If you could choose from Alor, Lembeh (or Palawan Philippines) where would you go

[Luko]

Out of curiosity, since you’ve currently visited, how would you rate the reef diving in Alor to other destinations?

The pros :
Best visibility anywhere in Indonesia.
Excellent coral life
Tons of small fish
Good variety of topography, deep walls, slopes, weird volcanic kind of spots.
Ridiculously photogenic shallows
Sometimes hammerheads, even whales

The cons :
Less mid sized /schools of fish except on some "wild" sites where they are teeming. (that's probably the downside of excellent viz)
Currents
Too many walls though (I don't like walls for photo so when I get on that kind of configuration I tend to stay at 12 m )

Wall diving with Gilles


Photogenic shallows






Other sites

And yet...Raja Ampat and Komodo hog the spotlight, with Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands seen as diving peers (also with WW 2 wrecks) but more expensive and involved to get to, if I understand correctly, and somewhat less likely to have the same level of amenities westerners are accustomed to. At least, that's the impression I've gotten from discussions online. So it makes a bit of sense where they fit in as desired and frequented dive destinations.

Where does Alor 'fit?' From a map, looks like it's pretty close to Komodo, and might have similar conditions? So why does Komodo seem better known here? Is Alor for people who've been to Raja Ampat and Komodo and want similar great diving but to get in a new destination? Or should is it an 'hidden gem' destination that, where it better known, would be stealing a lot of business from the other two?

Many factors may keep Alor away from the crowd (and I like it like this) :
- Alor airport is not a hub, you now need 2 days to get there from elsewhere through Kupang.
- It's even difficult to get goods or material since transportation is not developped and due to the topography of the island there are only few roads (especially if you are on Pantar).
- Few resorts and they're small, it's difficult to buy land there. Alor is VERY rocky and steep, the beachfront is scarce already occupied by villagers.
- Diving Alor can be challenging, you need to invest time and knowledge before diving safely the strait.

You put the spotlight on PNG but if you really think about it, many people talk about PNG although nobody goes there. There are only 5 dive resorts in a country that is large like France!

 

[Darnold9999]

Luko pretty much covered it. I was only there diving 5 days so not really long enough to get more that a first impression, but I would agree. We saw a blue whale in the distance, porpoises (50 or so) around the boat on the way to the dive site. Ridiculously scenic and healthy shallow reefs, lots of walls, fans and small fish. A couple of sites had so many small fish you could not see very far through them. On the exposed walls and shelves, we saw 4 small reef sharks, barracuda, Napolean Wrasse and a few other larger fish, but mostly it was small fish from 6" down in size. There is a site known for hammerheads, but those at the resort did not see any on two dives on that site.

The muck diving is very good, I just didn't do enough of it to really get a good feel for what is there.

Getting there is hard. Don't believe Lion Air when they sell you a ticket that gets you there in a single day. That flight has not flown since covid. You have to overnight in Kupang - not a hot spot! There is currently one early morning flight a day in and out of Alor airport from and to Kupang.

One thing that is missing that you will find in Komodo and RA is Mantas. There is no Manta dive site.

I was told that the resort shuts down because of weather. It rains - a lot.

 

[Darnold9999]

PS - would I go back? Absolutely.

 

[matts1w]

Alor is cold, too. I didn't do much research and showed up with a 3 mil and beanie just in case it got chilly. I then froze my backside off all week. Some spots were 16 to 17C/low 60sF. I lasted 15 minutes on Anemone City. Ain't no Wobegon sharks worth that kind of freezing.

I should add all this was totally my fault for not planning well. If you are into walls and reefs, the diving is spectacular. Topside everything is National Geographic beautiful, too.

Comparing and Lembeh and Alor does not make much sense. They are two very, very different places.

 

[Cali_diver]

That's funny @matts1w .. I have done 15 min. dives at Anemone City (ClownValley)as well lol! Go down look around and come up. That being said I just got back from Alor and it was unseasonably warm. It was 78 (25c) at Anemone City and most of the anemones are unfortunately gone. It was kind of sad and we didn't even dive it on the second trip. Some of the muck sites had changed as well way less growth(algae etc.) and scattered coral heads. We did still find a gorgeous purple weedy rhinopia and a ton of super small juvenile things but it was really different than 2019. Not sure what happened and I hope it comes back. The reefs were still great! There seemed to be a bit more trash than usual so not sure if they recently had major rains.

 

[Darnold9999]

... We did still find a gorgeous purple weedy rhinopia and a ton of super small juvenile things ...

maybe this rhinopia?

 

[Cali_diver]

Maybe...

 

[diveUAE]

Out of curiosity, since you’ve currently visited, how would you rate the reef diving in Alor to other destinations? Same/worse/better? Exceeded expectations or disappointed? Would you go again?

Luko said it: Reef diving in Alor is fantastic! So many pretty corals and lots of small critters to find - to me Alor is only surpassed by RA (and Sipadan back in 2008). Komodo has great reefs as well, but there are so many divers and snorkelers there so it's not a pristine as Alor. I would love to return to Alor, not sure I'd go out of my way to do Komodo again ...

In terms of beautiful corals and colors our best destinations have been: 1: Sipadan (though it seems to have changed since our stay in 2008!) and RA (2014 - need to go back soon), 2: Alor (2022), 3: Komodo (2022), 4: Red sea (found the fish life very boring - 2008, 2017 (Sudan), 2018), 5: Sulawesi (2019), 6: Malapascua (2019), 7: Bohol/Balicasag (2019), 8: Lankayan (again 2008, so very likely changed)

Comparing and Lembeh and Alor does not make much sense. They are two very, very different places.

So true. I was just thinking about our best dive spots and somehow Lembeh is just off the chart ... fantastic muck dive, but not so much else ...

 

[Mr.Poseidon]

Luko said it: Reef diving in Alor is fantastic! So many pretty corals and lots of small critters to find - to me Alor is only surpassed by RA (and Sipadan back in 2008). Komodo has great reefs as well, but there are so many divers and snorkelers there so it's not a pristine as Alor. I would love to return to Alor, not sure I'd go out of my way to do Komodo again ...

In terms of beautiful corals and colors our best destinations have been: 1: Sipadan (though it seems to have changed since our stay in 2008!) and RA (2014 - need to go back soon), 2: Alor (2022), 3: Komodo (2022), 4: Red sea (found the fish life very boring - 2008, 2017 (Sudan), 2018), 5: Sulawesi (2019), 6: Malapascua (2019), 7: Bohol/Balicasag (2019), 8: Lankayan (again 2008, so very likely changed)

So true. I was just thinking about our best dive spots and somehow Lembeh is just off the chart ... fantastic muck dive, but not so much else ...

Thanks for input - much appreciated!

 

[NHalzee]

Are you familiar with muck diving? Lembeh is mostly about muck/macro diving looking for strange and exotic critters. It's a world class destination for muck diving not everyone's cup of tea but I love me some muck.
Alor is harder to get to and with only a few resorts to choose from but great diving for reefs and macro.
Palawan is not really a widely known diving destination, there are much more highly rated destinations in the Phillipines.
@NHalzee if you let us know what your looking for in a destination we can probably give you better feedback.

If you could help that would be great. I am diving with two others both with around 20 dives. Prefer the coral/ schools of fish/ big game (rays) if possible (less so muck diving) along with a nice resort. Dates December 18-29th. We went to Sorido Bay Raja Ampat 3 years ago which was amazing. Something similar the Indonesia/ Philippines would be ideal. Have always heard great things about Palawan.