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23 January 2027 - 13 days for £11,499 per person
Register for 2028 and we will contact you when confirmed details including finalised dates and prices are available.
Explore the Maluku Islands (Spice Islands) and Raja Ampat Islands as Alfred Russel Wallace did, marvel at their biodiversity and stunning beauty. Visit awe-inspiring regions that shaped Wallace’s groundbreaking discoveries. Sail aboard a beautifully crafted and exceptionally comfortable 22-berth traditional Indonesian schooner.
Alfred Russel Wallace was undoubtedly one of the greatest naturalists of all time. Not only did he jointly publish the theory of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin in 1858, but he made many other major contributions to biology and to subjects as diverse as glaciology, astrobiology, anthropology and epidemiology. He spent eight years in the region that is now Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and the book he wrote about his journey, The Malay Archipelago; The land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise, is one of the most highly regarded scientific travelogues of the 19th century.
Accompanying the cruise is Dr George Beccaloni, an entomologist, evolutionary biologist and leading Wallace expert, who is the founder and director of the UK-based Wallace Correspondence Project. George helped devise this itinerary, which has the highest and most authoritative Wallace content of any Indonesian tour and visits key places that aren’t included in other excursions. George will give evening talks about Wallace, the biogeography of the region, marine life, birds of paradise, early humans in Indonesia. In additional to George, there will also be two cruise directors, who will share their knowledge of Indonesian marine life, marine conservation charities, linguistics, and Indonesian history. All three will join the daytime activities, sharing their considerable insight into the region’s history, the wildlife you see and Wallace’s adventures.
Search for diverse species on land, in the air and at sea, including several species of birds of paradise, the legendary Golden Birdwing Butterfly discovered by Wallace, and a wealth of sea creatures. Plus, you will experience local culture, primary rainforests, geology, conservation projects and relaxation of the highest order.
Travel aboard the Ombak Putih, a beautifully crafted 42-metre traditional Indonesian schooner, combining timeless elegance with modern comfort. Designed to deliver an unparalleled sailing experience, with spacious cabins, inviting communal areas, and expansive decks perfect for relaxation or soaking in the stunning seascapes. With a dedicated crew attending to your every need, this journey feels like a luxurious escape aboard a private yacht.
This cruise is perfect for nature enthusiasts, history buffs, and adventure seekers looking for a unique blend of exploration, relaxation, and cultural immersion in one of the world's most stunning archipelagos.
In partnership with The Ultimate Travel Company.
Day 1: Fly from Jakarta to Sorong and meet fellow travellers
After your flight from Jakarta arrives in the West Papuan port town of Sorong, the gateway to Raja Ampat, you will be met at the airport and transferred to the Swiss Belhotel in Sorong. (Internal flight included for January 2027 only).
Here, you will have a welcome dinner and meet entomologist, evolutionary biologist and Alfred Russel Wallace expert George Beccaloni as well as your SeaTrek tour leaders. Throughout the cruise, they will all be giving talks covering Wallace's work, early humans in Indonesia and the varied flora, fauna and marine life that you will encounter on your journey.
Day 2: Embark Ombak Putih in Sorong and sail to Mioskon
In the morning, you will be transferred to your schooner, the stately Ombak Putih, a traditional Indonesian pinisi. There will be time for you to get settled into your cabins, have a quick safety briefing and enjoy an al fresco lunch while meeting the crew.
Ready to start your adventure, you will weigh anchor, leave the harbour behind and cruise to Yenbuba at Mansuar Island, where you can enjoy your first snorkel. This site is known as the "fishbowl" because of the chance to see so many different types of fish around the bay.
The several snorkelling opportunities on the cruise are highlights and the crew make it easy for people of all ages and abilities to take part in exploring the fascinating marine environments. Less confident swimmers can be supported with floatation devices and you will be exploring shallow sites ideal for snorkelling with abundant coral and fish. If you have access to an underwater camera, you are guaranteed to return with amazing pictures.
Day 3: Waisin, sail to Saonek and explore the forest
Today is a day for seeing birds of paradise in the wild. You will rise at 4.30am for a quick breakfast and be transported by tender to the dock where we will meet our local guides, who will drive us the short distance to the forest’s edge. From here it’s a 45-minute walk through the forest in a pre-dawn quest to spot the gorgeous Wilson’s Bird-of-Paradise from the hides.
Back on board, you will have a hearty breakfast and later will go for our snorkelling at the nearby Island of Saonek. This spot is the best place to see some beautiful marine life, including carpet sharks, walking sharks, crocodile fish and more.
In the afternoon, put on your walking shoes and head back to shore to head into the forest once more in search of the gorgeous Red Bird of Paradise, that will be displaying high in the canopy of their favourite lekking tree (a tree where males assemble to display to females). Binoculars are a must. In 1860, Wallace travelled all the way from Ceram to Waigeo, especially to collect the valuable Red Bird. He purchased a traditional prahu (an outrigger sailboat) and set out with a small crew on a voyage that was beset by constant calamitous losses and disasters. He describes it as follows in his autobiography: "My first crew ran away in a body; two men were lost on a desert island, and only recovered a month later after twice sending in search of them; we were ten times run aground on coral reefs; we lost four anchors; our sails were devoured by rats; our small boat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight days on a voyage which should not have taken twelve; we were many times short of food and water; we had [no oil] for the compass-lamp and, to crown all, during our whole voyage... we had not one single day of fair wind... [M]y first (and last) voyage in a boat of my own was a very unfortunate one."
