Mari Liveaboard, Indonesia
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8.8 Fabulous
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- Free Internet
- Nitrox available
- from $ 262 / day
- Book Now
“Magnificent dives in terms of coral reefs and fish density, very motivated and attentive dive guides, very comfortable traditional…”
Highlights
The beautiful Mari liveaboard is a traditional Indonesian phinisi offering year-round diving trips in Raja Ampat, the Banda Sea, and Komodo National Park. Constructed entirely of ironwood and teak, the 30m Mari was refurbished in 2016 to offer modern furnishings and ample onboard space. She caters to a maximum of 14 guests in 7 cabins, ensuring a more personal experience and plenty of room to relax. There are 3 Deluxe and 4 Superior cabins, each offering individually controlled AC, storage space, and private bathrooms. All cabins are on the main deck, so they are bright and well-ventilated. Common areas include the open-air lounge, bar, and 2 sun decks with loungers. The recent addition of a highly-trained chef onboard means that a wide variety of fresh, healthy, and delicious cuisine will satisfy hungry divers. The al-fresco dining table is the perfect place to enjoy a hearty meal surrounded by stunning Indonesian scenery.
The Mari explores the best of Indonesia's dive sites to offer exciting year-round adventures. Divers can explore Komodo National Park on 4, 5, and 10-night trips from July to October. Divers can expect thrilling diving in the national park at world-famous dive sites such as Manta Alley, Castle Rock, and Crystal Rock, diving with manta rays, sharks, and huge schools of fish. In October, the boat moves to Raja Ampat via Flores & the Maluku until April. Explore one of the most diverse marine environments in the world, with the chance to see everything from pygmy sea-horses to whales. The spacious dive deck with gear storage and individual rinse tanks, large dive tender for getting to and from the dive sites, and the recent addition of nitrox availability ensure a comfortable dive liveaboard.
Book online today to start your Indonesia dive liveaboard adventure.
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Included: VAT, Environment Tax, Airport Transfer, Hotel Transfer, Drinking Water, Tea & Coffee, Welcome Cocktails, Full-Board Meal Plan (All meals), Snacks, Diving Package, Land Excursions, Naturalist Guide, Snorkel Gear, Snorkeling Guide, Beach Towels, Cabin Towels, Complimentary Toiletries, Deck Towels, WiFi internet.
Required Extras: Fuel Surcharge (80-230 EUR), National Park Fees (140 EUR per trip).
Optional Extras: Gratuities (20 EUR per day), Alcoholic Beverages, Soft drinks, Nitrox (5 EUR per tank), Rental Gear.
Book now, pay later: You can easily place your booking online. We will then hold the spaces for you and you can confirm with a payment later.
* Extra fees are shown per person.
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Drawings & Vessel Layouts
Cabin Types
Mari Reviews
- 8.8 Fabulous
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Vessel
8.3
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Crew
8.7
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Food
9.3
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Diving
8.9
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Value
8.7
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- 10 Exceptional
- James C
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United States
Amazing! Diving + Crew + Fellow Divers + Food = Travel Magic!
A truly great experience, diving with the amazing crew and guests on the Mari!! The boat is older and a traditional wooden build. It has character, that is to say it is not a gleaming white fiberglass and stainless steel mass. The cabins are small, but larger than other liveaboards we have done, and include a private bathroom. The cabins are cleaned each day during your first dive, which is a very welcome touch. Mari has everything you need to enjoy your diving trip. And diving is what you will do, starting as early as 6 am or 7am when the Mari's wonderful Dive Director, Ungke, gives the first briefing, and finishing up after dark when you opt to do a night dive. The routine for dive liveaboards (for any 1st timers) is dive, eat, rest, dive, eat, rest…. rinse and repeat. But don’t worry about your gear, the crew will take care of that. Our dive guide was Irvin and he was great - friendly, safe and fun! We appreciated that he reminded everyone to check, check, double check your gear before the dive launches left the Mari. The launches are simple outboard boats that comfortably fit 4-6 divers. There were 13 (of 14 max capacity) guests on our trip and 2 of them were snorkeling only. So with 3 dive boat runs (one boat makes 2 trips to the sites) we had a maximum of 4 divers per dive group - yippee! The diving itself was as you would expect for Raja Ampat - Amazing! That said the visibility on our days to the south, off the east coast of Misool, was not that good at 5-10 meters. But even with limited viz there was an amazing amount and variety of coral and fish. Above water the scenery in that area is fantastic with picture postcard “gum drop” islets. The calm seas made it easy to spot the dolphins as they cruised by. We hiked up to an observation deck for a once in a lifetime view of Heart Lagoon you do not want to miss. We were on the trip for both Christmas and New Years and were treated to a Christmas afternoon visit by a whale and calf, magical. It was 1 of several whale sightings on our 12-day trip. Dives up north had much better visibility, at about 20-30 meters. But your experience may be different, diving is always an adventure. Wobbegong sharks, walking sharks, manta rays, reef sharks, turtles, eels, sea snakes, cuttlefish, squid, crocodile fish, nudibranch, pygmy seahorses (so many pygmy seahorses), schools of everything, the list goes on and on. As retired dive instructors we were blown away on a daily basis by the insane variety and quantity of marine life and the mind-blowing assortment of corals, sponges, anemones... WOW!! The kitchen staff of the Mari is fantastic, the food we had for every meal was abundant and well-prepared and delicious. And there were so many meals! We started each day with a quick breakfast before the first dive. After the first dive, there was a full breakfast (that's right Hobbit fans there is a “second breakfast”). Lunch follows the 2nd dive of the day, and snacks follow after the 3rd. Dinner follows the night dive, when it is time to take a nap before 1st breakfast and do it all again. So much food!! But quantity aside, the chef was wonderful. We were expecting a steady diet of fried rice and fried noodles, like we have experienced in other parts of Indonesia, but that was far from our Mari experience. The chef spent years working in high-end hotels and other liveaboards, and his experience showed in the variety and quality of every recipe! The variety of meats, fresh fruit and veg, and accompaniments of rice, potato, pasta and bread was insane, given that we were on a boat in the middle of Raja Ampat. And the kitchen took special requests too, like the from-scratch sambal they made every day for our group, and the ginger and palm sugar tea that sometimes appeared for snack time. No first class restaurant would be complete without the front- of-house staff, in this case Ever, who had his hands full with our diverse group. But he took great care of us all, was charming and on to
- Recommended for
- Diving. Crew and Food. Fellow Passengeres.
