Bali/Penida/Komodo questions, travelling with family

[qwimjim]

Your gallery looks fantastic! What dive sites would you recommend the most around Bali, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Penida? Either shallow uncomplicated dives that my son could do with me, and/or then dives I could do on my solo days (AOW ~100 dives)?

Any particular family snorkeling recommendations?

 

[diveUAE]

You do know, Indonesia still have 5 days quarantine? It may or may not change before September I know. Yesterday the first international flight landed in Denpasar. So far only expensive hotels to do quarantine in (and I’ve read somewhere that you can also do quarantine on a (dive?) boat, not going to be cheap either)

I would skip Red Sea in favour of diving Indonesia any day.

 

[Luko]

Your gallery looks fantastic! What dive sites would you recommend the most around Bali, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Penida? Either shallow uncomplicated dives that my son could do with me, and/or then dives I could do on my solo days (AOW ~100 dives)?

Any particular family snorkeling recommendations?

* = my personal scuba rating, S means it would be snorkelable as well, and/or your son could dive them with you as well

Coral dives around Amed-Tulamben,
- Liberty wreck ***S
- Tulamben coral garden *S
- Kubu reef *
- Batu Kelebit/Emerald *
- Jemeluk coral garden *S
- Lipah wall *
- Bunutan wall **
- Japanese wreck ***S

Dives around Nusa Penida/Lembongan
- Manta bay *S
- Crystal bay **
- Toyapakeh ***
- SD **S
- Ped **S

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

The focus is diving quality first, snorkeling second, beaches a distant third.

Does your wife agree with that?

 

[qwimjim]

Does your wife agree with that?

Haha yes, we're fortunate to spend our summers on a beautiful beach so it's more about the underwater than the above the water for this leg of the trip.

 

[qwimjim]

* = my personal scuba rating, S means it would be snorkelable as well, and/or your son could dive them with you as well

Coral dives around Amed-Tulamben,
- Liberty wreck ***S
- Tulamben coral garden *S
- Kubu reef *
- Batu Kelebit/Emerald *
- Jemeluk coral garden *S
- Lipah wall *
- Bunutan wall **
- Japanese wreck ***S

Dives around Nusa Penida/Lembongan
- Manta bay *S
- Crystal bay **
- Toyapakeh ***
- SD **S
- Ped **S

Fantastic, I am saving this!

 

[qwimjim]

You do know, Indonesia still have 5 days quarantine? It may or may not change before September I know. Yesterday the first international flight landed in Denpasar. So far only expensive hotels to do quarantine in (and I’ve read somewhere that you can also do quarantine on a (dive?) boat, not going to be cheap either)

I would skip Red Sea in favour of diving Indonesia any day.

Well if there's still covid regulations by then, we'll just postpone it a year. I guess my concern is regretting not spending a couple days diving in the red sea since we'll be so close given that we'll be going to Cario. On our last trip many years ago I chose Dahab over Sharm because we wanted a more interesting topside, but the diving didn't do much for me.. there wasn't a lot of fish, it was more terrain type dives (canyons, slots, blue hole wall, etc). I kind of regretted not going to Sharm in the end.. I feel like I might regret not checking out the Thistlegorm, it's talked about so much on these forums, is something like the USS Liberty comparable?

Have you been to both Bali/Komodo and Ras Mohammed, etc.. how would you compare them?

 

[Dan]

I feel like I might regret not checking out the Thistlegorm, it's talked about so much on these forums, is something like the USS Liberty comparable?

Have you been to both Bali/Komodo and Ras Mohammed, etc.. how would you compare them?

I’ve been to those dive sites you mentioned. Generally I have no interest on diving wreck, but, Thistlegorm is very interesting to see. Don’t want to miss it if you are in the neighborhood.

You can’t compare it with USS Liberty, as USS Liberty is almost unrecognizable as a wreck. It’s full of corals with lots of fish from small to pelagic size, even some bigger fish like brown marbled grouper & bumphead parrotfish. If you want to see more bumphead parrotfish there, go diving there around 5:30am, when those guys are just waking up and having breakfast.

Forget about Ras Mohammed. When I was there, the site looked like fished out. So it’s no comparison with Bali/Komodo. Sharm El Sheikh was the same, meh, fished out. If you want to dive in Red Sea, try to go to BDE (Brothers, Daedalus & Elphinstone) rather than Sharm El Sheikh & Ras Mohammed.

 

[qwimjim]

I’ve been to those dive sites you mentioned. Generally I have no interest on diving wreck, but, Thistlegorm is very interesting to see. Don’t want to miss it if you are in the neighborhood.

You can’t compare it with USS Liberty, as USS Liberty is almost unrecognizable as a wreck. It’s full of corals with lots of fish from small to pelagic size, even some bigger fish like brown marbled grouper & bumphead parrotfish. If you want to see more bumphead parrotfish there, go diving there around 5:30am, when those guys are just waking up and having breakfast.

Forget about Ras Mohammed. When I was there, the site looked like fished out. So it’s no comparison with Bali/Komodo. Sharm El Sheikh was the same, meh, fished out. If you want to dive in Red Sea, try to go to BDE (Brothers, Daedalus & Elphinstone) rather than Sharm El Sheikh & Ras Mohammed.

See I haven't done any big wreck diving, so I don't even know if I like it I probably wouldn't be able to make it down to BDE on a dayboat from sharm right? Is that liveaboard required? Or can you get there from Hurghada on a dayboat?

But your comments about Ras Mohammed definitely have me thinking I should scrap Sharm and use those extra days in Indonesia

 

[Luko]

On our last trip many years ago I chose Dahab over Sharm because we wanted a more interesting topside, but the diving didn't do much for me.. there wasn't a lot of fish, it was more terrain type dives (canyons, slots, blue hole wall, etc). I kind of regretted not going to Sharm in the end.. I feel like I might regret not checking out the Thistlegorm, it's talked about so much on these forums, is something like the USS Liberty comparable?

Have you been to both Bali/Komodo and Ras Mohammed, etc.. how would you compare them?

Even when I used to dive the Red Sea in the late 90's, early 00's Dahab was quite mundane, SSH much better. The Tiran straits as well as Ras Muhamed were very nice in terms of (soft) corals and depending on the season could be dense in fish (fish mating in spring and July-August are better in this respect this was still the case now as some friends reported to me.).
I dont share the same enthusiasm for the Thistlegorm which can be very frequented sometimes with a lot of surge (seen some DMs puking at surface) and needs early morning departures + 3-4hrs boat ride. Personnaly I prefer the USAT Liberty which is beautifully encrusted with corals and very accessible from the beach eveyday and even at night.
Sidenote : If you're really into wreck diving and looking for something IMPRESSIVE then nothing beats the Coolidge IMO, but that's another area of the world.

Hurghada area was quite lame apart from Carless reef which is quite away and not so often dived, there were dozens of dive boats and hundreds of divers on sites off Hurghada (The Giftuns, Umm Gammar...) with very little interest underwater.
Safaga was not as interesting as SSH to me, lots of bommies but no colors as Ras Mo or Thomas Reef on the Tiran straits.

Can't speak about southern Egypt, Brothers (on a liveaboard) or Elphinstone.

Overall I rate Komodo MUCH better than Egypt, fishier & more colorful, Bali is more varied than Egypt as well. anyway you can't have more varied than Indonesia as a whole.
Once I discovered SEA in eh 90's I gradually slowed down going to Egypt and finally never went back for almost 20 years now.