Please read each of the sections below carefully. They provide important information about your Operation Wallacea expedition in Indonesia. Should you require further assistance please do not hesitate to contact your nearest Operation Wallacea office.

Travelling to and from the expedition

Before confirming your flights please email flights@opwall.com to ensure your flights are correct.

Indonesia has two main international airport hubs, Jakarta (CGK) and Bali (DPS). You should plan to enter via either of these airports to ensure travel connections to your expedition start point.

Arrival

The terrestrial & marine expedition  and the terrestrial-only expedition  both commence in the village of Ereke (North Buton) on a Sunday at 1300hrs. You will therefore need to book your international flight so that it arrives into Jakarta (CGK) anytime on the Friday or Bali (DPS) on the Friday before 1400hrs.

Departure

 

Internal Travel

Outbound Internal Travel

Homeward Bound Internal Travel

PLEASE NOTE
Your Internal Travel package is an additional cost to the Operation Wallacea expedition fee and your international flights. Indonesia is a very large country and there is a significant amount of travel to get from your international arrival point to your expedition start point.  Once your international flights have been booked and uploaded to your portal, we will assist in arranging your internal travel package. To find out more, please check out the Costs to Consider tab on Your Expedition page on the Operation Wallacea website.

 

Additional Nights

As part of the internal travel package it is possible to arrange additional hotel nights in Jakarta before and after your expedition. The cost of any extra nights will be added to your internal travel package quote should you require them.

 

Booking International Flights

International Arrival

If your international flight arrives via Jakarta, please ensure you arrive on the Friday (anytime) prior to your expedition commencing.

If your international flight arrives via Bali, please ensure you arrive on the Friday (no later than 1400hrs) prior to your expedition commencing.

International Departure

If your international flight departs via Jakarta, please ensure your international flight departs no earlier than 1700hrs on the Sunday following the end of your expedition.

If your international flight departs via Bali, please ensure your international flight departs no earlier than 2000hrs on the Sunday following the end of your expedition.

Before booking your international flights, we suggest that you send your draft itinerary to Opwall (flights@opwall.com) to ensure your flights are booked correctly.

Please ensure when booking your international flights that the cost of your ticket includes at least 20kgs of checked luggage. There is a 20kg checked luggage allowance on all internal flights within Indonesia.

 

Research Assistants and Dissertation/Thesis Students

Before booking your international flights, please consider the number of days you will be staying in Indonesia. If you are doing a 4 week expedition (28 days), or doing a 2 week expedition but planning on travelling within Indonesia outside of the expedition, it is worth ensuring that you book flights that keep your time in Indonesia to within 30 days, as this will most likely avoid you having to pay a higher rate on your visa fees (please see Visa section below). 

You are welcome to book your flights with your preferred travel agent, just ensure to check our flight arrival and departure information thoroughly. A great place to start looking for flights is Sky scanner, Expedia or Trip UK. If you are a volunteer from the UK or Ireland when you book an expedition with us you can contact our preferred travel partner ISON Travel, who will provide you with competitive quotes for your international flights.

ISON Travel

Tel: 020 3405 7767

24/7 Service: 020 3657 9738

E-mail: opwall@isontravel.com

USA/CAN

If you are a student in the USA or Canada, we recommend trying Student Universe for your flights as they give discounts to students. You are welcome to book your flights elsewhere, however our partnership means that they generally provide the best price, are familiar with our expeditions and give excellent service.

Student Universe US
Tel: +1 800 272 9676 (Toll-free within the US and Canada)

Student Universe CAN
Tel: +1 800 761 0060 (Toll-free within the US and Canada)

Once you have booked your international flights, please enter the details on the Opwall portal.

Passport

Your passport must have at least 6 months validity (period before expiry) from the date of your arrival in Indonesia. If you are carrying a passport that does not have at least 6-months validity, please be aware you will likely be denied entry into Indonesia.

 

Visas

For those staying in Indonesia for 30 days or less (day one is considered the date of your arrival into country) you should obtain a Visa On Arrival, also known as VOA or a B1 Visa .The cost of a VOA is IDR 500,000 (approx. GBP20 or AUD40). You can either obtain a VOA prior to arriving in Indonesia via the government’s  e-VISA website or purchase at the airport upon your arrival in Indonesia. We recommend applying online as you will need to bring a copy of your visa to site with you. You will need to create an account and then should select the following options: 1. Purpose: General, Family or Social, 2. Sub-purpose: Tourism, 3. Visa: B1.

