Our liveaboard category covers 8 vessels purpose-built for diving Komodo at its best — from compact boutique boats for 10 divers to the 50m Scubaspa Zen with on-board spa, and the 60m Aqua Blu for long-range expeditions.
A liveaboard is a vessel built around diving rather than retro-fitted for it. Five technical markers separate a true liveaboard from a phinisi that happens to carry dive tanks: a low-freeboard dive deck for easy water entry, an in-house compressor for unlimited fills, tank racks built into the deck, a dedicated camera-prep station with charge sockets and fresh-water rinse, and a daily schedule built around dive briefs rather than meal times.
Match the boat to your dive level. AOW + 30 dives gets you on any vessel in the category. Tech divers should look at Mermaid I/II (twinset support, deco-gas blending). Photographers want vessels with dedicated camera stations and slower surface intervals (Scubaspa Zen, Ilike). Long-range expedition divers (Komodo + Banda Sea) need the Aqua Blu.
38m boutique liveaboard / 7 cabins / 14 divers — full Nitrox, camera stations.
50m wellness liveaboard / 12 cabins / 24 divers — on-board spa team, dive by day, treatments by night.
Technical-dive liveaboard with twinset support and gas blending.
Sister to Mermaid I — same technical setup, slightly different deck layout.
60m expedition liveaboard / 15 cabins / 30 divers — long-range Komodo + Forgotten Islands.
Boutique boutique-class dive liveaboards, 7 cabins each, run by veterans of Indonesia diving.
Yes, but the daily rhythm is dive-centric. Non-divers will have lots of surface and snorkel time. For non-diver-first formats, choose phinisi or yacht categories.
Yes on all vessels in the category. Usually a daily surcharge of USD 25–40 per diver.
18–24 over 7 nights at sea. Technical divers and photographers tend to log slightly fewer.
April–November. July–September peaks for Manta Alley action; January–March favours mola mola for tech divers but is rougher above water.
