Bali or Cook Islands?

Greetings all,

Just a quick note to garner some opinions on Bali vs. the Cook Islands for diving and other amenities (laid back, tourist hoardes, etc.). I am planning a 3 week trip to either one of these locations and am fond of wrecks and deeper dives but like shallower ones as well (sharks, please oh please let me see sharks). I am certified as a PADI Rescue.

Any thoughts, opinions, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

t00nces

I would say avoid Bali like the plague. I've only been there once, and would never go back again. In my experience, everyone, from hotel staff to taxi drivers, are out to rip you off. Street hawkers are everywhere and will even grab people (to get your attention? or your wallet?). You can't even enjoy going to the beach because of people trying to sell you junk, pot, or worse.

I think my week there was the most stressful vacation I've ever endured.

Chris

It has been about 12 years since I've been to Bali. If you are out for beach bumming, big waves, and "nights on the town", Kuta Beach may be your place. As Chris B pointed out, there are people who want your money; legitimally or otherwise. I can only assume that it has gotten worse. Watch out for those cheap massages on the beach. There is often a discrepancy between the quoted price and the tab. The northern part of Bali I found to be beautiful. It is much more rural than Kuta, and the beaches were conducive to diving. Bali is also one of those places that are (were) difficult to leave. My booked/confirmed Garuda flight off the island was just a figment of some agent's imagination. It was one of those "Mon soon come".
My wife and I went to Cook Islands last June. I found it to be safe, clean, and very relaxing. No hassles or scams. The diving, beach bumming was fine. Night life was perfect for my wife and me.

Thanks for the info, greatly appreciated.

Spent my honeymoon on Rarotonga in the southern Cook Islands five years ago. Sorry, but I can't comment on the diving as I had yet to certify, but the trip was incredible! Spent 10 days there and had a hard time convincing my wife to go home. Locals are really nice and laid back. Lots of outdoor activities, including mountain treks, waterfalls, snorkeling. The southern half of the island is surrounded by a reef which makes for a really nice lagoon. Lots of variety and quality of restaurants. Good place to pick up some quality black pearls at extremely low prices.

I did a couple of dives when I was in Bali last year. It is still a third world country and safety standards are just no where near what they are in the US or Australia. I was disappointed with how much damage the reef sustained from dynamite fishing. It was tragic.

The outfit that I went with (sorry can't remember the name) was a disappointment as well. There were no dive tables available for us to use. Some of the group had dive computers and others did not. The DM just told them to stay above him! My BCD was in poor shape and the worst part was that the current was so strong that the instructor was pulling himself along the bottom holding onto the coral. I ran out of air so fast from all the work that I was really frustrated.

The second dive actually was in a less strong current and instead of fighting it, we went with it. That was a nice dive, aside from the fact that the coral had huge sections that were distroyed because of dynamite.

It was also a 3 hour drive just to get to the place where this dive was from the southern end of the island where I was staying.

Bali is really a tourist ghetto. The water at the beaches looked dirty and polluted. Why anyone goes there for a beach vacation I dunno.

If you find yourself stuck there anyway, go see the Hindu temples and the monkey forest near Ubud. Those are cool, but not cool enough to get me to go back ever.

I had a completely different experience.

I was in Bali last October ... and I found it to be safe and enjoyable. The diving was quite good, and very inexpensive. The people were friendly ... even though we were there when the bombs started falling in Afghanistan, we were not in any way concerned about our safety as Americans. In fact, many folks we met expressed concern about us going home (due to the ongoing anthrax scare), and wanted us to stay with them until it was safe to return to America.

I agree with the comments about Kuta, but on the other hand, why go to the seediest, most touristy place on the island? The only reason to go there is to get to and from the airport. The good diving's on the north side.

We chose a company that lets you create your own customized diving itinerary. Since we were Indonesia for other business, we only had three days to dive, and wanted to do a "sampler" of what the island had to offer. So we chose one day of diving off Menjangen Island on the northwest side of the island, one day in Tulamben on the northeast side, and one day off Padangbai halfway between Tulamben and Kuta.

Menjangen Island requires a boat to get there, but it's basically a shore dive ... you gear up standing waist-deep in the water, swim out about 50 feet over a wall, and drop down to whatever depth you please. We did two great (and deep) dives here, plus snorkeling during our surface interval.

Tulamben is all shore diving. We did three dives here, plus snorkeling during surface intervals.

Padangbai is all diving from a live boat. We did two dives here.

Of those, we liked Tulamben the best ... offering a wall, a WWII shipwreck, and a nice coral garden right off the beach in front of the hotel. We met several folks who vacation there regularly, and never seem to get tired of the diving (for good reason). Visibility when we were there ranged from 60 to 100 feet, and there was plenty to see.

Menjangen Island is a great wall dive, but I couldn't justify diving there more than one or two days without it getting repetitive. But the shallows above the reef is one of he more amazing snorkeling spots I've ever seen ... offering probably better photo opportunities than any of the dive sites.

Padangbai is advanced diving, but for those with the skills it's great diving. Did someone say sharks? You'll see sharks here ... as well as more fish per square foot than I've ever seen before. Due to the confluence of warm and cold currents, you'll also encounter thermoclines that have the water temperature at different depths bouncing between mid-70's and mid-80's. These temperature differences create some interesting diving conditions ... in our case they turned one of our dives into an unplanned drift that put us on the opposite side of an island from our boat. They figured it out eventually, and after about a 25-minute surface interval they came around and plucked us out of the water.

To comment on something else someone said, yes people will try to sell you stuff. But we found "no thank you" to be very effective.

Overall we enjoyed Bali very much. I'm not sure I'd want to be there for three weeks though ... I think it'd get rather repetitive after a while, unless you were on a liveaboard and moving between there and the Lembah Straits or something.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Hi, tigerlily,
I live and dive in Bali in the last 1.5 years. Almost all sites in Bali I've been diving. My overall opinion about diving in Bali is good.
I've heard several complains about travelling to Bali, however it's the matter of unfortunate that some guys have bad experience here, either when diving or in general. You can not judge Bali in general by your short time experience here. However, i do not blame you for having bad impression about Bali. Dynamite fishing only occured in certain area, even nowadays getting smaller and smaller since the local people have been educated by some environmental friendly group. If you pay a visit to some areas like mentioned by Bob, then you will find that diving in Bali will give you (good) memorable experience. For more info about diving in Bali please have a look at the thread about diving in Bali

tigerlily, i am sorry to do this but i got really pissed off by your post!!
safety standards - still a 3rd world country!!??. well what did u expect?? its bali for gods sake!! was it ever not going to be a 3rd world country? indonesia darling, not indiana or some other state.
safety standards - i bet more people die from diving in aus and the US than have ever died in Bali. of course i cant prove this but am just hazarding a guess. the people in Indo make do with what they have. have u ever dived up in the great barrier reef? they have divemasters giving people instruction on the way out for their intro dive.
reef damage by dynamite fishing... all i have to say is please take a look in your own backyard before questioning the enviromental issues in other countries. the US are the biggest polluters in the world. what is tragic is that the almighty dollar...........
aawww i am going to stop now cos this is not aimed at yanks (some of my best friends are yanks!!) or running them down, tigerlilys post just got to me. i suppose i deserve any flaming that may come my way from out east... i am feeling better now... yes... much better...
mmmmmm........

t00nces,
sorry for hijacking yr post about bali vs cook.
my friend went to cook and said it was the most beautiful he has ever been to.

jim