nippurmagnum
Contributor
My wife and I organized our own 2-week dive safari to Bali in Oct. 2024. This was our first trip to Bali, and we LOVED the experience. We dove Menjangan, Pemuteran, Kubu, Tulamben, Amed, Candidasa, Padang Bai, and Nusa Penida, and enjoyed them all. We had 27 dives over 10 dive days, as well as 7 non-diving days to explore the incredible island top-side, including three days in Ubud. Here’s how we did it:
HOW WE GOT THERE: We flew coach on Turkish Air from Washington Dulles to Istanbul (10 hours), and then straight from Istanbul to Bali (12 hours). We had a 10-hour layover in Istanbul, and Turkish Air offered a free city tour, but I had been to Istanbul several times and wanted to show my wife the sights myself. We had obtained a free Turkish tourist visa online two days before the tripon the official website, and clearing immigrations was fast and easy. So we stashed our hand luggage at the IST airport lockers ($12), took an Uber to the city ($40) and spent 5 hours visiting Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and Istiklal Street, with a very good dinner at my favorite Istanbul restaurant, Pera Antakya. We Ubered back to the airport, wiped out but well fed and happy. Our tickets cost $1,100 with two free suitcases, and the food and service on Turkish Air was quite good. The only obnoxious note is that Turkish charges $35 per leg for seat selection, but we checked in using their app six hours before the flight, and where assigned an aisle and middle seat together in the middle of the cabin, which was all we needed; and the airline seemed to have no problem reassigning seats at the counter if you asked nicely.
When we got to Bali, immigration was a breeze. We had obtained an Indonesian e-visa in advance from the official site, as well as a mandatory online monkeypox declaration, and being able to scan both things meant that we entered through an automated gate, and they didn’t even stamp our passport. It took less than 5 minutes. We had to wait half an hour for our luggage, but we were out of the airport in less than half an hour.
TRANSPORTATION/ACCOMODATIONS IN BALI: This was our first visit to Bali and we wanted to err on the side of being pampered, so we stayed in Airbnbs and resorts in the $125 to $200 a night price range — which in Bali meant “very nice to palatial.” Our first stop was in Ubud, where we stayed for three nights in a lovely, quiet Airbnb villa with private infinity pool and a charming free breakfast delivered to the villa every morning, for $125 a night. Villa in Kecamatan Ubud · ★4.93 · 1 bedroom · 1 bed · 1.5 baths Our other “bases” were four oceanfront resorts, which I’ll describe below.
For transportation around the island, we relied mostly on the driver that the Ubud Airbnb sent to pick us up ai the airport. He spoke good English, had a well maintained SUV, and was happy to explain the island’s culture and way of life. He charged us anywhere from $40 to $70 per day, depending on how far we went and how long he had to drive back. On the day that he charged us $70, he drove us for 8 hours, and had a four hour drive back home, for instance; needless to say, we tipped him well. We visited all the temples, rice fields, waterfalls, monkey forests, etc. that we wanted to see, with all the freedom that comes from having a knowledgeable private driver.
For local transportation in Ubud and Sanur, we used Grab, which is Indonesia’s version of Uber. Drivers were universally friendly and every single one of them asked if we needed a driver for day trips, so that would be another great way to “audition” drivers to take you around the island.
DIVING IN PEMUTERAN/MENJANGAN (3 dive days): We started our dive trip in the northwest. We picked Pemuteran as a base because we’d read that it was a quiet, traditional village with a nice beach on a secluded bay, and all of that was absolutely true. We stayed at the Taman Sari resort, which we loved, and dove with Karang Divers, their contracted shop. The owner is Portuguese, and obviously cares about the local community, from which almost all his staff come.
Karang candidly recommended that we focus our diving on Menjangan rather than the closer Pemuteran sites, and it was great advice. We spent two days diving Menjangan. We thought Menjangan had world class wall diving, with amazing soft corals, not an inch of wall without life on it, crystal visibility, and little or no current:
In particular we loved diving the westernmost dive site at Menjangan, Eel Garden, which is actually halfway between Menjangan and Java. Not just for the gorgeous walls, but also for the dramatic backdrop of the Java volcanoes when you surface.
We did two dives in Pemuteran itself. The first was a boat dive at Napoleon reef, which was a perfectly decent reef, but did not hold a candle to the Menjangan dives. The second dive was very special, though — it was a dusk/night dive to see mandarinfish mating. This is a dive that other shops don’t offer because it takes patience to wait for the mandarinfish to come out, and you really can’t do it with more than two divers. The Karang guide was phenomenal, and we saw four mating dances, You can only see the dances using red lights, as dive lights will make the mandarinfish dive for cover, but the red light made the whole thing even more mysterious.
We had read mixed reports on whether Menjangan/Pemuteran was worth the long haul, and my wife and I are both on the side of “hell, yes.”
