Wakatobi Dive Resort

We are scheduled to visit Wakatobi Dive Resort in November of '08. We have heard nothing but rave reviews about the diving and resort. Anybody able to share their knowledge, experience and/or photos?

Wow, November '08 is far away, but it's worth the wait! I just came back from a week long trip to Wakatobi last month and it was FANTASTIC. You will not be disappointed! If you want to check out our photos, you can see them at :

Picasa Web Albums - Dellahoochie - Bali & Wakato...

There are also a lot of pictures from Bali there - but if you skip towards the end you will see the better ones I got from Wakatobi. Warning - this was my first attempt at underwater photography so my photos do NOT do it justice by any means!!

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions at all....

Thanks for the info and photos. Yes, Nov 08 is a long way out but Wakatobi is getting so popular it's the first opening for our small group.

I also will be staying in Ubud for 4-5 days prior to the flight to Wakatobi and the hotel you stayed at looks right up my alley. Did you find any issues with the distance from the center of Ubud? Looks like you took some hikes to volcanos, etc. Did you do this on your own or book a tour guide?

The hotel we stayed at was Alam Shanti in Ubud and it was gorgeous. It is about a 10-15 minute walk into Ubud from there, but we only did it once. Every other time we went to town we had the shuttle drive us wherever we wanted and they came and picked us up after as well, too - so we had no issue with the distance.

In Bali, we hired a guide to drive us around every day and he was THE BEST. His name is Wayan Sueta and you can contact him via his webpage if you want to hire him :

Bali Island Indonesia

He took us places we NEVER would have found using the guidebook, and made the whole trip totally relaxing and stress-free. We learned so much about Balinese culture just from talking to him about his life and family and village. His english is perfect, and we ate lunch and dinner with him every day and I honestly missed him when we left. He also picked us up from the airport when we got back to Bali from Wakatobi and drove us around some more and had dinner with us on our last night as we had a 9 hour layover before our flight home to New York. He charged about $45 a day which for the 3 of us was a real bargain in our opinion. (plus we got his meals and paid him a full day's pay as a tip at the end). I wouldn't recommend seeing Bali any other way, honestly.

Thanks much for your info and just what I was fishing for in this post. I would definately like to tour with Wayan. Just the type of local cultural liason I've used in Guatemala. Lot's of local knowledge and friendships. All to get myself in the right space for 11 days of diving at Wakatobi.

Thanks again!

While at Wakatobi was there any chance of getting away from the resort to visit local sites or villages?

Yes, you can do that. On the day before leaving, since you can't dive in the afternoon, they run a trip to the local village that you can take. It's about at 20 minute walk across the island and you can buy their local crafts and stuff like that. I didn't end up going though, so I can't say anything about how it is....

Another thing to mention, if you want to bring school supplies for the local village, you can and Wakatobi collects it and when they get enough (a couple boxes full I guess), they deliver them to the local village. I brought a bunch of boxes of crayons, some coloring books, pencils, pencil sharpeners, notepads, stuff like that which I picked up for almost nothing at a dollar store here. They said they really appreciate that kind of thing - especially crayons because they go through them so fast. Just a thought!

Again, thank you very much for the info & tips. Have fun in Little Cayman. I am off to Cocoview Resort on Roatan Dec 1st. Peace & good diving

Ahh, I was actually deciding between Little Cayman and Roatan. But in the end I went with the shorter flight (can fly direct to Grand Cayman from Newark) and less bugs! Also, from what I read it seems like the diving is a bit better in the Caymans... I guess we'll see! I'm hoping to maybe see some bigger stuff, since it was all little stuff in Wakatobi. Although in that case I should have went back to Costa Rica or Turks & Caicos instead.... have to always try something new though so I'm sure I will make it to Roatan too at some point!

I am in Wakatobi and been diving for the last 10 days....I'll have my trip report posted in another week or so....If you are into pigmy seahorses and Nudis....you will love it.....if you like med to the big stuff....do not go...nothing here.....This is the finest dive resort that I have been to anywhere in the world!