Samambaia Liveaboard, Indonesia

Exceptional experience. The boat is new (launched in september 2015) and a marvel of traditional and modern ironwood and teck wood work. We were lucky to get the master cabin which is the best floating room we ever had on such trips (comes with a king size bed, full 9 feet ceilings, private bath and most importantly a stunning 280° continuous windows on the main rear deck and the beautiful Komodo sea and islands landscapes!). Each time you set foot on board (and there are many occasions), you are welcome with a large smile and either a fresh drink or a hot chocolate (quite precious after night dives). Marvelous combination of Italian hospitality at its best (the boss and owner was on board with his son and lovely wife), including wine tasting and high fooding standards, perfect Indonesian seamanship and service, with expert massage on request, and a wonderful German diving instructor (with both a serious dedication to safety, a refreshing sense of humor and a true ability to share his passion and vast knowledge a the marine life). We took the nitrox course (the nitrox is free on board).The dive sites are world class, among the best we dived for the last 25 years (that includes Sipadan, the Red Sea, Djibouti, Costa Rica, Cozumel, Turkey, Corsica, Phuket / Phi-Phi, Ko Tao, Cebu, Sri Lanka, Bali, Lombok / Gillis, West indies, Turks & Caicos, Tioman...). In a week around the national park of Komodo, from Bima to Labuan Bajo, you can expect to sea amazing soft corals, most of the indo-pacific benthic life (including a large number of stone fishes, cuttle fishes, nudis..), turtles, sharks, mantas... Some "firsts" for me were the attack of the ominous bobbit worm, the "live" feeding of a starfish by an anemone, the "live" feeding of a very large holothurie, the magic show of the Spanish dancer, among the best video footage I got. On the top of the liveaboard experience and diving, the Komodo dragon encounter is not to be missed. Not such much at the Rinca ranger station (although the hike there is worth it), than the pack of 5 roaming freely on the beach at horseshoe bay! If you are looking for an amazing week, do not hesitate one second, Go for it !

BOAT - DIVES - TEAM

The best experience was definitely our dive at Karang Hatta. We had already seen hammerheads and were quite satisfied but the show wasn't over, along came a Whaleshark as the grande finale. At Gili Manuk we hade the opportunity to see a smaller school of hammerheads at a "cleaning station". We had hammerheads on almost every third dive we did so the season to go to the Bandasea seems to be September. The diving was excellent. Another highlight on samanbaia was the food. We had sushi made from Spanish mackerel fresh caught from the boat a couple of hours before. The Italian dishes were also amazing, risotto, gnocchi, tagliatelle everything fresh made in the kitchen, supervised or made by Gian Paolo him self. Samanbaia was excellent value for the money.

The food, the diving, the cabin

Die Atmosphäre auf dem Boot lädt sofort zum Entspannen ein. Die Kabinen sind wunderhübsch und bieten genug Platz mit eigenem Bad. Die Betten sind sehr bequem. Die ganze Crew passt gut zusammen. Jeder ist jederzeit super freundlich und hilfsbereit. Auf spezielle Wünsche wird eingegangen, zumal wir nur mit fünf Gästen an Board waren. Der Service war herausragend. Die Tauchgänge waren sehr schön und bei den Tauchguides fühlt man sich auch als "selten-Taucher" gut aufgehoben, besonders beim Senior Guide Frankie. Der Chefkoch Akee verbringt Wunder in der kleinen Küche. Man bekommt das Full-Service Paket! Nur Anziehen muss man sich noch selbst, aber selbst da bekommt man Hilfe, wenn das Neopren nicht so will, wie es soll. Wir können die Samambaia nur weiterempfehlen und kommen bestimmt wieder. Vielen Dank für die tollen 12 Tage! Wir vermissen euch jetzt schon 😍

1. Mantas bei 5 Dives 😊 2.Tauchenguide Frankie, der viel Sicherheit unter Wasser gibt. 3. Das tolle Essen von Chef Akee

Great new boat with very high standard of service and awesome food.

