Wakatobi Dive Resort

[Joe Scuba]

If you have not hear about Wakatobi Dive Resort check out the website.

Wakatobi Dive Resort

Speaking from first hand experience it is the first dive resort I have visited that is actually everything they say it is and more.

My wife and I returned about a month ago from seven nights at the resort and sometimes I feel that word’s alone cannot describe this resort. Spend a little time reading about and looking at the pictures on this site.

Check it out. The prices are on the website and do not include air fare to and from Bali. Once you reach Bali the Wakatobi Resort folks take excellent care of you for the next several days.

I have ten bungalows (20 guests) reserved for June 20 through June 30 next year. As of this writing they can only accommodate 40 divers at a time and trips need to be booked well in advance of the actual trip.

Please call or email for more details.

Thanks,

Joe Pasnik
Coral Adventures Inc.
1425 FM 407 Suite 400
Lewisville, TX. 75077
972 317-7234
972 966-0040 Fax
info@coral-adventures.com
www.coral-adventures.com

Coral Adventures Inc. is a PADI 5 Star IDC retail center located in Lewisville TX.

 

[miker42]

Poor Joe passed away in February. My wife, Teri, and I bought the shop and have changed the name to DiveMonster Scuba.

We still have room on the trip that Joe initially organized for June 20 to 30, 2006. Joe raved often about this dive resort. One of the statements he would make went something like this:

"At other resorts, the diving pictures you see in their advertising are the highlights. And when you get to the resort the highlights are nice, but the rest of the diving isn't quite as nice as those highlights.

"At Wakatobi, everywhere you look is a highlight."

We are very excited for the opportunity to experience this trip, and we are hoping to find other divers who want to experience this great dive resort as well. Here are a few bullet points that describe the resort.

• Wakatobi's underwater environment is an extraordinary and diverse seascape of vibrant tropical coral reefs, a rich sea-grass habitat, dramatic slopes and walls, lush sea mounts, caverns and pristine reef tops. It is an excellent opportunity for drift diving, critter encounters and fascinating reef exploration. The resort's unique marine conservation and community integration programs ensure that these underwater surroundings remain exclusive and unspoiled.
• The diving program includes
  
  [*]An early morning beach dive before breakfast
  [*]A two-tank boat dive trip before lunch
  [*]Afternoon taxi boat dives on the world's best house reef (or a third boat dive)
  [*]Night beach dives before and after dinner
  [*]An evening boat night dive may be scheduled when conditions allow​
• Beach dives and taxi boat dives on their 8 km / 5 mile house reef feature multiple dive sites and are accompanied by guides upon availability.
• Boat dives are always escorted by guides.
• If you have the energy, you can easily make 5 to 7 dives a day.
• Onemobaa Island, on which Wakatobi Dive Resort is located, is roughly 8 square kilometers (3 square miles). The island trails allow for nice walks (or jogs / runs). Behind the resort, one can find shallow sink holes that can be explored with snorkeling equipment and a dive light.
• Guest stay in private bungalows
• Wakatobi's VIP greeting service will meet you at your plane and escort you through customs and visa application
• Private air service is provided from Bali to the Wakatobi resort
• Maximum capacity of the resort is now 50 guests
• You will be pampered by a staff that outnumbers guests 3 to 1
• Powered by their own gererators. Electricity is 220V/50Hz. They have an ample supply of adapters and power converters.
• Plenty of fresh drinkable water is supplied by their large capacity reverse osmosis water purification system.
• Air termperature is usually around 30° C (86° F) during the day (sometimes warmer, sometimes cooler) and pleasantly cooler in the evening. Water temprature is 26-28° C (79-82° F).
• Due to the ocean breezes and lack of standing water, you don't have to worry about bugs or mosquitoes.
• Guest rooms are equipped with LAN ports, the resort's main areas have WiFi coverage, and their business center provides satellite telephones, fax and PC's with multi-standard memory card readers, CD burners and Internet connection.
• Wakatobi's team of top Balinese chefs prepares delicious meals with generous portions, complimented by fresh fruits and vegetables flown in from Bali and overseas.
• Meals are generally served buffet or family-style in the Longhouse dining area. They'll also host a beach barbeque or two during your stay.
• Almost any special dietary need can be met if you let them know in advance.
• The resort's photo and video center features a complete digital image editing studio along with E6 processing.
• From day one, Wakatobi Dive Resort lived the belief that protecting the reefs was going to be an integral part of running a sustainable dive operation. They felt so strongly about this, they started the Wakatobi Collaborative Reef Conservation Program, a privately-funded reef conservation, education, and community improvement program. This unique program is designed to align the interests of the locals and the diving community through a series of mutual agreements and investments. As part of the program, local fishing communities obtain a fair share of the income generated by dive tourism in exchange for adopting more sustainable practices - such as leaving large stretches of reef completely untouched. The surrounding villages also receive financial incentives to improve their infrastructure. Other contributions go towards education and strengthening local support for protecting the precious marine life in the Wakatobi region.

Please visit our travel page for more info, www.divemonsterscuba.com/travel.php#t2, or visit the Wakatobi site, http://www.wakatobi.com, and give Teri a call to join us on this wonderful trip.

Thanks,
Mike Robinson

(972) 317-7234 Voice
(972) 317-3483 Fax
Teri Robinson
DiveMonster Scuba
1425 FM 407, Suite 400
Lewisville, Texas 75077
Hours: Mon-Fri 11-7PM
Sat 10-5PM, Sun Closed

 

[miker42]

It looks like I forgot to mention that this is an all inclusive resort. All your meals are included in the price. Alcohol is available at an additional cost. And of course all the diving is included in the price as well.

