Bali1
Contributor
My recent trip was a big family invasion - 10 people - of whom 4 were divers. Ages from 83 down to 14 and only my wife and I had been there before. The trip was 12 days and if I remember I booked 4 days of diving (one days was combined snorkeling/dive for everybody) and 3 days of combined group sightseeing when we were all together. The rest of the days were filled in by the other group members as desired. Some went on the Volcano hike, one day a group went to Nusa Penida for a tour; rice paddy hikes around Ubud; and shopping excursions. The week filled up pretty fast and the pace was flexible enough so that the younger set kept busy and us older folks did not get burnt out.
We based in Sanur which worked out great for all the things we wanted to do. I set up the dive arrangements with aquamarine prior to our arrival and they were excellent in terms of organizing our day trips and getting rental gear coordinated. They can organize dive safaris as mentioned previously but that did not fit our profile. I recommend you check out their website to investigate the dive sites and pricing. They were very responsive by email so you can get questions answered in a day. However the entire group had a great trip and everybody's needs were taken care of. AquaMarine offered an afternoon dive for an additional charge and one day we dove Tulamben at night as well during the full moon. That was awesome. You could turn your lights off and see pretty well. The phosphorescence is fun too when you wave your hands about. A very long day but worth it.
I like travel as much as diving so that balance worked for me and everyone else. My daughters and I usually dive in the Caribbean yearly so diving Indo with them was great. The Manta Rays off Nusa Penida were a big hit and although the water was too warm for Molas I had seen them before. It is important to have some light days too - the heat and humidity will beat you down a bit and there is the infamous gut issues you get when you travel halfway around the world. Check the dive operators for their scheduling too. For the NP dives Aquamarine left an hour before everybody else since it was slack tide and they could assess the dive sites and move to an alternate if necessary. We did not have to change sites but we dove Manta Point alone and when we came up there were 5 boats putting in divers. Crystal Bay had 10 boats sitting around so it does get crowded. Not quite Cozumel though.
Just remember that there is so much to see and do on the island that just treating it as a dive destination would be a disservice. Just driving down any road you will see house temples; village temples and regional temples - all with different stonework and layouts. I don't think you can go more that 5 minutes without seeing something interesting in a car.
I hope this helps. All this is pretty subjective but I planned all of the July trip and left enough space for people to improvise on the spot and that worked out pretty well. I did try to alternate days where heavy hiking/diving was followed by full day sightseeing in the van which allowed some rest. I can't over emphasize checking the Internet for what is there and finding out what really appeals to you and your group and then start the itinerary from there.
We based in Sanur which worked out great for all the things we wanted to do. I set up the dive arrangements with aquamarine prior to our arrival and they were excellent in terms of organizing our day trips and getting rental gear coordinated. They can organize dive safaris as mentioned previously but that did not fit our profile. I recommend you check out their website to investigate the dive sites and pricing. They were very responsive by email so you can get questions answered in a day. However the entire group had a great trip and everybody's needs were taken care of. AquaMarine offered an afternoon dive for an additional charge and one day we dove Tulamben at night as well during the full moon. That was awesome. You could turn your lights off and see pretty well. The phosphorescence is fun too when you wave your hands about. A very long day but worth it.
I like travel as much as diving so that balance worked for me and everyone else. My daughters and I usually dive in the Caribbean yearly so diving Indo with them was great. The Manta Rays off Nusa Penida were a big hit and although the water was too warm for Molas I had seen them before. It is important to have some light days too - the heat and humidity will beat you down a bit and there is the infamous gut issues you get when you travel halfway around the world. Check the dive operators for their scheduling too. For the NP dives Aquamarine left an hour before everybody else since it was slack tide and they could assess the dive sites and move to an alternate if necessary. We did not have to change sites but we dove Manta Point alone and when we came up there were 5 boats putting in divers. Crystal Bay had 10 boats sitting around so it does get crowded. Not quite Cozumel though.
Just remember that there is so much to see and do on the island that just treating it as a dive destination would be a disservice. Just driving down any road you will see house temples; village temples and regional temples - all with different stonework and layouts. I don't think you can go more that 5 minutes without seeing something interesting in a car.
I hope this helps. All this is pretty subjective but I planned all of the July trip and left enough space for people to improvise on the spot and that worked out pretty well. I did try to alternate days where heavy hiking/diving was followed by full day sightseeing in the van which allowed some rest. I can't over emphasize checking the Internet for what is there and finding out what really appeals to you and your group and then start the itinerary from there.
