We sincerely loved our stay! The location was amazing, the best views, with no other houses you can see, coral and fish right in front of your house. It was truly a special place! The fact that there is no reception was really nice and we totally relaxed there because of that! It was clean at the house and the meals were tasty and more than enough! Trips are offered by Shady Sea and are of good quality, including the high quality snorkeling equipment. They bring you everywhere you want and help you spot Manta's and more! Lastly, the hosts are local people and very lovely.

“Best food”

We absolutely loved staying at shady Sea. the Food was exeptional! Very clean, the owners super helpful (they when took is to the closest village by boat for free when we wanted to buy some softs and use internet), trips well organized, really nice bay view from the house

“Relaxing stay in Gam”

Is a true homestay experience, I appreciated the simplicity of the place which in the context that surrounds it makes it a perfect place to “unwind”. Clean (both room and toilet). Nice food, veeery nice! Also the excursion was good. Reef around isn’t the best but it is such a great place to swim (normally there is lots of current in raja ampat, so we really enjoyed a normal and chilled swim there)

An amazing homestay! A clean, beautiful cottage with a stunning view of Nam Bay. Julia and Ian were so caring and helped me out in a difficult situation. Julia cooks fantastic meals, always plenty of delicious food, tea, and coffee. We went on a boat excursion, it was amazing! My husband and I were absolutely delighted and highly recommend this wonderful homestay!

“Overall, a lovely experience with caring hosts, memorable snorkeling trips, and good food!”

The owners are very kind people who truly make sure you have the best possible experience at the homestay. The room and the shared showers and toilets were very clean — and no rats. The food was great overall. Breakfast could be improved, but I learned that if you communicate what you would like to have, Yulia will do her best to prepare it. She’s open to learning and really wants to improve the quality. The house reef wasn’t the best, but we still saw dolphins, blacktip sharks, and stingrays while just relaxing in our hammocks. There were still plenty of fish to see! The snorkeling trips were amazing. They packed lunch for us and made sure we had time to enjoy everything we saw on the way to the snorkeling spots and on the way back. We even stopped to swim with manta rays when we saw them. The boat driver slowed down when he noticed we were enjoying the scenery and trying to take photos, which we really appreciated. The day trip prices are reasonable. They also offered us free transport to our next hotel. It was nearby, but still very kind and appreciated.

What a wonderful homestay in a stunning location. Julia,her family and staff were fabulous hosts always very friendly even though we had a language barrier. They provided a superb escape to relax and unwind. We stayed for 8 nights which to some may seem too long but there was plenty to do with the day trips on offer all of which were far cheaper than resort prices. We hired kayaks for a day, visited the local village as well as enjoying plenty of snorkeling trips. Visited Tanjung putus channel twice, Friwen, Arborek Island, Manta trip, Gam bay jellyfish and bat cave. All trips were well organised with lunch provided as needed. Travel was by long boat, great fun with Andre and Billy. The homestay is clean and well maintained with plenty of water for drinking and washing. The food was terrific, Julia and her sister are very good cooks. The meals were varied and tasty. We loved the fresh fish, chicken, omelettes and the variety of fresh vegetable dishes. The fresh fruit, banana fritters, pancakes, small cakes and donuts were v good too. Meal times were breakfast at 7, lunch at midday, snack at 4 then dinner at 7. Our only difficulty was that our eSIM provider didn’t work there (some guests had 4G). This meant we couldn’t use google translate so sometimes communication was tricky. We learned to trust their organisation and go with the flow as they were always out to give us the best time. We give this homestay 10 out of 10. It’s a wonderful way to get the genuine homestay experience with lovely locals.

“Lovely and remote place to stay in raja ampat”

New houses, clean room, good food, kind staff Great for swimming but not so much snorkeling directly at the homestay Kind owners / staff - very passionate during a manta snorkeling trip, focused to provide guests with a lovely experience instead of rushing and giving up after few tries.

We had a great stay at Shady Sea and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a peaceful getaway. The location is calm and quiet, with only two spacious bungalows right on the waterfront – perfect for relaxing and enjoying the view. The bathroom facilities were spotless and well-maintained, which we really appreciated. It was also super easy to organise boat trips directly from the property. Overall, a fantastic experience!

Perfect place if you want to feel in peace in the middle of nowhere ! The food was great, the price very attractive and the family who owns it very kind.

“THE PLACE TO BE for a few days in Gam Island.”

Hosted by Mama Julia and Kk Mothy, we had an incredible experience at shady homestay for two days. Arrived on Tuesday afternoon, Julia and Mothy picked us up at Waisai. Storm was raging but they prepared everything so our big bags were not wet. Even though waves were very high, Timothy mastered ocean and found our way through the waves. We were then welcomed by the rest of the family with a delicious tea time and snorkeled in front of the homestay, lost in the small satellite islands around Gam island. The place is peaceful, quiet, and extremely beautiful in the middle of nowhere in the Raja Ampat : a Lunar experience. On Wednesday, Timothy and Julia organized us a fabulous daytrip around Gam Island between Sawingrai village, light water, labyrinth mangroves, magical reefs, caves, view points, snorkelings, painted hands geopark famous site, hidden bays, beach walk, coconut… everything was perfect and made very friendly and warm welcoming by Julia, and very fun with Timothy’s talents to drive the boat as a sports car driver in tight ways and hard turnovers ! We left on Thursday after another little trip with Timothy for a batcave and snorkeling morning. We saw everything with them : lots of reef fishes and bigger fishes, manta, dolphins, blacktop sharks, turtles … and even the rarest and endemic Wobbegong shark. What made the experience different and fantastic is the kindness of this whole family working together and making everything seem effortless and great even though it could be hard work for them. Shady Homestay is THE PLACE TO BE for visiting Gam island with the fun experience on board with Timothy and the warm welcome and comfort of the delicious food provided by Julia and their family. THANK YOU SO MUCH. We will definitely come back.