25% off MV Ambai’s 10-day Halmahera liveaboard, August 2026

25% off MV Ambai’s Halmahera trip, 20 to 29 August 2026. Ten days, nine nights, a minimum of 27 dives including five night dives, out of Ternate and back.

Available cabins and price

• Cabin 1, lower deck, double or twin: 1 space, female only. EUR 3,679 / USD 4,250 per person, instead of EUR 4,905 / USD 5,660

The diving

The sites are mostly seamounts: rocky substrate, soft coral in every colour on the boulders, and blacktip reef sharks patrolling most dives. Tuna, Spanish mackerel and giant trevally come through, and there are Napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrotfish and schooling surgeonfish on the reefs. Between the seamounts there is proper critter diving and fringing reef.

Ashore, the islands were part of the spice trade in the fifteenth century and some of the fortifications still stand, so short visits are built into the schedule. In Bacan there is an afternoon to the village, the fort at Labuha and a walk into the forest for the butterflies. Four kayaks and paddleboards come out whenever the boat is anchored.

Conditions

Water 27 to 30 C, so a 3mm is enough. Visibility is generally very good and drops only after heavy rain. Some sites carry real current and the guides check it before every dive, moving the site rather than pushing on. Expect sun with a few showers and a calm sea. Crossings are short, a few hours between dives or overnight, which is unusual this far east.

Day by day

• Day 1, Ternate. Check in from 6am to noon, briefing, then away.
• Day 2, Goraici. 3 to 4 dives.
• Day 3, Lilai. 3 to 4 dives.
• Day 4, Saleh. 3 to 4 dives.
• Day 5, Kusu. 3 to 4 dives.
• Day 6, Proco. 3 to 4 dives.
• Day 7, north Bacan and Tolimago. 3 to 4 dives.
• Day 8, Goraici. 3 to 4 dives.
• Day 9, Tidore. 1 dive, then the fort.
• Day 10, Ternate. Check out from 6am to noon after breakfast.

The operator’s sample itinerary. Dive sites and the number of dives can change with weather, current and tides.

Dive map

What is included

• Airport to boat transfers at both ends
• The cabin, on the basis below
• All meals and snacks, drinking water, soft drinks, tea and coffee
• Every guided dive, at one guide per four divers maximum
• 12 litre aluminium tanks, weights and belts
• Nitrox
• Unlimited Starlink internet

Not included

• International and domestic flights
• Alcohol, though you are welcome to bring your own
• Diving equipment rental
• 15 litre (100 cf) tanks
• Park and port fees, EUR 300 per person on this route. Paid in cash on board or prepaid before you travel, and not commissionable. Treat it as an estimate rather than a fixed figure: the operator can change it up to three months before departure, so check with us when you book
• Crew gratuities
• Massage
• Additional Starlink data beyond the included allowance

The boat

MV Ambai is a 32-metre wooden boat built for diving in 2012, eight cabins and sixteen guests, with thirteen crew plus four divemasters and a cruise director. Six cabins on the lower deck, two sea view doubles upstairs.

Getting there

In and out through Ternate (TTE), which connects through Jakarta, Makassar or Manado. Transfers at both ends are included. The last dive is the morning of day nine, so a flight out on day ten is fine.

Other departures on our liveaboard pages, and the rest of the current offers on the deals page.