Lamima

The standard three-night loop runs north to Gili Lawa Laut for schooling trevally, sweetlips, barracuda and whitetip reef sharks, then to Karang Makassar the following morning for the manta drift, south to Nusa Kode on Rinca to watch dragons from the tender, and finishes with the Padar ridge hike and pink sand before a barbecue at Bidadari.

The six-night version adds Sangeang, an active volcano with black sand and hot-vent bubbles on the reef, plus Gili Banta, one of the few places inside the region where jet skiing is permitted.

Ten nights opens up Manta Alley, Tatawa Besar, the Komodo Channel and Sebayur.

Divers get Three Sisters off Padar and the macro at South Rinca, which is the site the crew consistently rate highest in the park.

The seven-night north loop is a clean sequence: Batanta first, then the Fam Islands for coral gardens and a sunset hike, Kawe near the equator, Wayag for the limestone peaks and lagoon, Wofoh, Kri for Cape Kri, and Kabui Bay with the pre-dawn trek for the Red Bird of Paradise and the tender run through The Passage.

The fourteen-night Greater Raja Ampat itinerary goes south into Misool for Farondi and the Tomolol cave, then works north through Fam, Wofoh, two days at Wayag, Boni on north Waigeo for the September-to-March surf breaks, Kabui Bay, Mioskon for wobbegongs and pygmy seahorses, and Kri.

This is the itinerary that justifies the onboard dive centre; the shorter Komodo trips do not.

The Sorong to Kaimana crossing is the published version closest to this water: ten nights running Batanta, Kawe, Wayag and Fam, then Tomolol and Farondi in Misool, Pisang Island, the Kiti-Kiti waterfall that falls straight into the sea, and finally Triton Bay.

Triton Bay is the payoff.

Limestone towers over reefs that flourish inside a fifty-kilometre inlet, then Namatota, where the village chief grants permission to swim with the resident whale sharks that shelter under the fishing platforms year round rather than migrating.

Sperm whales are frequently seen on the same stretch, and ancient cliff paintings sit within tender range.

Dates for these legs are limited and set by the seasonal rotation.

Confirm the window before you plan flights.

In practice it is chartered as part of a longer bespoke routing east from Labuan Bajo, most often on a repositioning leg where the vessel is already moving between seasons.

What Alor offers a vessel of this size is water most Komodo boats never reach: cold upwellings, steep walls, resident dolphin and pilot whale pods in the Pantar Strait, and hillside villages where weaving traditions are still working practice rather than performance.

The trade-off is duration.

Alor from Labuan Bajo is not a three-night proposition, and the seven-night-plus bracket that applies to Raja Ampat is the realistic planning assumption here.

Treat this as available on request rather than scheduled, and ask the operator for the specific dates the routing is open.