Review Kri Eco resort & Papua Divers - Raja Ampat 2023
Kri eco resort 2023 (Raja Ampat)
Déjà vu
During our BrotherDive 2017 in Raja Ampat we stayed on Kri Island.
And to be honest not much has changed in 6 years.
And with regards to our previous review that very positive!
The first thing you’ll notice is that the staff is largely the same as it was six years ago. This often indicates a positive (working) atmosphere, which often translates into excellent guest service.
There are actually 2 resorts on the Island, both owned by (also Dutch born) Max Ammer; Kri Eco Resort and the more luxurious Sorido Bay resort.
The history
Max Ammer, the founder of Papua Diving, first came to the region in 1990, following his passion to search for submerged World War II aircrafts. After spending so much time in Raja Ampat Max fell in love with the Papuan people and started a number of initiatives to support the local Papuan communities.
Papua Diving was one of the projects. It’s mission: to bring much needed money to the local people by enabling divers who had never heard of the region to be amazed by the wonders of the unspoiled aquatic world here.
RARCC
Max Ammer is also the founder of the RARCC
This stand for: Raja Ampat Research and Conservation Centre.
The RARCC engages indigenous communities in the deployment of financial self-reliant projects and small businesses which stimulate conservation and protection for the present and future generations of the Raja Ampat archipelago.
The arrival
From the Sorong airport you will be picked-up by the staff of the resort, they will bring you from the airport to a restaurant. This time the restaurant was located directly at the harbor.
You will receive a voucher in order to have breakfast at this restaurant. From there you’ll go to the boat which lays right in front of the restaurant. This boat is your transfer to Kri Island.
Besides some (big) waves underway…. this all went very smooth in our case!
The trip however does take a couple of hours.
The harbor with our transfer boat on the right.
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The resort
Like in 2017 we stayed in the Kri Eco Resort again, as the name already suggests, is this a rather basic resort. The resort has 13 cottages, all made of locally sourced and low-impact materials and styled very much in accordance with the local tradition of architecture.
There are 3 kind of categories: Papuan style, Superior and Deluxe.
The Papuan and Superior versions all have a shared bathroom and toilet, the ‘Deluxe’ version has its own private bathroom with shower and toilet inside the cottage and an outdoor terrace with lounge furniture.
A warm welcome
When we arrived we received a warm welcome from the crew and we were offered some drinks and a little snack.
Once we arrived in our cottage, there was also a nice welkom message in the form of a ‘postcard’.
Always nice when they keep track on this.
The postcard in the room
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The “driveway” to our cottage
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The sandy path
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Our cottage
Based on our last visit, we again signed up for a Deluxe cottage, which is a very large cottage with in our case one big size double bed and one single bed.
It has a large entry where you can store your luggage. It has also a large bathroom with plenty of room to keep your toiletries (and to charge your camera batteries….), and a toilet. There’s a large (separate) shower room with 1 sink.
The Deluxe cottage is built directly above the water / beach and has an outdoor terrace with lounge furniture and immediate access to the beach via a natural staircase.
The cottage also has a refrigerator and 2 mobile electrical fans, a camera table and a waterboiler.
There are plenty of (EU plug) sockets with 220-240Volt.
We’re not spoiled, but to be honest we were both glad we had the ‘Deluxe’ version because of the private bathroom with toilet….
The terrace is really a nice place to watch the sunrise or sunset.
This time we had the last cottage in the row, that means a 5 to 7 minutes walk to the pier and restaurant.
That’s not a problem at all, as you walk along a beautiful sandy path through Kri’s nature and every now and then you encounter the most diverse animals.
View of our cottage from the sea
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Our ‘pet’….
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Some other pictures of the room
The facilities
If you’re not in a ‘de luxe’ cottage you’ll have to share the bathroom and toilets with other guests.
The public (shared) toilets and bathrooms are located next to the path that goes parallel to the beach and behind the cottages. Especially during a nighttime visit to the toilet not ideal…
However, they look nice and are clean!
The public bathroom and toilets
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The public toilet
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There is also a volleyball field hidden next to the path, and there are kayak’s available for free.
The ‘jungle’ starts directly in your backyard…..
There are 2 options to walk from the Kri Eco resort to the Sorido Bay resort, via the beach (only with low tide), or via the ‘jungle path’ over the hill (quite a walk in with these temperatures)
Sorido bay
Sorido Bay offers you a great traditional massage in their spa, you can also book your massage at Kri and they will arrange a transfer by boat to and from Sorido.
On the Island there are also a couple of small (local) villages and a couple of homestay’s.
The restaurant is the only location you might be able to have a Wi-Fi connection, this fully depends on the availability of the connection to the mainland (Sorong).
Also keep in mind that mobile phone connections are most of the time unavailable (there is a fixed line at the resort for emergencies)
Trip to fam Island
Fan Island viewpoint
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From Kri Island they offer several trips, sometimes haf a day and somtimes a daily trip (combined with 1 or 2 dives)
In 2017 we decided to do the ‘Birds or paradis trip’, this time we decided to take the ‘Piaynemo / Fam Islands’ trip
Nestled in the heart of Indonesia’s Raja Ampat Geopark archipelago, the Fam Islands (or Pam islands correctly pronounced) stand as one of the region’s most remarkable and serene natural wonders and protected by UNESCO.
Piaynemo is one of the most beautiful places in Raja Ampat. It’s no wonder the famous Piaynemo Geosite Viewpoint is featured on the 100,000 Indonesian rupee note.
