17 nights, 6 stops — birds-of-paradise and wallacea for the camera.
Arfak Mountains → Nimbokrang → Waigeo Island → Halmahera Island → Lore Lindu National Park → Tangkoko Nature Reserve.
Round trip · returns to Arfak Mountains
Arrive in Arfak Mountains, met and transferred to your accommodation. The Arfak's bowers and dances are among the most astonishing displays in the bird world.
Bird the steep cloud-forest trails for montane endemics. Dawn and dusk at the display grounds and bowers.
Dawn and dusk at the display grounds and bowers. Sit at a forest hide for the Vogelkop bowerbird and Western parotia.
Transfer to Nimbokrang. Dawn at the twelve-wired bird-of-paradise display, then forest birding. Work the canopy leks for the lesser bird-of-paradise.
Work the canopy leks for the lesser bird-of-paradise. Search the lowland forest for pittas, jewel-babblers and parrots. Nimbokrang's lowland birds round out the Arfak's montane species for a full Papua list.
Search the lowland forest for pittas, jewel-babblers and parrots.
Transfer to Waigeo Island. A pre-dawn forest trek for Wilson's and red birds-of-paradise. Bird the lowland forest, then snorkel the island reefs.
Bird the lowland forest, then snorkel the island reefs. Search the canopy for displaying birds-of-paradise. Waigeo offers two of the planet's most spectacular birds within reach of the world's best reefs.
Search the canopy for displaying birds-of-paradise.
Transfer to Halmahera Island. Dawn at the standardwing lek, then lowland forest birding. Search the forest for Halmahera's Moluccan endemics.
Search the forest for Halmahera's Moluccan endemics. Bird in the morning and snorkel the reef by afternoon. Wallace's standardwing links Halmahera directly to the birth of evolutionary biology — and it still displays each dawn.
Bird in the morning and snorkel the reef by afternoon.
Transfer to Lore Lindu National Park. Bird the montane forest for Sulawesi's highland endemics. Explore the megalith valleys between birding sessions.
Explore the megalith valleys between birding sessions. Search the deep forest for anoa and babirusa. Lore Lindu blends montane endemics with one of Indonesia's most enigmatic archaeological landscapes.
Search the deep forest for anoa and babirusa.
Transfer to Tangkoko Nature Reserve. Dawn with the black macaque troops and dusk with the tarsiers. Walk the coastal forest for hornbills, cuscus and the maleo.
Walk the coastal forest for hornbills, cuscus and the maleo. Search the figs for tarsiers and the trails for endemics. Sulawesi's isolation bred a cast of unique animals, and Tangkoko is the easiest place to meet them.
A final morning in Tangkoko Nature Reserve — a last outing or a slow start as time allows — before the transfer onward and the journey home.
Drier highland weather — the best window for the steep forest trails.
Birds display in most months; expect mist and rain at altitude any time.
Community-run homestays in the Arfak highlands, basic but perfectly placed for the bowerbird hides.
A dedicated birders' lodge at Nimbokrang, run by the guide who knows every display tree.
A straightforward dive resort on Waigeo, handy for the reefs and the birds-of-paradise treks.
A forest-and-shore resort on Halmahera, set up for the standardwing and Moluccan endemics.
A simple highland guesthouse in the Lore Lindu valleys, a base for the montane birding.
A comfortable lodge on the edge of Tangkoko, minutes from the tarsiers and macaques.
Add nights, swap a park, extend to the coast — this route is a starting point, not a fixed menu. Tell us how you travel and we'll route the rest.