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- 7.6 Good
- Trudy W
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United States
The good the bad and the ugly
Food was great, the bad was the bug issue and the ugly was the safety. Not one person on the boat check our nitrox cards and i know for sure there were people diving who weren’t certified to dive on nitrox. Big problem was we were told everyone has tanks at 31% (should have known right there that’s not right) one person in our group and 5 other people got bad air, some tanks had to get filled from another boat, we were told the compressor wasn’t working ….also turned out i held 3 tanks until they could be analyzed myself and to come find out after throwing a fit that also two tanks had regular on top of nitrox, to give a 26% mixture. O2 was given 30 after the dive when they could locate the o2 tank…and had to pass on the next dive. Extremely dangerous. They apologized to me but i can tell you what somebody is going to get seriously hurt. This was the first time nobody checked our certification. Also because of the lack of maintenance we lost 2 days of diving in Misool. After the tank issue the staff started analyzing tanks with 1 person from each group.
- Recommended for
- Our dive guide, food for sure, itinerary
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- 10 Exceptional
- Michael C
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United States
Fantastic
The crew was extremely welcoming and really goes out of their way to make your trip the best experience. The dive sites and guide knowledge was top class, the chef was phenomenal and the underwater life was fantastic. Couldn’t have been more pleased with The Mari.
- Recommended for
- The amazing boat crew, the device guides and the dives sites,
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- 10 Exceptional
- Lynn M
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United States
Absolutely Great
Of course the diving was the highlight. We saw lots of Wobbegon and reef sharks and spent 2 dives at the manta cleaning station with friendly mantas. We swam with swirling schools of a thousand plus fish. I highly recommend the Mari!
- Recommended for
- The staff took care of our every need. We didn’t lift or carry any tanks. The Tender Boats were set up with all our gear and we were helped putting it on and off. The food was great and more than we could eat. The Indonesian boat was homey and comfortable.
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- 7.6 Good
- David J
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United States
A low cost alternative which is better for experienced divers rather than beginners
Night dives
- Recommended for
- Food, Friendliness, Sunrises
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- 10 Exceptional
- Anna B
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United States
The Mari is a beautiful ship with skilled crew, fabulous dive masters, and wonderful food.
Each consecutive dive seemed to push the limits of the words FABULOUS, AMAZING, AND MAGNIFICENT. The huge diversity and vast amount of flora and fauna seen on this trip demonstrates the other-worldliness of reef life in Raja Amput. The diving is some of the best in the world and to have warm water, pleasant living conditions, and great food seemed like the tasty icing on a scrumptious cake.
- Recommended for
- Our dive masters highlighted the stunning coral gardens, searched and found the tiniest of micro organisms like pygmy seahorses and nudibranchs, and set us up to see the oceanic and reef mantas, woebegone sharks, and scads of reef sharks. The crew coordinated our dives so we never had our experiences negatively impacted by other divers. Our food and lodging was top shelf.
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- 10 Exceptional
- Lynn M
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United States
Amazing, wonderful, fantastic and unbelievable!!!
The whole trip was highlights. I have been on many liveaboards all over the world and this one was the best! It is not fancy. It is homey, comfortable, relaxed and personal. The food was yummy (new chief) and lots of it. I have no complaints.
- Recommended for
- The crew knocked themselves out to make sure everything was perfect. The diving was incredible. The boat was a wooden, Indonesian, old design that was authentic and great to travel on. The divemasters were professional, knowledgeable, friendly and excited about every dive.
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- 9.2 Superb
- Kristin R
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United States
Great overall experience
The variety in marine life (several species of sharks, manta, lots of fish, sea turtles and more!) was amazing! Although both the staff and the other guests could be more aware of the marine environment when diving. The boat was nice and the food was delicious. Overall great experience!
- Recommended for
- Crew, dive sites, food
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- 8.0 Very good
- Paul V
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United States
Good value
Very remote sites in gulf of Tomini that are not often visited by divers.
- Recommended for
- Crew, owner on board, flexible schedule
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- 9.6 Exceptional
- Kenneth G
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United States
The trip was wonderful with excellent and helpful staff as well as great diving.
The diving was excellent and it was great to see healthy coral and plentiful marine life.
- Recommended for
- The staff, diving and scenery.
