Nut Tonton Homestay — Attraction in Southwest Papua

THE GOOD The setting of this homestay is amazing. You are right in the middle of the karst landscape you came to see. The homestay is also well equipped, there is a fridge with beer, (very slow) satellite internet and showers, not just a mandi. The food is decent compared to other homestays. The staff is friendly. Snorkelling in front of the homestay is quite disappointing, but some nice coral if you swim a bit clockwise from the expensive rooms. There are three tiers of rooms, the middle one has the best value. The VIP rooms are nice w/AC but the bathroom is made from uneven concrete with permanent puddles that feel very unhygienic. No mosquito nets but not really needed. THE BAD This homestay is too expensive even if you account for the remote location. This applies to the rooms, especially the hot&small standard rooms, but even more so to the boat pricing. It is a non negotiable flat fee per day. Ok. But then, if you want to see the main scenery highlights in one long day (Balbulol, Dafalen, Dalpulol), the staff claims it is not possible. Which it clearly is, but they are instructed to get you to pay for two days. If you then exclude Balbulol to see the other places in half a day, you still are asked to pay a full day fee (!). THE UGLY Like most people I came to Misool for the incredible landscape. To make the best pictures and catch the best day forecasted with blue skies, I extended my stay. I told the staff I want to take a boat on that day. Disappointingly, when we wanted to leave after lunch, someone had taken the only available boat to Yellu for an errand. And returned at 15:45 which then was proclaimed as being too late (later we found out we could have easily gone at least to Dapunlol, it takes 1h). This is inexcusable and inconsistent with the high prices asked. If we are paying for a full day boat, it better be available when you are ready to go.

In summary, this place is great to spend a few days in a homestay with an incredible setting. Otoh, if your main objective is seeing the places around, you depend on the friendly but disorganized staff. I would advise instead to stay near Yellu where you will always have additional options if...

We stayed 10 days at the end of July 2023 at Nut TonTon… What Can I say: its one of the Most Beautiful places we ever visited. We were just 2 person at this time there - and Talib and his family cared so wonderful for us. The food was very basic: rice, vegetables, fish, chicken But very good. We made 4 trips - at this time of the year we were always alone there. Snorkeling around the Island is nice, But Not spectacular… for that you should Go By Boat nearbye. But of course its even beautiful around the Island. They had a bad thunderstorm 2 years ago so there were just 3 new bungalows. I dont know when there will be more Bungalows. The Bungalows (with AirC!) were new and clean, with a shower and western toilet But Basic of course. Off the 11 days we stayed there there were 2 days really rough Wind. The Other days it was calm or just a Little bit Wind. So…if u Want to stay really in the middle of nowhere in a Pandora-like landscape… this is the...

We were ripped off by the owner and a travel agent called Tony which was such a disappointment and influenced our opinion about Nut Tonton quite severely.

Good: location, super remote, no connection so you switch off fully.

Bad: we took the public ferry which has private rooms and usually the Homestay owner should arrange that but nothing was sorted for us and we got all the help and support from another amazing Homestay we stayed at, I’ve never seen so little food served and mostly fried (their bbq was really good but rest was the really poor), Because the location is so remote they charge you even more for boat trips etc. We were ripped off on the room rate and boat to Homestay quite massively. REALLY BAD! I won’t come back here again and wouldn’t...