Bali in August- where to go and where to stay

[Liberty01]

I have dived off Lembongan and Pulau Menjangan during earlier visits. Now I booked Lembongan again, because I missed the mola mola last time. Now, I am looking for a second location for diving, colourful coral and some muck diving. Don´t need night life or luxury accommodation.
So which location is best for diving? Tulamben? Amed? Pemuteran?
Can you recommend budget accommodation (up tp 50$ max per room)?
Thank you,
Liberty

 

[gekodivebali]

Have you also considered Padang Bai?
Diving from that base, you have access to East Bali's Gili islands called Gili Biaha, Gili Tepekong and Gili Mimpang. These along with selected Padang Bai dive sites, such as Tanjung Sari or Bias Tugel, offer great opportunities to encounter sharks, schools and turtles with great coral covers and interesting topography.
You can dive these sites along with some great macro locations, such as The Amuk Bay Jetty or Padang Bai macro dive sites. There you can find lots of frogfish, including hairy ones (one yellowish and the other light brown) at the moment, seahorse both pygmy and thorny, nudibranchs and all sorts of crustaceans.
You're welcomed to send me an email for more info...

 

[Liberty01]

Thank you for your reply.
The thing is, I have never been to Tulamben. And I want warmer water for the second half of the trip.
I am sure they offer day trips from Padangbai to Tulamben, but then you cannot avoid the crowds.

Yours,
Liberty

 

[gekodivebali]

There's a few strategies we employ in order to avoid the Tulamben crowds:
1) Doing an afternoon and night dive on the USAT Liberty Shipwreck. There are a lot less divers from 1pm onwards. A night dive on thee wreck is also unforgettable with lots of hunting activity, great macro, huge and plentiful bump heads along with a superb atmosphere.
2) Leaving Padang Bai at 8am max. This allows us to enter the water by 9:30am. By then, most divers staying in the Bali's Tulamben diving area have finished their sunrise dives and enjoy a well earned surface interval and the crowds from the massively touristic South Bali (read Seminyak, Kuta, Nusa Dua & Sanur) have not arrived yet. Most of these seem to enter the water around 10:30am, i.e. towards the end of our first dive. The second dive is more tricky, but electing to dive a different Tulamben site usually does the trick.

 

[gekodivebali]

Now don't get me wrong: i love staying a few days in Tulamben too. When I do that, I very seldom start the dive at the wreck. I quite often start somewhere like Coral Garden or the Drop-off and sometimes exit the water on the wreck. I actually remember an epic 2 hour dive started on Allamanda and finishing at the wreck almost a kilometre away as current pushed me towards the USAT Liberty...

When I stay in Tulamben, I usually do 2 2.5 hours dives. First dive is usually a deco one with 2 air tanks and an O2 tank. Second dive is shallower with 2 nitrox tanks.

Damn, I miss these dives... I should really find a baby-sitter and convince my wife to go there for a few days before high season!

 

[gekodivebali]

As for water temp, there is not much we can do about this and I understand your preference for warm waters. That being said, it's rare to see sunfish and some of the big rare animals when water nears 30 celsius... Bali's Gili islands do have sunfish cleaning stations too!

 

[Liberty01]

Thank you for your replies.
Some more questions: I want to book the transfer to Lembongan. I am arriving at 11am and wonder what time I should book the pick up for the speed boat. I read there are often long lines in front of immigration. How much time should I allow to pass through immigration and customs etc.?
By the way, is it better to bring Euro or USD?
Thank you in advance.
Cheers,
Liberty

 

[dirtfarmer]

Speedboats to Lembongan leave frequently no need to book ahead, you can take a taxi to sanur and get on the next boat leaving. Just tell the taxi driver your going to get a speedboat to Lembongan. He will try and book you an overpriced speedboat ride, just go to the ticket stand.

 

[gekodivebali]

The main issue these days at Ngurah Rai seems to be luggage collection (unless you fly business that is). It has frequently taken me up to an hour to get my luggage coming from Europe. Visa queues seem to have eased off since free visa on arrival and the new airport.

I'm not sure at what time the last speedboat depart from Sanur. From Padang Bai, Ekajaya has a single departure per day at 2:30pm.

With a landing at 11am, you can expect to be in Sanur ready to board a boat by 1:30-2pm. There seems to be so many operators in Sanur right now, that I think Dirtfarmer's advice to go to the beach where you can board the speedboats only makes sense.

 

[billt4sf]

We have had great experiences with Geko Dive Bali, you can't go wrong with them. Other operators in Padang Bai, I'm not sure.

We also have had great experiences with Adventure Dive Bali in the Amed area: adventurediversbali@gmail.com We dove Liberty and many other Amed sites as Geko Dive mentioned. The best place to stay near them is Kembali Beach Resorts info@kembalibeachbungalows.com $40 or $50/night with pool right on the beach but they do fill up.

We checked out other operators and other accommodations in that area and some were not very good so definitely get a recommendation.

Luggage: We arrived a few days ago with 13 (yes, 13) bags/boxes because we're staying a year. They all arrived safely (EVA Airlines) even with a 10-hour layover in Taipei (hotel). So there's one data point.....

Bali diving is great! Enjoy.

Thanks,

Bill