Stay Raja Ampat

Stay Raja Ampat is the official booking platform of the Raja Ampat Homestay Association, a Papuan-owned social enterprise through which local families across the archipelago's islands host travellers directly. Since 2010 it has connected tens of thousands of visitors with homestays run by the communities themselves, many led by women, from simple beachfront rooms to overwater bungalows with their own dive access, with a Homestay Information Center at Waisai harbour on hand to help guests find a bed and arrange transport on arrival.

Snorkel straight off the jetty at homestays with their own reef, or head into the forest at dawn with a local guide in search of birds of paradise. Fish or hunt for crab with the children of the family you're staying with, and expect meals cooked in the household kitchen rather than a resort dining room. Conservation here runs through customary law: the same communities hosting guests are also the ones protecting Raja Ampat's reefs.