Day 4: Fam islands
Today you will find yourself at anchor in front of the Piaynemo Geosite, a small chain of limestone karst islands, and will climb to the viewpoint before breakfast to beat the heat , from where you will be able to look out over this beautiful location.
After breakfast, head out to a beautiful snorkelling site called Batu Rufus, one of the best and healthiest reefs in Raja Ampat, which is teeming with all different kinds of marine creatures.
During lunch, you will weigh anchor and head towards the Fam Islands, where you will go for your second spectacular snorkelling session of the way in Andau, which has a jetty that attracts a lot of marine life. If you are lucky you might spot manta rays.
Later, depart on an overnight crossing to the Misool Archipelago way to the south of the Raja Ampat National Park for an overnight cruise.
Day 5: Explore the Misool archipelago
This morning, you will wake to see the sun rise over the picturesque small islets in the south-eastern part of Misool. The topography is typical of karst dissolution, featuring a great number of tiny island with bases that have been eroded over time by the relentless motion of the tides. Although Wallace did not visit this island, he sent his young English assistant Charles Allen there in 1860 to collect on his behalf. By deploying trusted assistants to neighbouring islands while he worked elsewhere, Wallace was able to compare faunas across the region. Specimens gathered from Misool helped clarify patterns of distribution in the Raja Ampat group and contributed to Wallace’s developing understanding of island biogeography.
You will then move on to a mysterious jellyfish lake and swim among the many thousands of stingless animals, undoubtedly one of Raja Ampat’s most memorable activities. After returning to the boat, we will explore more of this impressive maze of karst islands by tender, both above and below the surface, complete with mysterious skull cairns in sea cave cemeteries, as well as prehistoric cave paintings estimated to be anything between 3000 and 5000 years old, which depict various human figures, huge human palms, fish, plants, tools and vessels.
Day 6: Explore the Misool archipelago
Today comes with a rare delight – the chance to swim with wild Bottlenose Dolphins. Early in the morning, you will head off from the Ombak Putih by tender to a secret location, where you will (hopefully) be able to get in the water with these playful mammals as they swim and cavort around us in the water.
Back on the boat you will have breakfast as you move east to your first snorkelling spot of the day at the lush reefs at Wayilbata, which are filled with healthy corals of many species.
During lunch you will move to the tiny uninhabited Island of Hiriuli, where you will spend the afternoon on its picture-postcard white sandy tropical beach swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding, beachcombing and snorkelling on the stunning reef there.
In the evening your crew will set up for a beach BBQ under the stars and regale us with folk songs by fire light as you dance the night away.
Day 7: Misool archipelago - Kapatcol and Aduwei
This morning you will have your last snorkel in Raja Ampat in the area near the village of Kapatcol. After lunch, you will pay a visit to Aduwei village, where you will be welcomed by the local community with music and traditional dance.
Here in Aduwei, visit the library at the elementary school which was set up in collaboration with SeaTrek, the Indonesian literature foundation, and former SeaTrek guests as part of our “Sailing for Good” initiative. You will have time for a look around the village to learn about the way the Nature Conservancy environmental organisation is working with the village to empower local women with a fishing practice called sasi.
Back to the boat and you will begin your long night cruising through the night towards an new region - North Maluku.
Day 8: Pisang island
In the morning, make landfall at the tiny, remote, uninhabited island of Pisang (“Banana”) in the Ceram Sea. Rising abruptly from deep water, Pisang is the heavily eroded remnant of an ancient extinct volcano: its flanks are steep, forest-clad, and cloaked in undisturbed rainforest. The island supports a rich assemblage of birdlife, and its isolation makes it a natural laboratory of evolution.
If weather and sea conditions permit, you will go ashore and explore the island’s only relatively level terrain: a dry river channel that cuts inland from the coast into the forested interior. This sheltered corridor provides access to habitats that are otherwise difficult to reach and is an excellent location for bird and butterfly watching. You are encouraged to contribute to your understanding of Pisang’s biodiversity by uploading photographs and observations to platforms such as iNaturalist. In fact, records made by guests on previous cruises appear to constitute the only publicly accessible biological data for the island — a reminder of just how little-documented such places remain.
It was on remote islands like this that Wallace encountered endemic land snails, insects, and other animals — species that had evolved from ancestral colonists which, by rare chance dispersal events, managed to reach isolated volcanic outposts. Cut off from the source populations, they diversified over time, producing the distinctive island faunas that were so central to Wallace’s thinking about biogeography and the origin of species.
