Misool Resort

Hotel Services/Facilities: Misool Resort is surrounded by lush gardens, turquoise lagoons, and local nature with a backdrop of blue skies, cascading green mountains and pristine coral reefs.

‘The Hive’ dive centre overlooks the House Reef and is the place to go to start your diving / snorkelling day. After your dive, relax in one of the sunny hammocks built into the outdoor decking.

On the second floor, enjoy a quiet coffee on the terrace while watching the sun rise over the distant Daram Islands. There is a small library on the second floor stocked with marine life books to help you identify what you’ve seen on your underwater adventures. The lounge is furnished with comfortable tables for editing photos at your laptop, as well as cozy reading nooks and sofas. Browse the boutique, book a massage, plan a kayaking tour, or enjoy one of the evening lectures – it’s all happening in The Hive.

Food, Beverage & Entertainment Facilities: Guests stay on a Full Board basis, with four meals a day including afternoon tea on the terrace.

The restaurant is located on the beach overlooking the North Lagoon. The airy structure is tucked under the coconut palms, and the dining area offers ample seating, with staggered mealtime options depending on the resort occupancy.

The chef offers a superb range of Asian and Western cuisine, with a focus on fresh, local and organic produce.

A mini breakfast is available before the first dive, and a hearty cooked breakfast after the first dive. Breakfast is a plentiful buffet, served to you by restaurant staff. 

Lunch is served to you as a selection of dishes to share, reflecting the Indonesian style of enjoying a meal together, as a family.

Dinner is cooked to order, so your meal is always prepared fresh, even if you’re planning a night dive or star-gazing tour. An all-day a la carte menu is also available.

The restaurant’s spacious terrace is the ideal place to enjoy a bottle of wine or a sunset cocktail. Tea, Papuan coffee, fresh juice, and water are always available and there is a selection of imported beer, imported wine, and champagne available.

Aside from diving and snorkelling, there is plenty to do at the resort and in the surrounding area. Visit the Spa for a range of massage and beauty treatments, or book yourself an ‘experience’ from a long list of options, including kayaking and paddle boarding, a mangrove experience, an Indonesian cooking class and many more.

Transfers: Guests take a domestic flight from Jakarta, Manado, or Bali to Sorong airport. Several flights arrive in Sorong at around 0600. Misool Resort meets guests at Sorong airport and takes them to the marina for breakfast. Their boat departs from the marina at 0800.

The boat journey from Sorong to Batbitim (the name of the resort island), is about 5 hours, depending upon sea conditions.

All guest rooms have been thoughtfully designed for comfort, privacy and sustainability. All rooms are spacious, well-ventilated and spread out around the undulating karst rock formations of the private resort island. The rooms feature Balinese-style open air bathrooms, wall fans, independent air-conditioning units, fresh hot and cold showers, stocked mini-bars and handcrafted furniture and fittings.

There are 19 rooms in total and three different room types.

Water Cottages (eight in total) are built on stilts over the water. For lazy afternoons with a good book, there is a hammock built into the veranda. The view is framed by a traditional grass roof, offering a high degree of privacy as well as shade. A staircase leads down from your veranda to the North Lagoon, and the House Reef is just a few fin kicks away.

South Beach Villas (seven in total) have direct beachfront access, nestled in the jungle gardens. Each has its own distinctive layout and decor, reflecting a truly unique build.

There are four larger North Lagoon Villas, each stylishly built, with additional privacy and space on the North Lagoon. Villas Nasnoos and Wakachom both feature a master bedroom and an indoor living area with sofa. Villa Tabisasu has an en-suite bedroom and adjoining living area. The outdoor living areas face east and enjoy glorious, private sunrise views. Villa Utara overlooks the House Reef and the spectacular dive site of Fiabacet beyond.

Misool Resort’s house reef is teeming with life. Easily accessed from the resort jetty, and very popular with underwater photographers, it is best seen on an easy drift dive through the channel.

Wave hello to schooling horse-eyed jacks, massive schools of fusiliers, with passing shoals of anchovies, and expect regular sightings of the newly discovered ‘walking’ Epaulette shark in the shallows, with black tip reefs sharks and the occasional grey reef shark in deeper areas. You will find countless species of nudibranchs and flatworms and a kaleidoscope of sponges, hard and soft corals.

The resort has found 60+ dive sites, all within a 1-hour boar ride. Nearly half of these stunning dive sites are just a 15-minute boat ride and include Fiabacet, Boo, Yilliet, Wobbegong City, and Magic Mountain.

Expect to find a diverse selection of sites including coral blanketed walls, vast coral gardens, swim throughs, drift dives, current rich pinnacles and a busy manta cleaning station. Visibility is mostly around 25+ metres, with water temperatures near 26-28 degrees C.

Past guests will tell you that Misool Resort offers the quality of diving from a liveaboard, but with the extra comfort, convenience and space of an island resort.

All dive sites within an area of 1220 sq.km are protected by the Misool Marine Reserve, which is dedicated to protecting and helping the ocean and where all fishing is prohibited. 

The dive centre is in the North Lagoon, on stilts over the water. Facilities are well suited to underwater photographers and videographers with a large camera room and charging stations.

Boats depart from the jetty outside the dive centre, or you can access the house reef via steps leading into the lagoon. Three guided boat dives are scheduled each day, as well as a dusk or night dive. The House Reef is open from 08:00 to 20:00 each day for buddy teams or guided dives. The maximum group size is six divers to one guide, but four is more typical.

Nitrox is provided free of charge to qualified divers subject to availability.

A full range of PADI training courses is offered, alongside rental gear and private guides. The dive team all have significant local experience and love the challenge of trying to find your favourite marine critters!

Other Indonesian Hotels / Resorts

Bali – Kubu Indah Dive & Spa Resort

North Sulawesi – Bunaken Oasis Dive Resort

North Sulawesi – Siladen Resort and Spa

North Sulawesi – Tasik Ria Resort

North Sulawesi – White Sands Beach Resort Lembeh by Eco Divers

North Sulawesi – Dive Into Lembeh

North Sulawesi – NAD-Lembeh Resort

North Sulawesi – Lembeh Resort

North Sulawesi – Murex Bangka Resort

North Sulawesi – Murex Manado Resort

Raja Ampat – Dive Into Raja Ampat (@ Waiwo Resort)

Raja Ampat – Kri Eco Resort (Papua Diving)

Raja Ampat – Papua Explorers Dive Resort

Raja Ampat – Sorido Bay Resort (Papua Diving)

Raja Ampat – Sali Bay Resort