snorkeling

Quiet fishing village on east Bali coast. Snorkel/dive over USS Liberty wreck, Mount Agung views.

Remote islands off E Kalimantan. Pristine reefs, manta rays, jellyfish lake.

Lively party island off NW Lombok. White sand, no cars, snorkeling with turtles.

27-island archipelago in Java Sea. White sand, snorkeling, beach camping, no crowds.

The southern Maluku archipelago where the sand is the colour of talcum and the locals still run the oldest marine conservation system in the world.

Wall-diving paradise in West Bali NP. Deer, snorkeling, crystal clear.

Volcanic island at the gateway to the Indian Ocean — dramatic cliffs, jungle hot springs, and reefs that divers compare to Bali's 1980s.

Indonesia's northernmost point — a sleepy zero-crowd tropical outpost with world-class WWII wrecks and some of the Indian Ocean's clearest water.

A postcard-perfect 3 km² islet off Weh Island — empty white-sand crescent, snorkeling-water clarity, and zero development.

A frontier village on the north coast of Seram — the last stop before the overwater bungalows of Ora Beach.

Calmer family-friendly beach east of Denpasar. Sunrise walks, snorkeling boat.

Islands in Jakarta Bay. Day trips, snorkeling, white sand.

Marine park, vertical walls, world-class diving.

A small island with the ruins of Fort Revenge (Dutch 1621) and a small fishing village — quieter than Run, with some of the best snorkelling in the Banda Sea.

An uninhabited micro-island 20 minutes from Tual — two bays, mangroves, baby blacktip reef sharks in the shallows, and the closest thing to Raja Ampat you can find without flying to Sorong.

A tiny uninhabited island 30 minutes from Banda Neira with some of the healthiest reef in the Banda Sea — snorkel from the beach or dive the drop-off.

The 'Little Maldives' of eastern Indonesia — overwater bungalows, water-clear to thirty metres, and the only way in is by boat.

The westerly companion to Hatupia — a smaller cliff with a sea cave at the waterline, snorkel-through access on calm days.

A 200-metre karst cliff wall that drops straight into the Banda Sea — reachable by foot from Sawai, or by boat from Saleman.