Fam Islands are known for the flourishing reefs and beautiful scenery. This is the best know destination in Raja Ampat with world famous dive sites.
Piaynemo is a remote archipelago in the west of Raja Ampat and beside some modest home-stays in the vicinity the only option to visit the area is by liveaboard or taking a day trip from the dive resort.
My dives in Fam Islands:
My dive resort was providing day trips to Fam Islands with 3 dives / a day. The boat ride takes around 90 minutes one way so an early start is needed. Some people might find this trip tiring but I was able to do the 4th dive of the day after we returned to the resort.
The area has some of the healthiest and flourishing reefs in the world. And like this would not be enough you have the best scenery for your surface interval. Between the dives you get to explore the top of Piaynemo were the lagoon can be observed and photographed. This is the place where the popular photos from Raja Ampat are taken. And they are real 🙂
Melissa’s Garden
Piaynemo is home of the famous Melissa’s Garden, one of the best known dive locations in Raja Ampat and Indonesia. The dive site has a flat top with gorgeous coral garden with intense colours, rich soft and hard corals and great macro sealife. You can see a variety of nudibranchs, anemones and seahorses.
The dive was fairly easy with medium current and a maximum depth of 24 meters / 79 feet.
This is an uncut movie shoot at Melissa’s Garden to have a better feeling how good this dive site is.
Batu Rufus
This dive consists of a blue crystal lagoon and the outside of the small island. Here you can explore a steep wall and if the current is right you can enjoy a drift dive along it. The lagoon is connected to the ocean via a cave-like passage in very shallow water.
The coral is rich with a lot of soft and hard corals including sea fans and giant barrel sponges. The macro sealife is also rich with a lot of nudibranchs and seaworms.
The dive was easy with low current and a maximum depth of 21 meters / 69 feet.
Fam Slope
This is another popular site with very rich corals and great marine biodiversity. My dive was in very shallow water with average of just 9 meters / 30 feet but this is were the coral is the best with various colours and shapes. I encountered a large cuttlefish and got the chance to observe it from closeup. If you are curios about it you can check my video review.
The dive was easy with average current and a maximum depth of 16 meters / 53 feet.
Check my Piaynemo – Fam Islands diving experience:
What you`ll see:
Corals Gardens, Sea Fans, Sea Sponges, Reef Sharks, Batfish, Spadefish, Surgeonfish, Napoleon Wrasses, Turtles, Boxfish, Sweetlips, Cuttlefish, Ribbon Eel, Nudibranchs
Snorkeling:
This is a great site for snorkelers and adventure seekers. You can read about snorkeling in Fam Islands here.
Read about scuba diving in Raja Ampat here.
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