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

[Nevek]

Great and very helpful posts everyone, I appreciate it. As for the pacific vs caribbean I'll agree. We've dove extensively throughout the caribbean and while it has a special place in my heart for spearfishing/lobstering/diving .....the sites we saw in Thailand were unbelievable. I thought I was in a saltwater fishtank. The coral, especially the soft corals were fantastic. The fish are similar but the major difference is the colors with the coral.

As for the shore dives what about if we went free diving without a guide? Anything to see or do you need to be farther off? This would be a great way to get some cheap adventuring in. That or rent tanks and dive by ourselves if that's a possibility.

Keep the trash notices coming as well. We picked where we ended up staying in Thailand because of the conservation/eco tourism aspect. There were cheaper places but after reading about the trash that's left behind we had no interest in visiting. The beach where we ended up staying was very nice but one day we took a kayak and explored up the coast and it was very disheartening to see the amount a garbage that was piling up.

 

[Lorenzoid]

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'm not really the Indo expert, as I have only been to a few of the main islands, but it seems to me that accommodations and airfare become a greater factor the farther you venture from a tourism hub like Bali. Internal flights are cheap, but it's an additional cost nonetheless. If your connection requires an overnight stay, that's yet another night to pay for a hotel room, yet another couple of meals, etc. As for accommodations, some areas in Indonesia have a lot of independent dive operators and an abundance of options for budget accommodations, so you can put together whatever dive and accommodations package suits your fancy and budget. In other places, you are mainly looking at dive resorts and packages, and that can be more expensive.

Bali has the advantage of requiring just the one flight, saving time (and the potential for yet another overnight stay waiting for a connection). Once in Bali, getting around by taxi or private driver is inexpensive. There is a lot of competition for your money, and everything is negotiable. Sure, parts of Bali can be crowded, precisely because the place is "convenient and cheap," but it's a bigger island than many of us realize. If you want to get away from the crowds, there are places you can go, directly by car from the airport, where you will find serenity (more or less) and reasonably good diving. For instance, we went to Pemuteran and Menjangan Island up in the northwest corner of the island. I don't recall what the guy charged us to drive us up there, but it was certainly less than the cost of the two of us continuing on by air to some other island, etc. The diving was good by my standards but no doubt sub-par if you compare with places as renowned as Raja Ampat, Komodo, etc. But it was far from the crowds of south Bali, and we enjoyed that.

 

[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.

Yes, all of the 3 day itinerary for $630 / person.

 

[Manneca]

Just got back from Indonesia. Were scheduled for Amed and Gili Air, but went (back) to Lembongan instead of Amed. Dived with Two Fish. Diving at the Gilis wasn't very good. Lembongan was good, mostly drift dives and the obligatory hunt for Molas and mantas (mantas are almost always a given). At Lembongan two morning dives are less than $100. Staying at their place is a bit under $50 for two sharing a room. Breakfast and lunch are included. Lembongan has gotten much more touristy in the last three years (last time I was there), full of scooters. But I'm there for the diving which is good. Two Fish has great dive guides, too. Usually no more than four with a guide, often it's just me and my buddy and the guide. If you need to overnight, Two Fish can arrange a stay in Sanur for cheap, too.

 

[FindingMenno]

Just a quick impression what about 20 USD/night gets you in Nusa Lembongan. Private clean modern room, semi-detached, AC, private bathroom, nice garden setting, about 3 min walk to the beach.

 

[FindingMenno]

Diving at the Gilis wasn't very good. Lembongan was good, mostly drift dives and the obligatory hunt for Molas and mantas (mantas are almost always a given).

Although I love Gili Air topside, I was never too much impressed with diving there. Of the places I've been diving around Bali, Penida/Lembongan, Gili, Menjagan, Amed, Tulamben, I would say I think Penida/Lembongan would be my favorite for diving. As island I never really fell in love with it, it's too big too offer the small island charm of Gili Air, but too small to offer the the great selection in accommodation, restaurants and bars of say Sanur.

For what it's worth, I found getting a ferry to Lembongan and staying there for a few days of diving organized locally, better value then doing it from Sanur.

But Komodo, only a 45 min flight away is another league though...

 

[billt4sf]

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.

Charlie - WHAT? I know you're not a sarcastic person -- you must be actually asking a question to which you don't know the answer? -- is that allowed in ScubaBoard? Perhaps I am confusing it with FaceBook, my bad.

OK...well...I have been to the Caribbean a few times, maybe 3. I enjoyed diving there. But as soon as I went underwater in Indo (which, as it happened, was Bali) I was SHOCKED at the underwater life! Was I looking at a reef with 5 or 10 times the life per square meter in a Caribbean reef? Was that even possible?

To say nothing of the vastly greater numbers of big stuff.

And yeah....Indo leads in garbage for sure. Last night we were on the beach in Seminyak, and you could hardly walk along without stepping on nappies. Disgusting.

Again -- this is based on a few days of Caribbean diving. No expert here.

- Bill

 

[billt4sf]

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?

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Dan - again with the lousy pictures. Sheeez...you can't do better?

 

[charlier]

Charlie - WHAT? I know you're not a sarcastic person -- you must be actually asking a question to which you don't know the answer? -- is that allowed in ScubaBoard? Perhaps I am confusing it with FaceBook, my bad.

OK...well...I have been to the Caribbean a few times, maybe 3. I enjoyed diving there. But as soon as I went underwater in Indo (which, as it happened, was Bali) I was SHOCKED at the underwater life! Was I looking at a reef with 5 or 10 times the life per square meter in a Caribbean reef? Was that even possible?

To say nothing of the vastly greater numbers of big stuff.

And yeah....Indo leads in garbage for sure. Last night we were on the beach in Seminyak, and you could hardly walk along without stepping on nappies. Disgusting.

Again -- this is based on a few days of Caribbean diving. No expert here.

- Bill

You answered my question. After we move back to Seattle, we will split our time between Indonesia (teaching and guiding) and the USA. Rather that Caribbean dive vacations, we might focus on Baja California, Costa Rica, and perhaps back to the Channel Islands. Garbage in Bali is certainly a problem, in more remote areas, not so bad (yet...),

 

[billt4sf]

You answered my question. After we move back to Seattle, we will split our time between Indonesia (teaching and guiding) and the USA. Rather that Caribbean dive vacations, we might focus on Baja California, Costa Rica, and perhaps back to the Channel Islands. Garbage in Bali is certainly a problem, in more remote areas, not so bad (yet...),

Diving in Monterey and the Channel Islands (and Puget Sound) is very good -- and very different. I have had quite a few very good dives there, and almost as many terrible ones. But that's just me.

- Bill