DIVING IN TULAMBEN/AMED (4 dive days): Here I have to start with a tip of the hat to Johnnie B on Scubaboard, who recommended diving with Wonder Dive, a local shop in Tulamben. We loved those guys, they are outstanding macro guides and just fun people, the Balinese owner wears dreadlocks and Māori tattoos and that doesn’t begin to capture his zest for life.
Wonder Dive rents a couple of villas for $20 a night and we were tempted to stay with them, but instead we decided to lodge at the Siddharta resort in Kubu, a 10 minute drive away. The Siddharta was a boutique yoga-themed resort with luxurious rooms and a gorgeous infinity pool, and at $140 was well worth the splurge. The Wonder guys picked us up with their truck every morning and were absolutely flexible.
Over four days, we did 14 phenomenal dives. The macro sites are Tulamben were by far my favorite, and the Wonder guides showed us pigmy seahorses, ghost pipefish, harlequin shrimp, ribbon eels, innumerable nudis, orangutan and skeleton shrimp, larval frog fish tinier than the tip of your fingernail, and countless other macro marvels. These are just some highlights:
On one dive, while photographing a harlequin shrimp, I looked over to my left and caught sight of a frog fish eyeing a pipefish (actually it was a razor fish but I prefer to claim that it was a pipefish) — and I caught it on video swallowing it in the blink of an eye:
We did a night dive of the Liberty wreck, which was a circus of lights with a ridiculous number of divers in the water, but two days later dove the wreck at 3 pm, and had it to ourselves. I honestly wasn’t very impressed by the wreck, it’s very broken up and while it is covered in life, it’s all rather jumbled together. I much preferred the muck dives, and other Tulamben sites like Coral Garden and the Drop Off.
We also dove the Kubu Boga wreck, and had that to ourselves as well on a 3 pm dive. That wreck has less life on it but is much more intact than the Liberty, and in my opinion was mich more of a true wreck dive.
The Wonder guides also drove us up to Amed for a day, where we had the unexpected pleasure of running into Johnnie B from Scubaboard, who happened to be diving in the area, and thanking him in person for recommending the Wonder guides. Amed itself was well worth diving as well, though we found that the sites had significant current, of which there was virtually none at Tulamben. Topside, Amed also seemed busier than Tulamben, with quite a few tourists tooling around in mopeds, and I preferred the quieter vibes at Tulamben and Kubu. Though I will say that the views of Mount Agung from Amed are just stunning.
We thought the four days in this area was enough, but we could have stayed longer. And if I go back to Indonesia to do a Komodo liveaboard (which I’m already planning), I will likely tack on some days in Tulamben to that trip. The muck diving really was out of this world.
HOW WE GOT THERE: We flew coach on Turkish Air from Washington Dulles to Istanbul (10 hours), and then straight from Istanbul to Bali (12 hours). We had a 10-hour layover in Istanbul, and Turkish Air offered a free city tour, but I had been to Istanbul several times and wanted to show my wife the sights myself. We had obtained a free Turkish tourist visa online two days before the tripon the official website, and clearing immigrations was fast and easy. So we stashed our hand luggage at the IST airport lockers ($12), took an Uber to the city ($40) and spent 5 hours visiting Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and Istiklal Street, with a very good dinner at my favorite Istanbul restaurant, Pera Antakya. We Ubered back to the airport, wiped out but well fed and happy. Our tickets cost $1,100 with two free suitcases, and the food and service on Turkish Air was quite good. The only obnoxious note is that Turkish charges $35 per leg for seat selection, but we checked in using their app six hours before the flight, and where assigned an aisle and middle seat together in the middle of the cabin, which was all we needed; and the airline seemed to have no problem reassigning seats at the counter if you asked nicely.
When we got to Bali, immigration was a breeze. We had obtained an Indonesian e-visa in advance from the official site, as well as a mandatory online monkeypox declaration, and being able to scan both things meant that we entered through an automated gate, and they didn’t even stamp our passport. It took less than 5 minutes. We had to wait half an hour for our luggage, but we were out of the airport in less than half an hour.
TRANSPORTATION/ACCOMODATIONS IN BALI: This was our first visit to Bali and we wanted to err on the side of being pampered, so we stayed in Airbnbs and resorts in the $125 to $200 a night price range — which in Bali meant “very nice to palatial.” Our first stop was in Ubud, where we stayed for three nights in a lovely, quiet Airbnb villa with private infinity pool and a charming free breakfast delivered to the villa every morning, for $125 a night. Villa in Kecamatan Ubud · ★4.93 · 1 bedroom · 1 bed · 1.5 baths Our other “bases” were four oceanfront resorts, which I’ll describe below.
