Maluku Province Transportation

By sea

Travelling by sea is the ultimate (and often only) way of getting to/around Maluku. The large, government-run Pelni ships connect the two provincial capitals, Ambon and Ternate, plus a couple of smaller towns like Namlea, Bandaneira, Tual, Dobo and Saumlaki with the rest of Indonesia, notably Papua, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara and Java. Once in Maluku, there are lots of smaller, local ships of all sorts and descriptions travelling between neighbouring islands. These range from larger boats with cabins and sleeping bunks, or car-ferries with seats only serving longer routes to speedboats and wooden boats with an outboard propeller for shorter hops. Many of the remoter islands are only served by Perintis cargo ships. These run on erratic, irregular schedules and conditions aboard are so horrible that they make even economy class on Pelni feel like a Caribbean cruise! Definitely only a very last resort for the hardiest of travellers!!! Finally, chartering might be necessary to reach really remote places.




By road

On those islands that do have roads to start with, buses, minibuses (bemos), shared taxis (kijangs) and motorcycle taxis (ojeks) may run between settlements. On longer routes, transport usually leaves in the morning only. Compared with more developed places like Java or Bali, road transport tends to be slower and more expensive in Maluku. Minibuses also run on set routes within the few larger towns like Ambon, Ternate and Tual.



By air

Several carriers fly to the two provincial capitals (Ambon & Ternate) from Java, Sulawesi or Papua. From Manado in North Sulawesi, you could even fly directly to the remote airports of Kao and Galela in Halmahera! Inside Maluku, Merpati (especially!) and Trigana do fly to a number of smaller islands from Ambon and Ternate. Flights on local routes tend to be heavily booked and unreliable.