Bali before liveaboard (help needed)

[outofofficebrb]

Plan updated:
Day 1: arrival 19-20pm to Bali, sleep near the airport
Day 2 & 3: early transfer to ubud, visit around and sleep in ubud
Day 4: morning transfer to tulamben, afternoon plus night diving, sleep in tulamben
Day 5: full day diving plus night dive in tulamben, sleep there
Day 6: morning diving in tulamben, transfer to nusa lembongan
Day 7, 8, 9: morning diving from nusa lembongan, visits to nusa penida (land) in the afternoon, sleep in nusa lembongan
Day 10: transfer to bali and boarding Mermaid II to komodo

How does it look?

I suggest you do Nusas first. Extra complications and steps to get back to Bali proper are better at the start. I’m risk averse and this is my MO for liveaboards to reduce stress and likelihood of missing it. I also like to get there the day before so being in Bali by the night before is ideal to me. It also seems like a lot of moving around given the number of days you have. Traffic and travel distances in Bali are not as easy as it seems sometimes.

 

[cetacean]

@David Novo

I totally get the rationale of traveling around Bali to see as much as you can (given you might not go back for a while...)

First - the previous comments are correct. Don't make it hard on yourself to get back to Bali to make the liveaboard departure. 90% of the time things work great in Bali -the other 10% are complete SNAFus in this area of the world. You could be delayed by hours trying to get back.

This is not going to happen to you, but for example - my son and I booked a liveaboard from Bali to Komodo for an 8 day trip last summer. The dive boat (without warning) had to pull away from the dock and anchor on the edge of the harbor because of unscheduled military use of the dock. No communication, no one knew where the dive boat was... took us ~3 hours to get a hold of someone to let them know where we were (near the dock, at the harbor) for them to send a tender to pick us up. We were fine, however 3 divers didn't make the departure because the dive boat had to leave the harbor or get stuck for another 12 hours due to the tide and currents (this group caught up with the boat in Sumbawa the next day).

It's absolutely worth doing Ubud. However I might change the ordering of your trip. Start in Lembongen, then transfer to Tulamben, then finish in Ubud. The transfer back from Ubud is the easiest of these three... also - 'travel time" is a loose measure in Bali - it could be exactly right, or it could be 3x as long. Depends on what's happening on that stretch of road.

As for the mix of diving - I personally like critters and long dives. so Tumlamben easily beats the other areas for Bali diving for me. Lembogen (and Nusa Penida) tends to fill up with tourists, it's about 2 days worth of diving for me (at most) unless I'm there during Mola Mola season, and that's the primary reason I'm going.

 

[Centrals]

I was in Ubud over 30 yrs ago and it was a sleepy little town.
Passing through few yrs ago!!! I could not recognize the place. What a huge transformation, packed with tourists.
I would rather spend few days in Padang Bai doing nothing than Ubud.

 

[paddydiver]

I was in Ubud over 30 yrs ago and it was a sleepy little town.
Passing through few yrs ago!!! I could not recognize the place. What a huge transformation, packed with tourists.
I would rather spend few days in Padang Bai doing nothing than Ubud.

I also saw as many Mola Mola diving off padangbai as I did out at nusa penida.

 

[Centrals]

I also saw as many Mola Mola diving off padangbai as I did out at nusa penida.

LOL.
Good on you.
Mola Mola is the top attraction from Padang Bai during the season.

 

[justspacelover_]

With 2 free days between dive resorts, can anyone recommend wonderful things to do in Bali?
Thanks,
Chris

You could try checking out this article Indonesia Tourism Statistics 2023 - All You Need To Know it has some recommendations on what to do things in Bali and also the rest of Indonesia. I hope this helps!

 

[David Novo]

Just some quick feedback: trip went great.

6 whale sharks in Saleh Bay, 8 mantas in Manta Alley and 3 sunfish in Crystal Bay (ended up just doing 1 diving day in Nusa Penida), turtles, reef sharks, plus a lot of the expected small critters.