Eight nights aboard a private 52-metre sailing vessel in the most biodiverse marine environment on earth, moving on no schedule but your own.
Sorong is a city your friends cannot place on a map. This is deliberate. It exists, for the purposes of this trip, as a threshold. Your private jet lands and within twenty minutes you are standing on a dock in West Papua, looking at a 52-metre twin-masted phinisi sailing vessel, her crew of fourteen arranged to receive you. The vessel sails exclusively for your party. She does not share a schedule with anyone.
What lies ahead is Raja Ampat. Four Kings. Sixteen million acres of ocean, 1,500 jungle-clad islands, and a concentration of marine life that has no parallel on earth. Scientists have been cataloguing species in the Coral Triangle for years. They keep finding new ones. Cape Kri holds the world record for the most species identified in a single dive: 374 in ninety minutes. Your dive master will tell you this before you enter the water. The morning of your first dive will tell you the rest.
The vessel herself is a serious piece of craftsmanship, handmade in South Sulawesi by Konjo artisans from locally sourced hardwoods, in the tradition of the Bugis spice traders who navigated these same waters four centuries ago. Aman designed her for one purpose: to remove every obstacle between you and the place. Two private chefs whose menus draw from Indonesia's spice heritage and adjust each evening based on what the day produced. A spa therapist who will set up a table on a deserted beach at your request. A PADI dive master with nitrox and full equipment for every guest. A cruise director whose itinerary is shaped entirely by your interests and the conditions on the water. You wake in a new anchorage each morning. After that, the day belongs to you.
The Wayag lagoons. Kabui Bay at dawn. Batanta island at first light, for the red bird of paradise, one of the rarest wildlife encounters available to anyone traveling the world today. The walk through the rainforest happens before breakfast, in the dark, with a local guide who does not need a torch. You wait in a clearing as the sky lightens. Then it begins. Very few people alive have witnessed this. You will be one of them. That evening the chef sets a table on the foredeck as the sun drops behind the karsts and the equatorial stars appear overhead, and you are, at that moment, one of perhaps a dozen people on earth having precisely this experience tonight.
Every charter is built around the people on board. The sequence, pace, and focus are determined during your planning consultation and can shift on the water based on conditions and your wishes. The following is one version of eight nights in Raja Ampat.
Your private jet touches down at Sorong (SOQ). Transfer time to the dock is under twenty minutes. The vessel is ready and her crew is waiting. After boarding and settling into your suite, the Amandira sets course for the outer islands as the city disappears behind you. Dinner is served under the stars as the archipelago opens ahead.
Mioskon is the opening argument. The reef here begins in shallow water and drops into a wall of coral that descends far beyond recreational diving range. Your dive master briefs the group at breakfast. By mid-morning you are underwater, beginning to understand what the word biodiverse actually means in practice.
Alfred Russel Wallace sailed through the narrow channel known as The Passage in 1860, taking notes on the fauna that would later inform his theory of the Wallace Line, one of the great intellectual events of the nineteenth century. You will move through it by tender, the limestone karsts rising vertically on either side. Kabui Bay at dawn is a different proposition: still water, morning mist, the sound of birds in the forest above.
Cape Kri holds the world record for the most fish species identified in a single dive: 374 in ninety minutes. Your dive master will tell you this before you enter the water. She cannot fully prepare you for what it feels like to be surrounded by that number of living things at once, every one of them completely indifferent to your presence. The afternoon is yours: kayaking, paddleboarding, or simply the foredeck and the horizon.
Wayag is the first documented manta ray nursery in Southeast Asia. The dive master brings you in at first light, before the wind picks up, and you hang suspended above a coral garden while juvenile mantas turn slow circles above you, practising the movements they will spend the rest of their lives performing. In the afternoon, the Amandira sets her sails for the Wayag lagoon lookout, and the view from the ridge above is one of those panoramas that defies reasonable description.
The crew wakes you before dawn. A tender takes you ashore to Batanta island. You walk through the rainforest in the dark with a local guide who moves through it without a torch, speaking in a whisper, and you wait in a clearing as the sky lightens. Then it begins: the mating display of the red bird of paradise, witnessed in the wild in only two locations on earth. What you see will divide the morning cleanly into before and after.
The final diving days. Boo Island offers caves and overhangs that house creatures your guides will point out with the quiet satisfaction of people who never tire of the reaction. The secret lagoons of Kofiau, accessible only by kayak through narrow mangrove channels, are the kind of place you will attempt to describe when you get home and then give up and go quiet.
The final morning is yours on the water. The vessel makes her way back toward Sorong at a pace you choose. The dock and the transfer to the airport take less than twenty minutes. The private jet is waiting whenever you are ready. The Amandira will wait too, if you want another day.
For eight nights, the vessel is your home. The master suite occupies the aft of the main deck with a king bed, a private lounge, and wraparound windows on three sides. Two deluxe suites below deck follow Aman's signature palette of cream and warm teak, each with a king bed, a seating area, a writing desk, and a marble ensuite. Two additional cabins with bunk configurations are suitable for children, additional guests, or guides. Every cabin has an ensuite bathroom and air conditioning.
Guests who wish to extend their time in Indonesia before or after the charter can arrange stays at Aman properties on Bali or at Amanwana, the tented wilderness retreat on Moyo Island, which sits between Komodo and Raja Ampat along the traditional sailing route. These options are discussed and arranged during your planning consultation.
The vessel accommodates a maximum of ten guests. For larger parties, the Amandira sails in tandem with the Amanikan, her sister vessel, allowing up to sixteen guests to travel together across two complete crews and two full onboard programs.
Discuss AccommodationsThe crew wakes you before dawn. A tender takes you ashore to Batanta island. You walk through the rainforest in the dark with a local guide who moves through it without a torch, speaking in a whisper, and you wait in a clearing as the sky lightens. Then it begins: the mating display of the red bird of paradise, witnessed in the wild in only two locations on earth. Very few people alive have seen this. What you see will divide the morning cleanly into before and after.
Cape Kri holds the world record for the most marine species identified in a single dive: 374 in ninety minutes. At Wayag, Southeast Asia's first documented manta ray nursery, juvenile mantas turn slow circles above you at first light before the wind picks up. And dinner on the foredeck under equatorial stars, in an anchorage that will not appear on any tourist map, with the karsts dark around you and nothing audible but the sea. The vessel gives you all of it, in order, at her own pace.
Seven nights through Komodo National Park, diving with mantas, encountering Komodo dragons with a park ranger, and exploring the Flores Sea. Available May through October.
Inquire About This ExtensionOne or two nights at Amanwana, the tented wilderness retreat on Moyo Island, bookable as an arrival or departure experience along the sailing route.
Inquire About This ExtensionOvernight or multi-night stay at one of Aman's properties in Bali, available to bookend the charter from either end.
Inquire About This ExtensionEight nights or more in the lesser-visited volcanic islands of East Nusa Tenggara, one of the least-traveled regions in the Indonesian archipelago.
Inquire About This ExtensionExtended itineraries reaching into the Banda Sea and the historic Spice Islands, for guests who want to extend the charter beyond Raja Ampat.
Inquire About This ExtensionRaja Ampat sails November through April, and the vessel books well in advance. Tell us when you want to go.
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