Customer Reviews

Diving Indonesia's Raja Ampat

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to feast my eyes on this incredible guide. Jones and Shimlock have long been known for their world renown photography but now they have come up with this well researched, easy to use, and incredibly informative scuba diving guide to one of the finest and most remote regions in the world. It leads you to places you would never find on your own and helps makes diving in the Raja Ampat a truly incredible experience.
If you're considering diving in this remote area of the world do yourself a favor and grab this guide before you go. You'll thank these two experts many times over for revealing their secrets and filling you with valuable knowledge of the region.
Tom Robinson

Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock have written the definite guide to diving this beautiful area of Indonesia. Filled with lots of useful information including GPS numbers, current and water conditions, fish and invertebrate species likely to be encountered, and more, this beautifully photographed guide has made our trips to this area richer and more productive than would have been the case. If there is one guide to pack on your travels, THIS IS IT!!! I will be taking it again on our next trip to this area this coming November. Do yourself a favor and pick one up today!!

Sure, your live-aboard or resort will know where 90% of the best dive sites are, but after dozens of months exploring Raja Ampat Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock have uncovered a few spots the more established boats/resorts don't know about. Fantastic photography (not that we'd expect otherwise from this remarkable husband and wife team, but not everyone throws in their best images for a guidebook!), detailed descriptions -- with GPS coordinates (!) included for those boats you're on that are new to the area -- and an overall good read that'll get you hankering to go diving there now. Diving Indonesia's Raja Ampat is truly an indispensable piece of gear for any trip you're planning (or, heck, even a great souvenir of) this remarkable destination.

This is an absolutely excellent reference to what I consider the world's premier tropical diving location. The book reveals a plethora of previously unknown dive sites, with useful maps and all essential details provided. I've now used the book on two separate dive trips and have found it to be extremely accurate and useful, not to mention the fantastic photos by the very accomplished authors. This book, already well worn, is now an essential part of my field kit for West Papuan dive adventures.

Wow! What a combination of a practical travel guide, dive resource, and awesome photos. This is a must for divers, as well as those just interested in a unique spot of the world known for it's amazing bio diversity.

Twice I've had the privilege of diving Raja Ampat and wish I had this book the first dive trip. Jones and Shimlock have packed an amazing amount of practical info, including maps with GPS locations.

I highly recommend this book, even for non divers or travelers, as it beautifully reveals one of our planet's unique treasures. It's a great value.

It's a rare gift when a guidebook is both beautiful and practical. The photos of the marine life in Raja Ampat, the most biologically-diverse coral reef system in the world, are exquisite and make me want to dive in (again). Burt Jones and Maurine Shimloock have a fine eye for the dramatic big fish as well as the hard-to-see little critters. And the information about the best dive sites is useful and concise. This guide should prove to be a handy reference to some of the world's best diving. The maps are useful, too. So, two bits of advice. Make sure you dive Raja Ampat, and keep this book on hand for when your friends ask "what did you do on your vacation?"

I perhaps don't agree with the rave reviews here. The book IS good, but it could have been SO much better. They go a long way to making a good guide, and then don't complete it.

For example, the maps of the island groups show the dive sites, and the dive sites are all numbered in the text. But the numbers don't appear on the maps, meaning that it's very hard to work out where, on the maps (and thus nautical charts that one has to use in RA) to find the sites. Yes, the GPS co-ordes are there, but it's just one oversight of this book that shows it was published before a "user check" had been carried out. But it is good, and is well worth having with you.