Also, the resort offers Nitrox, and for rebreathers they carry sodalime (trade name: sofnolime) and have an ample supply of medical grade oxygen.

 

[RSdiver]

Went in 2003 and was grossly dissappointed, see other posts here. Try The North Sulawesi area for twice the sealife, superior staff, expert guides/spotters for photographers and fewer bent divers. Go to the Tech section that discusses the bad air quality we had and Lorez Maeder's acknowledgment that they had a bad valve yet didn't change it as no guest had complained about it yet.

If you haven't been to Indonesia and base your trip solely on the effective mass marketing of the Wakatobi staff, I could understand how you'd be influenced into going there. After nearly 15 years of tropical trips I had to do it once, but never again.

 

[miker42]

I am sorry to hear you had a bad experience. I just got back from Wakatobi a little over a week ago, and I had a great time. Certainly the info I posted earlier was copied from the Wakatobi site, but now that I have been there I can speak from experience.

Wakatobi is filled with sea life. I have not yet been to North Sulawesi, but it must truly be a wondrous place with the fish spilling out of the sea if it has twice the life of Wakatobi. All of the diving sites I was taken to were covered with coral. And of course the coral attracts all sorts of other life. Here are some of the pictures we took on our trip. http://www.divemonsterscuba.com/pictures.php In my section marked "Mike's Pictures" I tried to get a few panoramic shots to show how the place is just covered in coral. Everywhere I took those pictures I could have pointed the camera in any direction and the view would be just as great. I only had the camera for two dives because my wife and I only have one camera at the moment (and it is really hers).

We had no trouble with the air. I have no knowledge of what you're saying was going on in 2003, but now in 2006 we were having no trouble with their setup. We dove nitrox every dive, and every dive is scheduled for 70 minutes. That's three boat dives a day at 70 minutes each. And it is very easy to do more if you want to. The nitrox certainly helps on all those long dives.

Their service on the boat was great. We never had to lug any equipment around. The only work we did was analyze the gas in our tanks. When we got on the boat our BCs and regs were already setup on our tanks. When it was time to get in the water, one of the guys on the boat would lift the tank for us, put it on the bench, and hold the straps on the BC wide so we could slip into the equipment. They handled the camera equipment well. And at the end of the dive there was always someone at the ladder on the boat to take our camera equipment and grab the top of our tanks to help us up the ladder. And then when taking off the BC there was always someone there to grab it and put it down. And if there was another dive still to come the guy would take the reg and BC off the used tank and put the equipment on the next tank. Truly all we every worried about was setting our computers with the correct air mix, and making sure our cameras had fresh batteries.

And after the dives there were drinks and snacks. I personally always went for the hot chocolate and cookies.

Maybe if you are looking for manta rays, sharks, and other large sea creatures, I could see how you would be disappointed. Much of Wakatobi's creatures are of the smaller variety. An extreme example of this is the pigmy seahorse. The guides proved skilled at finding the little buggers. Typically no more than a quarter of an inch tall with amazing camouflage they can prove difficult to see even when the guide is pointing right at it. But not everything is so small. We even had a few sitings of some rays, and our group saw a white tip shark. But the large creatures are definitely not the focus at this resort. Color is everywhere, and life is everywhere. Just remember to bring your macro lens.

And that is just the diving. I loved the food. We had one picky eater in our group, and even he was raving about the food. The bungalows were comfortable, the schedules were convenient, the staff was friendly, the diving was plentiful, and every dive was excellent. I know everyone in our group loved the resort, and I know my wife and I will be going back someday.

 

[sandrascuba]

Thanks for the update. I'll be at Wakatobi for 10 days and then the Pelagian for 8 more days (from Wakatobi) next month. How was the viz? From the pics it looks average 50 ft.? Water temp, what was it? And last, did you see Pelagian while there? Any comments from passengers departing the boat or did you get a tour of it? Thanks again for posting your report, pics and any additional info.
Sandra

 

[miker42]

Wow, 18 days, that sounds like quite a treat. The Pelagian was not there during our stay, so I can't answer any questions about that.

I would have estimated that viz was mostly around 75 feet. Sometimes it got down to 50 and once in a while it may have got up to as much as 150. I want to add that I think the visibility was great. Even when it was as close as 50 I found myself so focused on the fish and coral just a few feet in front of me that it would not matter if I could see 300 feet because the stuff I was looking at was right in front of me.

Temp was 78 to 80. I wore a 1 mm the whole time, but I was the exception. Most others were wearing 3 mm and some even switched to 5mm. The theory passed around in our group was that so many long dives really saps the heat out of a person, even though the temp was actually quite nice.

I can give you one tip. There is a signup sheet for massages. An hour massage costs $15 US. There are two ladies who give the massages at 5 and 6 o'clock. When you go to sign up for a massage you might want to check with one of the dive guides to see when your group is scheduled for a night dive. On the night dives you will be gone from about 5:30 to 7:00. You can mistakenly sign up for a massage that conflicts with a dive and you could end up missing something. And nobody wants that to happen.

 

[sandrascuba]

Thanks so much for the additional information Miker. I agree, viz doesn't matter that much but it's nice to know about what to expect. I'll keep the massage thing in mind. Sorry I can't join your group next June. Good luck to MonsterScuba as well. Be safe.

Sandra