Boat, Crew, Food

The highlights of the trip were the knowledge and attention of the dive guides. They turned every dive and every excursion into an adventure for the mind as well as the senses. Getting to see Komodo dragon and giant fruit bats soaring overhead are experiences that will last a lifetime. The atmosphere created on board by Gian Paolo, Serge, Frankie was familial and fun. Our experience was absolutely amazing.

The three best things about the trip were the dives, the dive guides and crew, the boat.

I particularly liked the professionalism and friendliness of the crew (Serge, the dives director, Gian Paolo who built the ship and the Indonesian crew), the beautiful boat, the quality of the Italian food and the superb dives in remote places where it would otherwise be very difficult to go (south Alor, Pura, Rusa...). I strongly recommend this ship and will definitely be looking at the next cruises!

The beautiful boat, the professionalism and friendliness of the divemasters and the crew, the quality of the food

South of sorong and a bit of north west. Was disappointment with the visibility of the southern sites. And we wasted the first day travelling from sorong to misool area without diving. I felt the itinerary could have changed to include a check out dive on the first day and travelled more on the last day before flying. Other than that, the dives from the fourth day onwards were fantastic!

I like the room, upper deck with nice lounge chairs and the details of the towels and dive equipment arrangements

Really enjoyed the diving, the schedule and all the diverse sites and different creatures and especially the 2 Manta Dives.

The diving, the crew and the dining

Misool island area for diving; the view from the island with the 1000 steps viewpoint, the underwater sea life in general.

Diving, food, beautiful boat.

The specific highlight was when Serge, the cruise director, had to make a change in our plan. Because of Serge’s experience and extensive knowledge of the area, the “backup” dive ended up being an incredible dive with a dozen gorgeous mantas. The overall highlight was just how dependable and consistent the crew were. Everybody on Samambaia goes out of their way to make your experience extraordinary.

The entire crew is amazing, the itinerary is comprehensive yet flexible, comforts from bed to meals are five star

Los sitios de buceo visitados

Barco, buceo y compañeros

We took the 8D/7N Raja Ampat cruise. 2 words come to mind: top-notch and professional. We had the best diving experience diving with mantas not once but twice! It is professionally run by Serge and the DMs. They have an extremely organised system. Diving groups were kept small to 3-4 divers for every DM. We were shown pygmy seahorses, ghost pipefishes, wobbegong sharks, mantas, incredible corals, sea-fans. Admittedly the viz was not great but each dive was teeming with marine life and beautiful corals. They have an amazing crew that could not do enough for you and the food was so good in taste and presentation. We felt like we were eating at a 5* restaurant. We were impressed by their environmental sustainability efforts which should be applauded as they only use environmentally friendly products in their detergents, soaps and shampoos. This was an unforgettable diving experience!

Dives, Food and Crew

Manta Ray, Pigme Sea horses, snakes. Banda islands and Raja Ampa

Diving. Staff. Wonderful boat

Rest assured, you won't be disappointed with the Samambaia. The crew members are intelligent, foresighted, and genuinely interested in accommodating your simplest request. Serge, the vessel coordinator, is a detail person, and acts promptly and efficiently with all verbalized requests and some non-verbalized. On the 2nd day he noticed that I was not eating the starchy carbs, from that point on I had in place, extra vegetables and fruit. Little things like this can make a trip. The vessel was constructed in 2015 and Gian Paolo, the owner, ensured that his vessel would address the short comings in every liveaboard he had previously experienced. He accomplished his goal with flying colors. The rooms are spacious, plenty of storage space, bathrooms are well above par and the dive deck and tender operations smooth and hassle free. Dive briefings are professional, understandable and well presented. Lastly the entire crew is most accommodating, they never say "no" if it can reasonably be accomplished.

Serge, the vessel coordinator; the crew; and the owner's attention to vessel detail during construction.