Raja Ampat · Wayag
If you have seen one photograph of Raja Ampat, it was probably Wayag: the crown of limestone islands seen from a hilltop, water in three colours between them. It is the image that sells the entire archipelago.
It has been closed to visitors since July 2025, and as of September 2026 it is still closed. There is no reopening date. And almost nobody explains why, which leads people to assume it is a park rule they can talk their way around. It isn't.
Three places in the far north-west: Wayag, Wofoh and Aljui Bay. That is the whole of the closure.
Everything else in Raja Ampat is open and operating normally. The Dampier Strait, where nearly everyone stays, the Fam islands with Piaynemo, Misool in the south, the manta cleaning stations, the homestays: none of it is affected. If a headline made you think the archipelago was shut, it isn't. One corner is.
It started with nickel. In 2025 mining concessions in northern Raja Ampat drew national protest and international attention, and the central government revoked four of them, including one on Kawe island, less than twenty kilometres from Wayag. The argument was straightforward: sediment from mining does not stay where the mine is, and these are some of the richest reefs on earth.
That was a genuine win for the reef. It also removed an income that some families in the Kawei community had come to depend on. And the Kawei hold the customary rights over Wayag: those are their ancestral waters, not a government facility.
In late July 2025 they closed access, and they have kept it closed while compensation is negotiated. A year on, the talks are reported as stalled.
it isn't a park rule. it's their water, and they have closed it.
This is the thing to understand before you plan around it. The closure is customary law, not a permit office. No tourism authority can overrule it, no operator has a back channel, and no amount of paying extra opens it. When a homestay or a boat tells you they cannot take you there, they are not being unhelpful: they would be crossing a neighbouring community to do it.
Disputes like this in Indonesia usually do resolve. They rarely resolve on anyone's forecast schedule.
Do not book anything that includes Wayag, and do not pay a deposit on a trip that lists it, even if the operator sounds confident. Some are still selling it. A few will tell you it is reopening soon. Ask them to put the reopening in writing before any money moves, and watch what happens.
If you already have a booking that features it, contact the operator now and ask what they are substituting. A good one will already have a plan, because they have been dealing with this for over a year.
Piaynemo, in the Fam islands. This is the honest answer. It is the same kind of karst spectacle from a viewpoint, reached by a wooden staircase rather than a scramble, and it is genuinely open. If you are travelling for the photograph you have in your head, this is the closest thing to it, and most people who see both say the difference is smaller than the internet implies.
Kabui Bay. Smaller, at water level rather than from above, and you pass through it by boat with the towers around you rather than below you. Different experience, no climb.
Misool, if you have the days. The south has its own labyrinth of karst lagoons and it is far emptier, but it is a separate journey rather than a day trip, and it needs the time to match.
Anything written about Raja Ampat access ages quickly, this article included. Before you book, ask a homestay owner or a local operator directly what the situation is that week. They know before the websites do, and they have no reason to tell you anything but the truth: an angry guest who paid for a trip that could not happen is their problem too.
And if it does reopen while you are there, go. It is closed because it matters to the people who own it, which is the most honest reason a place can be closed.
The full guide
This article tells you what is closed. The guide tells you what to do with the rest: four routes from 7 to 21 days planned day by day, the homestays I slept in and what I paid, boat prices leg by leg, and my Google Maps collection of the spots that are open. 17 chapters, 85 pages, English or French.
See the guide →Iddar
WildRoute · Field Edition