For those staying in Indonesia for 31-60 days, we recommend that you obtain a 60-day Tourist Single Entry Visitor Visa (also known as C1). You will need to apply for this visa prior to arriving in Indonesia via the government’s  e-VISA website. The cost of this visa is IDR 1,000,000 (approx. GBP40 or AUD80). Please note, when applying for this visa you will need to submit a bank statement covering a recent 3-month period that shows your name and has a final balance of at least USD2,000 (or equivalent currency). This visa can be extended for another 60 days at a local immigration office should you plan to continue travelling in Indonesia after your expedition.

You will need the following information to complete your visa application.
For the section “Address in Indonesia”, select Residence Type OTHERS. If you travelling to the forest site (even if travelling to the marine site later), your address is DESA PETETEA with postcode 93672. If you are travelling only to the marine site, your address is HOGA ISLAND with postcode 93792.

Please note, if you are travelling in Indonesia prior to your expedition, it is important that you plan your travel so that if you require a visa extension it does not fall due whilst you are on expedition. Extending your visa whilst on expedition will incur travel costs to a local immigration office as well as require you to miss valuable expedition time.

You can apply for your Indonesian visa up to 3 months prior to your arrival in Indonesia via the e-VISA website. The online application process will require you to upload a passport photo and your passport main page, both in jpeg format. Uploading of these documents can be problematic so please make sure you follow the instructions carefully as listed on the website. Successfully uploading these documents may take several attempts. If you have any queries regards the visa application process, please contact our Indonesia Travel Coordinator (chris.majors@opwall.com).

Passport holders from Southeast Asian countries are able to enter Indonesia visa-free.

All Indonesia App & Arrival Card

Indonesia requires that you complete an Arrival Card prior to your arrival in Indonesia. You can complete this card either via the All Indonesia app or the website https://allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id/. Please note, the card can only be completed within 3 days from your date of planned arrival into Indonesia.

 

After clicking on Foreign Visitor, please complete the following steps:

1. Enter your personal information. Groups one can enter up to 10 individuals at a time.
2. Enter when you will arrive and depart from Indonesia.
3. Select Holiday/Sightseeing/Leisure as your Purpose of Travel. Enter your flight details. Your type of accommodation is Residential. If you are travelling to the forest site (even if also travelling to the marine site later) your province is SULAWESI TENGGARA, your city is KAB BUTON UTARA, and your address is DESA PETETEA. If, however, you are only travelling to the marine site your province is SULAWESI TENGGARA, your city is KAB WAKATOBI, and your address is HOGA ISLAND.
4. Complete the customs declaration.

Upon completion of the Arrival Card you will be sent an email confirming your Arrival Card number and a QR code. Make sure you have this QR code ready to present to an Indonesian customs officer at the airport upon arrival (either on your device or in printed form).

 

Carbon Offsetting

By joining an Operation Wallacea expedition you are contributing directly towards the study and protection of threatened biodiversity, bringing significant financial benefits to small local communities, and working towards protecting valuable carbon stocks from deforestation. We are extremely proud of the impact we and our volunteers have had over the past two decades, creating a significant benefit to the environment.

However, we want to do more. Specifically, we want to make Operation Wallacea completely carbon neutral. As an organisation we will now be offsetting our own emissions from staff travel (both road and air) and from running our offices. But we also want to encourage all our participants to offset, at the very least, the carbon emissions from their own international flights – and ideally more. To do this we will be supporting the Wallacea Reforestation Initiative in partnership with our sister charity the Wallacea Trust (UK Charity 1078362), and you can read more about this exciting project here that takes a new approach to tropical reforestation that benefits not only climate, but biodiversity and livelihoods too.

How to Calculate Your Donation Amount

The first step in calculating your donation amount is to work out the total estimated amount of carbon your flights will emit into the atmosphere. To do this you need to take the exact flight routes you are booked on to for your summer expedition, and run these through the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) carbon calculator. This calculator can be found here.

This gives you the Total passengers’ CO2/journey (KG), which you will then need to convert into tonnes. 1 KG is equal to 0.001 ton, so you then need to divide your figure in KG by 1000. We usually assigned a value of $12 USD (or £10 GBP) per ton of carbon, therefore to work out this donation amount, you would need to multiply your ton value by either 12 or 10 depending on your currency.

For some of your flight legs, you may not be able to find your destination airport on the calculator, in this circumstance, we would recommend using the nearest airport (ie. for Croatia using Zagreb airport).

If you’re happy with an estimate rather than calculating the costs yourself, a £15 donation will cover the carbon produced by the flights in more than 95% of cases.

To donate, please visit the Wallacea Trust page and click ‘donate now’ at the top.