Trip Report - Wakatobi, not up to the hype!

[JasonG]

Mossman,

I have complete confidence that you are going to enjoy your trip to Wakatobi, I certainly have. You are going at the best time of year, so the dive conditions shold be very good.

As I think about your trip, two thoughts come to mind. First, you mentioned doing some solo diving on the house reef. This is possible, but Wakatobi requires that you be an instructor, have a solo diver certification and dive with a pony (they can rent/loan this to you). These requirements are enforced, so if you do not meet them, you will need to find a buddy. In my experience, finding a buddy to dive on the house reef is pretty easy...there is always somebody who wants to go and the folks in the dive operation will help you connect with him/her.

The other comment is just a suggestion on the flight from Bali to Wakatobi. Usually they run two planes...request that you be on the first flight. The first flight typically goes non-stop and gets you to the resort earlier, providing you with time - if you want - to do a check-out dive on the day of arrival. The second flight is more frequently delayed and sometimes needs to make a stop along the way. All of this translates into a later arrival at the resort.

Oh, a few other things. Wakatobi VI is a bit bigger than the other dive boats. You may want to ask to be on it. Also Kaori, a nice Japanese woman, is an excellent dive guide.

Have fun,

Jason

 

[Mossman]

Don't worry, I did my homework. I've scoured every page of the wakatobi.com site, including reading every word of the FAQs. I'm an SSI instructor, SDI certified solo diver, and have logged about 50 solo dives in varying conditions. I have a pony bottle and reg that I could lug over, but I'll probably just rent them there to save me the trouble.

My only worry is that any requests to dive with a specific guide or specific boat, or even ask for a specific bungalow location (we'd prefer the windy side) might be trumped by the presence of a large dive shop group during our trip. A little web research turned up the fact that Middle Tennessee Scuba and Swim claims to have sold 26 out of a planned 30 spots, which means that exactly half of the resort so far will be taken up my middle Tennesseans. Apparently that's near Nashville, so I'll have to learn to keep my personal opinions on country music to myself if I want to make any new friends

 

[diver 85]

Diver Rick( & others)......where would you recommend for "Same or better diving".....I see you mentioned Fiji, where in particular are you talking about ........TIA

 

[diver 85]

Just a note to Henrik that it was nice to see a reasoned positively toned response, rather than the usual vitrolic responses. And to clarify, never having been there, I can't make any judgements on Ricks comments.

Somefolks are too nice----....I'm gunna call a spade a spade & I will make judgements based on Rick's report(s).....As I sit here & type, my wife & I & another couple are planning a trip 'somewhere out there' in '11 & it now probably won't be Wakatobi, sorry but sometimes the truth hurts......Needing more info on these 'equal to & closer' places.....TIA to anyone who could us.......Joe...

 

[Wiggsy]

In the same neck of the woods, and with diving that would be similar and is some respects, may bebetter from some reports.....consider Siladen Island Resort and Spa. I've been there twice; have a third group trip there this September and regard it as one of the best dive resorts I've been to. It is much more accessible than Wakatobi. Fly Manado from Singapore and then its just a 3/4 hour boat trip offshore. Bunaken Marine Reserve has brilliant biodiversity and apart from larger pelagics (which are in short supply) you will see an incredible variety of marine life, particularly macro life. And the resort has the best buffets I've seen at a dive resort. The resort is 1/4 the size of Kapalai (North Borneo), but with twice the variety at the buffet. They really do an amzing job in the kitchen. The beachfront bungalows are the way to go as they are brighter and just beautifully furnished....I really can't fault this place and have been looking for somewhere else to live up to it. Wakatobi has been one of my options, but I have a few minor lingering doubts about some aspects of the diving. But keep in mind that everyone experiences dives individually and will rank dives differently. I've no doubt that Wakatobi is very, very good, but I wonder if Siladen doesn't offer similar, if not better diving, with far greater convenience and equal luxury.

 

[diver 85]

Wiggsy----thanks for the report....How's their shore(snokeling) house reef diving???--ie my wife enjoys snokeling as much-if not more- now than 25 years ago when we were 1st certified(?she gettin' old?--lol)........