Because of its volcanic nature, the area offers some wonderful snorkelling and it’s possible to see subterranean gasses seeping out of the seabed amongst the coral and black volcanic sand.
You will return to the boat and continue our journey to south of Halmahera.
Day 9: Bacan island
Morning snorkelling here is an extraordinary experience. You will spend the morning exploring this remarkable setting, with opportunities not only for excellent snorkelling but also for kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding. Warm water from nearby coastal hot springs flows into the sea, creating striking thermal contrasts at the surface. In places, the water is hot, while just a short distance below it remains noticeably colder — a vivid and unusual sensation as you move between layers.
In the afternoon, you will anchor off Bacan and going for a nice easy walk to a unique butterfly farm where we will witness one of Wallace's great discoveries on Bacan Island, the huge and magnificent Golden Birdwing butterfly, which Wallace described as the "finest butterfly in the world". When he caught a male for the first time in 1859, he wrote: "The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than I have done when in apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the rest of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to most people a very inadequate cause." Very few Westerners have ever seen this species alive and few groups of tourists are taken to see it.
On the way back to the boat, you should also keep an eye out for birds and insects, some of which are endemic to this region.
Day 10: Wallace's greatest zoological discoveries in Bacan
You will wake up very early this morning and go ashore to look for the elusive Wallace's Standardwing Bird of Paradise. Take a 30-minute drive before a relatively challenging 90-minute walk through the forest to the lekking site.
In a letter from Wallace to his natural history agent Stevens in October 1858, Wallace wrote from Bacan: "Here I have been as yet only 5 days... though I believe I have already the finest and most wonderful bird in the island. I had a good mind to keep it a secret, but I cannot resist telling you. I have a new Bird of Paradise! of a new genus!! quite unlike anything yet known, very curious and very handsome!!! When I can get a couple of pairs, I will send them overland, to see what a new Bird of Paradise will really fetch… I consider it the greatest discovery I have yet made…” A rather strong statement, given he had discovered natural selection only nine months previously!
On your way back you will be on the lookout for birds and if we are lucky we lucky we could spot a beautiful Blythe's Hornbill, perhaps a Paradise Crow (a bird of paradise), and black macaque monkeys (introduced a long ago from north Sulawesi and now endangered there). Before heading back to the boat you will make a quick stop at a huge statue of Wallace's Standardwing in the main city of the island.
Day 11: Guarici archipelago
Today you will visit the Guarici archipelago, a chain of islands with white sandy beaches, vibrant coral reefs and some lovely local villages. Spend a full day here snorkelling, swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding, and pay a visit to one of the villages to meet the local people. The islands are part of a government-controlled conservation area, designed to protect the reefs and the many beautiful marine species that can be found here.
Day 12: Tidore and Dodinga - Where Wallace made his greatest discovery
Today, you will wake up off the coast of Halmahera, just across from Ternate, with the mighty peaks of Ternate and Tidore as your dawn backdrop.
You will begin our morning by going ashore and exploring the Island of Tidore and visit some popular destination’s including a Sultan's palace, Fort Tahula, local blacksmiths, traditional weaving and a local market. After returning to the boat, we will have lunch as we make our way to Halmahera.
In the afternoon, visit the village of Dodinga — the place where Wallace was living when, during a bout of malarial fever, he conceived the mechanism that drives evolutionary change: natural selection. Once he recovered, he wrote a detailed essay outlining his theory, which he sent to Charles Darwin from his base on nearby Ternate Island. This essay, published by the Linnean Society of London alongside Darwin’s own thoughts in August 1858, prompted Darwin to publish On the Origin of Species the following year, which provided a more detailed popular account of their joint theory. We will see a monument commemorating Wallace's independent discovery of natural selection, which was produced in 2024 by the North Maluku Government, George's Alfred Russel Wallace Memorial Fund, and SeaTrek. It was unveiled by Wallace's great grandson Bill, the British Ambassador, and the Governor of North Maluku. Today, Dodinga is a charming riverside village with friendly residents, colourful houses, and the ruins of an old Portuguese fort. Its role in the history of science makes it a place of extraordinary significance.
After spending some time with the villagers, sharing some fresh coconuts and enjoying their hospitality, you will head back to the boat for lunch and then go off for an afternoon of snorkelling and relaxation. Then there will be a farewell party in the evening.
Day 13: Explore Ternate and depart to Jakarta
Today marks the end of your adventure, but first you will head into the city, which has retained its commercial and political importance as the administrative and trading centre of North Maluku. Of the four historically powerful spice sultanates, Ternate is the only one where the sultanate has survived uninterrupted. You will visit Fort Toluko, built by the Portuguese, and the Kedaton, the palace of the sultan, with its rich collection of heirlooms.
You will also see the impressive Fort Oranje built by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and the probable site of the house where Wallace lived when he posted his essay on natural selection to Charles Darwin in 1858. After your tour, you will travel back to the boat and say goodbye to the crew and your sea-based home, Ombak Putih, before we transfer you to the airport for your onward journey back to Jakarta (Internal flight to Jakarta included for January 2027 only).
