Is it possible to dive Indonesia on a budget? What are your recommendations?

[billt4sf]

+1 for Bali. Good diving -- not as good as Raja Ampat, but still much better than the Caribbean -- and lots of opportunities to stay on a budget. Personally I would be cautious about what dive op I chose, after all you are going to be 100' under the water with their gear, or at least their air.

In Bali, everything is negotiable.

- Bill

 

[bqualls]

In a word— Bali.
It’s a long way from Arkansas, but I’ve been four times. Big stuff, little stuff, wreck diving, and the most exotic above water adventures.
Love it!

 

[billt4sf]

You should note that some of the best diving in Bali is now closed - the Liberty wreck in Tulamben - due to the volcano. How long that will last is anyone's guess. Nearby areas - Amed - are I think open, but I have personally chose not to go there because if there is a volcano event, it is much closer to the mountain and there is only one (?) road.

There is still excellent diving out of Padang Bai (Geko Divers) or Sanur. We're headed there next month for a few days.

- Bill

 

[charlier]

Slightly off topic. Your comparison between Bali and the Caribbean. I had no idea that Bali offered much better diving than the Caribbean. Is it health of coral reefs, abundance of fish, diversity of dive sites... Just curious. Perhaps this is best for a new thread.

 

[Dan]

Caribbean coral reefs are bland & lack of color to my taste. I’ve been diving in Bonaire, Cayman Brac, Utila & Tobago. After diving in Indonesia, I have no desire to go back to Caribbean. The coral reefs there became kind of boring to see. Sorry to say. It’s just MHO.

Have you seen these kind of coral reefs in Caribbean?

 

[charlier]

I’ve yet to visit the Caribbean and have no experience in the region. I was merely curious.

 

[Tippytoes12]

Agree , Bali is wonderful for diving. The south is very touristy and busy. Gili Air and Lembongan also have wonderful diving and thee are plenty of homestays available for very reasonable prices. Lembongan probably has the best of all with almost guaranteed mantas year round. Shore dives in buddy pairs generally does not happen in Indonesia , guides are very very good at spotting things and navigating . So it's better and safer for you to have a guide with you. You really need to get a guid book and do some reading to get an idea of where diving areas are in relation to each other. Also don't book anything to do with diving in advance on Bali , negotiate when you get there. However in Gili Air the prices are fixed , you get a discount if you book in advance...this does not mean paying though.

 

[Russjstewart]

We dived Nusa Lembongan a few years ago,and were very impressed, a lot of the dive shops had small motel style rooms, we stayed and dived with Two Fish, the total price was very reasonable and included breakfast and lunch. A lot of cheap places to eat your evening meal, all within an easy walk.the island does involve a "fast ferry" ride from Bali. The fast ferries involve wading out from the beach at each end, and are not what Europeans, Americans and Australians expect when you say ferry.
Helpful hint. The ATM gets serviced about one a week or so, do not expect to be blue to get cash from the ATM

 

[Lorenzoid]

We dived Lembongan a couple of years ago, too--with Two Fish--and were not very impressed. (Two Fish itself was fine--a good dive op.) Lembongan is economical and just minutes from Bali, but that brings with it a lot of budget travelers. It's not what I would call a serene getaway. We felt the place was full of backpackers traveling on a shoestring and western Aussies doing cheap, quick holidays. There was trash everywhere--that is, even more so than Bali. Each day, we would board the dive boat by wading out past floating trash. Lembongan brought back fond memories of traveling on a shoestring in my youth, but now that I'm older and pickier it's no longer the kind of place my wife and I really prefer diving.

 

[Nevek]

What is the budget?

To give an indication, you can get a basic but clean hotel room in Bali (Sanur) for about 15 USD/night, factor in 15 USD for 3 (good!) local meals for a day, another 10 USD for beers, and maybe 5-10 USD for a scooter or taxis. Same for Amed area, Gilis and Nusa Lembongan (imo best Bali diving), and probably Lombok.
Komodo (Labuan Bajo) tends to be a bit pricier than that as there is less of a supply of rooms. No experience yet with Raja, but as mentioned before more and more people are doing it on a budget.

All in all a trip to Indonesia is easy doable on a budget. As mentioned before, flights to Bali are usually not that expensive, neither is staying there. There is a good tourist infrastructure there, and once you're there you'll see enough local diving and travel options at a decent rate.

We can exclude accommodations/ airfare / food as that's going to be an issue no matter where we go in Indo. We have a few dives coming up and if we no diving on our boat we usually spend ~$150-$250 a day for dives. I would say for this trip we would like to get at least 2 days in so figure we want to allocate no more than $800 towards diving for the 2 of us.

I keep reading to stay away from Bali but you guys seem pretty into it. Should I reassess going to Bali? It sure seems convenient and cheap (which is part of the reason I'm afraid of it).

I'll be following....my wife's taking me to Indo for my BD next year....Komodo is high on my list.

I'm not so concerned with costs, but I would like to know which month for warmth and viz is best time to plan a trip?

Seems like vis is good year round but You want to go between April and October to avoid the rainy season. As of now I'm planning for Sept because it seems like the best combination of weather/waves/diving and hopefully less crowded since school is in session.

I dove with Today (short name of Ketut Gede Somadhyana) DM / Tour guide of aqua cat bali, the best travel to scuba diving / dive / diving in Bali, Indonesia for the last 10 years. In fact this coming December, returning from 2 week trip of Raja Ampat, I plan to bring 5 of my dive buddies to dive & sightseeing there with the following itinerary for $630/diver:

2 December
2100: Arrive in DPS
2200: Check in hotel in Sanur-3nights

3 December
0700: Breakfast
08.00: Go to Nusa Penida 3xd. By boat.
1030: Dive 1
1200: Lunch
1330: Dive 2
1500: Go back to hotel
1800: Dinner in Jimbaran

4 December
0700: Breakfast
0800: Go to Adventure +1 tour
0900: Elephant Ride
1100: River Rafting
1300: Lunch
1400: Visit Ubud
1600: Visit Monkey Forest
1700: Dinner in Bebek Bengil
1800: Go back to hotel

5 December
0700: Breakfast & Checkout
0800: Go to Batu Bulan
0900: See Barong Dance
1000: Visit Kintamani
1100: Lunch
1200: Visit Besakih
1500: Visit Goa Gajah
1700: Pickup luggages
1800: Dinner Babi Guling
1900: Go to Airport
1930: Check in Singapore Airlines
2145: Take off to Singapore

If you are interested in going to Bali, just tell Today that I refer you to him & give you a good price.

If you want to do a good value of liveaboard diving for your money, check out Grand Komodo Liveaboard Diving Schedules, Prices, and Booking I went to Komodo with them twice & Raja Ampat twice, including staying in their Raja Ampat Dive Lodge.

Indonesia so far it is my best dive vacation value for my money relative to other places for the last 12 years I’ve been diving overseas (Caribbean, Galápagos, GBR, Mexico, Zanzibar). I’ll be in Red Sea next week, UAE & Indonesia in November, Palau in December, Cocos in September 2018, Maldives & Socorro in December 2018. I’ll report how their diving value (quality relative to cost) later.

Enjoy your dive vacation in Indonesia.

Cheers,
Dan

All of that is $630 a person or just the 2 dives? Sounds great except the elephant ride, I would definitely pass on that. I've read too much about what they do to those elephants to be able to enjoy that.

I've looked into that liveaboard and it's still ~$2k or so per person.