 

[Mossman]

Somefolks are too nice----....I'm gunna call a spade a spade & I will make judgements based on Rick's report(s).....As I sit here & type, my wife & I & another couple are planning a trip 'somewhere out there' in '11 & it now probably won't be Wakatobi, sorry but sometimes the truth hurts......Needing more info on these 'equal to & closer' places.....TIA to anyone who could us.......Joe...

I'm sure Rick's report was from the heart, but it was heartening as well to hear a reply from the resort's owner. The nice thing about Wakatobi is that it's so popular, there are many reports and the good reports outnumber the bad reports by a large margin. So you can make judgments based on Rick's report, which is entirely up to you, and I can factor in Rick's report along with the 30-40 or so other reports I've skimmed through on Scubaboard and that certain online/print dive report newsletter that doesn't take advertising and whose initials match the University of California's, and come to the realization that Rick's report might be the rare complaint in a bundle of raves.

Sure, there are probably "equal and closer" places for some aspects of dive travel, certainly pelagics and possibly macro, but I'm still betting on the vast majority of dive reports besides Rick's that claim that the macro diving is very good, the corals practically peerless, and the dive resort operation next to none. If it turns out that Rick's report ends up closer to my realized experience than to my expectations based on the many other reports I've read, then I'll be the first to come back here and back up Rick's report with extreme emphasis. But I hope I don't have to do that

 

[ncchuck]

I'm going to chime in here just to give my opinion. I have not been to Wakitobi. I've been a member of the board for a couple years or more now. I just don't understand why there is so much criticism of divers that give negative reports or opinions. I think a person can be a scuba fanatic and still have bad experiences. The vast majority of my experiences have been terrific but certainly not all of them. I think it would be dishonest of me to only report the good ones on this board.
Everyone is free to give an opinion - good or bad. Give those posting bad experiences a break.

 

[Wayan]

A few points ( I am not defending the resort as it would not be one of my choices but there are lots of people that love it so much taht continue to go back.

+ personally I am not a great fan of the diving in wakatobi (Not into walls) But do like the house reef.
+ For me Komodo / Lembeh / Raja empat / Banda Island is better as with PNG (but not overly impressed with Fiji)
+ people complaining about hard it is to get to - I find this amazing ludicrous when consider how divers used to go thee originally - get themselves to Kenadari and then take a long slow boat trip and not always in nice pleasant conditions.
+ The resort was actually quite well appointed the times I was there
+ Staff were quite good ( this can be a very subjective evaluation and depends on what you are looking for) and high standards were tired to maintained.

Not that simple for resorts and live-a-aboards in remote areas are extremely difficult to run / maintain and cater to the needs of people (hose wants are sometime really over the top) who are able to just drive down to the local store to resupply their needs/wants.

 

[Mossman]

I didn't see any criticism of the diver making the report, only criticism of the diver's report. If a resort can be critiqued, why can't a report on a resort likewise be critiqued? Since such reports might be used by others in order to make their decisions on whether or not to go to certain place, it's important that the reports be accurate and objective and relative.

For instance, complaining about the $8 cost of a glass of wine brought plenty of comments that alcoholic beverages are expensive all over Indonesia, so it hardly seems fair to Wakatobi that they should be singled out for this. Surely it's much fairer to compare an Indonesian resort with another Indonesian resort, and not diving in Fiji?

Comments about the quality of the diving can be very subjective, relative to the reporter's own experiences, and highly dependent on the season, prevailing sea conditions, tides, el nino/la nina, etc. Wakatobi wasn't open year-round in the past because visibility apparently drops dramatically in the "off season", which could obviously impact reports on the diving quality.

It's easy when reports are uniformly good or uniformly bad. It's when the reports are mixed that one needs to carefully read between the lines and also read as many reports as possible. I was surprised to see the number of posters in this thread basing their decision to never give Wakatobi a chance on this one negative report, disregarding all the positives that have been said about the place here and on other forums. Me, I'm still in the window where I can cancel my upcoming trip and only lose a few hundred bucks, but I'm going to stick with it and see for myself, hoping that the positive reviews are more accurate than the negative ones (and knowing I can live with the few negatives that the negative reviews point out if they turn out accurate instead).