colored eggs will no doubt be brought back every time you hit the water.

glassy sweeper fish swimming over orange crinoid and leaf scorpion fish

 

Now, critters are found all over the world, even in the temperate and frozen seas. However, there is one place in particular which offers the most critter dense coast lines of anywhere in the world, and that’s Lembeh Strait. This small tropical island off North Sulawesi seems to offer the perfect habitat for just about all of these wonderful benthic creatures. If you look through any tropical fish book you would have a hard time finding an Indo-Pacific ‘critter’ that does not have the “Location Found” as “Lembeh Straight” or “North Sulawesi”. To get a better idea of just how many critters can be found here in Lembeh, check out the Critter Log from one of our host resorts for our North Sulawesi tour, Lembeh Reosrt.

Purple and yellow nudibranch

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