Indonesia / Bali / Komodo - diving tips

[aramil]

Dear divers,

Flying to Bali in May, and having around 7-10 days for diving. Could someone please give some advices to me about:

1. What would be the best diving areas / diving sites around?.. Komodo maybe?

2. Shall I take a liveboard or, alternatively, going diving from a dive-center?

3. Any recommendations for both, liveboards and/or dive-centers?

Many thanks in advance!

Antonio

 

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[outofofficebrb]

Hi, @aramil.

Is this 7-10 days of diving inclusive of travel? If you plan to dive Komodo, that will not leave you very much time for anything in Bali. You could go out and dive the USAT Liberty wreck out of Tulamben and then keeping no fly in mind, head to Labuan Bajo for a 7 day liveaboard in Komodo. There are many options available in Komodo. No fly again, then fly back to Bali to catch your flight back home. While there are definitely more budget options and mid level options, there are also some pretty luxurious options for Komodo liveaboards. The diving can also be done on day boats or a resort. The liveaboard is definitely much more convenient and you can beat the crowds to dive sites or time them to avoid the crowds along with tides/currents. Given how close the diving actually is to Labuan Bajo and that it is feasible to do the diving from day boats, I would not sink too much money into a liveaboard here...simple supply and demand. There are a lot of boat options here for day trips and liveaboards. I would save that money for other areas in Indonesia that have less supply and are more remote (e.g., Raja Ampat or even more so with Banda Sea) to warrant the higher prices but this is my personal opinion and preferences. If you are interested in doing day boat diving, you can do it out of Labuan Bajo proper. Komodo Resort also looks really good.

There are many dive shops in Labuan Bajo that have their own budget liveaboards that are not necessarily listed with Liveaboard.com or PADI Travel (formerly Diviac). They are good options if you are on a budget. Some of these may or may not have AC, 24 hour power, private ensuite bathrooms, etc., so double check. The remaining ones available are all available on those websites and you can find everything from budget to luxury. I only have experience with Komodo Dive Center's Mastro Aldo - they have a 4 diver to 1 guide ratio. The food is very good and there is AC but electricity was not 24 hours - probably about 18 hours out of the day. No camera tables but they had dunk tanks and but plenty of options for charging your camera batteries. They had private bathrooms though not ensuite and they also had AC. No nitrox.

I just chartered the MV Tarata for Oct 2019 and @Dan_T has been on it twice. He had great things to say about it so I'm pretty excited about it! Private bathrooms (ensuite), AC, but no nitrox.

You can easily fly to Labuan Bajo from Bali. Let me know if you have any other questions! If you have extra time, I really liked Ubud in Bali...and for beach bumming, I really liked Nusa Dua.

 

[Luko]

Aramil, Bali diving is great (Tulamben for Macro, Nusa Penida for Mantas) but Komodo is different (LOTS of corals and fish) and a great add up to Bali.

Hence in 7-10 days diving you could split it into 5 days Bali (I suggest 3 days in Padang Bai -Gekodivers- and 2 full days in Tulamben - Liberty dive center for exemple- ) and 3-4 days dibing in Komodo. In this case maybe it's not useful to take a liveaboard which would be nice for the southern sites.
Personally I have dived Komodo from Labuan Bajo on daytrips, after being disappointed with a few dive centers, I recommend Dragon Dive Komodo who offers diving with either slowboat (more comfortable for lounging but... slow) or speedboat (faster to get to the sites, start and end the dives earlier in the day).

 

[Dan]

IMHO, Komodo is better to be dove with liveaboard than with day boat, especially in the south with some world class sites like Torpedo Alley, Cannibal Rock, Yellow Wall, Crynoid Canyon, Nusa Kode, Manta Alley, etc. The north is becoming like a zoo with tons of day boats crowding the dive sites. You better go to the south, away from all the crowd.

The trick is to find a liveaboard that fits your schedule first, then spend the remaining of your vacation in Bali land-base dive operator, where the day-boat dive schedule is more flexible to fit your remaining vacation days. Once the itinerary starts to form in a more definitive timeline, then you start to look for the flights to go there. Your international flight destination would be DPS.

 

[Luko]

IMHO, Komodo is better to be dove with liveaboard than with day boat, especially in the south with some world class sites like Torpedo Alley, Cannibal Rock, Yellow Wall, Crynoid Canyon, Nusa Kode, Manta Alley, etc. The north is becoming like a zoo with tons of day boats crowding the dive sites. You better go to the south, away from all the crowd.

Certainly Dan but...
1- The northern sites are overcrowded at peak season which won't be the case in May.
2- If the poster wants to share the diving between Bali and Komodo (I would find it strange to fly to Bali for the first time and not diving it) then he may not have enough time to jump aboard a 4-5d liveaboard that will ply the south route of Komodo NP. This is why I was advising him to combine Bali with Komodo daytrips in the Central/Northern parts or Komodo NP, which IMO are still worth enough to be dived without any restriction.

That said if the poster dedicates more time to Komodo, liveaboard should be the best solution for the south, although it will also add up to his budget (another possible criteria the OP hasn't talked about) .

 

[outofofficebrb]

2- If the poster wants to share the diving between Bali and Komodo (I would find it strange to fly to Bali for the first time and not diving it) then he may not have enough time to jump aboard a 4-5d liveaboard that will ply the south route of Komodo NP. This is why I was advising him to combine Bali with Komodo daytrips in the Central/Northern parts or Komodo NP, which IMO are still worth enough to be dived without any restriction.

I am the strange person you described. My first time to Indonesia, I only had 10 days on the ground and I flew into Bali. We wanted to see Ubud and have spa time and do some beach bumming in Nusa Dua, see a few places and experience the culture so I did not do any diving in Bali. I favored the Komodo option because I heard and read amazing things about it, especially here. I ended up doing a half week Liveaboard to northern and central area and I would have stayed for the whole week if I had the time. It was incredible! I did not regret this decision.

I have been back to Indonesia and - surprise - still have not dived Bali. I favored Raja Ampat the 2nd time. The third time? Banda Sea and going back to Komodo again. I do want to dive Bali some day but there are just so many amazing options in Indonesia and with Komodo so close, that diving seemed so much more bucket list worthy than Bali proper to me at the time so that was the decision I went with. Bali’s USAT wreck is iconic and I will dive it. Maybe my 4th trip?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I think @outofofficebrb is among many divers who don't get around to diving Bali until having passed through it several times on their way somewhere else. Because there are a number of places in Indonesia that have gotten attention in the dive mags and review sites as "hot spots" in recent years, it's common for divers to perceive Bali as a mere transit point. But Bali is a great dive destination in its own right.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I think @outofofficebrb is among many divers who don't get around to diving Bali until having passed through it several times on their way somewhere else. Because there are a number of places in Indonesia that have gotten attention in the dive mags and review sites as "hot spots" in recent years, it's common for divers to perceive Bali as a mere transit point. But Bali is a great dive destination in its own right.

Exactly. Even here on Scubaboard. I know that it’s great diving as well. I’m big on the jaw dropping hard and soft corals, sponges, huge schools of fish, pelagics (which can be had in Bali!), so it was a no brainer to hit up Komodo, Raja, and now Banda first. I guess it depends on what you want to see and what makes your dive heart happy. Macro crazy? Go to Lembeh!

 

[Lorenzoid]

Plenty of macro in Bali, but Lembeh is the current darling. Why don't divers interested in macro go to Bali first? Because they have read that Lembeh is the hot place for macro. Granted, Lembeh's reputation is deserved, but it is interesting that for most divers interested in macro it's Lembeh first, Bali later.