Citizens of many foreign countries require a visa to enter Indonesia: for some nationalities, visas are available at the entry port to Indonesia, while for other nationalities, they must be obtained in advance from an Indonesian consulate in another country. Conference participants most commonly choose to enter with a tourist visa. Participants are advised to check with their travel agent, or with a reliable website, such as that of the Indonesian Embassy in Australia.

As of mid-2013, the situation was roughly as follows. Nationalities not requiring a visa for Indonesia include Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Macao, Philippines and a few others. Nationalities requiring a visa obtainable on arrival include Australia, New Zealand, several major EU countries, USA, Canada. and Russia. Citizens of some unfortunate countries are required to obtain their visas in advance, before arriving in Indonesia. Basic tourist visas, as well as visa-free entry permits, are generally valid for a 30-day stay.

It should be noted that visa-free and visa-upon-arrival facilities are restricted to specific ports of entry to Indonesia; otherwise you need to get a visa before leaving home, even if your country is on the visa-free or visa-on-arrival list. However, these ports of entry include most of the ones likely to be used by travelers to Manokwari, such as the airports in Jakarta, Makassar and Denpasar (as well as the seaport in Jayapura).

For those obtaining a visa-on-arrival, immigration officers may ask to see a physical print-out of your outbound ticket as you arrive.

As you probably know, Manokwari is located in a politically sensitive region. Foreign travellers to many locations in the western part of New Guinea require a special SKJ (Surat Keterangan Jalan), or travel permit, issued by the Indonesian immigration authorities; but such a document is not required for visitors to Manokwari. However, if you plan to combine your trip to Manokwari with travel to other locations, it is your responsibility to arrange for your own SKJ to such locations.

In spite of all of this, visitors to Manokwari will inevitably be struck by the peaceful, friendly and laid-back atmosphere of the place. Soldiers and policemen seem to be less in evidence than elsewhere in Indonesia, and provide you follow the obvious rules, you are unlikely to have untoward encounters with officialdom.

Travel to Manokwari is by foot, boat or air; there are no road or train connections to anywhere else. Most or all non-local participants will choose to come to Manokwari by air, using Jakarta as their gateway to Indonesia.

As of November 2013, there are now four airlines flying on the Jakarta - Manokwari route, Garuda, Sriwijaya, Lion, and Air Express. All involve stopovers and/or a change of plane en route (the distinction between stopover and transit is not as clear in Indonesia as it is in other places). Garuda are considered by many to be the "best" Indonesian airline, and have just started flying to Manokwari this month, with a daily flight via Makassar. Of the other airlines, Sriwijaya is probably the best of the bunch, with a working website for bookings, and either one or two daily flights, stopping in Makassar and sometimes other places as well. Both Garuda and Sriwijaya leave Jakarta late at night and get in to Manokwari early morning; on the return they leave Manokwari mid morning and get in to Jakarta mid afternoon. Lion also has a reasonably functional website, but have only 3 or 4 flights per week; with them you fly Jakarta-Ambon with Lion and then Ambon-Manokwari with their subsidiary Wings, but it's a good connection, and a daytime fight in both directions. Finally there's Express Air, which have a daily flight via Makassar and sometimes other places as well; they are a much smaller airline and have only just established an online presence, so I don't know how easy it is to book with them. Round trip airfares from Jakarta to Manokwari vary in ways that are hard to predict in advance, but are generally in the 4,000,000 - 5,000,000 Rps (400 - 500 USD) range.

Although Jakarta is the most obvious gateway for foreign participants traveling to Manokwari, other options are also available. One alternative is to enter Indonesia via Makassar and pick up a Jakarta-Manokwari flight in Makassar. Air Asia flies from both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to Makassar and back, while Silkair also flies the Singapore-Makassar leg. These flights are easily bookable over the internet, but the connections with the Manokwari flights are not always optimal. Another option, primarily for Australians, is to enter Indonesia via one of the many flights to Denpasar. But to get from there to Manokwari you must then fly to either Jakarta or Makassar in order to pick up the Manokwari flight.

Finally, travelers coming from or through Papua New Guinea may consider the possibility of making use of the land crossing from Vanimo to Jayapura. For the last several years this has been a relatively straightforward trip; but it's always a bit of a gamble due to political factors. This route involves flying from Port Moresby or Wewak to Vanimo, land travel from Vanimo to the border and then on to Jayapura (a reasonably easy day's journey), and then a fight, on either Sriwijaya or Air Express, from Jayapura to Manokwari. Note that the land crossing from Vanimo to Jayapura is not on the list of entry points that issue visas on arrival, so you will need to obtain your Indonesian visa in advance, possibly at the Indonesian consulate in Vanimo (but check in advance to see if this is still possible).

Given the unreliability of air transport in Indonesia, participants may wish to arrive in Manokwari a day or two in advance. This will provide you with a safety net, and give you some time to settle in, relax, and get a feel for the place.

Finally, those wishing to combine Manokwari with travel to other parts of Papua have additional options. Manokwari is connected by plane to Jayapura and to Sorong, which in turn are connected by other flights to central and western Indonesia. For example, those wishing to visit Wamena and the Baliem valley (arguably one of the most fascinating places in the world accessible by regular scheduled flights) can fly from Manokwari to Jayapura, Jayapura to Wamena and back, and then from Jayapura directly back to Jakarta without having to backtrack to Manokwari. There are also flights from Manokwari to several other smaller destinations with Merpati, Susi Air and Trigana Airlines, but these are very difficult to book in Manokwari, and well-nigh impossible elsewhere.