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One way · 11 nights · Sorong to Ambon
Eleven nights on ALIIKAI VOYAGE from Raja Ampat to the nutmeg islands
Best months
October and April, on the seasonal crossings
How long
12 Days / 11 Nights
Start and finish
Sorong to Ambon
Planned by
The Ahoy Club charter team
The idea of the week
Twice a year the fleet crosses between Raja Ampat and Komodo, and ALIIKAI VOYAGE sells the crossing as the trip it deserves to be: four days in Misool's lagoons, a stop at the reef aquarium of Koon, then the Banda Islands, which were once the only place on earth nutmeg grew and were fought over for two hundred years because of it.
Run was traded to the Dutch in exchange for Manhattan. Banda Neira has cannons in front of the colonial houses and a fort you can walk the walls of. Gunung Api, the volcano in the middle of it all, last erupted in 1988 and can be climbed before breakfast. Between the history the diving is wall after wall of gorgonians and barrel sponges, and on some days hammerheads.
This is a one-way trip. Fly into Sorong and out of Ambon; both connect to Jakarta direct and to Bali with one stop. ALIIKAI also runs it in reverse, Ambon to Sorong, at the other end of the season.
The route
The boat this week was written for
ALIIKAI VOYAGE
40 metres, 7 cabins for 15. Two owner's cabins with private balconies, a family suite that takes a cot, and a crew of 14 including a cruise director who speaks nine Indonesian dialects. Our pick for three generations.
What the crew arrange along the way
Four days in Misool
The richest reefs in Raja Ampat with no schedule to keep: dive, snorkel, kayak and the caves at Tomolol.
The Spice Islands' history
Forts on Ai, Run and Banda Neira, the nutmeg plantations of Banda Besar, and the volcano that overlooks them all.
ALIIKAI's beach set-up
Loungers, umbrellas, towels and drinks on a beach nobody else is on, with kayaks and paddleboards in the water.
Day by day
Board, and the first snorkel in Raja Ampat by the afternoon
The crew meet you at the airport and you settle into your cabin with a drink on deck. The boat sails for Raja Ampat and the first snorkel or dive of the trip is that afternoon, with the sun going down behind the limestone islets.
Southeast Misool · Four days in the lagoons, caves and reefs of the south
You wake at the southeast end of Misool to a pastel sunrise and breakfast on deck. Four days here: Boo Window and Magic Mountain underwater, the ancestral caves of Tomolol with their rock paintings and orchids, a pearl farm, and powder beaches for picnics and shell hunting. Nobody has ever asked to leave early.
An aquarium of an island east of Seram
A tiny island ringed by a blinding white beach that drops into turquoise, with coconut palms and a fringing reef so protected it works like an aquarium. Overnight the boat crosses towards the Bandas.
Run, Ai and Nailakka · The island traded for Manhattan
Ashore on Ai to find the ruins of Fort Revenge in the jungle, then to Run, the first British overseas colony and the island the Dutch took in exchange for New York. Forgotten forts, a picnic lunch, and a coral wall to dive.
Banda Besar and Pisang · The nutmeg plantations, a dive at Batu Kapal, a village on Pisang
Walk the old nutmeg plantations under ancient almond trees, once the most expensive spice on earth, with endemic birds overhead. After lunch two dives at Batu Kapal, then a village on Pisang island with beaches and reef all round it.
Banda Api · Up the Fire Mountain before it gets hot
For the fit, an early ascent of Gunung Api, the most famous of the Banda Sea's ring-of-fire volcanoes, first recorded in the fourteenth century and last erupted in 1988. About 640 metres up a narrow track, and a view worth every step. Everyone else dives the lava flow, where the coral came back faster than anywhere studied.
Suanggi and Banda Neira · Bird Rock, then a town where every building could be a museum
The Bandas emerge on the horizon early. Dive Bird Rock at Suanggi island, then ashore in Banda Neira: cannons outside colonial houses, seventeenth-century inscriptions on the walls, Fort Belgica, the old church, the governor's palace, the jail and the museum.
A Portuguese fort, then walls and overhangs full of macro life
Saparua is the largest of the Lease islands east of Ambon. Ashore for the town and Fort Duurstede, built in 1676, then lunch under way to Mamala island, whose eastern coast is walls and overhangs full of small, strange things.
A last breakfast and the flight home
Breakfast on deck, and the crew take you to the airport. Ambon connects direct to Jakarta and to Bali with a stop.
Make this week yours
This is a sample week, planned by the Ahoy Club charter team from trips we have run before. Every stop moves with the weather, the tide and the group. We reshape it around your yacht and your dates, book the tables and quote the rate.
Australia
+61 (02) 9327 3333
Europe
+33 4 9367 3735
USA
+1 561 813 7511
ahoyclub.com · [email protected]
https://ahoyclub.com/charter/itinerary/spice-islands-sorong-to-ambon-12-days
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