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.

You can choose from one of two large international airports to fly into and out of Indonesia. Choose from either Jakarta (CGK) or Bali (DPS).

Arrival

The terrestrial & marine expeditions and the terrestrial only expeditions start in Ereke (North Buton) on a Sunday at 1300hrs. You need to book your international flight to arrive into either Jakarta (CGK) on Saturday before 0900hrs or Bali (DPS) on the Friday before 1600hrs.

Departure

Internal Travel

Outbound Internal Travel

Homeward Bound Internal Travel

For those on the terrestrial only expeditions; On the Saturday that your expedition ends you will travel from Ereke to Kendari (by boat and car transport), arriving early evening. You will overnight at a hotel in Kendari on the Saturday night and fly onwards to Jakarta or Bali the next day to connect with your international flight. You can depart from Jakarta anytime after 1315hrs on the Sunday after your expedition ends. You can depart from Bali anytime on the Monday and will need to overnight there on the Sunday night after your expedition ends.

Please note internal travel is an additional cost to the Operation Wallacea expedition fee and your international flights, and there is a lot of travel within Indonesia to get to the remote expedition locations. Once your international flights have been arranged and uploaded to your portal we will be able to help organise your internal travel package based on exactly what you need. To find out more please check out the costs to consider tab on your expedition page on the website.

Additional Nights

As part of the internal travel package it is possible to arrange additional nights in Jakarta or Bali before and after your expedition, along with the relevant airport transfers. The cost of these extra nights will be added to your internal travel package quote should you require them.

Booking International Flights

Please ensure when booking your international flights that the cost of your ticket includes 20kgs of hold luggage. There is a 20kg hold luggage allowance on the internal travel 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: +44(0)203 657 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

Please be aware that your passport must have at least 6 months validity (period before expiry) from the date of your departure from Indonesia. Failure to have at least 6 months validity on your passport will ensure denial of entry into Indonesia.

Visas

For stays of up to 30 days, most international visitors to Indonesia will need to obtain a Visa On Arrival (also known as VOA or B1 Visa). Only citizens of Southeast countries are able to enter Indonesia visa-free. The cost of the VOA visa is IDR 500,000 (approx. £25 or $32). We highly recommend that you apply for your VOA visa prior to arriving in Indonesia via the Government of Indonesia’s e-VISA website). It is possible to purchase a VOA visa at the airport upon your arrival in Indonesia if for some reason you cannot obtain your visa prior to departure..

For stays in Indonesia of 31-60 days, you should 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 via the Government of Indonesia’s e-VISA website. The cost of this visa is IDR 1,500,000 (approx. £75 or $95). Please note, when applying for this visa you will need to submit a bank statement showing your name, covering a recent 3-month period and that shows a final balance with sufficient travel funds. If you are unable to provide this information or meet any of the requirements for this visa, please contact our Indonesia Travel Coordinator.

You can find further information about Indonesian visas and how to apply on the Opwall travel advice page and in the training materials provided through the Opwall training portal. You can apply for your Indonesian visa up to 2 months prior to your arrival in Indonesia so we recommend you complete the visa application process well before your international departure. Ant queries or concerns, please contact our Indonesia Travel Coordinator.

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.