For transportation around the island, we relied mostly on the driver that the Ubud Airbnb sent to pick us up ai the airport. He spoke good English, had a well maintained SUV, and was happy to explain the island’s culture and way of life. He charged us anywhere from $40 to $70 per day, depending on how far we went and how long he had to drive back. On the day that he charged us $70, he drove us for 8 hours, and had a four hour drive back home, for instance; needless to say, we tipped him well. We visited all the temples, rice fields, waterfalls, monkey forests, etc. that we wanted to see, with all the freedom that comes from having a knowledgeable private driver.
For local transportation in Ubud and Sanur, we used Grab, which is Indonesia’s version of Uber. Drivers were universally friendly and every single one of them asked if we needed a driver for day trips, so that would be another great way to “audition” drivers to take you around the island.
DIVING IN PEMUTERAN/MENJANGAN (3 dive days): We started our dive trip in the northwest. We picked Pemuteran as a base because we’d read that it was a quiet, traditional village with a nice beach on a secluded bay, and all of that was absolutely true. We stayed at the Taman Sari resort, which we loved, and dove with Karang Divers, their contracted shop. The owner is Portuguese, and obviously cares about the local community, from which almost all his staff come.
Karang candidly recommended that we focus our diving on Menjangan rather than the closer Pemuteran sites, and it was great advice. We spent two days diving Menjangan. We thought Menjangan had world class wall diving, with amazing soft corals, not an inch of wall without life on it, crystal visibility, and little or no current:
In particular we loved diving the westernmost dive site at Menjangan, Eel Garden, which is actually halfway between Menjangan and Java. Not just for the gorgeous walls, but also for the dramatic backdrop of the Java volcanoes when you surface.
We did two dives in Pemuteran itself. The first was a boat dive at Napoleon reef, which was a perfectly decent reef, but did not hold a candle to the Menjangan dives. The second dive was very special, though — it was a dusk/night dive to see mandarinfish mating. This is a dive that other shops don’t offer because it takes patience to wait for the mandarinfish to come out, and you really can’t do it with more than two divers. The Karang guide was phenomenal, and we saw four mating dances, You can only see the dances using red lights, as dive lights will make the mandarinfish dive for cover, but the red light made the whole thing even more mysterious.
We had read mixed reports on whether Menjangan/Pemuteran was worth the long haul, and my wife and I are both on the side of “hell, yes.”
DIVING IN TULAMBEN/AMED (4 dive days): Here I have to start with a tip of the hat to Johnnie B on Scubaboard, who recommended diving with Wonder Dive, a local shop in Tulamben. We loved those guys, they are outstanding macro guides and just fun people, the Balinese owner wears dreadlocks and Māori tattoos and that doesn’t begin to capture his zest for life.
Wonder Dive rents a couple of villas for $20 a night and we were tempted to stay with them, but instead we decided to lodge at the Siddharta resort in Kubu, a 10 minute drive away. The Siddharta was a boutique yoga-themed resort with luxurious rooms and a gorgeous infinity pool, and at $140 was well worth the splurge. The Wonder guys picked us up with their truck every morning and were absolutely flexible.
Over four days, we did 14 phenomenal dives. The macro sites are Tulamben were by far my favorite, and the Wonder guides showed us pigmy seahorses, ghost pipefish, harlequin shrimp, ribbon eels, innumerable nudis, orangutan and skeleton shrimp, larval frog fish tinier than the tip of your fingernail, and countless other macro marvels. These are just some highlights:
On one dive, while photographing a harlequin shrimp, I looked over to my left and caught sight of a frog fish eyeing a pipefish (actually it was a razor fish but I prefer to claim that it was a pipefish) — and I caught it on video swallowing it in the blink of an eye:
We did a night dive of the Liberty wreck, which was a circus of lights with a ridiculous number of divers in the water, but two days later dove the wreck at 3 pm, and had it to ourselves. I honestly wasn’t very impressed by the wreck, it’s very broken up and while it is covered in life, it’s all rather jumbled together. I much preferred the muck dives, and other Tulamben sites like Coral Garden and the Drop Off.
We also dove the Kubu Boga wreck, and had that to ourselves as well on a 3 pm dive. That wreck has less life on it but is much more intact than the Liberty, and in my opinion was mich more of a true wreck dive.
The Wonder guides also drove us up to Amed for a day, where we had the unexpected pleasure of running into Johnnie B from Scubaboard, who happened to be diving in the area, and thanking him in person for recommending the Wonder guides. Amed itself was well worth diving as well, though we found that the sites had significant current, of which there was virtually none at Tulamben. Topside, Amed also seemed busier than Tulamben, with quite a few tourists tooling around in mopeds, and I preferred the quieter vibes at Tulamben and Kubu. Though I will say that the views of Mount Agung from Amed are just stunning.
We thought the four days in this area was enough, but we could have stayed longer. And if I go back to Indonesia to do a Komodo liveaboard (which I’m already planning), I will likely tack on some days in Tulamben to that trip. The muck diving really was out of this world.
