Amed.......Yes or No ??????

[Midget]

I've dived Tulamben a few times, and have always stayed at Liberty Dive Resort.......which, by the way, I LOVE. However, for an upcoming trip one of the gals traveling with me is only a snorkeler. The diver has never dived the Coral Triangle, so I really want her to have a great experience.
I was thinking to stay at Amed this time so that the snorkeler has something to do while the divers are off blowing bubbles. Have been looking at EuroDive. We still plan to do many of our dives at Tulamben. My concern is that the dive guides at EuroDive may not be familiar enough with the Tulamben dive sites to be good critter hunters. Tripadvisor has gobs of reviews from newbies that did their certification course with them, but I am seeking advice from seasoned divers.

Advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[adventureswithwill]

If you're diving Tulamben sites, why not just dive with Liberty Dive Resort? That way you know you're getting quality dive guides. I'm sure they can arrange pick up for a reasonable fee. If you're talking about diving Amed sites, then ask at LDR - some of their guides might have experience them.

I dove with BLD when I was in Amed and overall I was happy, but I had a mix up with payment (originally quoted a lower rate than they ended up charging me and they refused to budge). Guide I had (Petruk) was good for the sites he dove regularly (Jemeluk Wall/Pyramids and Japanese Wreck) but less so for ones he didn't (Melasti) although to be honest he was extremely up front about this and offered another guide who dove there more regularly instead.

Eco dive & Baliku also get good reviews on Scubaboard. Euro Dive seemed like an OK shop when I went past on my scooter. Honestly you can easily just rent a motorcycle and check out the local shops in person, it's pretty easy to get a good feel for the guides without actually having to dive with them. I stayed at Dalum Homestay, it's not super close to Jemeluk bay where mosts of the restaurants/snorkelling is but if you're going to rent scooters anyway I'd highly recommend it. Paid about 160,000 a night with breakfast, I'm sure I could have bargained him down (and he even offered a discount as I was leaving for my whole stay) but I was more than happy to pay full price. It's on a main road so not super quiet, but not an issue for me.

 

[Midget]

Thanks, AWW.

As I think about this, it seems we should just stay at LDR and hope that the snorkeler will be entertained enough with what is close by.

If we are able to do a day of Amed's sites, which 3 aren't to be missed?

 

[adventureswithwill]

There is nothing stopping the snorkeler going to Amed to snorkel, you can rent scooters for 50k or car transport for 200k. Given that they aren't spending $$$ on diving hopefully they can afford this relatively small fee. Or why not just split the trip, how long do you have in total? Few days in Amed and a few days in Tulamben (more time in Tulamben for my money!) Top three sites depends on what you like see, I enjoyed pyramid as it had a nice mixture of macro/micro stuff (saw 6+ pygmy on one fan) and Melasti was good for a muck dive. I didn't really think much of Japanese wreck to be honest, but supposed to be a lot of bumblee shrimps during night dives. If you wanna do Japanese Wreck, go with Baliku as the dive shop is right out in front of the dive spot so they will dive it a lot more often. There is also Gili Selang and all of those more eastern dive sites, I didn't dive Gili Selang as I was looking for relaxed diving and heard mixed reports.

In fact that is probably good advice for a lot of Amed, shops closer to different sites will probably be better for those specific sites. BLD was great for Jemeluk Wall & Pyramids because those spots are right in front of their dive shop.

 

[WhiteSands]

Matahari runs trips to Amed as well, and their house reef (Coral Garden) at Tulamben is gorgeous.
I didn't find the diving at Amed to be very good, frankly. Or at least the sites where they brought us to at Amed.

I don't know if the instructors at Matahari are any good, as my friends and I did self-dives when we were there.