Dive Pros- Tulamben &Amed

[AleDiveAround]

We are 2 dive instructors travelling to Bali for a few weeks. We are trying to decide whether to stay in both Tulamben and Amed. Or one and travel to the other. If so what would you recommend?
We already know in Tulamben it is very easy to rent tanks and go from the beach for many of the dives. Is it better to just stay in Tulamben and do a boat trip to Amed?

Any advice recommendations much appreciated. We are travelling with all our own gear, just needed to rent tanks and weights.

Thanks!

 

[charlier]

Good questions. If your trip is focused 100% diving, it is much easier to stay in Tulamben and dive in Amed by boat. Diving out of Tulamben is super easy, just a short walk to the beach. I travel and work in Indonesia and my wife and I visit Bali for short weekend dive trips. If we had a choice between Amed or Tulamben, we usually prefer to stay in Amed. It has a better vibe and not completely obsessed with diving. That said, the daily commute is not long, but you will either need to hire a driver/taxi or rent a scooter. One other thought, while in Tulamben, consider visiting Amed for a few days for a change of scenery. Many expat dive instructors work work in Tulamben and commute daily on scooters. I am sure that other visitors will have a different perspective, either way you will have a wonderful time in eastern Bali. One suggestion, stop by Padang Bai for a few days of diving. Here, you have choices of wonderful current-rich diving.

Agung volcano, sunset from Amed.

 

[helarno]

Depends on how sensitive you are to costs.

Amed is like 15 minutes drive from Tulamben, so it's a really minor distance. It's quite feasible to stay in Tulamben and drive down to dive in Amed for a few days. Most dive centres will charge you a bit for the drive down to Amed. Won't be much, but a million rupiah per day may add up over time if you're price sensitive. Then again, they've also charged us when they drove us 5 minutes down to Seraya (also Tulamben).

Personally, I would just pick one place (either Amed or Tulamben) and take a car to the other location. I prefer Tulamben as it is quieter and shore dive options better.

 

[charlier]

Depends on how sensitive you are to costs.

Amed is like 15 minutes drive from Tulamben, so it's a really minor distance. It's quite feasible to stay in Tulamben and drive down to dive in Amed for a few days. Most dive centres will charge you a bit for the drive down to Amed. Won't be much, but a million rupiah per day may add up over time if you're price sensitive. Then again, they've also charged us when they drove us 5 minutes down to Seraya (also Tulamben).

Personally, I would just pick one place (either Amed or Tulamben) and take a car to the other location. I prefer Tulamben as it is quieter and shore dive options better.

Perhaps its typo, more like 100,000 IDR per trip. From my experience is a bit too pricey.

 

[Luko]

I would definitely recommend Tulamben. I usually stayed in Tulamben for the last 7 years, I tried both a couple of years ago and this year. My conclusion is that I will never stay anymore in Amed.
What everybody calls "Amed" is in fact a long strip of villages located on 15km, even the closest -which is the real Amed village- is more like 20 to 30 minutes drive to Tulamben. Any driver will ask you 200kIDR for a single ride (as per august 2016 this is what you can expect), it is no "minor" distance like i read above.
As for the atmosphere, Amed is filled with families and backpackers riding scooters, cost of anything you buy out for a Bule (foreigner in bahasa) will be about 50% more than Tulamben. I don't appreciate this kind of "vibe" where in the end all locals tend to look at everyone as cattle tourists.
Don't expect much serious diving with the local Amed centers, they're more interested in catering to fundivers on a day diving with very average dive conditions. I would pick only two dive centers out of the bunch that can provide trips to Gili Selang for instance : newly open Twofish in Amed and Baliku dive centre located far away in Aas but just in front of the Japanese wreck.
I am not very impressed with Amed dive sites compared to Tulamben, Only the far eastern sites like the Japanese wreck and Gili Selang, possibly Bunutan wall too would be worth the trip in my book. I would also say that -probably due to the lack of good guides- Amed macro compares to Tulamben in terms of variety like tick-tac-toe compares to chess game.
I don't see in Amed how you're going to organize your nightdives in Tulamben...

The only downside with Tulamben is that it's a pain to find a restaurant at night and most of the time you find yourself having a nasi goreng at your hotel or at the only warung with live music. Most of the other restaurant are quite disgusting (including Safety stop unless you enjoy almost raw pork and satay sauce made from peanut butter). IN Amed you'll find more dining options, also more people and the need sometimes to book beforehand (Warung Enak, Sails) it will be more costly than Tulamben and it's no Ubud either on food quality.

 

[billt4sf]

We have enjoyed our stays in Amed (Jemeluk actually) but I see what Luko is getting at. There are a few good restaurants there, and many decent ones.

We did night dives in Tulamben, all organized by the dive ship we used (Adventure Dive) but I can see how they chose the sites for day-trippers. For us that was fine, not sure what we missed, as we did go to all the sites mentioned.

For me the biggest issue in Amed (Jemeluk) is noise -- Car noise on the only road. If you care about this, then be sure to get a room well off of the road!

And I agree with CharlieR - Padang Bai is worth a visit. I might even decide to dive only Padang Bai if I had to choose one or the other.

- Bill

 

[helarno]

Perhaps its typo, more like 100,000 IDR per trip. From my experience is a bit too pricey.

Could be I'm getting gouged. I'm referring to the total additional costs charged by the dive centre out of Tulamben for 2 dives in Amed (guide, tanks, transport, light snack, water, etc), not the cost of just hiring a random driver to take you from Tulamben to Amed. I've had two separate dive centres charge me in that ballpark, but perhaps I need to find better dive centres.

Luko, you mentioned the Japanese wreck. I asked to dive there the last time I was in Amed, but the guide said the place is tiny and at snorkeling depths, not diving. He discouraged us from going diving there. Was he full of crap?

 

[Luko]

Luko, you mentioned the Japanese wreck. I asked to dive there the last time I was in Amed, but the guide said the place is tiny and at snorkeling depths, not diving. He discouraged us from going diving there. Was he full of crap?

This is EXACTLY what I meant about dive centres in Amed ! Lots of dive centres full of crap... I don't know which dive centre told you that, but you should remove it from your dive list.

The Japanese wreck is one of the best dives in Amed, the wreck in itself isn't worth much it's the coral garden behind that makes it one of the best dives, and also the macro life around on a night dive.

The reason why the dive centre replied BS is because :
- it's far away from Jemeluk where all cattle divers are downloaded from packed vans, so they need to charge more and since backpackers are looking for cheapskate diving, they won't shell the additional charge for the single dive day in their trip.
- the dive guides do not know how to dive the wreck and they are not interested that much in diving.

 

[frogfish]

Luko's comments are spot on (as usual). I'd just add that there are some enjoyable spots between the Japanese wreck and Gili Selang, (e.g. Golden Wall, Kusambi); you are likely to dive those on your own as they are far from Jemeluk and subject to strong currents (although easier than Selang).

Also you may be able to rent tanks from Baliku, so that you can dive the Japanese wreck (and the beautiful reef behind) as much as you want.

Personally I would split between Tulamben and then a few days around Aas (Japanese wreck area); travel time between Aas and Amed is at least 45 minutes (and Aas is part of Amed...). As others have suggested I would also make some time for Padangbai.

 

[jcclink]

Stay in Tulamben & make some of your dives in the Seraya area, which IS about 15 min away. Some great muck sites there. I've dived a few sites around Amed over the years, but haven't seen as many critters as in Tulamben & Seraya.