Some 40 islands together form a unique landscape of large and small spherical islands surrounded by turquoise lagoons.
This is a daily trip combined with 2 dives in the Piaynemo area, and if you’ll ever get the chance to go there: Don’t hessitate !!
This is one of the most beautifull places I’ve ever been in my life!
Some pictures of Fam Island
The restaurant
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The restaurant
Next to the pier (Yetty) is the restaurant, this is the only common location on the resort, so besides a restaurant it’s also a meeting place.
You’ll have your breakfast, lunch and dinner served here, as well as your drinks. It has a refrigerator were you can get some soft drinks and beer (paid), there is also free tea and coffee available.
Keep in mind that when the staff leaves during the night the refrigerator will be locked.
Other reestaurant 'guests'
Almost every evening during diner time a cuscus (Spilocuscus papuensis) comes over to visit the restaurant.
This cute animal is more or less used to the guests and eats banana’s from your hand.
But appearances can be deceiving, with his sharp claws and teeth he is less ‘cuddly’ than you would think
A small marsupial with a fluffy tail and spotted pattern. The cuscus is nocturnal and lives in the treetops. It is found only on a few islands off the northwest coast of Papua.
The daily ‘guest’at the restaurant
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Dining in the restaurant
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The food
For such a small and basic resort the food is really good!
And that’s a good thing, because the nearest McDonald’s is about 7 hours away from the island….
Most of the dishes are Papuan style, which means in some cases rather spicy…. Never the less, it’s really good!
Breakfast is ‘standard’ continental including eggs etc. ,lunch is good with lots of variety. Dinner is also very good, you can always choose between meat and fish, with also a good variety.
The pier
The pier is more or less the ‘hotspot’ of the resort.
At the beginning of the pier you’ll find the ‘briefing room’ for the divers, the dive manager’s office and the ‘Papuan style’ cottages.
Halfway the pier there’s a lounge area with sunbeds; this is the best location on the Island to watch the sunset!!
At the end of the pier is the diving center from where you hop on the diving boats. Here you can also clean, rinse and store your personal diving gear.
The pier (Click to enlarge)
The dive area (Click to enlarge)
The diving briefing room (Click to enlarge)
The dive center
[Description provided by Papua diving]
“Papua Diving is unique when compared to other land based and liveaboard operators in Raja Ampat. Not only thanks to our outstanding location – Today we may pride ourselves of having an unique knowledge about the area thanks to working so closely together with the Papuan people for many years
• Being the pioneering hence the most experienced operator in Raja Ampat
• Providing employment to more Papuan people than other operators (90% of our staff are Papuan)
• Donating 10% of profit to conservation initiatives
• We actively set up and support conservation initiatives and projects
The dive area (Click to enlarge)
The dive area were the boats leave (Click to enlarge)
Our experiance
Actually, for as far as we can verify the text above, most of it is true.
The briefings will be performed at the beginning of the pier by your dive guide. Because they only work with Papuan dive guides the briefing might be a little different than you might be used to…. The English language is for some dive guides one step to far….. Never the less, divers are used to hand signals….
The dive center itself is well arranged, you can clean, rinse and store all your personal diving equipment at the dive center located at the end of the pier.
There are enough tank available (Air and Nitrox), and there is also a possibility to rent equipment as well.
From this location you can directly access the diving boats which will bring you to the dive locations.
As mentioned the dive guides and crew are all Papuan, and ‘one’ with the sea. They can actually ‘read’ the currents from the boat! Amazing…
The boat crew is always willing to help you, and is very friendly (but don’t expect they will speak English…)
The guides are experienced divers, and always willing to help you in any way they can, just tell them what you like to see or do, and they will assist you in it.
Besides that they are also very flexible in choosing the dive locations, there is almost always an option to change the original planning of the day if the customers like to change to another dive location.
I love that!
Due to the sometimes unpredictable currents and weather, they might also change de dive locations by themselves.
So, we can be rather clear about Papua diving; Great diving center with very good (local) dive guides. And as you might expect from a ‘real’ dive resort the dive operation is very well arranged.
Our evaluation
Our ratings below are based on our personal experiences. They are also adapted to our needs as divers. Meaning that we’re less focused on additional features.
Therefore you should only pay attention to our ratings if you’re planning a diving holiday.
Where we base our score on:
Accommodation:
Room size, beds, cleaning, bathroom, location, environmentally friendly, etc.
Facilities:
Pool, sport activities, organized trips, TV, Internet, phone, etc.
Dive center:
Quality of equipment, boats, crew, dive guides, location, service, marine conservation, etc.
Conclusion:
The Kri Eco resort is a very nice resort on one of the most beautiful locations in the world. As stated before, it’s an ‘Eco’ resort, so don’t expect a high standard fancy resort with full options….
If you have the possibility to book a ‘Deluxe’ room; don’t hesitate!
The accommodations are very good; it’s clean and provides you everything you need.
If you need more luxury, try the Sorido Bay Resort.
Besides diving and snorkeling there’s not really much to do on the Island, but then again; it’s a diving resort.
So, if you’re not a diver, don’t plan your family beach holiday here and you’ll be fine.
Diving is the core business on this resort, and that’s something they do really well! We can’t come up with any real negative comments about the dive operation with Papua Diving.
Our verdict:
Accommodation:
Facilities:
Dive Center:
Total score:
Therefore we can highly recommend the Kri Eco Resort !
