A place with house reef where we could dive by our self ?!

[mr_misu]

Hello!
Maybe someone know a place in Indonesia, where we can dive by ourself from shore and a divebase where we can only rent the tanks?
So that it is possible to make dives everytime and how long we like / have enough air.
And of course for a good price when we only rent the tanks and maybe pay for transport or reef tax...

For now we only know that this is possible in Bali/Tulamben, but we need something new.
And the place must be dive able in the summer month, because we only can make holidays then.

Many thanks in advance!

Jessica

 

[Indah]

Please have a look at our website: www.diverslodgelembeh.com and especially for the summer months at www.magicbayrao.com . Please send us a mail for the details.

 

[AlMitch]

Hi Jessica, I understand the desire to dive when and where you want, BUT honestly if you dive on your own you are very likely to miss out on more than half of what any given site has to offer, especially at muck sites.
The guides no the sites so so well and are there to show you the best the site has to offer.

Most resorts in indo offer some sort of flexibility, whether it is your own private guide or very limited numbers per guide. As a generalisation they are also pretty "relaxed" and let you dive to your own comfort level and duration.

Many resorts in Lembeh offer DIY diving on their house "reefs" or more accurately house sandy patch. BUT again the guide would benefit you greatly.

 

[Mike Veitch]

Never mind, i re read the question

 

[mr_misu]

Don´t understand us wrong, if a divesite is new for us we prefer a guide.
And we also prefer guides/divebase/accomodation from locals...

But then i will dive alone and search by myself, maybe a guide found more, but this is not the same for me.
If there is a guide or other diver, it is not the same for me.
I can go everytime in the water, if i like i do a nightdive when no one else is in the water and stay 100 minutes, with deco in 30m.
Somethimes we make only one dive per day, but then we stay also some weeks...

If I go for a walk in the forest I do not need a leader if I know my way around.
And then I would not want a leader, even if it were free and certainly I would not pay for it.

I remember great dives in the phillipines, we wake up in our accomodation.
There was no other people, only the owners...
We take the tanks after the breakfast and go dive direkt from our terrace in the water.
There were no one else then us, the tanks came from a divebase far away by car.
But after a while the owner changed, so it is not longer possible.

 

[stepfen]

Several places in Bunaken and Raja Ampat would have nice house reefs. Of course if you intend to travel that far it would be a pity to stick to the house reefs.
Divers usually have two/three guided dives until 3pm or so and then those who wish can do more (unguided) dives in the house reef ( afternoon or night) .

 

[northernone]

Several places in Bunaken and Raja Ampat would have nice house reefs. Of course if you intend to travel that far it would be a pity to stick to the house reefs.
Divers usually have two/three guided dives until 3pm or so and then those who wish can do more (unguided) dives in the house reef ( afternoon or night) .

Would you have the names for a few recommendations?

Like the OP, I enjoy the freedom of exploring on my own.

I'd rather find one critter than be lead around to see 100 by a guide.
Cameron

 

[tursiops]

I don't want a guide to lead me around, I want a guide to show me things I'm unlikely to find by myself. Once I have the search image for a skeleton shrimp or a tiny nudibranch, I *might* be able to find one by myself....but I need the "search image" before it is worthwhile to search on my own. So the first time in a place like Anilao, the guide is priceless. Tenth time? Maybe less so....but I still suspect they can find cool new things much faster than you can.

 

[Christian]

Wakatobi resort used to have unlimited (unguided) diving on their house reef. Think they still do. Small stuff, fishy and great corals. Expensive though.

 

[stepfen]

Would you have the names for a few recommendations?

It is quite common that dive packages with good (i.e. expensive) resorts include unlimited unguided house reef dives.

I travel with (relatively) low budget hence the places I'm staying might not suit most people's needs.
For Bunaken it has been 2 years since I visited the place but I remember most (if not all) of the places advertised dives to their house reef in their web sites. It was my first diving trip with about 15 dives under my belt so I didn't dare to dive in a new place without a guide back then.

For Raja Ampat last year I stayed in a homestay on Gam island with a diving shop on site. For unguided dives they were renting tanks at Rp100k (about 10US$) each. I did a couple of dives with fellow divers. It was nice to dive without having to follow a guide/group, but the site couldn't compete with the usual Raja Ampat sites at least for bigger fish. A fellow who was expert in super tiny stuff (marine biologist and photographer) was amazed by the amount of creatures he could spot 200 feet from his bed.

If you are interested to homestay accommodation you can use this web site to search yourself:
Accommodation - Stay Raja Ampat
Choose on the left your preferences eg "Good house reef" and "on site dive center" and you get a list of options.

I am pretty sure better resorts (such as misool eco resort, papua explorers etc) should have nice house reefs too and should have free unguided dives included with their dive packages but they are well outside my budget and haven't tried any of them.