Hi, I'm planning on travelling with family the last week of September, first week of October. The plan is to spend a week in Bali and Nusa Penida, do some dives around Penida and a day at Tulamben. I'm not super interested in macro/muck diving. Week two we would move onto Komodo, and do 4 days of day trips, a day or two of snorkeling with the family. My questions are:
1. I know Nusa Penida and Komodo have challenging dive conditions, lots of current. I'd like to take my son who will be 11 and has his Junior Open Water (max 40ft) on at least one day of diving if possible. Are there any shallow reefs, or easy dives that would be appropriate for him, and still be quality diving with some wow factor? Either in and around Bali and Nusa Penida.. Would the USS Liberty be good? Or is there some sites in Komodo that we could make a daytrip out of?
2. Ideally there would be sites where I could dive with my son, and my wife could snorkel with my daughter (who's too young to dive yet). But if not, we could just do a snorkeling day or two, in which case where would be best spots for young kids to snorkel but still have some great coral/fish to look at?
3. Is there anywhere that's affordable to stay in the Komodo/Lubuan Bajo area that would have a nice beach for my wife and kids to hang out on while I'm away on a day trip? I looked at the beaches around Lubuan Bajo on google maps, they don't look great.. I saw the Komodo Resort on one of the islands but it is very far from being affordable. I saw Scuba Junkie too, but not sure if the beach would be that nice. Any suggestions would be great
Thanks!
PS. Before this we were planning on doing a few days in Egypt as a pit stop on our way over, and I was contemplating maybe spending 3-4 days in Sharm El Sheik.. has anyone been to both areas, is the diving on the same level in the Red Sea as in Indonesia? Or should I scrap Sharm, and add those days to Bali/Komodo instead?
1. I know Nusa Penida and Komodo have challenging dive conditions, lots of current. I'd like to take my son who will be 11 and has his Junior Open Water (max 40ft) on at least one day of diving if possible. Are there any shallow reefs, or easy dives that would be appropriate for him, and still be quality diving with some wow factor? Either in and around Bali and Nusa Penida.. Would the USS Liberty be good? Or is there some sites in Komodo that we could make a daytrip out of?
2. Ideally there would be sites where I could dive with my son, and my wife could snorkel with my daughter (who's too young to dive yet). But if not, we could just do a snorkeling day or two, in which case where would be best spots for young kids to snorkel but still have some great coral/fish to look at?
3. Is there anywhere that's affordable to stay in the Komodo/Lubuan Bajo area that would have a nice beach for my wife and kids to hang out on while I'm away on a day trip? I looked at the beaches around Lubuan Bajo on google maps, they don't look great.. I saw the Komodo Resort on one of the islands but it is very far from being affordable. I saw Scuba Junkie too, but not sure if the beach would be that nice. Any suggestions would be great
Thanks!
PS. Before this we were planning on doing a few days in Egypt as a pit stop on our way over, and I was contemplating maybe spending 3-4 days in Sharm El Sheik.. has anyone been to both areas, is the diving on the same level in the Red Sea as in Indonesia? Or should I scrap Sharm, and add those days to Bali/Komodo instead?